Page 60 of Gilded Shackles
I look away, jaw tight. Part of me wants to scream at her until her ears bleed. Another part wants to run upstairs and hold Pasha until this whole nightmare turns to smoke.
"I got sober," she says. "Two years ago. I've been looking for him ever since."
"You don't get a gold star for that. You left. You made your choice."
Natalia nods. Defeated. "I just wanted to see him. Just once. To know he's okay."
"He is okay. Better than okay. He's smart and kind and gentle and strong. He's not some project you get to revisit now that your life's on track."
"I'm not trying to take him."
"Good. Because that's never going to happen."
The door creaks open behind me. I brace for a guard.
It's Nikolai.
He fills the doorway like an avalanche, jacket swinging behind him, eyes scanning the room until they land on her. When they do, something tightens in his face. His mouth pulls into a line sharp enough to cut glass.
"You," he says.
This is the Russian mobster I should fear. This is the man that kills those that cross him.
I crossed him. This is a violation. I know it. I feel it.
But I’m not afraid of him.
Natalia rises like a deer about to get flattened by a semi. "Nikolai. I didn't..."
"You don't speak." His voice is quiet. Too quiet. The kind that lives right before a gunshot.
I jump up, putting myself between them. Palms out. "She's not here to cause trouble."
"You let her in?" He growls it at me, jaw ticking. "Are you out of your mind?"
"She showed up screaming about our son. What was I supposed to do? Have her shot on the lawn?"
"Yes."
I blink. "You're not serious."
He doesn't move. Just burns holes through Natalia like he wants to reduce her to atoms.
"She left him," he snarls. "She left him. And now she thinks she can show up here and what? Be welcomed like family?"
"She said she's clean. She just wanted to see him."
"She doesn't get to want anything."
Natalia chokes out, "Please..."
"Shut your mouth." He snaps it like a whip. "You come near him again, and I will kill you. Do you understand me?"
"Stop it," I hiss, grabbing his arm. "She's not a threat."
"She's the threat. She left him alone. Anyone could've taken him. He could've died. And now you're defending her?"
I pull him toward me, forcing him to look at me instead of through me. "I'm protecting Pasha. Just like you."
