Page 16 of Savage Little Secret

I grab his wrist with my free hand just to touch him, hoping to coax some sense into him. Does he really think that I’m as awful as Sean? Does he see the same hatred and anger in my eyes?

“He doesn’t see me as his daughter. He hates me!”

“I don’t believe you,” Dmitri hisses as he leans closer to me. The familiar smell of him rolls over me, making my heart ache because I usually find so much comfort in it. “I can’t believe a word that comes out of your goddamn mouth. I thought you were real, that you were genuine. I thought you gave a shit about me when no one else did.”

More tears brim my eyes as I hear the hurt in his voice. He might not have meant for it to slip, but I heard it.

“I wasn’t going to hurt you,” I promise him as tears race down my cheeks and tumble off my jaw. “I would never intentionally hurt you, Dmitri. If you’ll just let me explain everything, you’ll understand. Maybe we can help each other.”

He suddenly shoves me away from him, making a gasp burst from me as I fall onto the pillows. “You think I would help you? You’ve probably compromised everything I’ve built! Who knows what else O’Malley had you do to me?”

“I’ll tell you,” I say as I try to reach for him again.

Eyes narrowing, he asks, “Did your father order you to fuck me too? Was it his idea to make me pay to fuck you?”

I shake my head. “Of course not.”

Dmitri steps out of the way and storms over to the door. “I can beat the truth out of Brendan. As for you…I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do with you. All I know is that I can’t trust you. I should’ve never trusted you in the first place.”

“You trusted me because I know the real you,” I tell him in a shaky voice. “And I cared about you. I wanted what was best for you! And you could feel that.”

Dmitri lingers in front of the door with his hand resting on the doorknob. For a second, his expression wavers, looking conflicted. That moment passes quickly, though, and the anger takes back over his features.

“Whatever I felt for you…it’s gone now,” he says before stepping out of the room and slams the door shut behind him.

My lips part to call out to him, but not a single word leaves me. Only a broken sob as I lean my head against the bars of the headboard, pain radiating throughout my chest as everything that I built with him crumbles to pieces.

I wish I had never agreed to do this assignment. I should’ve let my father marry me off, should’ve suffered that fate to protect Dmitri. But it’s too late now.

Everyone knows who I am, and, one way or another, there will be hell to pay.

If he decides I ever leave this room alive.

6

Dmitri

I barely step into the antique shop before I stop cold.

Twenty of my men are waiting for me.

“Why are you all here?” I question them. They close in, turning the cluttered shop into a cage.

“We need answers,” Emil states as he moves to step in front of me, blocking my path to the hallway that leads to where Brendan is being held.

I narrow my eyes as I whirl around on the spot, facing all of them as they stare at me with unwavering looks. “Did any of you speak to my prisoner?”

“No,” Mark replies from my left. “But we want to know why he’s here.”

“You know what he is,” I say. These men are loyal to me, but they’re also loyal to our family. If what I’m doing might negatively affect the family, they’ll push back on me.

Some of them may have already informed the vor v zakone that I’ve taken an Irish prisoner captive.

“Did he have anything to do with the shooting at the Wynn? Or the warehouse one? Or the snipers?” Isaak questions me. “That’s why you wanted us to grab him, right? To question him about that shit?”

“That’s part of it,” I reply, knowing that I’ll have to come clean. They’ll figure it out for themselves soon because they aren’t stupid. They’ll piece things together. “The Irish did the warehouse shooting, but they didn’t take credit for the others.”

“You really believe him?” Denis questions me from my right.