Page 59 of Bratva Menace

“One question at a time, my love. Anyway, so killing Anya meant killing your sister, and I know how much you love her. How close you are. I could never hurt you like that, so I had to come up with another way. I infiltrated Anya’s inner circle. Staged a run-in with her at one of her favorite clothing boutiques and worked my way up until I became someone she could confide in. She was eager for a friend. A real friend. Not just someone who was hanging out with her for clout or status. She latched on to me pretty quickly.”

Believe it or not, I actually started to feel a little bad for her. She was starved for true connections with people. For someone to care and like her for her. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. All the women Anya had surrounded herself with were downright bitches. One of them mysteriously went missing, but I didn’t have anything to do with that.

Or did I?

Okay, yes, I did. The bitch called me a hand-me-down whore, so I slit her throat and tossed her into the Neva River. Her body was never found.

Whoops.

“After a few weeks, it became crystal fucking clear that Anya had a thing for her bodyguard, Nathan, and he for her. Would you like a drink? I have wine, beer, whiskey, vodka. You name it, I have it.”

Lukyan looked like he was going to refuse, but then he nodded once. “Give me the strongest you’ve got.”

Excitement stirred through my body. It was minor, barely anything at all, but to me, that was progress. I retrieved an empty glass and poured him a shot of the finest vodka I could get my hands on. I returned to him quickly and stood at his side, looking down at him.

“Open up.”

There it was again. That fucking look I couldn’t figure out.

Lukyan’s gaze remained on me as he tilted his head back slightly and parted his lips. I ran my tongue along my bottom lip in appreciation. When he followed my orders like that, it made my entire body tremble with want.

I tossed the drink back, clasped his head to keep him still, and bent down, letting the liquid fall from my mouth into his. The shock was momentary. He stiffened for the briefest second, eyes widening, but didn’t close his mouth until the last of the vodka touched his tongue. He swallowed it back quickly, and there was no mistaking that look in his eyes.

Pure, unadulterated need. Sexual tension snapped taut in the air between us. My skin felt like it was on fire under his heated gaze.

“Every time they were in the same room together, fireworks went off,” I continued in a soft whisper, my eyes boring into his. I was talking about Anya and Nathan, but Lukyan knew I was talking about us, too. Our unbreakable connection. “Honestly, I was surprised no one else could see it.” With a final glance down Lukyan’s hard, rigid body, I took my seat again and crossed my legs. “Turned out, Anya didn’t want your marriage any more than I did.” My hands moved to my lap. I pulled the edges of my dress down between my legs as I spread them a little further apart bit by bit, revealing the insides of my thighs.

Lukyan stiffened, watching me with all his focus.

“But she didn’t have a choice. Her father was forcing her hand, giving her no option. The night before the wedding, she broke down. Cried to me that she was in love with Nathan, and he was in love with her, but they couldn’t be together because of some familial obligation. I told her to follow her heart. That love is worth taking all the risks in the world. I convinced her to run away with him, and by doing so, absolved you and your family of any blame in the situation. Your grandfather can’t punish you for something that was out of your control. Anya running away meant it was the Tarasovs who backed out of the deal. Not you. I made sure that was glaringly obvious by having her leave a note to her parents, apologizing that she couldn’t go through with the wedding. Anya asked me to leave it in her hotel room with her dress. Little did she know, I would just take her place.”

“How the hell did her parents not notice it was you walking down the aisle, not her? Their own daughter?”

“Like I said, her parents are incredibly self-centered. They barely paid any attention to her. Luckily for me, Anya and I are the same height, with the same hair color and build. I was dressed in Anya’s wedding dress, and with the veil covering my face the whole time, they had no idea I wasn’t her. When they returned home, they would have found the note I left for them from Anya, and the pieces would start to click together. It would look like Anya orchestrated someone to take her place so she could escape and disappear before anyone even noticed she was gone, giving her plenty of time to get a head start.”

The slight frown on his brows told me he was still confused about something. I offered him a slice of lamb, and he took it without protest, making my insides do a happy dance. He was getting more comfortable with me. It might be easier than I thought to get him on my side.

“What about my grandfather?”

“Ah. He was a little harder to fool than Anya’s parents. He’s annoyingly observant. I couldn’t risk him noticing something was off, so I had to keep him preoccupied. I had one of his warehouses raided. Dropped a little hot tip to one of his competitors that he had a shitload of inventory, ripe for the taking, and they jumped on it. He was busy dealing with the aftermath at the time the wedding was taking place.”

“Jesus Christ.” He shook his head, almost in disbelief. “Is there anything you didn’t think of?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I doubt it. I’m very meticulous.”

“Yes, I’m starting to realize that,” he blew out with a deep, heavy sigh. I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or proud about that.

I would have said proud.

“So what happens now? Is this a 365 Days kind of situation where you keep me locked up here until I fall in love with you?”

“You’re already in love with me. You just don’t know it yet.” I winked.

“How can I be in love with someone I’ve never met before? I don’t even know your goddamn name.”

That was what I was most afraid of. Our families had history. A deep, sordid history that I feared would impact his opinion of me. That would send him running in the other direction the moment I told him who I was.

But I had to do it. I didn’t have a choice. We would never move on as a couple, build a life together, if we weren’t honest with each other. Until he knew.