Page 87 of Untamed Beast
I pull back but keep my hand tight around her wrist, my head spinning as I process what she’s done. As I try to think of a way to fix this that doesn’t make me look like an idiot whowas too pussy-whipped to do security checks on his enemy’s daughter.
“Natalia. Tell me the truth right now and we can contain this. If you lie to me, though…”
Fuck, am I really threatening my wife?
A tear trails down her cheek. I clench my hands into fists at my sides as I fight the urge to wipe it away, to cradle her face and tell her that this is going to be okay.
“I know,” she nods, her voice barely audible. “I won’t lie.”
“How long?”
“Since that first visit home. I?—”
I cut her off. I don’t want to hear her fucking excuses right now.
“How many?”
She chews her lip. God, she’s a bad liar. I can see it on her face as she considers telling me something else, but she sets her shoulders and looks me in the eye as she says it.
“Maybe a hundred,” she whispers.
One hundred of the fucking things.
No wonder Maksim’s been ahead of us. I fucking knew I shouldn’t have let her contact her family.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
After finding out about her brothers. After everything we’ve been through together.
The words come out harsher than I’d thought, a blunt accusation that makes Natalia flinch.
Her gaze drops to the floor. “I didn’t want you to be mad at me.”
“Even when Maksim tried to kill me. Even when you found out what happened to your brothers.”
That only makes her sob harder. It’s painful to watch. I let go of her wrist and Natalia turns and runs upstairs to her room.
I should be the monster she thinks I am. Then I wouldn’t be finding it so hard to do the right thing.
I take a seat at the table, running through it in my head. I should tell Yuri. We should find out exactly what Maksim knows, rearranging our plans to make sure he can’t do any damage with this information.
Instead, I just want this problem to disappear. I wish I’d never found the fucking thing. Everything was perfect this morning.
Because now I’ve hurt Natalia and for some reason, that’s more painful than the fact that she betrayed me. I don’t know why I want to reassure her.She doesn’t deserve comfort right now.
As if I needed any more proof that she’s become a weakness.
I push open the door to find her face down and sobbing on the velvet comforter.
I can’t hear her cry and not want to help her, to hold her in my arms and tell her it’s okay.
I know it’s not rational.The rational thing would be to march her down to Yuri’s office and let him handle the situation. Or to hire someone else to.
Deep in my core, I know that I’m never letting anyone else handle Natalia. No matter how much of a security issue she becomes.
I take a seat on her bed and pull her into my lap. “Promise me you’ll get rid of all of them?”
Natalia nods, her tear-streaked face somehow still perfect.
