Page 58 of Bound By Sin
I don't know what else to do.
My life here is over, and even if I could tell Kazimir I'm having his baby, he wouldn't want me. I messed things up too badly.
27
KAZIMIR
The room is stuffy, too warm and dusty after six weeks of being shut up. I sink into the chair across from Roman's desk and bury my face in my hands. He isn't supposed to be home for three more days, but when that bomb went off in our offices and Timur called to tell him we needed him, Roman flew home the same day.
Now I sit across from him, waiting for him to hand out the punishment I know I deserve. I'm such an idiot for believing that anything good would happen to me. I trusted her, backed her when my family was telling me the truth about her all the time, and look what happened.
"Start from the beginning," Roman says, relaxing back into his seat. I can tell he's had some time to process what's happened because he's calm and even-keeled. His temper isn't controlling him right now.
"You've already heard it from them." I gesture at Timur and Stepan who stand across the room in silence. They know now isnot the time to speak. The heat is on me for this, not them. I'm the one who failed.
"I want to hear it from you."
I lean forward and plant my elbows on my knees. "I mean you've heard all of this, but communications started going wrong at first…" I eye him and then drop my head. "The American got hit and he backed out… Someone leaked the information about where I'd be picking him up and?—"
"And we tried to warn you," Timur interrupts.
Roman raises a hand to halt him and I pour the rest out—how Fedorov questioned me, how folks got picked up at the fights because the cops showed up. Then how everything went seriously wrong. He sits calmly and watches my face. None of this was my doing, but every bit of it is my fault. Because I trusted someone I shouldn’t have.
"And the building," he says, interrupting my story. I look up at him, letting my shoulders sink as I straighten up in my chair. The shame I feel is so heavy, there's no way he could ever make me feel worse. I had one job, and I blew it. God, I failed so badly because I let my feelings for her get in the way, just like he predicted.
"Her brothers planted a bomb in the offices on the east side." I stop and suck in a deep breath to calm myself. I've already told the others, but I don't think I'm ready for Roman's response. "She's the one who warned us all it was going to happen, and we got everyone out safely."
"She?" Roman tilts his head. "We're talking about the Volyn girl."
"Zora. Yeah."
"We warned him." Stepan's voice comes from behind me. "Both of us. More than once."
"Three times," Timur says from the door. "At least."
As Roman absorbs everything I've said, he rubs his thumb down the side of his nose and nods at them, then purses his lips and looks off at the window. I've seen him dish out punishments to fighters who make bad choices, and most of them don't affect this club nearly as much as he pretends they do.
I've singlehandedly caused the downfall of the entire club. We have no home office at all now. We have no gym to work in now because the police know right where to watch us. Half of our fighters have been deported, and most of our bettors have watched everything that's been happening and they've pulled out, maybe for good.
I don't stand a chance.
"So your cousin and your uncle come to you and say this woman's a problem," Roman asks, "and you tell them what?"
"I told them they were wrong, because?—"
"And they weren't."
"No. They weren't." My head hangs now. I have nothing left to defend myself. The entire time Zora and I were together, she was lying to me, and though she says she loves me—maybe she does—she can't be trusted. It's tearing my heart out because there isn’t a thing in the world I wouldn’t do for that woman. I love her and I wanted her to be by my side forever, and now I don’t know what way's up.
Roman leans back in his chair. "The organization's in damage control, Kazimir. Alliances I spent years building are fractured. Our building is destroyed, and every rival in the city knows we took a hit and they're already moving on it." He pauses. "What got into you that you stopped listening to your own family?"
My phone buzzes and I ignore it. Checking a message right now would be a huge insult. But it tugs at me. I know the only person who has this number who isn’t in this room right now is Zora. I'm so mad at her, I don't think I could talk to her if I tried, but the fact that my phone is going off means she's reaching out. She's probably as hurt and confused as I am. I know her brothers were total assholes. She told me that from the beginning. The problem is she never told me who they were.
Now that I know who they are, I know why they were being assholes to her. They are men like me, with one job—to destroy their competition. The Volyn family fight club has rivaled ours for years, always looking for an in. I handed it to them on a silver platter because I didn't realize they had a little sister who could snake her way into my heart. And she did.
"I didn't think she was harmful. She told me her last name was Gorin. I had no idea."
"But they wanted to check her out for you, give you a background check…" He narrows his eyes on me as my phone buzzes again and again. And a fourth time, back to back.
