Page 54 of Ruined By Sin

"Why?" I hate that she's using a pet name, because it makes her seem all the more believable. I don’t want to believe her. I want my world to be stable. But I won’t ignore the truth if it's presented. And maybe that's what's wrong. Something tells me she's got the truth, and I don’t want to hear it because it means I have to do something about it.

"Because I want you to call my uncle and hear it from him..." Her eyes plead with me and she says, "He's been working with Morin for years."

I pull my phone from my pocket and hold it out to her, not sure what I'm getting myself into. She takes it from my hand and types in a number, then hands it back. This seems like a very bad idea. I'm about to send a strike team in to kill the leadership of this whole family based on solid intel. I saw those images and videos. I know Victor Mirov is our enemy. He always has been. But I sigh and look up at her again.

"Call him. Put it on speaker. Ask him whatever you want." Kira's determination never wavers. "I promise you, I’m not lying."

My thumb hovers over the call button and every instinct in my body is telling me not to do this. Calling Victor Mirov is crossing a line I can't uncross. It's acknowledging that the woman in my bed might be telling the truth, which means acknowledging that my best friend might be a traitor, which means acknowledging that everything I've done for the past two months has been built on a lie that Morin constructed.

But the alternative is not trusting the woman I very much love, no matter how angry I am with her. And it means her certain death when Roman finds out the lies she's spun and how utterly we've had to destroy her family. So I press the call button and wait for it to dial through.

Every cell in my body is strung tighter than a guitar string while it rings, and when he picks up, I grit my teeth. Every life this man is accused of taking flashes before my eyes as he speaks, and the simmering anger in my chest comes to a full boil.

"Kira?"

"This is Timur Kuzin," I growl, but he grows very quiet, very quickly. My eyes lock with Kira's as she speaks.

"Uncle Victor, I'm here, and I'm safe..." Her tone is so soft, almost angelic. It threatens to undo me.

And when Victor speaks again, his tone has shifted. "I was wondering when you'd call, Mr. Kuzin."

"Your niece tells me Morin Melnik has been working for you." I hold Kira's gaze, which is steady, but growing more compassionate. In all of this, she just wanted to survive. Kazimirwas right. She just got scared. She wasn't trying to purposefully deceive me. And now she wants the truth to come out, enough so that she's willing to risk my being angry with her to actually expose the facts.

"Mr. Kuzin, it appears you don't realize when you have an enemy in your own camp. Mr. Melnik has been an informant for me within your organization for a number of years, and when I caught him stealing from me, he knew his days were numbered..." He pauses then says, "Kira, sweetheart, are you sure you're safe?"

"Yes,dyadyushka, I'm okay."

Hearing the affection between them makes this worse. Kira is willing to put her life on the line for this man, and she trusts him too, which means maybe he'll come after us or maybe she's right, and I should be looking at Morin more skeptically.

"Do you have physical proof of all of the accusations your niece has launched against my friend?" My chest is hammering. My head is spinning. It feels like my world is unraveling.

"Most of the things Morin has done, yes. A few of them, no... But his evil speaks for itself. I would like the killing to stop. I have no problem with the Kuzin organization whatsoever, though I could see how my buying of your secrets would be worthy of some disdain..." He pauses, and I hear him drag on a cigar. "Stop the senseless violence and I will provide whatever proofs you require. We can put an end to this."

My thumb touches the end call button and I lock my phone, sliding it into my pocket while staring into the eyes of the most beautiful woman in the world. I will not take the word of myenemy, but I will not sanction more killing until I've seen his proof.

And Kira Mirov may well have just saved her own life, but she’s opened a hornet's nest in mine.

26

KIRA

Isit up, though it takes some effort. My neck feels like someone crushed it and my entire body is sore from falling so hard. But I manage to crawl down the bed toward Timur and sit on my heels, folding my hands neatly in my lap as I look up at him.

"I'm sorry," I say softly, not sure what he's feeling. His face has gone through a range of emotions since he first walked in, but all of them are negative. This whole thing has been a nightmare from the beginning, but as an outsider who knows the truth, I can see how it would be hard for Timur to come to this knowledge.

It's painful. He's professed the man to be his best friend and his right-hand man too. They're partners and buddies, and Morin has been nothing but a backstabbing monster this whole time, maybe their whole relationship. I hate that for him, that he's never known true loyalty from the man he called his best friend. It's just not fair.

"Say something," I tell him, but he's stewing, working his jaw in a grinding motion while he stares at my face blankly. It feels like he's trying to decide whether he can believe my uncle or not. But if Victor says he has proof then he definitely has proof. He wouldn’t tell Timur that and not be able to back it up.

But Timur still doesn't say anything. His hands curl into fists then uncurl in the same manner. His eyes are pinched, and the vein in his forehead bulges angrily at me, pulsing along with the beating of his chest, which is so hard I see his shirt shaking.

It's scary. If he were just a random man I'd met on the street, I'd be frightened of him. But he's not just a random man to me anymore. He's the man I love, and I want to help him with this.

I reach for him, weakly, and hope to rest my hand on his chest, bring him some sort of anchor in the middle of this raging storm he's feeling. But before I can even touch him, his hand snaps up and he grabs my wrist. I startle, sucking in a breath, and his grip hurts at first. Then he relaxes.

"Please, Timur... I didn't mean to upset you by what I've said. I just want you to remember I’m not your enemy at all." I know how horrible that sounds because, in fact, I am a member of a family he considers his enemy. But Victor himself said that the Mirovs aren't competing with the Kuzins. He holds no ill will toward any of them. I don’t want poison between us.

"Don't," he snarls, but I uncurl my fingers, reaching for his face. He lets my arm move upward until my fingers dust over his stubble. His eyes shut at the physical contact but he's still controlling my wrist, limiting how much I can touch him.