Page 68 of Until Death or Defeat

I look down at the ground, as my foot pushes at nothing on the tile.

What is he insinuating?

That I’m dead meat?

There’s a hit on me that hasn’t been settled yet?

This, along with all the speculation of someone stealing my mom from me is just too much at once, but before I can even feel myself crumble again, I feel a warmth all around me.

“I would never let that happen to you,” he says in a low voice in my ear as his arms trap me against the counter.

I want to believe him. I want to believe I can just be simplysaved by his words, but how can I know when my life is suddenly so uncertain? When everything is suddenly a lie and a conspiracy? I don’t even feel the tears fall, I’m so lost in thought when big arms engulf me completely.

“Promise me that you’re going to let me handle all of this,” he begs in my ear.

I want to scream. I want to slap him. How fucking dare he find a way right now to say he won’t let me step in? This is about my mom! This is possibly about my fucking future! All of me is screaming to fight...but I only feel my body melt.

“Artem...” I say, my voice breaking but he only gently shushes me.

“Don’t. I’ll take care of it. Of you.”

My eyes close at his words as I just feel myself nod against his chest as I let myself go for the first time in a long time.

16

Artem

“How is she?” Max asks as he hears me quietly closing the bedroom door while I step out.

“Not good. And not just because she’s upset,” I say with a sigh as I turn to go down the steps and he follows, walking into the kitchen where Roman waits for us.

“Well, you need to try to talk to her dad right? If you’re sure he knows more then...” Max says and I sigh as I tilt my head and contemplate it.

Call him and what?

Hey so, I know that you lied to everyone and your wife was brutally murdered, and maybe your daughter is in danger, so help pretty please?

No.

I don’t need any other man stepping in, I made a vow to him the day he gave her to me and he made me accept it knowing what I know now.

“Look Artem, you can’t just go into this blind with her. You have to wait and gather more information. I don’t personallythink someone in her own family would target her,” Roman says, ever the logical one.

But there is no logic here. This lifestyle we were thrust into defies all fucking moral bounds and possibility.

“Shouldn’t Giselle get to figure out what the truth is before you two march in? I mean, her family owes her an explanation,” Max says.

“Do you think anyone would actually be honest with her? If we go, they might be more incentivized to tell the truth. Caesar admitted to me he wants to keep her in a bubble,” I explain as I pour a drink.

“He saidwhat?”

Her voice cuts through the kitchen like a blade—and I almost choke on my first sip.

“What? Vodka got your tongue or something?” she asks as she stalks closer and yanks the cup from my hand and downs it with a cringe.

“Fuck that, and fuck Caesar if he said that to you. I’m perfectly fine to march down there and confront himandLeo myself,” she says as she helps herself up to sit on the counter.

“Attagirl,” Maxim chimes in, as he pats her shoulder with a smile. He clears his throat and drops his hand when he sees me narrowing my eyes at him.