Page 8 of Until Death or Defeat

Max contorts his face. “Since when do you care so much about her safety? Plus, it isn’t like her family is full of saints anyway.”

“No, but at least where she’s at, they give a fuck about protecting women and children. They have higher moral grounds than?—”

“Than who? Russians? You sound fucking crazy, Artem. We’re all in the crime world, nationality doesn’t change shit.”

Roman finally chimes in with his voice of reason. “Well cultures do differ, she’s surely been more sheltered than a woman that’s close to the bratva would have been.”

None of us speak for a moment, as we all remember the reason my mother left to go back to Russia and won’t come back.

It isn’t an easy life to be married to apakhan. Which is exactly why my plan has always been to marry Lyra, Andrei Ivanov’s daughter one day. She’s already the daughter of a bratva man, and though I care for her safety as a family friend I grew up around, she would not be able to be used against me as I’d sacrifice her without a hesitation.

Having a woman you want to keep alive by your side is the greatest curse you can have, and somehow I’m being cursed again.

3

Giselle

The house is eerily quiet this morning, and as I walk through the silence I sigh. Caesar must have found a warmer bed than his own last night, and maybe my father did the same. Between him and Caesar I basically live alone.

“Ugh, what the hell?” I groan as I dump the iced coffee I made down the drain. Why is it that it never fucking tastes the same when you make it yourself?

I sigh and pull out my phone to dial my best friend Reina, desperate for a distraction from my loneliness.

“Hey!” I say enthusiastically into the phone.

“You sound like you’re in a good mood!”

I laugh, walking through my bedroom as I sit down at the edge of my bed.

“I must be a good faker then, because I’m losing it Reina,” I say almost desperately.

“Aw babe I know, but listen, why don’t we go do something later then? Nails, shopping, whatever.”

I sigh deeply again. “I don’t know, I’m feeling kind of lazytoday.”

“Really? Even if I suggest getting some Mexican food and margaritas?”

I perk up at her suggestion. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ll take a ride to your place soon.” We hang up and I force myself out of bed again to get dressed.

“God, I really needed this.” I let my shoulders relax with my exhale as we walk out of the nail spa, still holding some shopping bags. The sun is going to set soon, and there’s a perfect orange glow illuminating through the cityscape. We find another ride to take us to our favorite Mexican restaurant, where we’re quickly given a booth.

“Last night was literally like a real-life nightmare, and the look on that smug bastard’s fucking face just drove me into the ground.” I shake my head as I pick up the menu.

“Well, at least it’s a fuckable face,” she says as she wiggles her eyebrows up and down suggestively, and my face contorts with disgust.

“Fuckable? More like killable. I can’t stand it.”

“I feel you girl, I don’t think I could stand looking into the dreamy, icy-blue eyes of a ripped, six-foot-four man with the facial structure of a damn god.”

I shake my head with a groan and slap the menu on my face. “He doesn’t deserve to look like that, and his personality fucking ruins it. It totally kills the mood for me.”

“Bullshit! If he got on his knees and begged for forgiveness and pussy, you’d be ripping your damn panties off!”

I’m about to protest when the waitress comes over and brings us our drinks.

“It doesn’t matter anyways, now that I have nothing to prove to my family anymore. I’m not going to those stupid events, so I won’t even have to see Artem for a while. My dad wants my brother to take over? Great, now I get to be the carefree kid that gets away with murder,” I say bitterly as I sip my blue frozen margarita.

“I know you say that as if nothing matters to you at all anymore, but this might be actually good for you Gigi. You can finally let your hair down a bit and enjoy your life instead of trying to be so perfect.”