Page 143 of The Bratva Sinner

“Lila.” My voice comes out harder than I intend. “Walk out the door.”

“No.”

Arlind watches this exchange with something approaching entertainment. He thinks he’s seeing a man fall apart. He thinks love has made me stupid and reckless. He’s not wrong, except he’s missed the part where it’s also made me the most dangerous version of myself that I’ve ever been.

I take my eyes off her and look back at him. “You want the bratva off your back. I’m offering you that.” I keep my voice even. “Or you can kill me right now, and before morning, Sergei Sokolov will have every man he owns moving toward Miami. Your operation in this city will be annihilated, and he’ll kill you slowly.”

The room is quiet except for the buzzing of the overhead lights.

Arlind is thinking. I see the calculation behind his eyes. He’s not stupid. That’s what’s made him dangerous. Stupid men are predictable. Smart men weigh the cost of everything.

He takes a slow breath and looks at Lila. He nods once at the guard near her.

The guard moves toward her with a blade and cuts the zip tie from her wrists. She doesn’t move immediately.

“Go.” I put everything I have into that one word. Every promise I’ve made her. “Go,voinitsa.”

She takes one step toward the door, then stops.

“Maksim.”

I look at her and know I’m doing the right thing. Arlind pulls his phone and glances at the screen.

I hold her eyes and drop my voice so that it barely carries.

“Tell Damien to take care of Ember.”

Her breath catches, and something shifts in her face. The fury and the grief relax for a split second.

Hope blooms in her eyes.

She understands. She doesn’t know quite what it means, but she trusts me enough to believe it means something.

“I’ll see you soon,” she mouths.

I nod.

She doesn’t look back.

The door opens, and she steps through it.

I exhale through my nose and turn back to Arlind.

He’s watching me with something that might be respect if he were a different man.

“The call,” he says.

I look at the phone in my hand. I bring up Sergei’s contact, hovering my thumb over the screen.

I’m not going to call Sergei; I’m buying time for her to get away.

41

Lila

It takes every ounce of willpower I have to move toward the door. I can’t believe I’m leaving him.

But I’m not.