Page 45 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 1

“Okay,” she said tiredly, and that bothered me in a way that might be guilt, but I wasn’t going to dwell on it.

“I’ll see you soon,lepestok.”

I waited until she got her keys out, unlocked her front door, then went inside before I headed back towards the waiting car and whatever it was that my brother needed from me tonight.

Chapter 22

Zoya~

As soon as I walked into the house, I was hit with a sadness that I hadn’t been expecting.I’d been so prepared to sell my body in order to make a life somewhere else, but now that my choices had been taken from me, I felt inexplicably mournful over moving out now.

However, before I could even begin to dissect how I was feeling over all these new developments, my mother was walking out of the kitchen, and the look on her face told me all that I needed to know about whether or not she’d seen Kasmir walking me to the door.

Great.

“What are you doing with Kasimir Korolev?”she asked, getting right to the point.

“It’s a long story,” I hedged.

“I’ve got time to listen,” she bit out as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I...I went out last night and...”

“And what, Zoya?”

“I ran into Kasimir and...and we sort of got to talking and kind of hit it off,” I lied.“We...we ended up talking all night and...and a lot of stuff got cleared up.”

“Cleared up?”she echoed as her arms dropped to her sides.“What was there to clear up, Zoya?His family killed my brother, your uncle.”

“How many times are we going to dance over the facts, Mom?”I asked, feeling weary to my bones.“Uncle Armen betrayed the Korolevs, and he did it while knowing what would happen to him if they ever found out.”

My mother’s eyes widened.“Are you saying that hedeservedit?”

“No,” I snapped.“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Then why are you making up excuses for the Korolevs?”