Page 47 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 1

“Well, even if I’d wanted to, since the house is in your name only, I hardly have the power to throw you out,” I replied pointedly.“However, it’s obvious that we can no longer live together, so I will be packing my stuff, and I’ll be out by Sunday.”

“I am not going to let you emotionally blackmail me, Zoya,” she huffed, and if my emotions weren’t already so all over the place, I’d laugh at the accusation.If anyone was emotionally blackmailing somebody, it was her.“If you leave, you will not be welcomed back.”

It was only a little after two in the afternoon, and I honestly had no idea if I was going to be able to make it until Sunday, which was ironic as hell.I had asked Kasimir for some time and space, and now I wasn’t even sure if I still wanted it.While work would get me out from under my mother’s relentlessness for a few hours tomorrow, that still left me with her tonight and all day tomorrow until my shift started.

“Fine,” I said.“If that’s how you want to do this, then fine.However, I’m done arguing with you, Mom.I’m going to go take a hot bath, get some rest, then start packing.”

“I’m not kidding, Zoya,” she hissed.“If you leave, you will never be able to come back.”

“I believe you,” I replied stoically.

“You’re ruining everything!”she yelled before storming off towards the back of the house, but I knew the truth.With me gone, she was going to have no choice but to work, and that’s what she was upset about most.

Letting out a deep sigh, I headed towards my bedroom, then locked the door behind me once I was safely inside, safely away from my mother’s venomous hate.

It wasn’t until I was soaking in the tub, the hot water close to scorching, that I was finally able to think about all that had happened and try to figure out what I was going to do.Everything felt like it was snowballing out of control, and I just wasn’t equipped to handle it.

I sure as hell wasn’t equipped to handle someone like Kasimir Korolev, either.

Chapter 23

Kasimir~

After meeting with Viktor, he’d made it clear that we were going to have to remind our enemies that we were still very active, and that any rumors of Aurora’s pregnancy had not made our family soft.In fact, quite the opposite.

Viktor and my father had been adamant about securing our territory borders, pushing the Romanians back to where they belonged.We needed to remind our enemies that we were still very on top of what went on in our territory, and so that meant a very long weekend for me, though it wasn’t anything that I wasn’t used to.

Nevertheless, that wasn’t going to keep me from seeing Zoya for two damn days.So, after my meeting with Viktor and our father, I had texted Zoya, warning her that I’d be stopping by to take her to dinner before going to ‘work’.I also wanted to know how things had gone with her mother, which I couldn’t imagine that they’d gone well.Darya Orlova was not the same woman that she’d been before Aurora had killed her brother, and I couldn’t see her getting any better without some professional help.

At any rate, when Yuri had pulled up to the curb, Zoya had been waiting for me by her front door, and as soon as she’d seen the SUV come to a stop, she’d been heading down the walkway before I could even get out of the car, not setting things off to a good start.

As soon as she reached the car, I said, “Do not ever wait for me outside.It leaves you an open target to anyone happening by.”

Rather than argue with me, she said, “Okay.”

I opened the door for her, and once she got in, instead of walking around the car to get in from the other side, I motioned Zoya to scoot over to make room for me.I only had a limited amount of time with her, and I wasn’t going to waste any of it by taking the time to walk around the vehicle.