Page 16 of The Wrong Brother

The voice slices cleanly through the tension. Emma startles, her brows knitting, gaze swinging incredulously to me. Now we’re both confused, both caught off guard.

I close my eyes briefly.

Fuck.

“Uncle?” Kate calls again from somewhere downstairs. “Your car is here, and Mrs. Alvarez says I can’t have ice cream before breakfast, but she’s literally wrong.”

The fury and suspicion burning through me slam hard into a different reality entirely.

Kate is home. My niece. My responsibility. The only thing I ever managed to keep untouched in this life… or as untouched as possible, when I was finally able to find her.

Emma blinks at me in confusion as I step back from the door. I can practically see the questions spinning through her head now.

Uncle. Ruslan, not Russ.

Not once in my entire deadly career did I ever think my own niece would give me up. The humor in italmostburns away the rage.

The hallway downstairs fills with Kate’s rapid chatter as she continues talking to one of the house staff without taking a single breath. Twelve years old and incapable of silence for longer than ten seconds.

A sharp ache twists unexpectedly through my chest.

This.

This is the line.

I do not drag my darkness into her life. I do not become that man around her.

Emma takes advantage of my distraction immediately, slipping into the hallway. Smart girl.

But before she can disappear fully, I catch her wrist. She doesn’t struggle, just goes still, which only makes me more sure she’s somethingelse.

I lower my voice. “If you run from me, Emma…”

Her eyes lift slowly to mine.

“I will find you.”

The promise settles heavily between us.

Then I let go.

Emma disappears down the hallway moments later, moving fast enough that her curls bounce behind her. By the time I reach thebalcony overlooking the front drive, she’s already climbing into a waiting rideshare without looking back once.

Running. Definitely running. But from what? She was ready to run before I made that threat. Before I even stepped into my own bedroom.

What didshesee on the TV when Andrei appeared?

Behind me, Kate barrels into the room like a hurricane. “Why is everyone acting weird this morning?”

* * *

An hour later, after breakfast and complaints about sleepovers and three separate stories about middle school drama, Kate finally disappears toward the media room with her tablet.

Only then do I pick up my phone. Yakim picks up immediately.

“Problem?”

I stare out toward the ocean, jaw tightening as Andrei’s smiling face flashes through my mind again.