Page 133 of The Darkness is Calling

I lift one shoulder with nonchalance, and my voice is very calm. “You are. But now I know who I need to protect you from. That’s why I took you from there.”

“And that’s also why you forced me to play out that cheap little theater at the altar?”

From the tone of her voice, I can tell she is getting more furious.

“No,” I answer, confused, because I don’t understand why it’s so hard for her to realize. “I took you as my wife because I wanted you from the first moment I saw you, at that Christmas Party.”

She needs a few seconds to speak again.

“We are not married, Artem.”

I smile. She is so sweet!

“I’ll give you a little more time to get used to the idea.”

Katya says nothing, which makes me glance at her quickly to see what is wrong. She is staring at me with her mouth open and her eyes wide.

Not her prettiest face, but I don’t make any comment. I already married her, so I accept her, for better and for worse.

Although...

“Close your mouth, because you’re making me think about what I could put in it.”

She punishes me with a punch to the shoulder, but because she lacks strength, I barely feel it.

“Do you realize what you’ve done?! You destroyed everything! Now I’ve lost everything I worked for, everything my father worked for! His legacy is destroyed!”

She gestures wildly.

“Oksana! Mikhail!” she says suddenly, even more panicked.

“They’re both safe,” I tell her, knowing my men made sure all the people important to us were extracted first.

“Why would I believe you?”

I frown. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“Because look at the chaos you caused!”

She calls it chaos.

I call it art.

“Mikhail knew about my plan. Do you really think he would have sat there so calm the entire time if I hadn’t spoken to him beforehand?”

The information only makes her angrier. After a few seconds of looking at me just as strangely as before, she hits me again with her small fists against my shoulder.

“You people are fucking insane! And you didn’t think maybe you should have told me too?”

“The fewer people who knew, the more believable everything seemed. And the safer it was.”

She stops her harmless little attack, and I am certain she understands the situation, but that doesn’t keep her from remaining upset.

“You’ve only made things worse,” she murmurs, folding her arms over the chest, covered by the corset encrusted with fine stones, and settles back into her seat, as far away from me as possible.

I’m not saying anything anymore, because I park in the underground level of one of the buildings we own, where our hideout is, and where I am supposed to meet my brothers. More precisely, the top floor of the building, structured into three apartments, one for each of us.

“What is this place?”