Page 140 of The Darkness is Calling

“And here I thought I was being romantic.” A small smile appears on his damn handsome face.

Bastard.

“And what do you mean, hope has no place here? As in, bad things are definitely going to happen?”

The corner of his mouth lifts even more.

“We’re part of Bratva, Ekaterina. Of course bad things will happen to us.”

I pull away from the hand touching my face and look at him, frowning, almost sad.

“I was no longer part of Bratva, Artem. That’s exactly why I moved to London, to break away from this world. That’s exactly why my father made so many sacrifices, so I could live a life as normal as possible. And I really was on the right path.”

His eyebrow rises in an ironic way, the same kind of smile still on his face.

“You really haven’t understood, have you?”

The air catches in my throat. “Understood what?”

“You were the biggest pawn, Ekaterina. Your marriage to Oliver Prescott III would have secured the organizations in Russia access to the largest gateway to and from South America. The shortest route and the least inspected by the authorities.”

I feel everything shake around me.

“What are you saying?”

“I opened a connection hub here, but the great Vors wanted to solidify the transfer toward Moscow too, not just stop here.”

A thousand questions spin through my head until I feel my legs almost give way. I barely manage to keep my balance.

“And what does Oliver have to do with it?” I am completely confused by what he is telling me.

“Your former fiance appears to be an important pawn in all of this. The discussions for this partnership were held with his father, the great Lord Prescott, who has been looking for partners for the arms trafficking he’s been running for a few years. With his connections and our weapons, money would rain from the sky for both sides.”

I take a step back and sit on the edge of the nearby bed, feeling my entire reality quake, apparently built, according to him, on one enormous lie.

“I thought he was sincere and that...”

“That you were living in a love story?”

“Yes,” I say softly, almost disappointed.

“You do. With me.”

His smile is full of pride.

I glare at him.

He has the nerve to be romantic while everything burns around us, and on top of that, I realize that, for two years, I was lied to by a man who let me believe he loved me.

Betrayal makes me wonder how many people around me are still doing that. Including the one in front of me.

“How do I know you’re not like him? You just destroyed one wedding to force me into another, with you.”

His face darkens, and a muscle twitches in his cheek.

“Because I have nothing to gain from this. Things were going very well for me before the Vors got involved, with their desire to expand into a place where I had settled and was gaining more and more ground on my own.”

“And now, with my kidnapping from the wedding – which I assume marked this partnership