Chapter 167 167

Chapter 167 167
Bogdan shakes his head. Despite his stoic face, I know he’s desperate for a reprieve. He wants forgiveness. Even as boys, he could never stand it when we were at odds with one another. Some things never change.

“I should have been more vigilant,” he whispers. “I took my eyes off them for two seconds.”

“TWO FUCKING SECONDS IS ALL IT FUCKING TAKES!” I roar.

He hasn’t ever seen me like this. Hell, I haven’t seen me like this. It feels oddly cathartic to bellow like a feral animal. After years of honing the art of deadly silence, the ability to let my voice run wild is a welcome change of pace.

“I know,” Bogdan says. “I should have done more. I should have been prepared. I should have—”

Before he can finish, I grab him by the collar and wrench him towards me. Our noses are only inches from another but I want him to look me in the eyes.

“They have my daughter,” I snarl. My voice breaks. “They have Jo!”

“I’m going to get her back,” Bogdan insists. “I swear to you, I will get her back.”

I release his shirt in disgust and turn my back on him. “No. It’s clear now that I have to do shit on my own. So I will get her back. You just stay out of my fucking way.”

I expect him to leave the room. He knows how to read my moods. He knows better than to linger.

But he doesn’t go anywhere. “Do you think I don’t care about that little girl just as much as you do?” Bogdan asks.

“How much you are about her is irrelevant.”

“Sobrat, I—”

“Stop!” Camila intercedes, stepping into the room.

Her eyes flash around, taking in the shambles that used to be a dignified sitting room. She maneuvers her way around the wreckage that litters the floor and comes to stand between us, her eyes sharp and filled with an agony that is painful to witness.

“Turning on each other is not going to get my daughter back,” she says.

Her tone is remarkably calm. She’s steady when she speaks, with a new steel in her eyes when she glances between Bogdan and me.

“It happened. They took her. She’s gone. Now, we have to focus on getting her back.”

I know she’s right. But it feels good to break shit.

“Isaak,” she says, turning to me. “We need a plan.”

Those words coming out of her mouth have a strange effect on me. I’m both impressed and turned off by them. There’s new strength in her that I haven’t seen before.

But this strength has no place in my sphere.

The don’s strength is all that matters.

Before I can answer, Mama walks in. She still looks a little unsteady on her feet, but some of her color has returned.

“I found something,” she says.

“What do you mean?” Bogdan asks, moving forward.

She produces a piece of white paper, crumpled at the edges. “I found it just now,” she explains, “in my pocket.”

I grab the note before Bogdan can reach for it. There’s only one sentence, scrawled in a familiar handwriting:

It’s time you paid for what you stole from me.

My hands clench into fists. I crumple up the note and throw it onto the floor among the glass. “It’s payback time alright,” I mutter.

“More threats?” Bogdan asks.

I don’t answer. Instead, I head straight out of the room. I’m aware of footsteps behind me, but I’m so consumed with my plans that I don’t realize they’re Camila’s until she calls my name.

“Isaak!”

“What?” I snap without slowing down.

She follows me right into my office. “What’s the plan?”

“It’s forming,” I tell her icily.

“Okay, well, whatever it is, I’m coming with you.”

I grimace. I’ve expected those words since the moment I saw the new hardness in her gaze.

“No.”

She stops short. “No?”

“That’s what I said. You’re not coming with me.”

“She’s my daughter, too.”

“Irrelevant. You won’t have any clue what to do in a situation like that.”

“All I need to do is get to Jo.”

“And you think that’s going to be easy?” I demand. “You think you can just show up at Maxim’s compound and ask nicely to have Jo back?”

“I can try.”

“Don’t be fucking naïve. It doesn’t suit you.”

“Stop it,” she says, “stop treating me like a stranger. It’s me you’re talking to.”

“You’re not a stranger, Camila,” I snap back. “I know exactly who and what you are: a fucking liability. Which is why I’m saying no.”

She flinches back, but the determination only glows brighter in her eyes. She moves closer to me and jabs her finger into my chest.

“I know you, too, Isaak Vorobev. You do this. Say something cruel to push me away. Well, guess what? My daughter’s life is at risk here, so nothing you can say will make the slightest bit of difference. You want to call me a coward, a whore, a liability? Go right ahead. I’ll take every single insult you throw at me. Because there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Jo.”

She probably has no idea just how magnificent she is in this moment. I can’t help but stand there and watch her. The way her eyes clash with her hair. The way her beauty seems all the more pronounced because of the newfound confidence in her eyes.

But I can’t tell her those things. I can’t tell her how she’s the best parts of me. How Jo is the best parts of both of us. I can’t tell her I need her, I love her.

Because my father taught me long ago that weakness gets you killed.

“Thanks for the speech. The answer is still no.”

She stiffens hard at first, then steels herself and dives right back into the fight. “Isaak, if I’m going to be a part of this life, then you’re going to have to include me in it.”

I shake my head. “You’re going to be a part of my life. But the Bratva is not for you.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Watch me.”

I press a button that has a direct line to my men. It’s a silent trigger, so Camila doesn’t even notice it. She’s too pissed off anyway.

“I can try talking to Maxim,” she’s saying.

I snort derisively. “I’m sure that will go wonderfully.”

“We do have a history.”

“That history was shot to hell the moment you decided to stay with me,” I point out. “You made your choice, Camila. And he’s not going to forgive you for it. Why do you think he took Jo in the first place?”

Her eyes go wide. “Do you think… do you think he’ll hurt her?”

The honest truth is that I don’t know. But telling Camila that will just break her.

“He needs her for leverage,” I say instead. “He won’t do anything to her just yet.”

I can see tears pricking in her eyes, but she doesn’t let them fall. “Isaak, we have to get her back.”

“Like I said, I’m working on it.”

She takes a step closer and puts her hand on my arm. “Please,” she begs, “let me help you.”

Over her shoulder, I notice two of my men enter the room silently. They stand their ground, waiting for my instructions.

“I said no.”

“Why?” she protests. “Because I’m a civilian? Because I’m a woman?”

I shake my head. “I’m not keeping you here because you’re a woman. I’m keeping you here because you’re my fucking woman.”