Page 64 of Scarred Bratva King

“You’re right,” I say quietly, standing up. My heart feels like it’s being squeezed in a vice. “I don’t understand. And I don’t want to. You and Marco are the same.” I show him the burn on my arm. “There’s getting intel and then there’s sadism.”

We’re standing so close now, and I can see the conflict in his eyes. For the first time, he looks lost.

“I have a meeting with my father in the morning,” he says, his voice quieter. “To finalize the handover. This time tomorrow, I’ll be Pakhan.”

He takes a step back, running a hand through his hair. “The bookstore is yours. I’ve cleared your bills, bought you a place to live. You’ll have everything you need.”

“Why are you doing this?” I ask, my voice breaking. “Why are you pretending you’re dead inside? You killed a man and you act like it was nothing. I don’t know who you are anymore.”

“Of course I killed him,” he snaps, his mask of control slipping for a moment. “I’ll kill anyone who threatens your safety.”

Tears sting my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. “I can’t unsee it, Maxim. What you did to him, the way you looked while you did it. And now I’m supposed to pretend it doesn’t matter? That I can just close my eyes and forget it?”

“This is who I’ve always been, Veronica. It’s how I survive. It’s how I protect you.”

I flinch, the words hitting harder than they should. “Protect me? By torturing people? By becoming someone I don’t recognize? Do you even hear yourself?”

He steps closer, the intensity in his expression pulling me in even when I want to push him away. “You think I want to be this way?” he growls, his voice rough. “You think I enjoy it? Everything I’ve done, every choice I’ve made, has been to survive. To keep the people I care about safe. I’m not a good man, Veronica. I’ve never pretended to be one.”

“So the massages and the movies, what were they? Encouraging me to get back in the pool? Was that you being a monster or are you full of shit?”

“It’s better if we end things here,” he says. “You want someone I can’t be. I tried to warn you and Dmitri, tried to tell him to pick someone else. This isn’t my fault.”

I stare at him, my heart breaking even as my temper flares. “You don’t get to decide where I belong, Maxim. And don’t you dare tell me you can't change.”

“It’s for your own good,” he says, his tone final.

Tears burn at the edges of my eyes, but I blink them back, refusing to let him see me break.

“You’re right,” I say softly, each word feeling like a knife in my chest. “We can’t be together. But only because you don’t think you can change. You’re choosing this—” I gesture toward him, toward the weight of his world. “—over us.”

When he speaks again, his voice is steady but distant. “If I had a choice, I’d choose you. Every time. But this life, it doesn’t allow for choices like that. Sometimes you have no choice but to act. To kill. Either you can accept that or you can’t. My father warned me there were risks marrying a civilian. I should have listened.”

“What about Dmitri? He married a civilian. That seems to have worked out, right?”

“He retired when he married Elena. I can’t do that. I have an empire to run, people who will rely on me.” He reaches out a hand. “If you want this to work, you have to accept that bad things take place.”

I laugh bitterly, shaking my head. “Tomorrow, when you get everything you’ve been working for—the power, the money, the control—that’s what will matter to you. Not me. Not us. I can tell. I’ve seen that look in Marco’s eyes. It’s not about love, it never was. You just don’t want anyone else to have me.”

He doesn’t deny it. “The books you ordered for the store will be delivered tomorrow,” he says, his voice carefully neutral. “You’ll have everything you need to start fresh.”

He walks out like Mom did, without once looking back my way. Once the door is closed, I let myself cry. It feels like I’ll never stop.

30

VERONICA

The next day…

Istep inside my new bookstore for the first time. Maxim left the keys on my bedside table along with a note telling me to take a look while he’s busy signing the paperwork with his father.

He never joined me in bed last night. I don’t know how to feel about that.

I stop dead the moment I enter the store.

It's perfect.

Maxim made it perfect.

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