Page 139 of Sinful Promise

“Dimitri, I need you to listen to me.” I try to ignore the painful thudding of my heart in my chest. “I need you, Alexei, and Mikhail to come to my apartment. Now.”

“Danil—”

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

“What’s this about, Danil?”

My eyes flick up to meet the man my brothers and I have been chasing for the past decade.

The man who murdered our parents in cold blood.

“Igor Ivanov.”

“If this is about what happened at Alexei’s, let it go. You have nothing to prove here, Danil.”

Fuck, he’s not listening to me.

“Dimitri! I’m being fucking serious here.”

“Are you, Danil?”

My one hope of my family surviving this is slipping through my fingers.

“Do this for me, Mitya. Please.”

There’s a pause, and I glance anxiously at Igor as I wait for Dimitri to reply.

“I’ll gather the family, and be there in thirty minutes,” Dimitri answers before the phone goes dead.

I release the breath I didn’t realize I had been holding as Igor shuts off my phone.

“Mitya?” Igor narrows his eyes at me. “An interesting nickname.”

“It’s what I’ve called him ever since I was a child. It’s just stuck.”

The lie slips out easily, but the truth is I’m not even sure if it will work. If Dimitri will even remember.

Igor gets to his feet and pockets my phone. “Well, let’s hope that your brothers decide to listen to you for once. They have thirty minutes.”

The moment Igor leaves the room, the panic sets in.

In thirty minutes, my brothers could all be dead because of me.

What if Dimitridoesn’tremember?

I could never forget that night when my inability to ask for help almost got me killed.

That night, after everyone else went to bed, Dimitri came into my room.“If you ever need my help again, all you have to do is call me.”

“But what if I can’t tell you I’m in trouble? What if next time, I…”

“If you ever need me but can’t talk or ask for help for any reason, just call me Mitya. Can you do that?”

“Like a code word?”

“Exactly. That way, I’ll know that you need help, but no one else will know you asked for it.”

“And you’ll come and help me? No matter what?”

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