Page 89 of Plus-Size Bratva Bride

“Roda?” I mutter tensely.

“Ruvim is exhausted. He’s already passed out. The doc is coming to check him over in an hour, but I think it’s best you come see him tonight or maybe tomorrow. Let him rest.”

“Yeah, sure. I imagine he didn’t sleep at all there. Let me know when he’s ready and I’ll come straight away. And let me know if I need to bring anything. Food, or whatever—”

“Cool man, I’ll talk later. Uh, tell Jade we say thank you,” he says tightly.

“Sure.” I nod, my eyes lifting towards her. She bites her lip and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. “I’ll tell her.”

I toss my phone onto the kitchen counter as I walk past it.

I need a drink. Something strong.

Jade follows me into the kitchen, unsure of herself.

“Radmir—”

“Tomorrow morning you can go. I suggest you stay the night just to be safe, but tomorrow you and your family should leave the city and go somewhere safe until Marat’s anger simmers down.”

“But you—the footage—he wouldn’t—”

“He’s an arrogant idiot, Jade. The footage doesn’t guarantee your safety. You have no obligation to me anymore. You redeemed yourself, you helped get my brother back and now you can go and live your life in whatever way you choose.” I speak sternly, doing my best to keep the emotion from my voice.

I don’t want her to leave, but I know she doesn’t feel the same way I feel about her. For her it was all a means to an end. A game to trick me.

I sigh heavily as I throw vodka into a glass of ice blocks, watching the alcohol splash onto the cubes.

“Radmir I don’t want to go.” Her voice is weak, quiet, nervous.

“You don’t want to leave the city? You should. You should go somewhere safe.”

“The safest place for me is, um… It’s with my husband.”

I narrow my eyes, my brows knotting as I turn to look at her.

Tilting my head, my jaw clenches tightly.

She steps towards me.

“Your husband—” I mutter.

“I’ve never felt safer in my life, than I did with you,” she says quietly. She steps even closer. I don’t move.

When she reaches out and brushes her hand gently over my side I tense, but I don’t push her away. Her touch is the drug I’ve been craving. The warmth of her hand against my skin.

“Radmir, please, forgive me for what I did. I thought—” she stammers, her voice choked away by tears. “I thought you killed my brother,” she cries quietly.

“I’ve come to terms with why you did what you did, Jade. I understand and I probably would have done the same thing if I was in your shoes, I’ve accepted that, and I understand. But at this point, I can’t be around you. Ithurts,” I sigh heavily.

“Why? If you can forgive me, then why can’t you be near me?” she looks up at me, her eyes are bright and red around those intense hazel beams.

“Because, for me it wasreal,” I confess. Letting the truth out is a relief I didn’t know I needed.

“It was real?” she asks quietly, lifting her other hand and laying it against me. An intense current of electricity drifts through my body.

“What happened between you and me—it was real for me, Jade. I fell in love with you. The version of you that you let me see in order to manipulate what you needed out of the situation.”Her betrayal still cuts deeply into my heart. The fact that she was so good at pretending to feel something for me.

She gasps, throwing herself against my chest and crying.

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