Page 96 of Prince Charming

“This is my problem to fix. I did this, don’t you get it?”

Things were in the works in the background, but until it was concrete, he didn’t want to build her hope.

“I’m the woman who let her idiot ex make me believe coming to the States would be lucrative for the children. I believed it when he’d only ever been a liar, Luke. I believed it because I wanted better for Pasha and Lily. I was foolish to think he was trustworthy when he was using me to get a foot in theBratvadoor by supplying them with women. Selling me like cattle, selling me to become a pet.” With each word, her voice became strangled.

Not wanting to push her for details, he’d waited for her to share her ordeal in her own time. He already had a fair idea.

“I had to watch girls being drugged. I guess I was lucky that it wasonlyGrigori who used me for his pet. But I am stupid. I trusted and trusted, kept on hoping it would work out. That these bad men would follow through with their lies. I did not come to the States to build a new life. They brought me on a boat of dishonesty. Fed me lies every day until I broke. Because I was thoughtlessly hopeful enough to think it might change if I kept my head down and did as I was told. I was so afraid I’d be drugged and beaten like the others, so it was easier not to cause waves. I still believed I’d be let go.”

Oh, his poor girl. He tried to pull her in, but she held him off.

“I wanted you to think I was strong, Luke. But Iamstupid. Iamweak. I gave in. I cannot fix this, the same as I could not fix what happened to me. I was lucky only in that they left me alone most of the time, Grigori was a busy man and called on me rarely. That day you saw me…” she swallowed, and he wanted to stop the words from coming so they wouldn’t hurt her. Standing like a statue in his own kitchen, looking at the woman he cared for—because she needed someone to care for her more than ever.

His woman was far from weak.

She was everything he could want for a partner, and she couldn’t see it.

Her pain was too deep, festering inside her.

“That day your MC came to the warehouse, Luke, was when he was tired of having a lifeless pet. I didn’t fawn as his other women did.I couldn’t. It resigned me to that life, but I couldn’t pretend what I did not feel. That day, he tired of me and decided I had to pay my keep another way. I was fortunate for your MC’s intervention.” The smile didn’t reach her eyes. “My savior in leather. You have, how you say here, set your hat at perhaps the wrong door. I am all wrong.”

The saying was wrong, but he got the meaning. Frowning, he set his feet to moving and caught at her arm before she could leave.

“Quit that bullshit, Anna. A setback doesn’t mean you quit.”

“I will never quit. If I have to hand myself into the embassy as an illegal immigrant, they will send me back home, and though it might mean I go to jail, or theBratvafind me. I will be with my children, eventually.”

The thought put ice in his veins.

Over his dead fucking decomposing corpse, he’d let that happen.

“Stay. I’ll rustle up some breakfast and we can talk about this.”

“I find I have no appetite. I want to go home and regroup. And I need to do that alone, Tag.” At least she was brutally honest, didn’t mean he liked that shit one bit.

Her ex was a cunt. Grigori fucking Kuznetsov was a cunt - albeit a dead cunt - he owned that title wherever the fuck he was in Hell. He’d chew them both up and spit out their bones if he could.

“Baby, stay.”

She didn’t turn around. It was his boss-like voice she liked that did it when he asked, “what happened to your ex?”

Swerving her body, she blinked before answering. “I wasted four months on that man, but he gave me Pasha and Lily. For that I am grateful. For everything else, I am glad he’s dead. He’d come around every few months looking for a handout. He thought he had amazing ideas.” She rolled her eyes. “Look where it got him. Who desires to be a gangster? Who longs to be part of theBratva? That was his one dream, and he saw me as his meal ticket by collecting women to bring across the sea. But as all men,” she went on, “his dick ruled him, and he started an affair with Grigori’s mistress, and he fathered her baby.”

“The Russian boss found out he was playing with his toy and killed him?”

Wait. He vaguely remembered something familiar that involved Danny Murphy’s wife. They adopted a Russian kid. Was it the same?

“Da. Yes. I have no sympathy. Pasha and Lily didn’t even know him. I feel bad only for Galina’s sake. She held hope her son would change.”

“Good fucking riddance, baby.”

She half-smiled. He was pleased there wasn’t an ex to get in his way. Not that he’d let it, he’d plow the fucking guy into the dust if he’d tried to stop Tag from being with Marianna.

“Stay.” He said again, rough, and desperate.

“I can’t. Please understand.” And then, “goodbye, Luke.”

A goodbye? Fuck that.

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