Page 12 of BRATVA'S Avenging Bride
Katherine is just a woman who refused to die quietly.
The sun creeps over the skyline, painting everything gold and red. Fire colors. I think about the footage again, the way she stood in the street haloed by the flames, baptized in destruction.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
Mine.
The thought almost disturbs me. I don't claim women. I use them when necessary, compensate them generously, and forget their names by morning. Clean. Transactional. Safe.
But Katherine isn't clean. She's ash and rage and sharp edges that cut when you try to hold her.
And I want to hold her anyway.
The door to my study opens without a knock. Emil. He's the only one who'd dare.
"You look like shit," he says.
"Good morning to you, too."
He drops into the chair across from my desk, all casual menace in his black suit. We grew up together. Bled together. He's the closest thing I have to a brother who won't put a knife in my back the second my father dies.
“You turned off your phone,” he says. "The Pakhan wants a meeting, this afternoon. He's heard about the fire."
Of course he has. My father hears everything. Sees everything. Controls everything.
"What did you tell him?"
"That it was an accident. Electrical fire. Tragic loss of property and revenue.” He leans forward in his chair. “I paid the fire chief an evenmillto lose the information on the chemicals in the corridors." Emil's eyes narrow. "I didn't mention the girl to your father.”
"Good."
"Matvey." His voice drops. "You can't keep her. You know that, right? She's a liability. A witness. A loose end."
"She's under my protection."
"Your protection isn't worth shit if the Pakhan decides she's a threat."
I meet his eyes. Cold. Final. "Then he'll have to go through me."
Emil goes very still. When he speaks again, his voice is careful. Measured. "You're willing to die for her? A woman you met three hours ago?"
"I'm willing to kill for her." I lean back in my chair. "There's a difference."
"This is insane."
"Probably."
"She burned down your property. Killed your men. The families will want blood."
"Boris and Abram were rapists running a trafficking ring under our name. I should've gutted them myself months ago." I pour another drink. Don't offer him one. "The families can have their blood. I'll give them the names of Boris's suppliers. Theones who knew what he was doing and looked the other way. That should satisfy them."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then they can take it up with me directly."
Emil drags a hand through his hair. "You're going to start a war over her." He stares at me like I've lost my mind. Maybe I have. Maybe that's what happens when you watch a woman walk through fire and realize she's everything you've been missing without knowing it.
