Page 66 of The Bratva's Auctioned Bride
She gets it. Yes.
Me: Yes. Ha-ha. Anyway. I’m going to Lemon Bar this evening for a rainbow cocktail and to watch the sunset. I hope you’re well, Angel. Maybe I’ll see you around.
Princess: I think I might also be watching the sunset this afternoon. Maybe I’ll see you around.
I’m not sure, but I think she got the message. But there’s only one way to find out.
***
An hour before sunset, I’m sitting at Lemon Bar with my hands tapping anxiously against the top of the table on either side of my drink. My eyes are alert, scanning back and forth, waiting for her, or her brother, to come walking toward me.
The ice has melted in my glass. My stomach is knotted with tension.
But in the end, it pays off.
Angel steps into the bar, not seeing me right away, her brow furrowed with stress as she bites at her lower lip.
When she does spot me, her face floods with relief, and she rushes over.
“I wasn’t sure, um, if you were asking me to meet you, but you were… Right?” she blurts out, standing next to my table.
I stand up and hug her, an awkward gesture, then invite her to sit down. “I was. We need to talk.”
“About the bugs?” she asks, her eyes wide.
“Yes, look, before we start, though, I wanted to say sorry—for everything.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Diomid. We are both adults. We both made choices.”
She speaks curtly, clipping her emotions, and sounds almost businesslike. Ok. Fair enough. She clearly doesn’t want to talk about that.
“I’ve been listening in on the conversations and, basically, there is another auction happening. A human auction. Saturday night.”
“Dammit,” she sighs, scrunching her nose. “And are you going to try and stop it?” she asks, almost pleading.
“I am. Look, I thought about asking my brothers for help. Because they would help me, but then there’s no way I could involve you as well. And this is… It’s your fight. So I came to you first. But the last thing I want to do is put you in danger or create more trouble between you and your family, so you just say the word, and I will handle this myself. You can stay out of it, and I’ll just keep you updated.”
Angel smiles, her eyes lighting up, and my heart flutters at that one beautiful gesture. “We’re in this together, Diomid.”
“Are you sure? You could…”
She reaches across the table and touches my hand, stopping my words in their tracks.
“We’re in this together. I mean it.”
I laugh, a quiet chuckle that ripples inside me, tugging at the whirlwind of emotions I’ve been trying to snuff out over the last few days.
“Angel, there’s something else I should tell you. And maybe it isn’t fair of me to say this, but I guess… I just need to.”
She knots her brows, shifting with anxiety and pulling her hand away from me.
“Ok,” she mutters quietly, her back straightening, as though she’s trying to shield herself against whatever I’m going to tell her.
After taking a deep breath, I don’t feel any more prepared than before, so I just dive into it.
“The other night, when I agreed to marry you…”
“It’s ok, you don’t have to explain anything. You were trying to protect your family. I know it didn’t mean anything, and I don’t expect anything from you, Diomid.”
