Page 132 of Tarnished Tyrant (Zhukova Bratva 1)

My second thought is,I’m gonna kill her.

I stomp towards the ditch she ended up in. “Elise Margaret Rowan, get your ass out of that car. Now!”

Slowly, the door opens and Elise steps out. She has the audacity to look bored. “Relax, Belle. You’re not my—”

“Shut up,” I hiss. “You don’t get to say anything right now. You don’t get to talk back. You don’t get to tell me I’m not your mom. Because I’m the closest thing you have to it. And all you get to do is sit there and let me yell at you. Because—because—”

I look at the scratched paint and crunched hood and try not to imagine how much the car will cost to fix. More than I have. More than I may ever have. But I can’t think about that now.

Elise pouts and crosses her arms. “This is so stupid. I just wanted to go sightseeing. But that car is fast. I lost control down the hill, and—”

I hold up a hand to stop her. “I don’t want to hear how you almost crashed and died. You could have gone sightseeing with us!”

“And be a third wheel to your dates?” she scoffs. “No thanks.”

Nikolai, the intelligent man that he is, chooses that moment to slip away from the bickering Rowan women and start the trek up the road towards a tall, two-level farmhouse at the end of a long drive. I’m guessing it belongs to the owners of the property that Elise just violated.

“These aren’t ‘dates.’ I’m working for Nikolai,” I snap.

I’m hoping Elise is more convinced by my lie than I am. Nikolai said I was here to work for him, to help him with his hotel. But nothing I’ve done so far even kind of resembles work. It’s just been a really lovely vacation.

Or at least, it was. Until Elise disappeared this morning.

I should have seen her escape coming, honestly. I can always count on cold, hard reality to give me a kick in the ass whenever I start to think things could be looking up for me.

“Speaking of which, Nikolai has taken care of us this last week and you decided to repay him by crashing his car?”

For the first time, Elise has the decency to look guilty.

“You shouldn’t be driving in the first place!” I pile on. “You don’t even have a learner’s permit.”

“I’ve been driving for years,” she snaps. “How else do you think I got groceries from the store? You thinkMomdrove me there? C’mon, Belle, don’t be stupid.”

The admission catches me off guard. I hesitate.

Elise fills the silence. “I used to pull my wagon the ten blocks there and back, but driving was easier. I could fit more in the trunk and I didn’t have to go as often.”

And just like that, my anger dissipates. The image of my baby sister buying groceries and hauling them home in her little red wagon… It’s too much. I want to break down.

So much was taken away from her, and she doesn’t even realize what she’s missing. It’s just normal for her.

God, that’s wrong.

I drag a hand down my face and try to keep it together. “You shouldn’t have stolen the car, Elise. You should have asked us about sightseeing. If you don’t want to go with us, Nikolai could have found you a tour guide.”

“That’s right,” she snarls. “I forgot I can just ask Nikolai for whatever I need. He’s the one actually taking care of me. Should I start calling him Daddy now?”

Elise may as well have slapped me across the face. I stare at her, a rage I don’t recognize rising up inside of me. Before I can do anything I’ll likely regret, I turn away.

Breathe. Breathe.I murmur the word under my breath again and again until each inhalation doesn’t feel quite so much like I’m sucking down battery acid.

Nikolai chooses that moment to come walking back down the road.

“Well,” he says when he’s close enough for us to hear him, “the owner was willing to make a deal. You work off the damage to the fence and he’ll call it even.”

“Me?” Elise asks, blinking.

“It sure as hell isn’t going to be either of us,” I mutter at her.

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