Page 214 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

I’m a fucking fool.

“Vitya Azarov was another tool in the organization’s belt. It was easy to do, considering how poorly you protect those closest to you.”

She’s just poured acid on an open wound. It hurts like a motherfucker—and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

Because she’s right. Vitya was right, too.

I failed them all. Aurora. Yuri. Vitya. Charity.

My eyes go wide as I remember all those mornings I’d walked into the kitchen to find Anna holding Yuri as Aurora drank her coffee.

“My wife,” I choke out. “My son.”

She smiles, as though she’s been waiting for this particular question. “What about them?”

“You… you spent so much time with them. You cared for Aurora. You looked after Yuri.”

“I did,” she replies.

Her eyes go filmy for a moment. And for that single moment, it’s as though she shares my pain. It’s as though she can feel their loss as keenly as I can.

“Aurora was a trusting girl. She wasn’t used to this world. You did her a disservice by bringing her into it. And the baby… he was a lovely boy. As beautiful as you are. He would have grown into a handsome man.”

“You loved them,” I breathe. “You had to have loved them.”

“You shouldn’t have gotten involved!” Anna hisses, her tone dripping with venom. “You should have known that if you play with a viper, you’re going to get bit.”

I’m twitching like a live wire. Bursting with the need to move, to act. But I have to resist. I need to hear how this story ends.

I need to know what happened to them.

“How?” I ask. “Who did it?”

She raises her eyebrows at me. “You were a fool,” she tells me. “You should have protected them better.”

“I know that,” I reply softly. “And I will always carry that guilt around with me. It’ll kill me before anything else does.”

“Oh, I highly doubt that.” She admires her gun for a moment. “She trusted me so implicitly,” Anna continues. “She used to confide in me. Did you know that?”

“No,” I whisper. “I didn’t.”

“She was terrified from the beginning. Not for herself—it never even crossed her mind that she might be in danger. She was scared foryou. For your son.”

I grind my teeth and squeeze the arms of the armchair so hard I wonder if they’ll disintegrate in my fists. But I stay still. I have to stay fucking still.

“There were nights you didn’t come home,” Anna says. “There were days you disappeared with only a text or two to hold her over. She used to come to my room then and cry. It was so easy to do it, in the end. Too easy.”

“No… no…”

The loss and pain on her face wilts away when she makes eye contact with me. She smiles—and I feel the chill bone deep.

There’s no soul in those eyes. Whatever Astra Tyrannis did to her, they did it well.

“I was given the order minutes after you left on a mission. Aurora came to my room with the child. She was so distraught, so worried for you that she didn’t even see it coming. While she was unconscious, I bound and gagged her. I hid her in my wardrobe.”

I always assumed that finding out how they died would give me some clarity. Some closure.

But I was wrong.

---