Page 70 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

He rears back, clearly insulted by that. “Not well?” he repeats. “How dare you? I am perfectly well. And I’m here to tell the women who work for you the truth.”

“And what truth is that?” I ask patiently.

“You get women killed. You promise to protect them and then they end up dead,” Vitya spits at me. “Just like my… my… my daughter…”

His voice breaks on the last word. A sob bursts out of his lips and he wraps his arms around his torso to quell the tremors, like he’s trying to physically contain the pain threatening to break him apart.

I know exactly how he feels.

“Vitya, I promised you I would avenge her death,” I bite out. “And I will.”

I notice my men approach from the far corner of the garden, having finally been alerted to the breach in security. One of them is definitely going to answer for the lapse.

At least it’s not a serious threat. Vitya, I can handle.

“I will punish all those who had a hand in her disappearance. In her death.”

“And what about you?” Vitya crows from where he’s still lying sprawled on the lawn. “Who will punish you for what you’ve done? For what you’ve failed to do?”

He loved me once. Loved me like his own flesh and blood. Now, he’d cut my throat if he thought he could get away with it.

My men approach slowly, Matvei among them. Surreptitiously, I hold up my hand, letting them know to keep their distance. I don’t want Vitya hurt.

“Vitya, you have no idea how much I hate myself for—”

“I told her not to marry you,” Vitya interrupts me. “Did she ever tell you that?”

“No,” I sigh. “No, she never did.”

“Of course she didn’t. She’d never have told you anything she thought would upset you,” Vitya continues. His eyes range from side to side warily. “But I did. I told her marrying into the Bratva was never a good idea. That the lives of evil men like you have a way of bleeding into the innocence. Poisoning good souls like Aurora. Staining their purity. I didn’t want that for her. She deserved better. Far better than you.”

His words cut. But I know he needs to say them because if he keeps them to himself, they’ll tear him in two.

And I deserve to hear him out. It’s the least of the punishment I’ve earned.

“But she insisted that she would be safe with you,” Vitya says. “She told me you would protect her.”

My failure twists in my gut, compounded by Vitya’s words.

He was right back then.

He’s right now.

“So I let her marry you, fool that I am. I gave her my blessing because she seemed so happy with you. What else is a father to do? And then you weren’t even married two years before the baby came. Yuri, that sweet, innocent boy… he would have been six years old this year.”

“Vitya,” I say, cutting him off before he can destroy me further. “Come inside. You need to sit down.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” he roars, twisting away from my outstretched hand. “You’re just going to kill me! Just like you killed her.”

I cringe, but I push down the bite of my anger. Vitya’s eyes are not focused. The man is not himself right now.

Then again, he hasn’t been himself in four years.

“I would never hurt you, Vitya,” I tell him. “You are still my father-in-law.”

“Bah! I’m nothing to you. That relationship was severed the day you let my daughter die.”

I glance past Vitya and nod to Grigori and Alexi, lingering in the shadows. Both men move forward silently. Vitya doesn’t notice them until the last minute.

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