Page 52 of Wicked Vows (Suvorov Bratva 2)

And I’m starting to lean in that direction, too. Each day with her—each moment—is tugging me and my heart away from all this.

I close my eyes.I already told her we can’t leave.

“If she had her way entirely,” I say in a low voice. “She would have us run as far away from this world as possible.”

“What would happen if you could?”

I shrug nonchalantly. “What’s the use inifI could?”

“Humor an old woman, Pasha.”

“I can’t answer that.”

Curiosity lights up her face. “Why?”

“I don’t know if I can walk away.”

And that’s the heart of the issue.

That’s why love has always been off the table.

Love has perverted my ability to reason with myself, to see logically the things I need to do. It would have been better to shove Liya onto an entirely different floor and only deal with her in the evenings to drop a load in her pussy.

It would have beensomuch easier.

But it wouldn’t have been much of a life either.

Her softness, her care, hercompassionare what draw me home every night. I get to take off my suit and crawl into bed next to her. I get to inhale her, hold her, and kiss her. To put little hints of Liya deep inside of me where nothing can get them out.

Silence slides between Viktoria and me. I turn away, unable to witness how she’s studying me.

She’s curious. And she’s almost amused, too.

It’s aggravating.

Out of my peripheral vision, I see her smile softly. “The fact that you’re thinking about this decision so much means that youareready to walk away.”

I keep my mouth shut.

“You just won’t admit it.”

The goddamn woman knows me too well. “It’s impossible for myriad reasons.”

“Liar.”

“You know better than anyone about this lifestyle, Vikusha.”

She nods. “Precisely.”

“What more reason do you need other than Bratva?”

“All I hear is an excuse, Pavel Sergeyevich.”

I roll my eyes. Just as I open my mouth to rattle off every valid reason why I can’t just walk away as pakhan, she holds up her hand to silence me.

And though it’s rare that it works, it does right now.

“For as long as I’ve known you,” she says, “from the moment you were just a boy playing with my Leonid—you havenevertried to justify anything.”

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