Page 88 of Wicked Vows (Suvorov Bratva 2)

“What’s a nightmare?”

My fingers twitch, but I don’t move. “All of it. I can’t have a normal life. But I really suck at being a pakhan’s wife.”

She releases an empathetic sigh. “Tell me about it.” She drops into a cushion across from me and plops her chin into her hand. “It’s hard to watch people have regular lives and be so caught up in this weird underworld.”

“Hell isn’t even that interesting.”

She chuckles.

I don’t think I’ve heard her laugh since tea time on the terrace.

I smile weakly while lifting my head. “You get it.”

“Been there. Done that.”

“I just feel…” I sit up and shrug lazily. “I chose the fast and easy way to get us out of this mess faster and somehow managed to make an evenbiggermess.”

She nods. “I’ve watched my father do that.”

“Was he…?” I lick my lips. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to ask. But then again, I never thought I would be on speaking terms with my husband’s ex-girlfriend. “Was he ever hard on you?”

“Always.” She glances at her feet with a somber expression. “But it’s because he cares. He knows what’s best. We’re always looking over our shoulders in this life, waiting for the next hit.”

I frown sympathetically. “I haven’t stopped looking over my shoulder since my father was murdered.”

“That must have been hard.”

“It was awful,” I whisper. My head plops back. “It was a nightmare.”

She sighs and looks out the window. She seems a little lost in her head. “And we never get the opportunity to wake up.”

“Unless we die.”

She laughs. “Yeah, that’s pretty spot on.”

I shudder. “It’s dark.”

“But true.”

I study her smooth features, her high cheekbones, her piercing eyes and raven hair. She’s utterly gorgeous up close, especially when she grins. I can see why my brother fell for her.

And she’s simple. She’s a criminal by proxy, sure, but she doesn’t make a fuss about it. She simply does what she needs to do.

Like me.

We have a lot more in common than I anticipated.

“What do you do about the guilt?” I dare to ask. “How do you handle mistakes?”

“I live with them.”

I shake my head. “That’s it?”

“Sometimes it’s that simple.”

“It doesn’t feel that simple.”

She looks curious. “What’s making you feel guilty?”

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