Page 41 of Paved in Hate

He gives a soft laugh and gestures to his face, circling his finger around. “You two have got a little something,” he pauses and laughs again, “everywhere.”

Before I can even try and wipe my face clean, he’s pulled his phone out and snapped a picture, then he smiles at Vitaly again and says, “Payback.”

“For what?” Vitaly asks, trying to look pissed but just laughing as he tries to wipe the paint off his face.

“For so many fucking things,” Lev says, laughing as he walks away. Before he disappears down the hall, he calls over his shoulder, “I’ve already posted the photo to our group chat, by the way.”

“Such an ass,” Vitaly mutters, running his finger over my cheek. “I’ve tried to tell him the metal from his piercings are fucking with his brain, but he won’t listen. I think they make him irritable.”

“He seemed pretty happy to me,” I say, not buying for one second that Vitaly’s actually upset. He’s too busy trying not to laugh to be mad at his brother.

“That’s Jolene’s doing. He was a real grump before he met her.”

“How’d they meet?”

“Lev’s an underground fighter, and Jolene is the sister of one of the guys he used to fight.”

“He doesn’t fight him anymore?” Before he can answer, I say, “I mean, I guess it would be weird for him to fight his brother-in-law.”

Vitaly laughs. “No, he doesn’t fight him anymore because Lev killed him. He was a real ass and he hurt Jolene. Lev wasn’t about to let that slide, so he challenged him to a fight to the death.” Vitaly raises an eyebrow at me. “Your brothers made a ton of money off that fight. I’m surprised they didn’t tell you about it.”

“My brothers never tell me anything about their work. The night you came over for supper when he told you about our wedding, I was locked upstairs in my room. He wouldn’t even let me come down to see who I’d be marrying. Everything my brothers do serves a purpose, and that purpose is always to help them in some way.”

“That almost sounds like a warning,” he says, watching me.

“It’s just the truth.”

Deciding to not push me for more information, he leads me out into the kitchen so I can get some lunch. I try not to get my hopes up. I try not to depend on the view of Vitaly that’s forming in my head, the one where he’s sweet and kind and funny, because I know better than this. I’m not an idiot. I know the men who inhabit this world, and they aren’t good, they aren’t nice, and they sure as fuck don’t treat their women this goddamn nice. Despite all the ways I try to talk sense into myself, I find myself falling quickly for the gorgeous Russian with the whiskey-brown eyes that make my heart speed up every time I look at him.

I almost start to believe the fantasy, but then reality sets in when later that night he tells me that he needs to go check on a few things at the club. I’m not thrilled about it, but it’s not like I can tell him he can’t go into work. When I fall asleep trying to wait up for him and then wake up to an empty bed, I start to worry. When I go into the bathroom and find his toothbrush wet and water droplets still on the shower tiles, I start to get pissed. He avoids me for three goddamn days. His brothers try and make excuses for him, but I can tell they’re lying. He just doesn’t want to be here. He doesn’t want to be around me. I spend every waking moment working on the nursery walls, but by the end of the third day, I’m on my last nerve.

Fuck this.

Taking one last look at the wall that I’ve just finished, I grab my supplies and head up to the bedroom that now feels like just mine. It’s late and everyone else has already gone to their rooms for the night. I have other plans, though. After a quick shower, I slip into a pink dress and grab a cream, form-fitting sweater to go with it since it’s gotten pretty damn cold outside. Ignoring how sore my feet still are, I slip into a pair of heels that make my legs look longer and slimmer. I keep my hair down like Vitaly seems to like and do my makeup a little heavier than I normally would. If I’m going to head into Pink, I at least need to look the part.

When I study myself in the mirror, I turn around and groan when I see the panty lines. Most of these dresses I just wore around the house by myself, so I sure as hell didn’t care about panty lines showing, but I can’t go out like this, and I don’t have anything else to change into, so after a few seconds of debating, I slip my panties off and toss them on the bathroom counter.

Problem solved.

Being careful to not make any noise, I creep down the stairs, hoping like hell no one decides to get a late-night snack in the next five minutes. I saw Vitaly use a keycard when he first brought me here, but I’ve been watching, and you don’t need a keycard to use the elevator from up here. Holding my breath, I push the button, cringing at the dinging noise it makes when the doors slide open. I hop on and push the button repeatedly, trying to get the doors to close as fast as possible. I don’t let out the breath I’ve been holding until the doors shut and I feel the elevator start to descend.

I try not to get too excited. I still have a long way to go, but when I reach the parking garage and no one is waiting for me, I hightail my ass across the cement, ignoring the sharp stabs of pain in my feet as I race for the sidewalk out front. Raising my hand, I hail the first cab I see and slip inside.

“Take me to Pink, please.”

If the driver seems surprised that I’m asking him to take me to a strip club, he doesn’t let on. He just nods and eases back into the late-night traffic. I relax against the seat as much as I can, but my nerves are frayed and my fingers are shaking. I don’t know what I’m going to do once I find Vitaly, and it only just now occurs to me that I might be walking into something that I very much do not want to see. He’s surrounded by beautiful, half-naked women every second he’s at this club, and we haven’t been having sex. He doesn’t love me, and there’s no reason to believe that he’s being faithful to me. Hell, in this world, it’s expected that he won’t be. It’s expected that he’ll have tons of women on the side, but the very thought of him being with another woman makes me feel like I can’t breathe. I’m just about to tell the cab driver to turn around, that I’ve changed my damn mind and I’d rather not know, but he’s pulling into the parking lot, and it’s too late to turn back.

Time to find out what my husband’s been up to.

Chapter8

Vitaly

I’m still gripping my phone tightly after reading Matvey’s text.

Your girl left. She got in a cab, but I’m following her.

I jerk my suit jacket off and roll up the sleeves of my white shirt before unbuttoning the top buttons so I can get some fucking air into my lungs. Several minutes later when I still feel like I can’t breathe, he sends a new text, one I wasn’t expecting.

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