That was all it took.
Just the mention of the last name that would be mine tomorrow for me to feel like I was splintering into a million pieces.
The relief was insane. The O’Donnellys, the Irish, were no safe haven. They were, if anything, a den of vipers that could bite me and poison me the first chance they got, but they’d protected Inessa. They’d welcomed her into their fold.
I had to pray that they’d do the same for me.
Even if they couldn’t forgive me for not being the virginal bride they might have wanted for their son, their bitter dislike of me was better than the toxic shelter of this house.
“She’ll have access to a car. You can make your own arrangements where you want to pick her up.”
Maxim moved toward me, and I tensed up, unsure if he was going to stick to his words—a backstabber could never be trusted, even if that backstabbing was in my favor—and I watched as he arched a brow, a sneer on his lips as our eyes clashed and held before he strode past me and moved toward the wall.
At first, I wondered what he was doing, then, I watched as he tucked the cellphone into his throat, clutching at it with his shoulder as he drew a pen from his pocket and began digging through the drywall to snag the bullet.
He was lucky that Svetlana’s taste was worse than my mother’s. This room had been painted a pale wintry peach, one that was barely ripened, in her time. Now? It was a sea of busy floral patterns. The one that held the bullet was a mass of black with vibrant pink roses that, oddly enough, matched the godawful Barbie furniture, but hid the bullet hole.
“Victoria is at a friend’s house. It was pre-arranged. I can bring her tomorrow.” He shrugged. “Well, whatever. I can give you the directions. I’ll expect you to uphold your promise where that’s concerned as well.”
What promise?
Where what was concerned?
After he pried out the bullet, I watched him toss it on his palm a second. Tiny dust particles bobbed and swayed here and there with it, hovering in mid-flight before cascading down, thanks to gravity.
It felt like time had been freeze-framed as the bullet danced in the air, and then it restarted with a screech as he finally put the phone down and murmured, “We have to get you out of here.”
My mouth felt thick as I rasped, “You’re working for the Irish?”
Maxim’s brow puckered. “What made you think that?”
Did he think I was stupid? “You just got off the phone with one of the Pointers.”
“I did. But that was different. That was for you.” He pursed his lips.
I had no idea what was happening here, no idea whatsoever but the one thing I did know? He was lying.
But what the hell could I say when he was obviously helping me?
I had no loyalties to the Bratva. The Brotherhood had kept me fed and clothed for the largest chunk of my life but that didn’t mean that I owed it anything.
If the wedding still went ahead tomorrow, I’d switch allegiances in a flash.
Which, I supposed, didn’t make me sound very loyal, but loyalty wasn’t something you could buy or intimidate out of another person. It had to be earned.
But the sheer fact that he was going to protect me, simply because of a promise he’d made my mother, Brennan O’Donnelly had already shown more integrity than my father ever had.
Which meant whatever he wanted from me, whatever he needed, I’d do it.
My heart ceased to race now I knew that, as untrustworthy as he clearly was, Maxim was going to help me escape.
Sharing a fate like Svetlana’s wouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, but Maxim evidently had other plans.
My bottom lip trembled a second before I firmed it, then toughened up.
I wasn’t alone anymore.
I was going to be an O’Donnelly, and between my leaving Brennan and now, he’d obviously concocted some kind of deal with Maxim. A deal that had been enough to turn him, one of my father’s most trustedboyeviks.