“The only people I need to know in this city are the ones who run it.” I walked to Bastian and Rome’s side. I stood tall between my men, where I belonged. “The Armanellis don’t care who you are.”
“Oh, they do,” said the snake. “And you should too, Katalina. Your blood, their blood? You bleed, they bleed? They family?”
It was like he’d seen through all my layers, straight to our weakness. I glanced at Rome and he nodded slow as he searched my eyes. My heart squeezed because I wasn’t sure if he was saying I belonged with the family or just him. I just knew he wanted me to understand I meant something in that moment.
He meant something to me too.
Maybe all it takes is a look, just a feeling exchanged between two people to know that their story isn’t finished, that there’s hope.
I whipped my gaze back to Dimitri, ready to tear down whoever threatened our future. I took a step toward him, but Rome grabbed my arm. “Yes, my family bleeds for me and I for them.”
Dimitri’s mouth stretched slowly across his face to reveal his teeth. They were white, straight, and the fangs pointed a bit farther than most. “Remember those words. When I see you next, I’m going to enjoy reminding you.”
He motioned to Georgie, and they disappeared back into the party.
I waited for Rome or Bastian to give me the lowdown, to tell me what I already knew. When neither of them spoke, I glanced at them. “Russian bratvaPakhan? He the boss now?”
“Technically, his father still runs the bratva, but it will be passed down to him soon enough. He’s the heir, the one everyone listens to out of fear,” Bastian said.
“So?” I waited. “Why are we tiptoeing?”
Bastian sighed. “As you know, we think they’re working with the government. We didn’t get—”
“I got the information we needed.” I held up my phone and let the two minutes of recording go. It had caught some of my muffled gasps. I saw Bastian’s jaw tick and Rome’s back stiffen, but I waved at them both. “I’m fine.”
Bastian nodded, and as the recording ended, one side of his mouth kicked up. “You didn’t listen to me about staying by my side at all, but you got what we came for.”
“I’m fully capable of always getting what I came for,” I murmured, handing the phone over. Then I pulled the other phone from beneath my dress. “Got his phone too.”
He shook his head, pocketed it, and pulled me close to murmur into my neck, “You’re brilliant, woman.”
I let Bastian’s mouth brush over the soft skin in the crevice of my neck as I glanced at Rome. My body yearned for him while my mind reminded me that we weren’t on the same page.
Bastian pulled back and turned his head toward Rome and then me. “If either of you have something to say to one another, you should do it now before we go back inside.”
Rome still held his chain in his hand. He fisted it. “You can’t keep letting people run astray under your rule, Bastian. Katie didn’t listen tonight.”
“But the night was still a success.”
“One night it won’t be,” Rome shot back. “Then what?”
“Give me a break,” I let out under my breath. He was pushing us both because he wanted something to be pissed about, not because the original plan didn’t pan out.
“Give you a break?” The menacing rumble in his voice sent shivers up my arms. “What about a break for me? I told you not to wear that dress. We told you to stay next to Bastian’s side. You never, ever listen. Now, not only was George looking at you, Dimitri was too. The future bratva boss. You need his attention too?”
I stepped away from Bastian and Rome. I stepped into the moonlight, let the wind brush over my bare shoulders and flutter the feathers at my sweetheart neckline. “I did whatever I had to do. We needed that intel.”
“And we were going to get it without throwing you in the line of fire!” Rome bellowed.
“I’m as involved as you, Rome. I’m not just the arm candy. This was easy because I helped make it that way. This is for the family. Isn’t that what we do, everything for the family?”
He glared at me, eyes licking with fury. “I do that. Not you! My life is for their protection, not yours.”
And maybe that’s why, at the very end of the day, I did it. I wanted him to understand that if that’s what he lived for, that’s what I would live for too. “Without me and you, without the relationship between us, that’s what I live for too. I don’t have any other ties. I get that or I get my dream. At least with that, I’ll have something to be proud of, huh?”
“Your dream?” he whispered and then he shut his eyes tight because he knew that dream was me with Bastian, trying to change the bad in the world, trying to be at the top of the family to pull strings for little girls all over, for better lives for everyone everywhere.
Rome stalked past Bastian, setting his chain down on a table, and then he was right next to me. His body shoved mine, and I stumbled backwards into the cement railing. “You don’t need a dream; you don’t need to be proud. You should be already . . . don’t you see you’ve changed us all already?”