At least Artem had not tried to hide the fact that he had taken lives. While he was a killer and someone I should cringe from, he had not tried to be anyone else. In fact, if I thought back to the night he had taken Yuri’s life, I would have seen that in him.
But his honesty, his rawness, was what made it easier to swallow. I was married to a dangerous man, yes, but he wasn’t hiding his faults.
My father had tried to hide his secrets, his past, and build a new life so that no one would know what he had done. He had tried to keep it from everyone, including the one man that he should have appealed to and begged forgiveness from. I was willing to wager that not once had my father thought about telling Artem that he had been in the wrong.
Wiping the tears from my face, I sat up on the side of the bed, my heart heavy. I would have to tell Artem that I had been wrong about my father. Once his staunch supporter, I was now a heartbroken daughter who hadn’t known her parent at all. I felt for my mother, my brother, and the shit Harvey was having to deal with.
I hated my dad. I hated the man who had raised me, the man who had taught me right from wrong but hadn’t held his own words to himself. He had built his life on lies and was dragging his family down with him.
It was sickening to think what he had done, but much more that I had believed that he couldn’t do the things he had been accused of in the beginning.
Chapter 9
Artem
I sat before the fire, a glass in my hand as I waited for Emma to join me. Today had been difficult in terms of work, a shitty day, full of issues and demands. Normally I would turn some of them over to Anatoly, but since he was keeping Gertie safe, I couldn’t rely on him.
Truthfully, I wanted to kill them all. That wouldn’t bode well with my wife, but hell, some days it wasn’t worth it.
The door opened, and Emma appeared near the other chair, a tentative smile on her face. “Can I have one of those?”
“Sure,” I told her, reaching over and pouring a glass of the vodka before handing it to her. “Be careful. It’s stronger than the usual stuff they sell in the stores.”
She settled into the chair, taking a sip before grimacing. “Good God, how do you drink it?”
Grinning, I took a swallow. “Like that.”
Emma rolled her eyes and I felt a lightness in my chest, one that had not been there all day. Even though I knew she was only a few doors down, I had missed her. “How was your day?”
Her smile faded and she looked down at her glass. “I talked with my brother today.”
I sat up a little straighter, steeling myself against what she might say. I knew she would call her family. Hell, I couldn’t blame her. I had to give her the space to do so, the confidence that at the end of the day, she saw that it was better for her to stay with me than to go back to her asshole father.
But if she decided to, well, I would get shitfaced drunk, first of all. “And?”
“It’s not good,” she replied. “Harvey says that my dad is in a lot of financial trouble. He’s been doing something illegally, and the feds are investigating him.”
Well, hell. While I wanted to smile and raise my glass at the karma my enemy was dealing with, it affected my wife, and I didn’t like to see her like this. “What do you need?”
She looked up, surprised. “What?”
“What do you need?” I repeated. I had some lawyers on retainer and a private jet waiting at the airport. I didn’t want to think about her using any of it, but she was my wife, and if she needed to be with her family, then I would let her.
“Artem,” she breathed. “You would let me go?”
Fuck, no, I didn’t want to. “Yeah,” I forced out. “I would do anything to make you happy.”
She stared at me for the longest time before shaking her head. “Just when I think I have you all figured out, you surprise me once again.” Running a hand through her hair, she sighed. “There’s more. There’s a rumor that my father killed two people years ago. I think those were your parents, Artem, and I don’t know how you can’t hate me for what he did.”
I shifted in my chair. “I don’t hate you. I hate your father. He took my family from me, Em. It’s hard not to hate him.” She was an innocent in all this, and while my revenge at first hadn’t cared that she had nothing to do with it, now I knew that a good person like her couldn’t have approved of her father killing my parents. She hadn’t known what he had done, and now that his shit was unraveling, she was seeing the man I had thought her father was all along.
“I know,” she said softly.
I took another swallow of my drink before putting it aside and standing. “Come,” I told her, holding out my hand.
She set her drink aside and took my hand, allowing me to draw her out of the chair and lead her to the bed. “Get in,” I told her softly.
Emma did as I asked, and I climbed in after her, wrapping her against me. She melted against my body, and I sighed, resting my chin on the top of her head. “I’ve decided,” she said after a moment, causing me to freeze. “I’ve decided to stay.”
Thank God. “Are you sure?” I asked roughly, my voice full of emotion.
Her hand caressed my abdomen. “Yes, I’m sure. I can’t promise that it’s going to be a smooth ride, Artem, but I can’t imagine leaving here, leaving you, right now.”
That was enough for me. “You’ve made me happy, Emma.”
“You make me happy,” she whispered. “I’ve tried to fight it, but I’m tired of doing so. This is the only real thing I know right now.”
I pressed a kiss into her hair, half wanting to tear her clothes off her and show her how much I cared about her.
The other part of me wanted to not wake up from this dream, to not feel how my life would be if Emma wasn’t in it. “I want to tell you a story,” I finally said, figuring it was time. She was staying. She was going to give us a shot.
Well, she deserved to hear who her husband was. “Promise me you will tell me what you think at the end.”
“I will,” she answered, pressing her cheek to my chest.
I grasped her hand in mine and held it on my chest, right above my heart. How the hell did I get this lucky? “I told you, I’m a powerful man. What I didn’t tell you was that my father was a Russian boss. He was head of one section of the Russian Mafia.”
She sucked in a breath, but I went on. “He was what you would call a boss. People both feared and respected him. My mother, she was his wife and the love of his life. Doms are known to have a wandering eye, but I don’t think my father ever strayed from her. He told me she was his strength and was what made him who he was.”