Fuck me. That was not how that was supposed to go.
Chapter 14
Emma
I couldn’t breathe.
My chest heaved with exertion, but I couldn’t catch my breath, gasping for air.
“Breathe, Emma, just take small breaths.”
I looked up to find Irina staring at me, fear and sadness radiating from her. “There, that’s better. You are fine. You got it.”
The breathing became easier and I shuddered, my body cold. This had to be a dream.
This could not be happening.
Artem had not just killed my brother, my innocent brother at that. Suddenly I felt sick to my stomach, my mind replaying the sight of the bullet entering Harvey’s brain and him hitting the concrete, no longer the laughing brother I had grown up with but a cold corpse that would never see a future. He would never get married or have children that I could spoil. He would never have the career he had been working so hard for.
He had just ceased to exist.
Tears pricked my vision and I let them fall, wishing I were anywhere but in this car right now. Artem had broken his promise. Artem had hurt me like I had never been hurt before, and what he had done was unforgivable.
I would never forgive him. There was no amount of love that could wipe away the fact that he had killed my brother.
Irina’s arm slipped around my shoulders and she pulled me close, rubbing my shoulder lightly. “I’m so sorry.”
I leaned against her, glad that Artem and Anatoly had stepped out of the car once we were in the clear to discuss what had happened. I wanted to kill my husband for dragging my brother into this and then becoming his killer when he had done nothing wrong.
I wanted to kill myself so that I could join him, to ease this all-consuming pain that wracked my body, the numbness a welcome friend. “Why?” I forced out. “Why would he hurt me like this?”
“I don’t know,” she responded sadly, pressing her head against mine. “I really don’t know. I wish I hadn’t left Alaska when I did. I could have avoided being taken.”
The pain in her voice didn’t make me feel any better. This wasn’t Irina’s fault at all. She had moved on so Artem and I could have a life together.
Now that life wouldn’t even exist. I could have no love for the man who had taken my brother away from me when he could have saved him instead. Artem had involved Harvey, not the other way around.
A gasping sob cut through me and I let it, causing Irina to cluck and hold me tighter. My brother, my rock, was gone. The last conversation I had with him was me telling him that I was in love with Artem, the very man who had killed him today.
I was going to be sick.
Blindly reaching for the car door, I wrenched it open and tore out of it, not heeding the calls that followed as I heaved up the little bit I had eaten in the last twenty-four hours before falling to my knees. A hand touched my back and I looked up, finding Artem’s stone-cold expression rising above me. In a flash I was all over him, beating him with my fists and not caring if I drew blood. “You killed him!” I shouted, my fist colliding with his strong jaw, pain exploding in my knuckles. “You killed my brother! You are nothing but a monster!”
Artem didn’t even try to stop me as I railed on him, my fists finding and punishing his body. Anger drove me and I wanted to feel him bleed, to hurt as much as I was right now.
Finally, someone wrapped their arm around my waist and pulled me away. “Enough,” Anatoly growled, backing us away from Artem. “Stop it, Emma. This isn’t helping.”
I fought against his hold, but he didn’t relent, not until we were around the building, away from the alley we had pulled into. Only then did he let me go, putting himself between me and Artem’s location. “Stop,” he said gently, grabbing my wrists as I tried to hit him. “Emma, get a grip on yourself.”
I wrestled away from him. “Don’t you dare tell me that! He killed my brother in cold blood! He didn’t have to, but he did, and he deserves to die!” I wasn’t going to be happy until Artem was dead, no longer caring that he had just ripped out my heart in more ways than one.
I couldn’t move past this. I didn’t want to move past this.
Anatoly’s hooded gaze didn’t give away anything related to what he thought about Artem’s actions, but he had to see that his boss had just killed an innocent man. I knew that Artem was dangerous, but I had begged him not to harm my family.
He hadn’t even listened to his own wife. “Emma, you need to come back to the car,” he finally said, blowing out a long breath. “I know this doesn’t make any sense, but Artem, he never does anything without a good reason.”
There was no good reason for him killing my brother.
Just then, my husband came around the corner, and I pushed past Anatoly before he had a chance to react, balling up my fist and hitting Artem square in the eye. “You are so lucky I do not have a gun in my hand,” I seethed as Artem just stared at me. “Because I would kill you.”
He growled and grabbed my arm, pulling me close to him. “I will let you have that hit,” he said softly. “Because I fucking deserve it and more. Come, wife, it’s time for us to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I sobbed, trying to break the hold he had on my arm. “Especially not with you.”
Artem didn’t respond and I was helpless to fight him, allowing him to drag me back to the car and usher me in. Irina met my eyes and I saw the empathy, really not wanting to have her feel sorry for me. I hated myself for thinking that I could have changed my husband, that he was capable of love. I had put my faith in the wrong man and now my heart was crushed because I thought he loved me.
Artem slid in beside me and I turned my head away from him, crossing my arms over my chest. I wanted to be far away from him, but it seemed that he wasn’t about to let me out of his sight. “I want to go home,” I told him as the car started moving. “We aren’t far from my apartment. Just let me go home to grieve.”
“You will go to my penthouse,” Artem growled.
“No,” I bit out as Anatoly and Irina watched our exchange. “I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”
“Emma, please,” Irina finally said, laying a hand on mine. “Let’s go to Artem’s. If he won’t let you go anywhere else, I will take you there myself. I promise.”
“Your father is still out there,” Anatoly added. “He could be looking to take you and goad Artem into coming out in the open. It’s not safe.”
I laughed harshly. “Safe?” I looked at my husband, who was watching me with those hard eyes of his. “I’m not safe with you or anyone else!”