Page 191 of Cashmere Ruin
“They didn’t,” she quickly reassures me. “Well, except give me a nasty bump to the head. But that just makes us twinsies, right?”
How can she crack jokes at a time like this?Any other civilian would be screaming their head off in this situation. Taken by the mafiaandthe Bratva? Even on the best of days, that’s not something ordinary people can handle. It’s just not.
But April’s always been different: a soldier in everything but name. A fighter. And today, we’re going to need that more than ever.
I pull her into my arms. Once we’re close enough, I whisper in her ear, “Guards?”
“Two,” April murmurs back. “Both at the entrance of the tunnel.”
Hm. That’s fewer than I expected. Guess Carmine’s feeling a little too confident, then. “May?”
“Carmine has her,” she rasps. “We can’t fail, Matvey. If we do…”
There’s no telling what he’ll do to her.
“I know.”
It’s taking everything I have to keep my boiling blood at bay. The old me would’ve started pounding the bars the second he woke up, barking threats for everyone to hear. He would’ve yanked the fucking things off their hinges, then gotten shot for his trouble.
Or maybe he’d have died surrounded by Vlad’s men, with no one to take his side.
But now, after everything that’s happened… I finally understand.
What it trulymeans to be a leader.
Until now, I thought going it alone was the only way. Getting angry, getting even: that was my creed. Aspakhanand as a man.
But that’s not it. “Angry” doesn’t equal “right”; “alone” doesn’t equal “strong.” That recipe for misery and an untimely death—I’m done following its instructions. I’m done fighting for the sake of fighting.
Now, I finally have something worth fighting for.Someoneworth fighting for. Someone who will fight with me, for me, in return.
My family.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s make a plan.”
A grin blooms on April’s face. “Yes,pakhan.”
“Look at you. You finally learned how to say it.”
She flips her hair, preening at the praise. “Of course I did. I’m your future piranha.”
“Pakhansha.”
“Details.”
God, I love her.It’s absurd how often the thought keeps blindsiding me. In the smallest of things, the most insignificant moments:I love her. I never want to let her go.
Once this nightmare is over, I’m putting a ring on her finger. I don’t care if I have to drag her to the courthouse in her pajamas—I’m not waiting a fucking month. I’m not waiting another minute.
But first, we have to get out of here.
“We need to do something about the cuffs.”
“I might have a solution to that,” April murmurs. “But we’ll need a distraction.”
“Excuse me?” Petra interjects, irritated. “Care to loop me in?”
We both turn to look at her at the same time. I’m no psychic. I don’t even believe that shit. But when I lock eyes with April again, I can practically see her thoughts.