Page 6 of The Broken Promises

Sasha

"Where have you been?" Dmitri kisses me, and I reply with a forced smile. "If you have changed your mind, we can just leave."

I look around for Gabriel and find him still staring at me. He sees the Sasha in me, and it's scaring me. But my muscles and nerves still tremble after feeling his body. Worse, the sensation isn't fear but longing. Did he feel the hard thumps of my heart? Did my heartbeat give away my cover? Does Gabriel know I'm Sasha? And it's only now that fear comes to me. What will he do if he finds out the truth about me?

I look at Dmitri. Will he still choose to protect me when Gabriel manipulates the Bratva to kill me?

“Sasha,” I flinch when Dmitri calls me. He frowns and changes it to “Sicily.”

“No. I can do this. Where do we do it?” I say while tangling my limbs around Dmitri and kissing him torridly – hoping Gabriel can see it.

“This place has a perfect room for us,” Dmitri says while leading me to a room. Katya, the other woman who’ll join us, follows behind me.

"Better be good, baby girl," Katya whispers when she comes too close. "I always end up getting them in the end."

I pull Dmitri to stop him; Katya's threat has shaken me. Katya moves past us. She brushes her palm on Dmitri's chest and winks at me. I wish to go home, but when I turn my head to another side, I see Gabriel watching me with suspicion. Running away or showing hesitation is Sasha's reaction. I'm not supposed to be her tonight. I have to be Sicily.

I close my eyes to gather all the energy that fuels my actions. Dmitri caresses my arms to calm me. I open my eyes and look straight into his eyes. Dmitri may not have the whole of my heart since Gabriel still holds parts of it, but I must do it.

Papa. He's the only man on my side. He told me to choose safety regardless of what it takes. I can't let two men decide my fate. I may be in love with both, but they can kill me, too.

“Let’s stop,” Dmitri declares.

I shake my head and kiss him.Safe.If I must be Sicily to do the one thing my father wanted me to do, I can be her forever. "I'm not gonna back down," I say while acting playful. "I'll prove to Katya that you'll always choose me over everyone."

Dmitri smiles and kisses me lovingly – once again shaking my resolution. I step away from him and point to Katya, who's waiting at a door.I’m Sicily.Sasha is in love with Dmitri and Gabriel. Sicily isn’t and will never be.

I keep my distance from Dmitri as we walk closer to the room. Every time he touches and assures me that he'll still be mine after this night, the naïve Sasha becomes excited.I’m Sicily.The chant doesn’t work well against his touch.

The door opens, and Dmitri ushers me inside. He obviously has been in this room many times. My heart stops when I see similar things in Gabriel's mirrored room. I close my eyes when I see a cot with chains. It is the same as the bed where Gabriel forced me to submit and where those men must have….

“Sicily, are you okay?” Dmitri asks.

Determined to prove I'm Sicily, I nod. But I stop hanging on the thread when I see a large mirror on one side of the wall. My whole body trembles. Different images bombard my mind. I could not tell the truth from what's not. But they all show Gabriel having sex with me. Some were when I thought he was in love with me. Some were when he threatened to kill my father if I didn't submit to him. Some are my hallucinations of making love to him when I was drugged.

“Sicily, what is wrong?” Dmitri is panicking. “Let’s get out of here. We’re stopping this right now.”

I want to fight it, but the pressure of fear and hate overwhelms me. I look at Dmitri, hoping his sincere worry will pull me out of the darkness taking over me. But it didn't work. I succumb to the dark and lose myself.

#

Dmitri

I look at Sasha, who sleeps like a terrified kid on the bed. She has returned to sleeping while grasping hard at the blanket. Tears flow in her eyes as if she is inside a deep nightmare she can't escape.This is my fault.I forgot how rough fetishes would affect her, especially after what she went through.

“Is she okay?” Gabriel asks over the phone.

“Yeah. Sicily was just exhausted," I tell Gabriel. I clear my throat and lie, "We had a few rounds before returning to the party. I didn't know she was that exhausted."

Gabriel must be worried because Sasha fainted at his party. But I couldn't tell him the truth about her. I don't believe Gabriel is behind what happened to Sasha and her father, but he must have provided Vitaly with the reason. Xerxes killed his parents; it won't be a surprise if he wanted revenge. I don't know how far that revenge extends. If it reached Sasha, I can't forgive him.

Because it only meant he betrayed me. And I hate being fooled and manipulated. My sister told me I was not fit to head a Bratva group because people could easily spin me around. I hated her comment and worked hard to overcome her perception. I will never allow and forgive anyone who would do that to me.

“Dmitri!” Sasha screams while curling to a sitting position.

"I'm here. I'm here," I say – almost jumping on the bed to be with Sasha.

“I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it,” Sasha cries while hugging me tight. “I don’t want to be Sasha anymore. I just want to be Sicily.”