Chapter 12
Sasha
“How the fuck do you do that?!” Kamal growled as Roman sent him crashing to the mat once again before bouncing on his feet, shadowboxing in the air. “I’m a machine, man! A real fucking machine!” my brother bragged with a cocky grin as Kamal got back up, his gaze dark.
“Not bad, your brother,” Ashwin commented, nodding as he followed the two young men with his eyes while Roman demonstrated a move to Kamal.
I had decided to bring Roman to the training session Kenji had invited me to the week before, at the wedding.
We wouldn’t be too many to try to understand the bond between Sienna and the Indians.
They had given us a meeting point in a gym located in one of the neighborhoods they controlled.
Yes, the Bratva handled exchanges across the state of California, but within cities, certain areas were reserved for specific organizations.
Indians, Chinese, even Italians as long as they respected the rules.
We couldn’t simply ban them from our territory, and their presence reassured our partners with whom we did business.
“Couldn’t expect less from the Karatel,” Kenji grunted as he set the bar down, finishing his set.
“Yeah, definitely not someone I’d want to run into in a dark alley,” Ashwin added, handing him a towel as I watched him impassively.
“No need to worry as long as you don’t do anything fucked up to the Bratva,” I said, tightening my boxing gloves after taking off my sports jacket, leaving me in a white shirt and gray joggers.
My gaze never left his, an open challenge.
There was rage inside me. A rage that kept consuming me more and more since Sienna had been attacked.
Since she’d almost been shot. Since she’d nearly died.
Again. While she was supposed to be with them.
While she was supposed to be protected by them.
I heard my brother and Kamal stop training when they sensed the sudden tension.
I didn’t move, facing Ashwin. We were almost the same height, he had two or three centimeters on me, but we were built about the same.
I had no doubt I could take him down quickly.
He raised an eyebrow, scanning me from head to toe, probably having the same thoughts I was, before turning to Kenji.
“She’s usually so perceptive, but this time…
I really don’t see what she finds in him,” he finally said, crossing his arms over his chest. Roman burst out laughing behind me while I clenched my jaw.
I took a step toward Ashwin, fastening my glove, but Kenji stood up and positioned himself between us.
“He’s not that bad,” he muttered. “You just have to tolerate him long enough to get to know him.” Then he grabbed a pair of gloves and motioned for me to follow him toward the ring.
I shot Ashwin one last dark look as he stared back at me with a crooked smile.
Was Ganesh the one who taught them all to act so arrogantly?
“Any news from the Italians?” Kenji asked as he held the ropes open for me to step into the ring.
“They have nothing to do with this. Alia Rasili acted alone,” I replied, relying on Lorenzo’s intel but Kenji raised an eyebrow.
“What?” I snapped, raising my guard. “Nothing. I just don’t see her acting alone,” he said, throwing the first punch, which I easily dodged before answering with an uppercut of my own.
We started by measuring each other, identifying strengths and weaknesses.
“Someone helped her. Probably,” he said, dodging another of my punches.
“Someone from your side,” he added darkly, clipping my chin.
I growled, my anger rising. I ducked to avoid his second hit, then struck back without holding back, landing on his jaw and forcing him to step back.
“And I think the opposite,” I hissed, retreating, “I think it’s someone from your side,” I snapped, throwing another punch that caught him on the cheekbone.
“Who else was supposed to protect her?” I continued as he didn’t react, just staring at me without blinking.
“Where the fuck were you?!” I finally exploded, the image of Sienna facing a gun flooding my mind, the thought that she could have been hurt, or worse, dead, driving me insane.
Blinded by rage, I didn’t see his left. It connected hard with my cheek, snapping my head to the side and making me stagger.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my brother and the others move closer to the ring.
My gaze met Roman’s, dark. But I knew he wouldn’t intervene, even if I ended up bleeding. For my honor above all. And because he wouldn’t have wanted me to step in if the roles were reversed. “That’s your fucking problem, Ivanov!” Kenji suddenly snapped, now angry.
“You forget who Sienna is. She’s not like her sister, or like Elif Ivanov, or any other woman you’ve known!
” his jaw was tight as I straightened against the ropes.
“She’s not a bird you can lock in a cage, or a flower you plant in your garden just to admire every day,” his voice thundered.
“Sienna is a storm, Sasha, untamable and powerful. She’s not a flower, she’s an oak.
Her roots are anchored deep in the ground so her branches and leaves can survive. ”
He was out of breath, his eyes burning with frustration as if I were an idiot incapable of understanding. “If Sienna doesn’t want me to follow her, I won’t be able to, even if I want to. If Sienna doesn’t want to follow the rules, she won’t. No matter what anyone tells her.”
He took a step toward me. “And never make the mistake of underestimating her, Ivanov. The two of us together will never match her clarity or her intelligence.” He sounded so certain.
So damn certain that the same feeling hit me again, the feeling of not knowing Sienna well enough, of not truly understanding what she was capable of.
My gaze drifted to his scar as Sienna’s words from the night before echoed in my mind.
I imagined her face marked by that deep scar, and nausea rose in my throat.
The man standing in front of me had protected Sienna for eight years.
Eight years that had been a living nightmare.
The pain I had seen in Sienna’s eyes was more than enough to know it had been hell and that I knew nothing about it.
I saw my own thoughts reflected in Kenji’s gaze.
He knew exactly what I was thinking. He knew I didn’t have all the pieces and he sighed, shaking his head when I took a step toward him.
I needed him to tell me what I didn’t know.
I needed him to tell me everything about her.
But he wouldn’t. Because no matter how much it infuriated me, he was still Sienna’s confidant. And now, I understood that. So I didn’t insist. I swallowed my anger for the umpteenth time, wiped my chin, and motioned for Kenji to continue the fight.
—
The next day, I came home at noon, something that hadn’t happened in almost a week and the first thing my eyes searched for as I stepped into the living room was her. She wasn’t there.
I clenched my fists, ready to head upstairs toward her bedroom, if she had slipped away again, my promise to Nikolai could go straight to hell.
But I didn’t even have time to take a step before I found myself face-to-face with Elif, who was watching me with raised eyebrows.
“You look you’re in a hurry,” she remarked, crossing her arms after flipping her long dark hair over her shoulder. Shit.
I said nothing, just stared at her. Our silent stare-down didn’t last long, she sighed.
“She’s in the pool,” she said, pointing toward the terrace and I swallowed.
In the pool? I quickly moved past my sister-in-law, who was muttering something about kids growing up too fast, but I didn’t pay attention because what I saw through the glass doors stopped me cold.
She was there, in the clear water, her skin shimmering with droplets that caught the late sunlight.
Her hair was tied up in a messy bun on top of her head, exposing the long, delicate line of her neck, the red string of her swimsuit resting against it.
I swallowed again, my gaze slid along her body beneath the water. Fucking self-control.
My eyes stopped on the scar on her side, the one I had kissed, the one I had caressed, even though she had never wanted to tell me how she got it.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew what a knife scar looked like, I had a few of my own.
She had been stabbed, where had she been for the past eight years?
What had she lived through? How much had she suffered?
Alone? Kenji’s scarred face flashed through my mind, and I clenched my jaw.
“Are you gonna to kiss her or strangle her? You’re making one hell of a face”.
Roman’s voice suddenly sounded behind me.
I closed my eyes as a flood of insults rose in my throat then froze when I saw him shirtless, wearing swim trunks.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, a doubt I desperately hoped was just that creeping into my thoughts.
“Nothing. I just came out of a meeting with Grigori and Niko about the Italians,” he explained, draping a towel around his neck.
“They’re waiting for you, actually. You should join them.
” He reached for the sliding door handle, but I grabbed his wrist sharply.
“What the hell are you doing?” I repeated, darker this time and he frowned, confused then his gaze slid toward Sienna, who was approaching the pool’s edge.
My brother’s mischievous look returned as his lips curved into a slow smile.
“Moy brat,” he said, placing his hand over mine, still gripping his wrist. “Patience is a virtue” he nodded, twisted his wrist free, and shoved me lightly against the wall with his shoulder.
Then he slid the door open and ran toward the pool, diving in before I could stop him.