20. Chapter 20

Dmitri

"She handled that well."

"Khristos, Dmitri," Ivan curses, flinching away from me.

Jade has just walked back into the crowd of students heading to their next stop. My brother chose to stay behind, giving her time to separate herself in case one of her brothers are near. A smart plan since Armani is in his free period currently.

Huffing, he runs a hand through his hair, combing it back. "Can you refrain from jumping off of buildings? You're going to give me a heart attack."

I look up at the roof of the small building and chuckle at his dramatics. It was a ten foot drop, hardly anything to concern himself with.

"How long did it take you to know I was listening?" I ask, genuinely curious.

"I just automatically assume you're lurking whenever she's near," he returns, shaking his head. "Do you even go to class anymore?"

"I'm only in one class."

"I know," he remarks. "I'm still asking."

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. I do attend the pointless class. Luckily, it's only an hour long every other day, so I have plenty of free time.

"Worry about your own studies," I reply, not answering his question.

"The only thing I'm worried about is you scaring her off before she falls for you fully," Ivan claims, rubbing his temples like I'm actively exhausting him. "You're becoming a stalker."

There's no becoming about it. I am one.

Jade consumes nearly every second of my waking thoughts. She's in my dreams and on my mind at a seemingly constant rate. Any second she's out of my sight stresses me out to no end. Bumping into her on the boat was enough to sell me on Jade Moretti.

The once mysterious girl became a full-blown obsession not too soon after she looked up at me with those delicate but fierce blue eyes. I wanted her to be mine, and I made it happen. All I needed was a bit of interest from her, and she more than delivered.

She sought me out and claimed me. Even if she can't claim me to her family and be my wife instantly, she's made her wants explicitly known. I'm her man, and nothing is going to change that. Not if I can help it. I'll have a ring on her finger as soon as I can.

"So you think she's falling for me?" I ask, pleased that he sees the same thing I do. Jade may not be following me all around the academy grounds, but my girl is falling just as fast as I have.

"You just want to hear me say it," he accuses, rolling his eyes.

"What's wrong with that?" I ask. "I care about your opinion."

"Yes, she's falling for you," Ivan relents, "But she won't be much longer if she catches you watching her like a creep."

"I don't know, I think she might like it."

I see the way she blushes when I look at her. It makes me wonder if she'd blush all the time if she knew I was watching.

"Besides," I add, throwing an arm around his shoulder. "There's a reason to be watching her now. Someone wants her married and away from her family. That kind of goal doesn't come without nefarious implications."

Ivan's face tightens. "I know."

"Hey," I say lightly. "It'll all work out. She has us now."

I'm just as upset with this situation, if not more. But Ivan? He wears his heart on his sleeve. I don't mind being the one who talks him down when he's concerned. We need clear heads to perform our best, and Jade deserves nothing but our best.

"Yeah," he agrees, shoulders relaxing. "She's got us."

The sweet angelic sound of her laughter makes my chest radiate with warmth. Jade tosses her head back, clapping her hands together with the most addictive giggles bursting from her lips. Her family's little setup for the night is bringing her an immense amount of joy, and I can't believe I get to witness it.

She and her brothers are all sitting on chairs in a secluded little area on the black sand beach, and a small fire pit lit up with orange flames in the center of their circle.

With the firelight reflecting and flickering all around, I get a decent view of her face, even if some of the details are too far away to make out. Her dark waves of hair are being tied into braids on either side by the youngest of her brothers, Matteo. He keeps teasing her, tickling her neck to egg on her laughing.

"She looks so happy," Ivan comments from my side, mesmerized.

"She looks incredible," I correct.

"You know I don't see her that way," Ivan starts like he even has to remind me. "But yes, she looks beautiful. It's nice to see her content without the weight of a mysterious threat lurking around. She shouldn't have to worry about it."

Agreed. It brings me an immense amount of relief to know that Jade can allow herself to relax and still have fun while she's here. If she were constantly looking over her shoulder, I wouldn't be able to handle it.

My girl should never be scared again.

I know she still has fears, especially about her past. I won't force her to open up sooner than she's ready. But when she does… there's no telling how I'll handle it.

Dark and evil things aren't allowed to plague Jade.

When she lets me, I'll show her just how true that is. I'll systematically destroy any semblance of the people who have wronged her. They'll be dust when I'm done.

A loud crack pops from their fire, and Jade flinches in surprise, causing Matteo to tease her further. I should get him a present in exchange for the constant delivery of her laughter. No sound has ever held me by my balls like this one.

Everything Jade does makes me more and more sure that she's it for me.

"I haven't heard anything about a phone or camera sighting," I inform him, fisting my hands in my pockets. It's infuriating how slow information works at Empire. Rumors spread like wildfire, but information? It may as well be its own commodity.

People hold on to whisperings they think could be beneficial to them later on because they can't be tortured for what they know here. It's exhausting.

"We've got all of our people keeping their eye out, and nothing," I add, shaking my head. There may be ten of us here this year—seven Morozov men and three women—but it's proving to be not enough.

I haven't consulted with allies we have here, though, mostly because trust is more difficult with them. I'd have to be careful about my words, never knowing when a partnership will dissolve. At the end of the day, we're all just people trying to protect our families, and that's more dangerous than any of the training we partake in.

Desperate people will do anything to save themselves, like a cornered dog in a room full of hungry wolves.

"Sofiya has been asking around about Jade," Ivan tells me. "She's being discreet, acting like she's wondering if Jade could be a good friend for her. Since she's so quiet normally, no one has questioned her. No one's had any helpful information, either."

Sofiya is an advisor's daughter. My father selected her father personally for the position over twenty years ago, taking him under his wing. While I have two uncles who are above him in ranks, he's a bit like a third brother to my father now.

His only daughter is a shy little thing, a first-year like Jade, it's smart to have her help. I'm just surprised she volunteered, but maybe I shouldn't be. She's always happy to help, even if she's anxious about it.

"Smart," I comment. "Unfortunate that it doesn't seem to be going anywhere."

Ivan grunts in agreement.

"Are we going to talk about the elephant in the—" He pauses, looking around because we aren't in a room to complete the typical saying. "Forest."

"You had that thought too?" I ask, hoping we're not thinking the same thing.

He nods. "It could be her."

My brother doesn't need to say her name to clarify. We both know he's talking about one of the most vile humans we know.

Nina.

Our biological mother.

Even calling her that in my head fills me with disgust. If I could never think of the fact that she gave birth to me again, I would. Unfortunately, she continues to plague my mind because she still continues to breathe.

Our mother betrayed our family in the worst way possible. She was already a traitor, having stolen money from my father for years. When he found out, he banished her. There's no place for traitors in the Morozov family.

He should have killed her.

If he did, she wouldn't have gotten to Anya.

It's hard not to hold some resentment toward my father because of that, but he blames himself enough as it is. Nina is still on the run, and he's more than tripled his efforts in finding her since. Anya will never be the same, not after what her own mother arranged to have happen to her. There has to be recompense for that.

"If it is, I'll kill her before Dad can," I vow, meaning every word.

Nina is his kill.

She gave him three children, and it meant nothing to her. She broke their vows and hurt his daughter beyond any means of imaginable torture.

But if Nina is coming for Jade, I won't hesitate to put a bullet between her eyes. No retribution is worth risking Jade's safety. Anya will sleep better at night knowing that that woman is in the ground.

"You'll have to pull the trigger faster than me," Ivan states firmly.

The sentiment means a lot, but I expect that won't be the case. "Let's hope that whatever it comes down to, whoever it is, you're far as hell away protecting my girl. I don't want Jade anywhere near what is bound to happen."

"Have you considered asking her to leave?" Ivan asks warily. "I'd go with her, of course. But maybe Empire isn't as safe for her as we want it to be."

"I've considered it."

Selfishly, I really fucking hope it doesn't come to that.

I want time with her.

I crave time with her.

But if I thought sending her home with Ivan as her guard would keep her safe from imminent harm, I wouldn't hesitate to contact her father.

"Right now, all we have is theories. I don't want to pull her away from that," I sigh, nodding to the group of them. Matteo is currently lighting marshmallows on fire, using the stick they're speared on to hold them out for Jade to blow out. "Until we know there's an actual threat against her, I don't want to take her from them. She's thriving."

Ivan nods softly, continuing to watch them with me. I'm not sure what he sees when he looks at the group of them, but I can't help to imagine us down there with them. Jade would be in my lap, tucked into my side to suck up the warmth I give her. Ivan would be next to us, probably debating something ridiculous with Matteo.

It's just a dream, but one day it won't be.

"Seeing Nico eat a s'more is like an episode of The Twilight Zone," Ivan snickers, watching the future Moretti enforcer tentatively eating the desert Jade made for him. He's trying his best not to let the melted marshmallow or chocolate touch his skin, clearly uncomfortable with it, but eating it for Jade nevertheless.

Nico is a complicated man, and I'm not sure Jade realizes the amount of power she has over him yet. Nico hates a lot of things, but humoring his sister will never be one of them. I've seen him snap at his brothers in semesters before now, even at his twin, but I can't imagine him doing the same to her.

Shaking off the weird sight, Ivan scratches the back of his head.

"Have you talked to Da? About Jade?"

"Not yet," I admit.

I'm not worried about his disapproval. Our father doesn't get a say in who I marry, and he knows it. He technically holds the power, but he knows me well enough to know my limits. I am not the kind of man you can force into an arranged marriage. And even if I were, I'd remind him how poorly his arranged marriage worked out for him.

By the time I was sixteen, I had already informed him that I'd be choosing my own match. I'd been dreaming about having a wife since I was old enough to know what it meant, and I wasn't going to let him shackle me to some random woman for a small potential gain. I can rule our organization without any more alliances.

The difference between my father and me? He doesn't like to cause conflict, and I think there's no better show of power than fucking showing your power. Talk is cheap when you could simply cut throats instead.

"I'll inform him without using her name," I say, having already decided on this plan. "Until I can guarantee he won't do something stupid like approach her family behind my back, he doesn't get to know who she is."

"I agree," Ivan says immediately.

We love Da, I can't pretend that we don't. But we both know he has less than a decade left for this. He's a mediocre Pakhan, and we'll all have better lives once he steps down. We know it, and he knows it.

"When are you going to see her next?"

That's the hardest part of keeping this secret.

We need to figure out how to spend more time together without arousing too much suspicion from her brothers. I'd tell them all about us right this second if I didn't think it would cause a rift between them. My girl needs to be allowed to have us to herself for a while. If that means sneaking around until she's ready, that's how it's going to be. She'll hear no objections from me.

Sparing one last look at the group below, I nod to the trail behind us. We need to head back before they get up to leave themselves.

But as for when I'll see my Krasotka again?

"Soon."