Sinful Bride (Belaya Bratva 3)

Chapter 25

Gavril

I opened my eyes to a dull sun shining down at me, my body feeling sluggish. Lifting my hand, I saw that there was no blood on it and when I looked down, I realized I wasn’t bleeding out on the floor of Naomi’s bedroom any longer.

Instead my clothing, my suit, was pristine, no sign of the trauma that I had just tried to endure.

Fuck. Was I dead? Was I in hell?

Pushing up off the floor, I saw that there was a haze to everything no matter where I looked, just a cloudy, empty void that stretched as far as I could see.

I had to be in hell. There was no way I had done enough good deeds to make it to the man upstairs. He would bar the pearly gates if I even attempted to approach them.

Another thought crossed my mind, and I felt the fear rise up in my throat. I had died. I had left Naomi alone when I had promised not to.

Life had a cruel, cruel way of shitting on me, it seemed.

A cool rush of air brushed over me, and when I turned, I stumbled back a few steps.

“Hello, Gavril.”

My mouth dropped open. “Katya?” It couldn’t be. She was dead.

Maybe this was my fucking purgatory instead, doomed to spend eternal life with the one person who had betrayed me above all others.

I would much rather be with my enemies. At least I knew where they stood.

Still, she looked just as I remembered. Her long hair was thrown over her shoulder in cascading waves, her lithe body encased in black pants and her favorite T-shirt, one that I had teased her endlessly about. Her hands were shoved in her pockets, and she was looking at me cautiously. “Where am I?” I asked, finding my voice. “Am I dead?”

A sad expression crossed her face before she shook her head. “No, you aren’t,” she answered, her familiar voice winding its way into my heart. “But you are close, Gavril. Far too close.”

Relief threaded through me. I hadn’t left Naomi just yet. There was still hope that someone down on earth was going to save me so I could see her again. She had been so fucking brave, shooting Hampton like that, saving my life in the process.

I wanted a chance, a real chance, to thank her.

“Send me back,” I begged, the anxiety of what Naomi could be dealing with clawing at my throat. “I need to go back.”

“In time,” my former lover stated, beckoning me to follow her.

I drew in a breath and did just that. What else could I do? “Where are we?” I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets as I walked beside her.

“Somewhere in between,” she said breezily, our feet covered by the dense fog that littered the floor. My bare feet were colliding with something as we walked, but what it was, I didn’t know. “Or this could just be a figment of your imagination, Gavril. Who knows?”

Who indeed? After all, I didn’t feel any of the body-shuddering pain I had before this, my body seemingly whole, considering what I remembered. Still, I was glad that she was with me. We had much to talk about. “Tell me why.”

Katya came to rest before two comfortable chairs, the kind that would be seated before a fireplace on earth. “Sit, Gavril. Rest while you can.”

I did as she suggested, too afraid not to. I mean, who the fuck knew if this was real or not? The last thing I wanted to do was piss someone off and miss my chance to go back to Naomi.

Katya took the other chair and pulled her feet underneath her. Suddenly she reminded me of the young girl who had caught my eye all those years ago, both innocent and devilish at the same time. Katya had that way about her, making you wish you could bring out the devil inside her, and hell, it had nearly cost me my life in return. “I don’t know where to start,” she finally confessed, wrapping her arms around her thin waist.

“Why not the beginning?” I asked lightly, resting my hands on the arms of the chair.

Katya drew in a breath. “All right, the beginning. I never wanted to hurt you, Gavril. I mean, at first I had my mission, but then, the closer we became, the more I regretted what I had to do to you.”

I arched a brow. “You attacked me with a knife, Katya.”

She flushed. “I know. I was indebted to the family that sent me after you, Gavril. If I didn’t, I mean, if I had failed my mission, they would have killed me. Surely you can understand.”