Lifting my hand and pressing it on her back, I swallowed hard. “He… Rodion was your brother, wasn’t he? Fuck, Kisa, Rodion was your blood.”

A sob slipped from Kisa’s mouth and she slumped onto the sand. Crawling forward, I covered Kisa with my body and wrapped my arms around her waist. She leaned into my arms and cried harder, her hands reaching out to grip onto my thighs while I tried to breathe through the memories of my past hitting me with the force of a truck.

“Kisa,” I murmured. “Durov killed him… He killed him…”

Another loud sob ripped from her throat and she began shaking. Pushing herself upright with her hands on my thighs, Kisa lifted her head. Her beautiful face was red and wet with her tears.

“No! I always thought his death must have been an accident. A misunderstanding. Some other explanation. I-I—” Reaching out, she gripped my biceps, desperation in her expression. “Why? Why did Alik kill him? What had Rodion ever done to him? I don’t understand! They were friends!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, holding my breath like I could force the memory.

“Please remember. Please remember,” Kisa begged.

The Volkov heir’s no more. I did what my papa commanded.

Dragging in a gasp, I looked at Kisa and suddenly saw a man’s face in my head. He was tall, dark, older, a fucking evil glint in his eyes. Just like the guards, I thought. He had that sadistic, controlling look in his eyes that the guards always wore.

“His papa,” I said, and Kisa could only blink. “His papa told him to take out the heir… so he would be next in line. So he could lead when he was old enough.”

“No,” Kisa said, shaking her head. “No! Abram wouldn’t do that. He loved Rodion!”

“Alik stabbed Rodion because his father told him to. That’s what Alik said!”

The shaking of Kisa’s head grew faster. “No, no, no, no!” She staggered to her feet and wrapped her arms around her waist. Her feet suddenly stopped in the sand, and she asked, “And Alik? Wh-why did Alik stab himself and blame you? Why take you from me too?”

Every muscle in me froze and my heart thundered in my chest. Kisa saw my reaction and her arms dropped to her sides. “What?” she asked, her voice laced with dread, fear… anxiousness.

Feeling a sudden rush of protectiveness, I lurched forward and crushed my mouth against hers, Kisa moaning in surprise. Her hands slammed to my hard pecs, but her mouth moved against mine like she couldn’t resist what we had, the spark that was between us.

Pulling back, breathless, I pressed my forehead against hers, gripping tightly onto her neck.

“Luka… please… tell me,” Kisa begged, her voice barely a whisper.

Inhaling a ragged breath, I closed my eyes and answered honestly, “Because of you.” I opened my eyes, and Kisa backed away, her gaze searching mine. She was shaking her head, tears spilling down her cheeks. “He needed someone to blame and he wanted you, Kisa-Anna. He wanted you away from me.”

“No!” Kisa turned her back to me and held on to a nearby rock. Her head shook back and forth, and all I could do was to stand there watching her, every muscle tensed with the unknown… the unknown of how to be with her… how to make her feel better.

I stood there like a mute and watched her fall apart. But when a pained scream ripped from her throat and she fell to her knees, my feet seemed to move of their own accord, and I dropped behind her, wrapping my arms around her slight body.

“He’s… he’s troubled. He’s always been troubled with voices in his head. Urges to hurt people. He needed me, even then, he needed me to stop the urges,” she whispered. “He’s always been so possessive of me. But I never thought… I couldn’t have imagined…” Kisa’s breath hitched and she began turning in my arms. I froze, unsure of what she was doing, when she crawled on my lap and laid her head on my shoulder. I fought to breathe quietly, her actions making something within me warm, like her touch her closeness thawing the thick ice in my blood.

Kisa’s bloodshot eyes traced the graphic demons I had tattooed on my chest—a gift from the guards who wanted me to look evil to the Gulag crowd—and her breath blew against my neck, sending shivers down my spine.

“I can’t… I can’t take that he blamed it on you, my beautiful Luka, my best friend, my soul’s other half… because of me… because he wanted me…”

She sucked in a shuddering breath and her hand dropped to trace round my stomach. “That he would injure himself so… so… brutally to create such an impressive lie against you.”