Chapter 8

Violet watched Anatoli as he came in, taking off his jacket and shoes. She refused to say a word until he was sitting down and comfortable.

“What’s wrong, Violet?” His tone was a little sharp and held some annoyance.

“You’re what’s wrong with me. You lied to me. You said you would leave my family and the people responsible for my issues alone,” she answered.

“I lied because I knew you would have a problem with it, and I’m doing this because you deserve justice.”

Violet let out a sarcastic laugh. “I deserve justice? I deserve to deal with my pain and trauma the way I want to deal with it. I don’t want you involved.

“You’re not supposed to be a part of my past. You’re supposed to be a part of my present and future. I don’t want our relationship tainted by my past.”

“You could never be tainted,” Anatoli retorted. “Every time I learn something about your past, it reminds me how lucky I am to have a strong person as my partner, so don’t assume things.

“I don’t have a good past, either. My past is something that no child should have to go through, just like yours, but it made me who I am.

“And I wouldn’t be here with you if it wasn’t for my past. So as horrible as everything was, some good came out of it. I don’t see my past or your past hurting us.

“Don’t push me away because you’re afraid of facing your fucking past.”

“I’d rather forget. There’s a difference,” Violet argued. “It’s a part of myself I never want to encounter. I never want to see my mother or father again, or anyone else except for my siblings.

“I would rather pretend everyone else is dead or never existed.”

“I can make that happen, so let me do that,” Anatoli said.

“Don’t fight me on this. We can make sure your siblings are taken care of and not part of that ugly life. They still have time to get out of all this.”

Violet couldn’t hold her tears back and let out a sob. “I just want this to be over with. I don’t want to deal with it anymore. I’m tired of feeling helpless and emotional over this.

“You’ve been good to me for the last two years, but I can’t erase my mind and I desperately want to.”

“You can help me. We can take care of the people that did you wrong…together. You deserve to make them suffer the way you have.”

Violet had never seen herself as the type to make people suffer, but what Anatoli was saying made sense to her.

She wanted all of them to suffer. She didn’t want other women and girls to suffer the way she had.

“Only if it’s with you,” she whispered.

***

For the first time in years, Violet slept through the night without nightmares. She woke up in Anatoli’s arms with a smile on her face.

Last night, she had agreed to help kill the people responsible for her horrible past. Like her father.

She wanted nothing more than to rid this earth of her father. Her siblings would be safer, and they could have the life that he didn’t want to give them.

“Morning,” Anatoli whispered as he kissed her head.

“Morning. I’m surprised you’re still in bed.”

“I didn’t have the willpower to leave you this morning. You slept through the night.”

She smiled at him, kissing him before sitting up.

“It’s because of you. I think I feel like I finally have a way to take control.

“I’ve been afraid for the last few years that they’ll find me and cause issues, but I know that you’re serious about helping me and you won’t let anything happen to me.”

“You’ll always be safe with me,” he said as he kissed her back before getting up. “Now you need to get up. We have shit to accomplish.”

Anatoli chuckled as he walked into the bathroom. He shouldn’t be this happy about the anticipation of killing someone, but he was.

He was happy because Violet would finally be at peace, and that was all he cared about.

***

“What are we doing here? I thought we were going after the people,” Violet asked.

“We are, lyubov~. ~Ryan has the information we need to get started. He’s been helping me, along with Max and Dimitri.”

“How much planning did you do?”

“Enough to know where your family and the guy that transported you are. He’s the one we’re going after first.

“We want to scare your father. We want him to know that we are hunting down the people who had a connection to you.”

Anatoli had spent too many sleepless nights thinking about what he would do when he started finding the people responsible for her nightmares.

It satisfied him to know her father was going to be scared by the time Anatoli came for him.

“I didn’t know everyone was involved. I don’t want people getting hurt because of me. I thought we were going to do this on our own,” Violet protested.

“Our friends and family want to help. You mean a lot to everyone; you were there for Kyle when Max and Dimitri weren’t. And this is how they are helping you.”

“They do enough for me. They saved me and gave me a place to stay.”

Anatoli sighed and looked at Violet. “Let them help us. They want to.” His voice was calm, and he was trying to sound comforting because he knew that’s what she needed.

“Glad you could finally make it,” Ryan said as he let them in. “I’m also glad that you were honest with your girl.”

Violet couldn’t help but smile at Ryan for calling her Anatoli’s girl. She liked it when people acknowledged she belonged to him, especially in public when other women were around.

“What do we have today?” Anatoli asked.

“I got you the information that you want, but I also found out that we’re not the only ones doing some research.”

Anatoli furrowed his eyebrows, waiting for Ryan to elaborate.

“It looks like Violet’s father is looking for her. He’s been paying people to track her down. He wants her back, and he wants the money that he missed out on.

“Apparently, Cannin never gave them the money, so if Kyle hadn’t killed him, he would have, and then he would have taken Violet back.”

“It was only a matter of time before he decided he wanted me back. I’m surprised it took him this long to look,” Violet said.

“Actually, I think he’s been looking for a while and I think he knows ~where~ to look, so we need to be careful.”

“How did you get this information?” Violet asked.

“I have men undercover who are reporting back to me. They know that Kyle is connected to Viktor, but he hasn’t found out that Kyle is with the Volkovs now.

“I think it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out and tells him.”

“Can your men distract them and make them look elsewhere?” Anatoli asked.

“We’re trying, but we have to be careful, and if Violet is going to be with us, we have to make sure she isn’t exposed.”