Page 58 of Betrayal and Vows

I take the glass anyway. Sip defiantly.

He doesn’t stop me.

But he doesn’t leave either.

“Darling,” my mom says, with that velvet voice and that surgically polite smile that means someone’s about to bleed. “We need to talk. Now.”

My stomach drops.

“You’ll stay here.” The comment is directed at Anton.

He turns that steely-eyed gaze on her.

“Five minutes,” Mom says.

I almost want to laugh. Even she isn’t immune to his lethal stare.

Mom leads me through the maze of guests and into one of the empty side salons. I almost want to laugh when I catch a hint of eucalyptus.

Anton is following.

Mom notices and says something under her breath before she closes the door and leaves Anton standing outside the door.

She whips around and pins me with one of her icy looks.

“I saw you.”

“Everyone has seen me today.”

She narrows her eyes. “I. Saw. You. And him.”

I cross my arms. “I don’t know what you think you saw?—”

“I’m not blind, Lena.”

I shrug.

“I see the way you look at Anton.”

“So what?”

“Vadim and Lenoid will kill him. Youknowthey will. If they don’t, Mikhail will.”

I open my mouth to argue—then stop.

Because… that’s not fear in her voice.

It’spanic.

Protective panic.

“You’re on his side,” I whisper.

“I care about you,” she snaps. “You’re going to get yourselfand himkilled.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“Then why are you being so reckless?”