Sapphire Tears
SAPPHIRE TEARS
UVAROV BRATVA
BOOK 2
NICOLE FOX
Copyright © 2023 by Nicole Fox
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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CONTENTS
Mailing List
Also by Nicole Fox
Sapphire Tears
1. June
2. Kolya
3. June
4. Kolya
5. June
6. June
7. June
8. June
9. Kolya
10. Kolya
11. Kolya
12. June
13. June
14. June
15. Kolya
16. Kolya
17. June
18. Kolya
19. Kolya
20. Kolya
21. June
22. June
23. June
24. Kolya
25. June
26. Kolya
27. Kolya
28. June
29. June
30. Kolya
31. Kolya
32. Kolya
33. Kolya
34. June
35. June
36. Kolya
37. June
38. Kolya
39. Kolya
40. June
41. June
42. Kolya
43. Kolya
44. Kolya
45. June
46. Kolya
47. June
48. June
49. June
50. Kolya
51. June
52. June
53. Kolya
54. Kolya
55. Kolya
Epilogue: June
Extended Epilogue: Kolya
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ALSO BY NICOLE FOX
Vlasov Bratva
Arrogant Monster
Arrogant Mistake
Zhukova Bratva
Tarnished Tyrant
Tarnished Queen
Stepanov Bratva
Satin Sinner
Satin Princess
Makarova Bratva
Shattered Altar
Shattered Cradle
Solovev Bratva
Ravaged Crown
Ravaged Throne
Vorobev Bratva
Velvet Devil
Velvet Angel
Romanoff Bratva
Immaculate Deception
Immaculate Corruption
Kovalyov Bratva
Gilded Cage
Gilded Tears
Jaded Soul
Jaded Devil
Ripped Veil
Ripped Lace
Mazzeo Mafia Duet
Liar’s Lullaby (Book 1)
Sinner’s Lullaby (Book 2)
Bratva Crime Syndicate
*Can be read in any order!
Lies He Told Me
Scars He Gave Me
Sins He Taught Me
Belluci Mafia Trilogy
Corrupted Angel (Book 1)
Corrupted Queen (Book 2)
Corrupted Empire (Book 3)
De Maggio Mafia Duet
Devil in a Suit (Book 1)
Devil at the Altar (Book 2)
Kornilov Bratva Duet
Married to the Don (Book 1)
Til Death Do Us Part (Book 2)
Heirs to the Bratva Empire
*Can be read in any order!
Kostya
Maksim
Andrei
Princes of Ravenlake Academy (Bully Romance)
*Can be read as standalones!
Cruel Prep
Cruel Academy
Cruel Elite
Tsezar Bratva
Nightfall (Book 1)
Daybreak (Book 2)
Russian Crime Brotherhood
*Can be read in any order!
Owned by the Mob Boss
Unprotected with the Mob Boss
Knocked Up by the Mob Boss
Sold to the Mob Boss
Stolen by the Mob Boss
Trapped with the Mob Boss
Volkov Bratva
Broken Vows (Book 1)
Broken Hope (Book 2)
Broken Sins (standalone)
Other Standalones
Vin: A Mafia Romance
Box Sets
Bratva Mob Bosses (Russian Crime Brotherhood Books 1-6)
Tsezar Bratva (Tsezar Bratva Duet Books 1-2)
Heirs to the Bratva Empire
The Mafia Dons Collection
The Don’s Corruption
SAPPHIRE TEARS
I’m caught between two dangerous men.
My ex wants me back.
My husband wants me dead.
But the only life that matters to me is the baby in my belly.
I tried running once, and that didn’t work.
So it’s time for me to try something else: fighting.
I’ll fight for myself, for my sanity, for my child.
I’ll fight for hope.
I’ll fight for love.
Most of all, I’ll fight with the belief that Kolya Uvarov is the man I believe he’s capable of becoming.
The man who loves me.
Unless he kills me first.
SAPPHIRE TEARS is the second and final book in the Uvarov Bratva duet. June and Kolya’s story begins in Book One, SAPPHIRE SCARS.
1
JUNE
The insignia on Adrian’s ring winks at me like it’s alive.
He smells different than I remember. Laundry detergent, mildew, stale sweat. He’s dressed differently, too. His clothes are old and baggy, as if he wants to disappear into them.
The only thing that remotely resembles the man I used to know is his smile.
Somehow, that just makes it all worse.
“I’m sorry about the gun,” he says. He sounds like he actually means it. “The mask, too. But I wasn’t sure if Kolya’s men would be following you and I didn’t want to take a chance.”
A chance at what, exactly? I’m on the verge of asking before I stop myself. Am I talking to a ghost? A figment of my imagination? A reincarnation?
Or just another lie?
“Stop the car.”
“I’m sorry, babe, but no can do. We need to get off the road now.”
I look out the windshield. The world has never looked more desolate than it does right now. It’s desaturated, as if someone drained the life and color out of it.
I must be dreaming, I decide. That’s the only way for any of this to make sense.
I rattle the passenger door handle, knowing even before I do that it’s locked. When that doesn’t do anything, I smack my fist on the window. The glass wobbles but doesn’t break.
“Let me OUT!”
“June, babe, calm down. You don’t have to freak out anymore. I’m here now. I’ve got you.”
I turn wildly to him. “How are you here? You died. I was at the damn funeral!”
He sighs miserably and nods. “I know. And I’m sorry for that most of all. I will explain everything to you. Just let me get off this road.”
He tries to touch me, but I jerk away from him. He flinches and his brow wrinkles, but then he puts his hand back on the steering wheel and doesn’t try to touch me again.
We drive silently for a while. I look around the car like there might be answers hidden somewhere in here.
But I find nothing. It’s a beaten old sedan, completely unremarkable. Scuffed cloth seats, a backseat brimming with fast food wrappers, half-empty plastic bottles of whiskey. Nothing that looks capable of raising a man from the dead.
Adrian senses my growing frustration and dread. He was always good at that when he put his mind to it. He knew what I was thinking before I did sometimes.
In the beginning, it was cute. Towards the end, it was infuriating.
Now? Now, I don’t know what to make of it. Of any of it.
“Babe—” he starts to say.
But that’s the last thing I want to hear. I don’t want “babe” or “Junepenny” or “I’m sorry.” I want answers, goddammit.
“Don’t call me ‘babe,’” I snarl ferally at him. “And stop the fucking car!”
His jaw clenches hard and his fists clench harder. But finally, he veers the car to the left and stops on the side of the road.
“There, the car is stopped,” he says wearily, as if I’m the one being ridiculous. He still doesn’t release the child lock, though. I decide to ignore that for the time being. “I know you have questions—”
I twist around in my seat so I can face him head-on. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
He nods. “I know, and like I said, I have every intention of explaining—”
I reach out and pinch him in the chest as hard as I can. “Ouch!” he yaps, pulling away from me.
“Okay,” I say calmly. “So you’re not a ghost.”
He scrutinizes me with scrunched-up eyes. “You’ve changed.”
“Five months ago, your body was burned to a crisp and you were put in the ground,” I retort. “So apparently, I’m not the only one who’s changed.”
“You have every right to be angry—”
“Gee, thanks for the permission.”
“But a part of me was hoping that a small part of you might feel a little… happy?” he ventures, looking at me like I’m a ticking time bomb that might go off at any moment.
“Which part am I supposed to be ‘happy’ about, Adrian?”
He shrugs. “That I’m here. That I’m alive.”
I breathe out and count backward from ten until I’m composed again. “You always did ask a lot of me,” I say softly. “Too much.”
He reaches out tentatively and pushes back a stray lock of my hair. “Junepenny…” he whispers, voice cracking with pent-up emotion.
Hearing that word in his voice does what the pinch and the breath couldn’t: it makes me finally believe in this. It’s not a dream and it’s not a hallucination.
He’s here.
He’s real.
As for what that means… I have no idea.
I close my eyes as my skin pricks up in goosebumps all over. The blast of the air conditioning from the vents is frigid. Graveyard air. Morgue air. The air of dead things.
“Do you remember why I started calling you that?” he asks suddenly.
I cross my arms and turn my face away from him. Some things hurt too bad to look at. Wounds are always the worst when you don’t know they’re coming. If you can brace for the pain, prepare for it, then you can survive it.
But maybe I wasn’t meant to survive these games.
“I picked you up, and my luck changed,” Adrian continues. “You were my lucky penny. My Junepenny.”
Despite my best efforts, I can feel tears at the edges of my eyes, fogging up my vision and making me feel extraordinarily exposed.
“I know I’ve hurt you. I know I’ve let you down,” he says. “But can you believe that I had a good reason to? Can you try to give me the benefit of the doubt, June? I was only trying to protect you.”
“I’ve heard this song before,” I say, clenching back against the tears. “I don’t want excuses, Adrian. I want explanations. I want honesty.”
“And you deserve both.”
“You really think so… Bogdan?” I peek out of one eye to watch his reaction.
He cringes at the sound of his birth name, but then he sighs and swallows. “That was the name I was born with,” he says, his hand twitching towards mine, though he restrains himself from trying to touch me again. “But the name I wear now is the one I chose, June. And that makes it so much more important. Bogdan Uvarov could never have been with you. But Adrian Cooper could.”
“Adrian Cooper broke my heart,” I answer flatly. “Adrian Cooper lied to me, betrayed me, and abandoned me.”
“I’m a flawed human being, June,” he says, hanging his head. “I’ve made mistakes—so many mistakes. The biggest of which was not being honest with you about my past, my family. At the time, I thought I was protecting you. But now, I see how badly I fucked up in keeping all that a secret. But it stops now. I swear to you, it stops now.”
He’s so damn convincing that I feel my heart quiver. We’ve done this song and dance before. Every time I was on the verge of finally saying Enough, every time I had a foot out the door—this is the voice he used then. These are the words he chose.
And it worked. It worked every goddamn time.
He reaches out and takes my hand, then clasps it between both of his and pulls it to his chest. “I will tell you everything, okay? Just let me get you somewhere safe.”
“No.”
His eyes pull up and interlock with mine. “No?”
I rip my hand out of his. “I want your explanation now.”
He looks around uneasily. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. We’re exposed.”
“I don’t care. I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me why you faked your own death.”
The ring on his finger catches my eye again. It hits me now why it’s bothering me so damn much. Not the obnoxious amount of gold on display, or the violent symbol etched into it. Not even the memory of how it broke my skin when he hit me, the last thing he ever did before he “died.”
No, it’s the fact that it was used to hoodwink me. It was used as a prop to convince me of what I was seeing.
“They called me in to identify the body,” I whisper, mostly just to keep the sobs at bay. I point at his ring. “And I saw that. Which means you knew they’d do it. You orchestrated the viewing.”
“I needed you to believe I was dead.”
“Why?” I beg, my voice cracking. “For God’s sake, why?”
“It was for your sake, June. I thought that if you believed I was dead, you’d mourn me for a time and then you’d move on. You’d be safe.”
My mouth drops open, even as my anger rises. “Y-you’re trying to tell me that this insane, elaborate farce you created was your stand-in for a break-up?”
Adrian shakes his head fiercely. “I love you, June,” he insists. “I was trying to protect you, and protecting you meant, yes, I had to die. It was the only way to save you from him.”
“From who?!”
“From my brother.”
I stare at him in shock. “You’re insane.”
“No, I’m not. I should have known better; I should have planned better. But the thing is, when I did what I did… I didn’t know you were pregnant.”
I suck in my breath and lean as far away from him as I can.
His eyes are two bright coins in their sockets as he leans forward. “I know the baby is mine, June. If I’d known back then, I would never have gone through with it.”
I recoil as far as I can until I’m pressed up against the car door. The setting sun is washing out his face in a way that strikes me as unsettling, alien. Like he really did die and come back. He’s not human anymore, and neither are the things he’s saying.
“I know you’ve been with Kolya. I’m sure he’s filled your head with all manner of lies, but I’m here to tell you: you can’t trust him, June.”
“Says the dead man.”
He takes a deep breath. “My brother is a master manipulator. When we were younger, he was my own personal tormentor. That didn’t change as we got older. Maybe that’s why I realized early on that I didn’t want that life, June. I wanted to be free of it. So I broke away from the Uvarovs, and I left the Bratva behind. That should have been that. Except… Kolya saw it as a betrayal.”
I shiver again. Stories swim around in my head. Everyone wants to be the hero; no one wants to be the villain. But who do I believe?
Ravil? Kolya? Adrian? Myself?
Everybody?
Nobody?
“He expected me to play second fiddle after the schism. And the more Ravil gained power, the more determined Kolya became to try to drag me back to the life I gave up.”
I frown. “Why would Kolya want you back so badly?”
“He’d already lost more than half his men when he killed our father. Having me walk away from the Bratva painted a very public picture of a family in freefall. It didn’t present the strong, united front he was hoping for. And then there was The Accident…”
I wince and scrunch my eyes closed. But that doesn’t stop the images from flashing through my head.
Twisted metal. Screaming. Blood.