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This is serious business. It means he’ll never be able to live with himself if he goes back on this. It’ll violate his sense of honor, which he has, unlike his boss.
“You be ready, too,” Oleg says, “because I will make it clear to Dimitri that a marriage is required.”
When a table crashes across the room, both Oleg and I jump to our feet. Our hands go to our guns, driven by the same instinct as we prepare for something to happen. It’s just his mencausing a ruckus. Somebody yells, “You’re counting the cards, motherfucker!”
Oleg sighs, then shouts across the room in Russian, “You will be counting down the seconds until your death if you continue with this juvenile silliness.”
As the men immediately stop arguing and a couple of them set the table upright, I know I’ve made the right choice. I know that if Nikolai were to give this order, it would take a lot longer for anything to happen.
“We’ll speak soon,” I tell Oleg in Russian, then head back to the meeting room.
I’ve got every right to go inside, of course, but I don’t trust myself to go in there andnotcompletely wreck that prick. I have to be patient. Then I’ll be able to make him pay for every single time he dared to touch her, make her feel small, or trick her into believing she’s anything other than what she is—perfect.
Finally, my brother emerges. When I see it’s just him, Denis, and another of our men, I approach him, lowering my voice. The men stand at a respectful distance.
“I just had a fascinating conversation.”
“Oh yeah? With who?”
“Oleg Novik.”
“Nikolai’s second-in-command?” Dimitri says, sounding intensely interested. “What did he have to say for himself?”
“There’s trouble in paradise, brother,” I reply, “which means there’s a way out of this that might not mean war. It’ll mean you can be with your lady, and …” Yet even now, I don’t want totell him. I don’t want to make it real until I know one hundred percent that Mila won’t have to marry my brother. “… go back to normal.”
Dimitri nods. “Nikolai wants to come to the pledge.”
Thepledgeis the official swearing-in of my brother as Pakhan of the Sokolov Bratva. Denis requested it, but all of the men want it to happen. They’ve most likely resented our father for years, and now that he’s gone, they want to make sure their real leader is official.
“That might be the place,” I tell him.
“A party,” Dimitri muses, nodding.
The door opens before he can say anything else, and Nikolai appears. He seems weak as he walks into the hallway, the four of us against him. He does a weird shuffle as he walks by us. “Out here conspiring, are you?”
Dimitri laughs because hecanlaugh. I turn away and hurry down the hallway.
“What’s wrong with him?” I hear Nikolai say.
“He’s ill,” Dimitri replies, and it’s not even a lie.
I feel sick down to my stomach every time I think of what he did to her. It’s like it brings out the two sides of me with more fierceness than anything else ever could. I want to hold her gently, let her feel the protectiveness wrapping around her like armor, all the while wanting to turn full devil and take her father to hell.
CHAPTER 17
MILA
Drake’s wearing a forced smile as we speak on video call. It’s the same smile he’s worn countless times after one of Dad’s meltdowns, smiling at me like he can push away all the pain and the violence and the hate.
“Are you okay, little man?” I say.
“I’m notlittle.” He flexes his arm. “I’m abeast.”
We laugh together, but I can tell he’s forcing it as much as I am. Leaning forward, I say, “Have you been doing lots and lots of homework?”
That’s always been our code for “Is Dad being mean to you?” We developed it when he was depressingly young, just in case one of the soldiers heard us talking.
“No, it’s not too bad,” he says. “Just … uh, tense? Is that the word?”
