Page 53 of Essence of Fear

“You could have let me know,” Kolya said to Konstantin quietly.

“Let him know what?” Viktoria asked.

“Nothing, yes?” Konstantin waved a hand. “Kolya is just being … his normal self.”

Viktoria gave the two of them a look, but picked up her fork to continue eating. “Since when do the two of you come to my house first thing in the morning? Don’t you have wives now? Shouldn’t you keep them company in the morning instead of annoying me?”

“My wife doesn’t roll over before ten,” Kolya replied. “I make sure of that.”

Viktoria made a face. “Shame, that. Maya would be a great help right now—she’s the only one who knows how to pull on your leash and keep you in line, Kolya.”

Her words might have stung someone with thinner skin than Kolya, but the man in the entryway actually cracked a smile. Pav thought that was the first time he’d ever seen that happen in all the years he’d known the man.

And Viktoria?

She’d adopted that soft, teasing tone again.

She was joking.

Kolya chuckled and looked to Konstantin as he murmured, “And there she is, huh?”

Konstantin’s gaze drifted to Pav, replying, “There she is—I told you.”

“Hmm.”

“What are you two—”

“Are you going to tell her now?” Pav asked quietly.

This moment was all great and good. He understood there was more at play for the siblings than he probably understood, but that mattered very little to him at the end of the day. If what he thought he knew about Viktoria was true, then she wouldn’t want her brothers making a big deal out of her change in behavior and attitude. If anything, it would probably cause her to revert back to someone they didn’t want to deal with at all.

He’d be fine with that. He liked her both ways.

The point remained … “Are you going to tell her?”

Viktoria looked between Pav at the table and her brothers in the entryway. “Tell me what?”

The change in the room was palpable. Skyrocketing tension that slipped past each and every person like a breeze they could all feel. He didn’t miss the way the two men shifted on their feet and passed looks to one another like they were waiting for the other to begin talking. Under the table, he felt Viktoria’s suddenly shaking hand trembling against the side of his leg.

Did she know what they were going to say?

Was it possible she just felt it?

“Vik,” Konstantin started.

“What is it?”

Konstantin flinched.

Kolya glanced down at the floor.

“I’ll just say it, then? I won’t preface it with excuses or explanations about why it was done, or how … if you want to know those things after, then I will tell you.”

Pav slipped his hand over Viktoria’s under the table and squeezed hard when she stayed silent. He could see the line of water filling her bottom lashes, but she didn’t even blink. If she did, those tears would fall. People would see.

“Okay,” Konstantin muttered, nodding as he continued on, “last night, during the party, I received a call from someone who needed to check in with the man at the Compound. He found the man dead and one of the cells in the basement empty. We have every reason to believe it was the person in the cell who killed the man before he escaped the Compound.”

Viktoria’s jaw hardened. “Who was in the cell?”