Page 36 of The Beauty Who Loved Him

Hopefully, it was a lesson they both could learn from here on out. Neither of the two could afford a personal connection to the other without it interfering in their private businesses. While it might benefit Demyan to say he had a direct line to Vaslav Pashkov in the criminal world, it would only last as long as it took for Vas to pay the bounty.

“Yes, it was Gia,” Demyan said then with a single nod before his gaze swung back to Vaslav. “I’d known her since I was a boy. Barely as tall as my father’s knees. She’s my first memory, and then she was my last for a long time, too. I’ve respected you enough to put up with your madness while I was here, I know good and damn well why they call you the beast, so give me enough decency not to poke a raw nerve just because you have access to it.”

Vaslav flinched.

Demyan didn’t catch it.

“Then, I’m sorry,” Vaslav said.

“For what?”

“Asking at all.”

Demyan cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable at the turn their conversation had suddenly taken. “Is that your way of saying your question about Gia was cruel?”

“Or my way of saying I won’t do it again.”

It took a few seconds.

Eventually, Demyan nodded, muttering, “That’s appreciated.”

“Seems we have that in common, you and me. Love’s tragedy.”

It was the first time Vaslav hinted toward his first wife. He never even offered Irina’s name, didn’t plan to, and he tried not to consider if Demyan had found any information about his first marriage, and how it ended.

Not wanting to give the man time to prod on a topic that could very well cost him his life, Vaslav asked Demyan, “Anything else you want to say to me?”

“Is that an open invitation?” the man questioned. “Because yeah, I got a few things.”

Vaslav actually considered the request, and settled on, “Within reason.”

“Sounds like a death wish.”

“Pick your poison,” Vaslav offered with an open-armed shrug.

Demyan’s stance loosened as he chuckled. “You know what, all right, I’ll tell you what’s on my mind.”

“Is that going to get us back to the posts?”

The man acted like he didn’t even hear Vaslav.

“I’m not impressed that my almost twenty-seven-year-old daughter has gotten involved with a man nearly twice her age for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me, has apparently taken little time to get to know said man, and has since decided to marry that man. And before you tell me to take that back to her, I’m not looking for your opinion on it, it’s just an observation that I would like you to be aware I have made. If you expect me to trust that she’s making her own choices and happily so, then that’s going to be difficult considering the way you behaved with me. All things considered, because it’s a lot, just to be fair.”

“Reasonable,” Vaslav said.

“And before I forget,” the man added.

Vaslav smirked. “What’s that?”

“If I don’t have a return date for my wife relatively soon, you’re going to have a second guest show up on your doorstep with even less warning than I.” Demyan twirled a finger between them, laughing dryly before he said, “And let me say, she’s not meant for this kind of shit.”

It was only the song of the woods that whispered between the two men or a beat or two.

“I’ll have a flight chartered within a day or two,” Vaslav said, “and I’ll make sure the wedding trip is not as ... distasteful. That feels like a good word for it, no?”

Demyan barked out a laugh, shocking Vaslav at the suddenness. “Less illegal, but who really gives a damn about that?”

Even he laughed at that.