Page 36 of The Pakhan’s Heir

“So, then, you’re not telling him where our warehouses are? Or any prime locations⁠—”

“Enough,” he growls at me. “Who do you think you are talking to? You might be the brightest star in this Bratva, but I am still your father and your Pakhan.”

I’m struck silent. He’s pulled on my chain and now I know I’d better be silent if I want to leave here with my head.

“I’m going to say this one time,” he goes on. “This alliance with the Irkutsk is strong. There is nothing nefarious going on with this arrangement, Alex. Now, I don’t know where this is coming from, but as of this moment, the Irkutsks and the Rostovs are at peace. Stop chasing windmills and go home and sleep with your wife.”

With that, he turns back to his chair and sits back down. “Now,” he says as he puts his reading glasses back on, “if there is nothing else, I’d like to be left alone to read.”

And just like that, the door has been shut on me. Even if I wanted to protest, I’d be doing so at my peril. So I turn around and I walk out.

But this isn’t over.

13

NONA

It’s been almost three weeks and Alex has been making a concerted effort to either not be alone with me or make himself scarce in one way or another. All the while, not daring to leave me alone should he leave the house. It’s getting so that when I get up in the morning, the first way I know he’s not here is if Yeva is greeting me instead.

I’ve had some chances to get his attention and I’ve been trying to be more sure of myself and more assertive. A few times, he’s caught me sitting in his pristine living room and he’s paused, looking me over carefully, probably trying to figure out if I’m going to dirty up the pretty upholstery on his couch. But every time, he just walks away, saying nothing at all.

And he still hasn’t touched me. There have been a couple of times this week when I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to find him gone. Once, I went to look for him and found him sleeping on the living room couch. It’s almost insulting how he does everything he can to keep away from me.

This… arrangement is just not working out. In addition to not making any headway in getting my husband’s attention, I’ve found very little to bring back to my father. And since Alex has shut me out almost completely since that day he found me in the parlor, there’s just been nothing more for me to find.

He still takes meetings at the house, but it’s all very informal. Sometimes, he’s sitting outside with someone on the back stoop, or talking over coffee in the kitchen. A couple of times, I’ve happened by him talking to Kostya while shooting pool in the den. The little bits of conversation that I’ve heard are confusing as he they typically speak in a Russian dialect I’m not familiar with. I’ve heard some of the words before from my father, but I don’t know it and he’s never bothered to teach it to me.

The more and more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that there’s only one way to get anything out of this whole secret spy quest I’m on. I have to get Alex to like me. The one thing that I know is that he’s attracted to me, whether he wants to admit it or not. After our first night together, he started arranging the pillows and blankets between us to give me some modesty, or so he said at the time. That’s all fine and good, except he talks in his sleep. The other night, he woke me up with soft moans and whispers, followed by my name and some half-muttered commands.

And I know that getting him to fuck me alone won’t do the trick, but it might open the door a little. He’s got to be climbing the walls by now.

Hell… I’m climbing the walls right with him.

This morning, I got up early, leaving him in the bed for once. He’ll probably leave to do whatever Bratva thing he’s got planned and send Yeva over here to babysit me. As much as she and I have been bonding, I don’t need her for what I plan to do today.

I managed to shower and get dressed without waking him up and now I’m out the door. It’s a good thing we live in the city. I might not have a car like my husband and sister-in-law, but I can still get around through the subway, which is only a few blocks away.

I’m only fifteen minutes in when I get a text from him.

Where are you?

I’m mildly touched that he noticed I was gone.

Doing a little shopping. I should be back this afternoon, I text back.

He doesn’t text me back to confirm, but I see that he’s read the text.

Within the hour, I’m walking through the mall and making my way to the lingerie store. Of the experiences I’ve had in my life, this one is new. I’ve never even considered buying bras and panties just for the man in my life, but this chapter of my existence is all about new experiences.

I walk into the store and the electronic two-toned sound of the door chime goes off. The heavy smell of perfume immediately hits me in the face just a step or two in and I find myself rubbing my nose absently. Kind of smells like somebody spilled a whole bottle on the carpet.

“Welcome to Lady’s Things,” the checkout girl says to me from the back of the store. She looks like she can’t be older than sixteen if she’s a day. Her shiny brown hair is pulled into a neat ponytail and she’s wearing dark eyeliner with wings and glittery lip gloss. If she’s of age, I’ll eat my hat.

I can’t imagine my father ever letting me work in a lingerie store. He’d probably drop dead of shock right after he put my head through a wall.

The checkout girl doesn’t even look up as she speaks. Her eyes are trained on the phone in her hands. “Someone will be with you in a moment.”

I doubt that, since she appears to be the only person here. I wander over to the racks of clothing… and I use that term lightly. Most of the material hangs delicately on hangers like strips of fabric. Red and black, pink and white, not a whole lot of variation between them.