Page 48 of The Pakhan’s Heir

I slow down and answer it. “Hello?”

“Good morning, Nona,” he says. “It’s been a little while. Meet me for breakfast?”

I stop. Despite the lift in his voice, suggesting a request, that’s not what this is at all. It never really is. I don’t think my father’s ever asked me to do a thing in his life. It’s always a command. He means business. “I… I don’t think we should be communicating right now⁠—”

“I’m not asking, Nona,” he says. “You’re on your way to the Coffee Bean right now. Keep walking. When you get here, look for me in the back. I’ll be waiting.”

He hangs up and a chill runs through me. Of course, he’s watching me. He’s probably been watching me since I left home. I put my phone in my pocket and do as I’m told.

The shop is busy this morning. There are two long lines in front of the only two baristas working today. The tables in the center of the shop and the booths positioned at every window are filled with people. Weekdays don’t normally look like this. It’s typically busy, but not filled to the brim. There must be something going on in the city for this many people to have this kind of time to sit and have coffee in a shop.

I see Papa sitting at one of the tables in the back, where there are no windows, and most of the tables are empty around him. I don’t know if that’s on purpose or if people just prefer to sit in the sunlight. Whatever it is, it’s the perfect spot to have a private conversation in a busy coffee shop.

Papa sees me and raises a to-go cup of coffee. He’s got another sitting in front of him. His cup. The one he’s raising is for me.

The nausea returns, this time a little more violently, and the bitter taste of bile rises in the back of my throat. I swallow it back and pray that it goes away. I don’t want to end up rushing to the bathroom in the middle of this.

I navigate my way across the room to him and sit down at his table. He slides the cup in front of me and says, “It’s good to see you again after all this time, Nona. How has married life been treating you?”

My father has a way of looking and speaking to a person that disarms them. The smile on his weathered face, where the laugh lines around his mouth bend easily to his will. The light look in his eyes as they turn up with his smile. Even the casual nature of his haircut, always short on the sides and long on top with some of it falling just above his eyeline, suggests to anyone watching from afar that whatever he’s just said was in goodwill.

I’ve seen this look turn on a dime too many times, however. And we aren’t here to discuss the weather.

Still, I play along. I take a sip of the coffee. It’s thin and bitter, so I have to suppress my distaste for it. “It’s going well,” I say. “Very well, actually.”

“That’s good to hear. I hope it isn’t going so well that you’ve forgotten your objective. It’s more important than ever that you stay on target, especially right now.”

I think back to the single thing I found a month or so back. A piece of paper with a name and a date that probably doesn’t even matter anymore, and my stomach lurches again. “I realize that,” I say thickly. I take another drink from the bitter coffee cup.

He stares, waiting for me to say more. “So? What do you have for me?”

“I, uh, I haven’t had the chance to find anything significant,” I tell him truthfully. “Alex and I… Well, I’ve only recently started to gain his trust⁠—”

“You’ve been living in that man’s house all this time,” he says, leaning into me and growling like a dog warning me that he’s about to bite, “and you haven’t gotten anything? Nothing at all? You are aware that the merger has been broken, aren’t you?”

“Y-Yes. Of course⁠—”

“Then you know how important it is that I have something I can use against the Rostovs. They’ve declared war on your family, Nona. I’m sure you understand that much of what’s going on.”

I just stare at him, partially confused. “What do you mean, they’ve declared war on you? Didn’t you claim responsibility for Fedor’s assassination?”

He snickers and takes a drink of coffee. “I don’t know how it came to be that we were blamed for that, but I assure you that it was not a call that I made.”

I just stare at him. I can’t tell if he’s lying or not and I can’t think of a reason in either direction why he would or wouldn’t lie. He’s been known to do it for sport at times. He cocks his head at me.

“You think I’m lying.”

“I… I didn’t say⁠—”

“If I’d wanted Fedor dead, I would have killed him a long time ago, not when my own daughter is behind enemy lines. Clearly, someone in my camp has decided to act outside my orders.”

“So… so you think one of your men is responsible? Maybe acting on his own?”

His brow lowers and his eyes harden. I’ve gone too far. He reaches across the table, lightning fast, and grabs me by the wrist. He pulls it off the table and bends it back hard, sending shards of pain up my arm. I squeak out in pain, twisting as I try to pull my hand away.

“You’re asking a lot of questions for someone who’s supposed to be working for me,” he says. “It’s making me wonder whose side you’re really on.”

“I’m on your side,” I say immediately. “I’d never betray you.”