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I leave her in the room, shut the door hard behind me, and walk out to find Milana waiting outside. “He’s in the blue room,” she informs me tensely. “He insists he wants to speak to you. He says it’s urgent.”
I jut my chin at the door behind me. “Make sure she stays there—silently—until he is gone. I don’t want him knowing about her existence before he has to.”
“You know there’s a good possibility that he already knows, right?” she asks, looking at me skeptically.
“For both their sakes, I hope not.”
I turn towards the blue room, but Milana pivots with me. “He wouldn’t hurt her,” she says, but she doesn’t sound certain. “She’s pregnant with Adrian’s baby. Blood is everything.‘Krov,right?”
“Desperate men are capable of anything,” I growl.
“Adrian certainly was.”
“Adrian was a fool and a coward,” I snap, my resentment bursting out of me unchained. “Ravil is neither. So whatever he’s here for… I have a feeling it won’t end well.”
12
KOLYA
The blue room is exactly what you’d expect. Dappled blue wallpaper, lampshades made of a frosted blue glass, a huge, arcing sofa upholstered in blue velvet.
Ravil is standing by the grand piano when I enter. It too is blue, though it somehow sticks out from the rest of the similarly-hued things in the room. It seems to drink up the light greedily and hide it deep in its own belly.
He pretends not to notice me. The smug bastard keeps his back to me in my own home and runs his finger delicately along the keys, tapping one note to ring out with high, sweet purity.
But I know Ravil. I know all his tells. I see the lines of tension in his shoulders, the caginess in his twitching fingertips.
“You haven’t gotten rid of this thing yet?” he asks as he slowly pivots to face me. “Surprising. I sometimes forget how sentimental you can be.”
I sigh and take a seat on the sofa. My headache has a name, and it’sJune.
“Is there a reason you decided to pay me this unannounced visit, Ravil?”
“We have business to discuss. You cost me a good man.” His lips pull back to bare his teeth. He’s never been good at hiding his irritation. Not when he was a little boy and not now that he thinks he’s grown enough to go toe to toe with me.
I toy with the clasp of my watch. “You mean the one who I threw into a shallow grave with a steak knife sticking out of his throat? That man?”
“It took me almost a year to turn him.”
“Sorry for your loss.”
Ravil smiles, though it curdles quickly. “Don’t worry, dear cousin. I don’t put all my eggs in one basket. Never have.”
He’s gained weight since I last saw him. He’s scrawny by nature, but the extra pounds make him look overstuffed, lumbering.
“Is this the part where you finally spit out the thing you came to tell me?” I drawl, uninterested.
“I know your little secret, cousin.” He leaves the piano to saunter over to where I’m sitting. He takes the armchair opposite me and cocks one leg over the other. “I’m a little surprised that you thought you could keep this under wraps. After all, we are talking about ababy.”
And just like that, everything gets a hell of a lot more complicated.
But as I did with June just a moment ago, I stick to my training. I make sure my expression and my body language give nothing away. I don’t so much as arch an eyebrow.
“A baby?” I repeat, deadpan.
“Please,” Ravil says, rolling his eyes. “There’s no point in pretending, Kolya. I know about the girl. Pretty thing, and apparently, she can dance, too. Or she could at least. I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore as long as she can still fuck, right?”
His leer is enough justification to punch the teeth right out of the gaping hole in his face. But I’m nothing if not disciplined.
