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He strokes his chin and gazes at the piano for a long time. Then he looks at me and says one word.
“No.”
14
KOLYA
“How many is that?” I ask Stanislav as we watch yet another container brimming with weapons get loaded onto the back of another truck.
“That’s pallet number… ninety seven,” my soldier replies after consulting his list. “Fourteen percent of the warehouse left to go.”
“Good. I want it all done before sundown. We don’t have time to waste.”
“Got it, boss.” Stanislav hurries off with his clipboard.
Milana takes his place next to me. “Do you really think all this is necessary, Kolya?”
“Do I ever do anything that’s not?”
“I can think of a few things,” she murmurs, but even she isn’t bold enough to say that straight to my face. June has been a forbidden topic these last few days, ever since the disaster in the blue room. “I do get the logic. I’m just saying, it seems excessive to move every asset in the whole damn warehouse on the off-chance Ravil comes snooping.”
I shake my head. “Snake might’ve fucked up some of the intel he passed to Ravil. But we can’t assume he fucked up all of it. So we move this shit now, before Ravil gets his greedy paws on things that belong to me.”
“I already said I get the logic,” she replies grumpily, folding her arms over her chest. “I don’t need a lecture.”
“You need a whole remedial course, apparently,” I drawl. “Outmaneuvered by a civilian. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
She bristles, prideful as ever. “Was I supposed to armbar a pregnant woman?”
“You were supposed to keep her out of sight,” I snarl. “Not let her run right into the exact man I’m trying to keep her away from. He put his greedy paws on her, too.”
Milana twitches her nose. “You wanna know what I think?”
“Not particularly, no.”
“I think you just didn’t like him touching her,” she says, ignoring me. “You realize that you wouldn’t need June at all if you took one for the team, right?”
“Milana—”
“I’m serious. If you produced an heir—”
“Ravil already thinks I’ve done exactly that.”
She is unmoved. “He’ll learn the truth eventually. June herself could tell him.”
“She wouldn’t dare.”
“She’s dared far more than either you or I thought she was capable of. Underestimating her again would be a mistake. And even if June doesn’t tell him, he’ll find out some other way. But none of this would even be an issue if you produced an heir. The Sicilians have a princess—”
“I’m not interested.”
“In the Sicilians?”
“In any of it,” I snap. “I’m not interested in making an heir. I will not subject a child to the indignity of having me as their father.”
Her eyes go soft and sympathetic. “You would make a good father, Kolya.”
But even I can tell she’s just giving me lip service. She has no clue what kind of father I’d be. The odds certainly aren’t in my favor.
