All the blood drains from my face, then rapidly tries to exit my chest, too.
“It’s okay.” Kon reaches out, almost touching my hand before drawing back. “He’s not so bad. I work with him.”
My expression must speak of my concern. “He’s Bratva.”
“Yes, but…” Kon huffs as though trying to find the right description. “He’s part of the Maths Club.”
“Good, well that clears it all up.” My voice drips with sarcasm. “He’s a nerd who kills people.”
Kon laughs, the sound bubbling out of him like the champagne fizz everyone else is drinking. His teeth are even and white and his one gold tooth at the back makes my heart thud.
Danger.
His laugh. His smile. Whatever caused him to lose that tooth.
“That’s not entirely inaccurate. The Maths Club is really just a group of London Mafia bosses who love their wives and would do anything for them.”
It takes me a moment to connect the dots, and then my mirth evaporates.
“You’re married.” Worse still, he loves his wife, and I…
Oh god, I made him, and where it looked likeIdidn’t have a choice, actuallyhedidn’t.
No. I think I might vomit
“No, no.” He reaches out and touches my knee with his warm, heavy palm. “There are unattached men in the London Maths Club. I’m one.”
I can breathe again, as though I’ve surfaced from deep underwater. I suck in a shaky breath.
“But Greenwich? My sister’s…”
“Fiancé. They’re going to be married. And it’s called the Maths Club because everyone played along when the Kingpin of Canary Wharf was so in love with his wife that he had to pretendto be a CEO rather than a mafia boss to get her to fall in love with him.”
“Oh. That’s pretty weird. And cute.”
The corner of Kon’s mouth hooks up. “Hence, I said they’re all ‘wife guys’, as the saying goes.”
He holds my gaze, expression a touch confused, as though he doesn’t know what to say, but can’t look away.
“Your other sister?—”
“Payton. She’s younger. Hayley’s a year older than me.”
“Yes. She’s married.”
“What?” That’s even more unexpected. “Payton is sweet and a bit silly, and?—”
“She married the father of the ex-boyfriend that she used to get money to pay for a private investigator who ultimately found you, after he kidnapped her to his tropical island.”
My jaw drops. “You’re kidding me.”
Kon gives me a ghost of a smile. “I’m a mafia boss. I do not joke.”
Part of me wants to ask more about what’s happened to my sisters, but with luck I’ll hear about that from them very soon. Whereas I might not have another opportunity to talk with Kon.
The man who saved me.
“Hi, Pakhan? Sir, so sorry.” A dancer who I didn’t speak with much appears at Kon’s elbow. She asks about contacting her family when she doesn’t know their phone numbers or where they are now, and Kon taps something into his phone muttering that Blackfen is doing well today, then assures her he’ll have information before we land.
