“You approached one of his associates. It was an insult. Compensation needed to be made.” Alexander says with half a shrug. All this tiptoeing around won’t keep her from the information if she wants it, but they need time to realize she’s not going to bolt at the first sign of trouble.
Not anymore.
“What exactly did you have to give him?” Elana questions again. “And if you say something barbaric like another forced wedding, I’m going to scream.”
Alexander looks at me as though asking me to get her under control. But he should know more than anyone what an impossible task that is.
“No one is being forced to get married,” Kaz says. “Besides, we’re out of available Volkovs.”
She stiffens and looks over her shoulder at me. “What does he mean?”
“We’ll talk later. Once you’ve heard your brothers out.”
“Heard them out about what?” She shoves off the couch and faces me. “What plan have you four concocted in your heads behind my back?”
“Elana.” Ivan’s voice is steady, firm. “What you did was an insult to O’Brien, and insults in our world are more dangerous than something uttered at a bar. To compensate, we’re giving him permission to operate here in Chicago. Apparently, once he found out what you were suggesting, bringing the raves here, he saw it as an opportunity.”
“So he’s sending Janis to start it here?” she asks.
“No. Janis won’t be coming to Chicago. If he steps foot here, he forfeits his life,” Alexander explains.
“And what about the women? Janis was starting to traffic them for the DeAngelos. I found the messages between him and Tony. You can’t just let him do that, right?” She turns wide eyes on me. “We can’t let him do that.”
“Cole has been made aware of it, and he’s as against the trade as we are.”
“You’re just going to trust him to stop Janis?”
“Janis is under his control, and he fucked up when he put that gun to your head. Cole will deal with him, but we can’t get involved in Boston. Especially after Artem swore he wasn’t there on business, then hours later you’re trying to make deals.”
“I wasn’t there as your sister,” she argues.
Alexander shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter what you thought you were doing. It matters that you are a Volkov, you are our sister, and you tried to broker a deal with one of his associates without his permission.”
Her shoulders drop and something like defeat crosses her eyes. More consequences for her actions.
“Elana.” I wait for her eyes to meet mine before I continue. “Cole O’Brien will not tolerate flesh trades. He will stop Janis. And he wouldn’t have learned about it if you hadn’t done what you did. So no more guilt, understand?”
She starts to protest, but I shake my head.
“No. More. Guilt. We deal with what’s in front of us, and no more looking back.”
“Listen to him, Elana.” Kaz gets up from his seat.
“You’re happy? With your wife?” she asks him, worry embedded in every word.
Kaz rolls his shoulders back. “I am.”
“You love her? Like really love her, Kaz?” There’s a small crack in her voice. I don’t think she hears it, but I do. It’s important that there’s love. She’s never seen a relationship filled with it growing up. Her father was a monster to his wife, a worse one to her own mother. But she’s never going to experience that herself.
Not with me.
Not ever.
I will spend the rest of my life making sure she knows how much she’s loved.
“I love her, Elana.” Kaz assures her, seeming to understand the importance. “She was living in a real shitty situation at the hands of her brothers. Her being made to marry me saved her from an even worse fate her family would have forced on her.”
“And the little boy?”
