I close my eyes and press my thumb against the bridge of my nose, and the darkness behind my eyelids goes warm and red from the lamp on my nightstand. "What do you need from me?"
"You still have standing as Anton's heir. If you make a formal statement to the senior members, it will carry authority, and it will buy time and tell everyone that the Radin name is still intact."
"A statement isn't going to stop them." What they need is an active leader, and unless I get married, they have no one but Vera—whom they hate.
"No." He goes quiet for a long breath. "You need someone with the reach to intervene…"
And just like that, my lawyer is suggesting I do the unthinkable. He doesn't have to say it out loud for me to understand. He's insinuating that my proximity to Roman Kuzin may allow me leverage over my father's family that Vera doesn't have. And it makes me furious that he's my only option.
But Gregov isn't wrong. If Roman applies the right pressure, Vera will cave because she needs to impress him. And since I haven't fully decided what I want yet, I need to act quickly. If I end up coming out the other side of this and wanting my inheritance, I'll never forgive myself for doing nothing.
"I know who to go to."
"Mila, be careful?—"
I end the call, cutting him off, and let my head drop. Of all the shit I've had to do to keep my head above water, this one takes the cake. I rise slowly, locking the phone as I walk back tothe door where Yegor stands with his hands clasped in front of himself. He looks up as I extend the phone toward him.
"Take me to Roman."
His eyebrows lift by a fraction. "Now?"
"Right now."
"It's late, Mila. He's in his study and?—"
"I don't care what time it is, Yegor. Take me to him."
He unfolds his arms and turns down the hall, protesting with a glare, and I follow him out of my room with my robe cinched at the waist.
Roman may not care that the sex we had in his office was way more than sex to me, but he will definitely care that the family he thinks he's about to marry into may fall apart at any second. If he has any intent to marry Sofi or Sabine, he will act to force Vera's hand and push her to control the family, thus preserving what he hopes to claim.
If not, I may lose it all anyway.
14
ROMAN
I'm crossing from the bathroom into my bedroom with a towel around my waist and water still running down my back when someone knocks on my door. At this time of night, they all know better than to interrupt me, but sometimes things come up.
"Come in," I call, and the door opens. Yegor steps inside, but he isn't alone.
Mila enters behind him in a house robe cinched at the waist, her hair loose around her shoulders. Her eyes land on my chest first and then drop to the towel, and her lips press together as the color starts climbing up her neck before Yegor's even finished opening his mouth.
"She insisted," he grumbles, "and before you snap at me, I tried to warn her."
She's stunning, breathtaking even with the way she flushes from embarrassment. And now that my business with Timur is done and I'm stuck in limbo waiting for news from him, I am free to allow myself a few moments of enjoyment.
I flick my wrist at Yegor, and he backs out of the room and pulls the door shut behind him. Mila stands there staring at me, though, and her eyes are locked on the droplets of water still beading on my flesh.
"Talk," I say, and I pull the towel from my waist and bring it up to my hair, rubbing the water out of it while I stand in front of her with nothing on.
She opens her mouth and closes it and opens it again, and the red in her neck reaches her ears. I'm getting a kick out of this.
"Uh, there are men in my father's organization moving against Vera." She swallows and turns her eyes to the wall. "My father's cousin Dmitri and two of his lieutenants have been building support in the lower ranks for weeks, and it's turned violent."
I drag the towel across the back of my neck and down over my shoulders. "How violent?" Her reaction and the deep blush on her cheeks are far more interesting to me than whatever mess Vera has gotten herself into.
"My cousin is in the hospital," she says, turning back to me briefly. Then her eyes go wider to see my dick starting to swell. What did she think would happen when she marched herself into my room wearing that skimpy night robe? I wonder what's under it.
