I cut him off by rounding the desk and picking him up by fisting the front of his shirt. “Do not disrespect me.”
He stared me down, still annoyed.
“Do not suggest I’m weakened by her or anyone else,” I warned.
It killed me inside because I just had. I just had fucked her. I had only moments ago succumbed to needing her, and I’d fucked her hard and fast on the desk right here in this room.
But she wasn’t weakening me. She was supporting me. Soothing me. Giving me a grounding sense of sanity. Maybe it was twisted of me to think that she’d “helped” me in such a passive way to let me fuck her and vent out my anger. It was more than that, though. She… completed me.
“Easy,” Maksim said. “Easy.” He stepped forward to mediate.
“Yeah. This isn’t about Elena,” Nikolai said. “Who he’s fucking isn’t the point. It’s not even about her at all. She found evidence, and we all fucking know how scared she is to do a good job. She’s not going to lie about this.”
I released Viktor and stepped back.
Alexei nodded, still looking livid but calm with it.
“This isn’t about Elena at all,” Nikolai said. “It’s about the fact that Gregori’s name is even coming up at all. Now, after all this time.”
Lev flung his hand out and cringed. “He’s supposed to be dead! He’s supposed to bedead!”
Alexei frowned at his younger brother. “If there is evidence that suggests otherwise, we’ll need to keep an open mind about it.”
Lev gritted his teeth. “There’s no fucking way. There’s no fucking way he’s…”
For a control freak like him, he had to be spiraling in the worst way possible. He’d been so close with my father in the aftermath of what Gregori had done. This had to feel personal to him, more than the rest of us.
I held up my hand to try to reclaim order in the room. “One way or another, we have to investigate this.”
They all agreed.
“If Gregori is alive, we will make sure that doesn’t stay accurate for long,” I added. “And if heisdead, but someone is using his name or impersonating him, or any other fucking possibility, we will address that as well.”
“But if he’s alive,” Viktor said, “and he’s building a shadow network to work against us?”
I let the anger cruising through my veins add to the confidence in my reply. “Then we’ll make him wish he were dead.”
18
ELENA
Iran out of the house, holding my shirt together and trying to keep my head up. I didn’t want to trip in my hasty escape. Dashing off to the side, I was just in time to avoid Adrik’s brothers and cousins showing up in the front circular drive.
The reason he’d told me to get up and go after he screwed me on his desk might have been just that. He knew his brothers and cousins were on their way, and he didn’t want to expose me to them.
Or he didn’t want to expose that he’d desired me at all.
For that, I could be grateful. That he’d spared me further embarrassment.
Shame and regret filled me as soon as I reached the guest house and got inside.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to catch my breath.
Oh, God.
I shouldn’t have done that.
I really shouldn’t have… caved.
