“He was found skulking outside of Aleksandr’s home,” Igor states. “Find out why. What he knows.”
All of this is directed at me.
My brothers lack the patience and imagination torture requires. Aleksandr is too hasty. Maksim, for all his bluster, doesn’t have the experience. It takes a lot of trial and error to learn how to hurt someone enough that they’ll tell you anything you want to know without you killing them before they actually can. There’s a horrific art form to keeping someone on the cusp of death.
I don’t enjoy it, but I’m good at it. They all waited for at least an hour for me to finish training with Carina and come deal with this.
I glance at the terrified man, then at an expectant Igor. There are no tools down here. I have my knife, my gun, and my fists.
“I want two weeks off,” I state.
Igor stiffens, surprise and then anger bleeding across his expression. “You’ve had the past week off.”
“That was your decision, not mine.”
My father is visibly vexed now. “I could have done much worse,” he sneers. “You come home, married to?—”
I wait, wondering how he’ll choose to refer to Carina. I appreciate his pause—proof that he took my threat seriously.
“I must have missed that marriage was no longer allowed,” I say when he fails to summon the words. “I thought you wanted more Sokolovs? Carina might already be pregnant.”
That comment has Aleksandr bristling too. Starting the month after their marriage, Igor asked, repeatedly, why Victoria wasn’t expecting yet.
I’m not trying to offend my brother. Or knock my wife up faster than he did his. I don’t know if Carina wants kids—if I do—and we’re taking measures to prevent an unplanned pregnancy. But it’s another way I can protect her. Igor doesn’t want grandchildren so he can spoil or spend time with them. I don’t think he’s even held Ilya, on the infrequent occasions he’s been brought here and not left with a nanny, but his legacy does matter to him. He wants to know another generation is ready to take over the responsibilities he’ll leave behind.
“They won’t be Russian,” Aleksandr says dismissively.
I hold Igor’s gaze for a few seconds, then start toward the stairs. “Torture him yourself.”
“Fine. Two weeks.”
I turn back in time to watch Aleksandr’s expression shift from furious to blank. It’s an eerie transformation. I wonder—again—when he won’t be able to strangle his resentment.
Igor just capitulated to me, and he’s never backed down from my brother.
I can’t enjoy the small victory because it means I’ll be stuck in this basement for the rest of the morning.
CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT
Maksim and Aleksandr are standing in the impressive front hall, speaking rapid Russian, when I enter the house after my run. They fall silent when I appear, then exchange a loaded look and resume talking. Being ignored seems to be the best-case scenario when it comes to any interaction with the Sokolovs. No glares or guns are in sight.
I remain silent as I pass them, heading for the grand staircase that leads upstairs. I didn’t wake when Lev left at some ridiculously early hour, but I did get up much earlier than I ever had in my former life in Chicago. I hope Lev will appreciate I went for our regular run without him on my first chance to sleep in.
“Carina.”
I go still with shock when Maksim says my name. Turn slowly, keeping a hand on the railing. “Yes?”
Both of Lev’s brothers are surveying me. Behind them, I see Victoria standing in the living room, holding a baby. She, too, is looking my way, a sneer marring her pretty face. She turns and walks out an open door that must lead outside. It’s a part of the house I haven’t explored.
“Have you spoken to Lev?”
I spin more fully, my hand falling from the carved marble railing. “No. He was gone when I woke up. He said your fa—Igor asked him to take care of something.”
“See?” Aleksandr says dismissively. “She knows nothing.”
It’s the first time I’ve heard him speak English. His voice sounds as harsh as it does when speaking Russian—clipped, emotionless syllables.
I recall what Lev told me once about his older brother.“He can find fault with anything or anyone.”
