Page 108 of Fractured Ties

Oh, sure, he respected his brother for it. How could he not? That didn’t mean he knew what to make of it, or why Konstantin felt the need to rise to every occasion where Kolya was concerned. It was the only way they actually got along, though, so Kolya indulged it.

He liked Konstantin well enough. Might even use the word love, although that felt a little strong.

He loved one thing—one woman—he had come to find, and nothing else felt the same in that regard. It was too heavy of a word to throw around, especially considering Kolya had no idea how he’d fallen in love, and he had yet to even utter the words outside of his head.

Konstantin moved onto something else, thankfully. “Since when do you throw your position in people’s faces like that? It isn’t like you to use that against someone—especially Grisha.”

Konstantin wasn’t lying.

It wasn’t like Kolya to use his position as his father’s heir to scare a man or set him straight. Mostly because Kolya didn’t want that fucking position to begin with. He never had, and he never would. It also wasn’t his choice to make; or so the story went.

“It just slipped out, yeah? Stop asking questions.”

“Fine. You should really take up a class on social skills and how to conversate with someone else, Kolya. It might help with … things, no?”

“But why?”

“Never mind,” Konstantin muttered, his gaze drifting past Kolya to the space behind him. “No puppy or woman today?”

“Sumerki is with Maya.”

“Playing fetch?”

“I’m going to break your face, Konstantin.”

Konstantin shrugged. “Probably someday. I figured you’d bring her in, since it’s your first day back working at the Compound.”

“She has other things to do.”

“Like what? She stays hidden in a hotel.”

Kolya chucked dryly. “Not today. She’s looking at penthouses in the city, and properties in the suburbs, actually.”

His brother turned into a statue behind the desk. “It’s that serious, yeah?”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“Tell me where I was wrong.”

Kolya sighed. “We’ve come to an understanding that she would like to stay with me, and not in a hotel, but also not in my dump of an apartment. So yes, she has taken Sumerki to look for places today. I have someone keeping an eye on her and the realtor she’s with, but from a safe distance. And it’s someone Vadim doesn’t know. Are you satisfied with prying into my personal life, now, or no?”

Konstantin grinned and leaned back in his chair like a smug fucker. Had it been another day, when Kolya had been just a little bit more pissed off, he might have made it his first and last mission to wipe the smirk off his brother’s face.

He couldn’t even be bothered today.

“Yeah, I’m done,” Konstantin said.

“Good. Do you know where Vadim is?”

“Avoiding us.”

Yeah, he figured.

Fuck.

“He can only avoid us for so long—tribute is next week, right? You could just let the incident with Maya and the hotel go,” Konstantin suggested. “You know how Vadim is. He’s dominant, aggressive, and has a tendency to piss on anything he considers his territory.”

A lot like them, too, Kolya thought.