Page 115 of Fractured Ties

“Let me see him, yeah?” Konstantin slipped the dog from Kolya’s hands with a cautious look. “You’re going to hold him too tight.”

Fuck.

“Call someone for him,” Kolya said.

“Before or after we call Vadim?” Konstantin asked back. “Better we call him and let him know what happened, rather than he finds out from someone else, and he calls us. Don’t be fucking stupid right now.”

Like he needed to be told. Shit, maybe he did need to be told.

Right then, all he wanted to do was find Maya, drink, rage, and kill someone. It did not have to be in that order either, as long as he found Maya first.

“Well?” Konstantin demanded.

“Fucking call the bastard, then,” Kolya uttered.

He wouldn’t be doing it, though.

All it meant was more seconds lost, and more time for Alexei to get far away from him. With Maya.

Fuck his whole life.

• • •

How could one tell that a situation was serious when it came to Vadim? Was it when the man was so silent that he seemed statue-like? Or when he raged so violently that anyone in his pathway was in serious danger of being caught in the crossfire?

No, none of those.

It was when Vadim called in everyone.

Not every man, no.

Every person in his direct family.

Including Viktoria.

Kolya eyed his quiet sister sitting on the other side of the table as Konstantin again went over what had happened earlier in the night. Viktoria, out of all of them, was by far their father’s favorite. He was still trying to figure out why, but that wasn’t important right now. Kolya couldn’t figure out why his father had called her in for this, though.

Pointless, really.

“You left your car there?” Vadim asked, dangerously calm.

The drink in his hand swayed back and forth between loose fingertips. Kolya kept one eye on that glass and another on Konstantin. His brother wasn’t fucking stupid—he was watching that glass, too.

“What choice did I have?”

“Make a call,” Vadim barked, his icy gaze turning on his youngest son. “Make a fucking call and get it removed. You do that before you do anything else, Konstantin. We have rules in place, and people at the ready, for this exact fucking reason. You know this, yes?”

“We had other places to be, Vadim.”

Vadim turned on Kolya, then. “Yes, the girl. You had to chase after her, even knowing she was already taken. That’s what Konstantin said. Instead of making sure nothing would be left at the bombing for the officials to tie to us—his goddamn car—you left it right there because you had to chase after a fucking ghost who was already gone, Kolya. Stupid boy.”

That insult might have pissed Kolya off at any other time, but right then, he had far too many other things to be angry about. Vadim was nothing more than a fucking blip on his radar when it came right down to it.

Unfortunately, when Kolya didn’t give his father the reaction Vadim was clearly looking for … the man exploded. In typical Vadim fashion, too. That glass he’d been keeping a loose grip on went flying in the next breath. It exploded against the wall right beside Kolya’s head in a mess of glass and liquor flying everywhere.

Kolya didn’t even flinch. Instead, he let his gaze drift to his now red-faced father as Vadim stood slowly from his seat and never once looked away from Kolya.

Konstantin was a lot like Kolya in that moment—unmoved and unsurprised. Viktoria, on the other hand, hid her discomfort and fear by keeping quiet and staring down at the table. It was easier for the woman to ignore the kind of bastard their father could be to his sons when she didn’t have to watch it happen, he supposed.