Page 134 of Fractured Ties

“Like you shouldn’t fucking be one?”

Fair point.

Maya only shrugged and grew quiet again. Konstantin didn’t seem to mind joining her in that, but she wasn’t surprised. From the moment he walked into the hospital, he’d stuck to her side like fucking glue. The only time he’d had to leave her on her own was when the detectives came into play.

But even as his father stood across the family waiting room—stoic, silent, and foreboding—Konstantin didn’t leave Maya. She wondered, if the way Vadim kept glancing their way with that cold, furious expression of his, if Konstantin was making some kind of silent statement to his father.

She didn’t know.

It wasn’t the time to ask.

“He’s going to be fine, by the way,” Konstantin said quietly. “Once he wakes up.”

“If he wakes up,” she countered.

Konstantin shook his head and chuckled darkly. “Kolya wouldn’t go out this easily. He’s just taking a break, that’s all.”

Maya dragged in a painful breath and hoped Konstantin was right. But she didn’t know if he was, and that’s what killed her the most. She said those words—three little words that might seem insignificant to some people, though not to her—and Kolya didn’t even get the chance to say them back.

Would he?

Did he love her?

Maya caught the stiffening of Vadim across the room as his gaze left her and Konstantin, and drifted to the doorway of the private family waiting room. Stunned did not do her current feelings justice when she found who was standing there in the doorway.

Vasily Markovic.

The men who had filled the chairs earlier all stood quickly. Vadim, on the other hand, simply straightened to his full height, and tipped his chin up as if to look down on Vasily. The other man gave a sly smile.

“He survived then, comrade?” Vasily asked, sounding entirely too smug for his own good.

Vadim’s jaw flexed. “Seems so.”

“Lucky man. Shame the other man didn’t make it.” Vasily sighed and passed a glance to Maya before going back to Vadim just as fast. “I expected more to be in the warehouse than what was there. Why choose that move, Vadim? Why risk sending your son up against … whatever I had waiting practically alone?”

“You think I didn’t know what you had planned for him in there?” Vadim countered just as fast. This time, it was his turn to smile. “You think Valbon didn’t tell us you had a kill switch if it all went bad—the bomb? You’re a snake, but unlike Valbon who didn’t know that, I do, Vasily. You can never turn your back on a snake. Not like Valbon did, because snakes like you are quick to bite then. You were never going to give him the girl—the kill switch would have been your default, no matter what.”

Maya heard what Vadim said and what it meant.

She heard him and it killed her.

“It was never about the Albanians or the girl,” Vadim continued on, unaffected and cold, “it was always just about Chicago, and me. The Boykovs. The thing you’ve always wanted but can’t have. Tell me I’m wrong. Go on, do it.”

“You were willing to kill your son, then, knowing,” Vasily murmured.

“Better you kill him than what I will do to him when he wakes up,” Vadim returned softly.

Konstantin stiffened beside Maya.

What did that mean?

What did that fucking mean?

Vasily smiled again and nodded. “Until next time, no?”

“Next time, I will slaughter you, Vasily.”

“You can certainly try, Vadim.”