Page 135 of Fractured Ties

Vasily was quick to turn and leave then. Maya figured … it was smart of him, too. Vadim looked about three seconds away from ripping someone’s face right from their skull. The second the man was gone, Vadim gestured with a hand at the rest of the people in the room.

“Everyone out, yes, but her. Go.”

Konstantin stayed sitting.

Vadim gave him a look. “Even you.”

“She’s—”

“Fine,” Vadim interjected sharply. “She will be fine.”

Men started to filter out of the room as Konstantin stood. He passed Maya a glance, and then followed suit. He closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with Vadim.

The older man sat in the chair across from her and stared at her for longer than she was comfortable. He crossed one ankle over his knee and surveyed her with his forefinger and thumb resting on his jaw like she was the most boring thing in the world he had ever laid eyes on.

“I imagine you hate me,” he said.

Why lie?

“Hate isn’t a good enough word,” she whispered.

A hint of a smile graced Vadim’s lips. “You’re quite a defiant thing for … well, whatever you seem like. You’re going to need that, Maya.”

“Fascinating.”

Something flashed in his gaze—annoyance, maybe.

She wished she cared.

Vadim tipped his head back and nodded once. “It was better he died in that warehouse with the thing he was so willing to die for, rather than face the consequences of his actions against me.”

Maya’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“More than you or he knows,” Vadim murmured. “You see, even when my son thinks I don’t know something, I still eventually find out. On your back … may I see your brand, please?”

He posed that as though she had a choice, but Maya knew better. There was no choice. She was grateful that Konstantin had closed the door because it allowed her some privacy as she stood and shrugged off the warm hospital blanket.

Turning around, she lifted her shirt up high enough to show off the two eight-pointed stars just below her neckline.

“He is smart, but he is also stupid. That is not the brand you were to have, girl.”

“They’re his stars.”

“I am quite aware of that, and what they mean for me.” Vadim made a quiet noise. “You may sit back down, Maya.”

She did, and quickly tucked herself back into the blanket.

“A final line between him and I. That’s what those stars mean to me. Whatever ties were between the two of us are gone—irreparably fractured. He may find it worth it today, but it is tomorrow that he will understand the price he must pay for this.” Vadim stood from his own chair, then. “Regardless of what happens now, trust that you will be okay. Kolya, however … well, he survived the first round, yes? For now, he gets to keep you. Let’s see if he can survive what happens next.”

Maya was too scared to ask what that meant.

18.

THE NURSE gave Maya a sweet smile as she gestured toward the open doorway with a nod of her head. “Go ahead; he’s been asking for you.”

Maya wrung her hands, and glanced between the doorway, and the nurse. “Yeah?”

Two days of her asking time and time again to see Kolya had been refused. He wasn’t awake, they kept saying. And then when he was, he was disoriented and angry. Maya had laughed when they’d told her that.