Page 23 of Fractured Ties

Kaz sucked air through his teeth and rocked back on his heels while the rest of the room went completely silent. “We like to say he’s been stuck in a bad mood for a while. It’s an easier way to deal with him, yes?”

Kolya cursed roughly. “I am not emotional.”

Konstantin cleared his throat, saying quietly, “Okay, brat.”

“I am—”

“What happened to my father?” Maya asked suddenly.

All eyes turned on her again.

The silence stretched on.

“Something bad, then,” she murmured knowingly.

“We’ll handle that later,” Konstantin said quickly, refusing to meet her gaze.

“Yes, later,” Kaz agreed.

Kolya, on the other hand, tipped his head to the side, and his gaze narrowed on her. “It depends, Maya.”

Jesus.

She was pretty sure that was the first time he had said her name. And like everything else that came out of his mouth, he spoke her name roughly, as though it had to be pulled from his lips in the harshest way to even be heard. And yet, everything else he said was delivered with a cold flatness that he clearly didn’t care about.

Except her name.

She heard the heat—felt the pull that came with it.

As though he wanted to yank her name right back between his lips the moment he let it out because it didn’t sound like everything else he dared to say out loud.

She blinked.

He kept staring.

“Depends on what?” she dared to ask.

A part of her didn’t want to know.

Another part wanted to keep him talking.

“It depends,” Kolya murmured, “on how you might feel about him being dead.”

Huh.

Well …

“I know you can speak,” Kolya said when she stayed quiet. “We’ve all heard you do it. I don’t like being left in suspense, so talk.”

“You don’t have to be rude,” Maya mumbled. “Tonight was a lot to take in, okay?”

“Prosti, Maya.”

His soft-spoken apology all but took every bit of air that was in the room out with it. She didn’t know why, but the change in atmosphere was fucking tangible. Like something she could actually reach out and feel.

That was the best way she could describe it.

Kolya was still staring at her, sure, but the other two men in the room were gaping like fools at one another.