Page 85 of Fractured Ties

“Don’t get fucking snappy with me—this is important, but I can let you fucking handle it yourself, if you want to play that game with me, brat.”

Kolya scowled at the wall, and then slid his gaze to the phone. “I don’t see any other way out of this. The boss gave an order—all things considered, I have to follow through if I don’t want to be killed for disobeying him.”

“He just said brand her.”

“Jesus Christ, Kon—”

“Yes or no?”

“Yes, that was it. Nothing else.”

“It makes sense, no?” Konstantin asked. “Protection and status, that’s what a brand gives.”

“Yes, the status of property. Boykov property. A slave to be bought or sold, if I or he fucking chose to do that.”

“But he just said brand her,” his brother pointed out.

Kolya’s brow dipped. “And obviously, he meant—”

“To brand her, yeah, I got that. So, do that, no? Give her your stars—that’s a brand. A proper brand that labels what she is, to whom she belongs, and the status and protection she has because of it. It’s a brand that can’t be argued or disputed.”

“It’s not what he means.”

“But he didn’t specify.” Konstantin waited a beat in time, then asked, “Right?”

“Yeah, no, he didn’t specify.”

And Kolya was thinking, now.

Considering.

It was dangerous and probably stupid. Women didn’t get the stars of a Vor put on their body just because. And yet, Konstantin was right. Vadim hadn’t specified, and Kolya could make of that what he wanted. Even if he did understand exactly what his father had actually meant when he ordered for Maya to be branded.

It was a loophole.

A loophole on fire, sure.

But one nonetheless.

Maya needed to be protected.

From the Albanians.

From anyone else who wanted her.

From Vadim, likely.

Kolya was going to do just that.

“Who did Vadim say to do the brand?” Konstantin asked.

Kolya was already reaching for the water valves to turn them off as he answered with, “Viktoria and I have to go.”

“Wait a second, yeah?”

“What?”

“Be kind and give Maya a warning, then, before you take her to Vik. You know how she is, that’s all.”