Page 30 of The Pakhan’s Heir

“Listen, do you need me to spell this out?” I say impatiently. “Two days ago, she was Irkutsk. Now, I understand that she’s with me for the same reasons that I’m with her. For the good of our Bratvas. But I can’t be sure that her responsibilities are the same as mine. No matter what, it would be insane for me to blindly trust her completely.”

She sighs and says, “Get your panties out of a bunch. I’ll do it. I just reserve the right to give you shit about it.”

“As long as you’ll be here. Thank you.”

“But you know, as much as you distrust her, there is another option for your predicament. Instead of fighting it so damned hard, you could lean into it. Maybe spend some time with her when you’re not working? Get to know her a little better?”

“Yeva…”

“You’re stuck together anyway. And honestly, it’s about time you found somebody to commiserate with. She could just as easily become your ally if you just try to find common ground.”

I’m rubbing the bridge of my nose as she talks. The last thing I need is a fucking lecture from my kid sister. “I’ll take it into consideration.”

She scoffs. “You sound like Dad when he’s blowing me off.”

“You don’t say,” I respond.

“Whatever. I’ll be over to hang with her later. Try not to kill the spy until I get there.”

Yeva’s a riot.

I hang up and leave the parlor, locking the door behind me, which is an odd feeling. I’ve never had to lock this door before. Or any door in my home, really. It makes me wonder what other doors I’m going to have to lock while I’m married.

As I walk out into the hallway toward the stairs, I spot movement through one of the kitchen doors. I stop to look and I see Nona sitting on the lawn furniture out back. She’s leaning forward and wiping her face.

A sick feeling hovers in my stomach. I took no pleasure in scaring her like that. But it had to be done. She’s going to have to learn her place in this house if we’re going to stay married.

Maybe Yeva can give her a crash course on how to behave. In any event, it’s probably better if I kept my distance from her. With that thought, I walk the rest of the way up the stairs to my room. I need a shower before I go back out again. Hopefully, Yeva will be here by the time I get out.

As I walk out of the parlor, my phone buzzes. It’s Kostya.

“What’s up?” I answer.

“Just got a call from Ivan at the Central Park Warehouse. He caught a guy trying to break in through one of the first floor windows.”

My stomach drops. It hasn’t even been twenty minutes since Kostya urged me to get more security at our stash houses. “Tell me he caught him.”

“The guy got away, but we’re tracking him. I’ll let you know when we find him.”

“Thanks,” I say and hang up. Shit. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when Kostya is right about his paranoia. I hope it’s just some stupid kid looking to break into what he thinks is an old building. Or maybe somebody looking to steal copper from the plumbing. That we can handle.

If it’s what Kostya is thinking and we’ve almost been hit by another one of the gangs around town…

This is the last thing we need. I’m going to bet on it being some random and call it a night.

11

NONA

When I came back in the house, he was gone. Back to work after chewing my ass out. Before going upstairs, I casually look down the hall toward the parlor. He’s probably locked the door… and probably locked the doors to everywhere else in the house that he doesn’t want me to go.

The funny thing is that it’s not the getting caught that got to me. I knew that was a risk going in. It’s… well, it was everything after that.

He was angry. Angry enough to threaten me. Fortunately, he wasn’t the same kind of angry that I’m accustomed to. I kept expecting him to snap out of his cool version of rage. For all the yelling Alex did, he didn’t even move to hit me. It didn’t even look like he was going to.

I don’t know why I tensed when he got close to me. I guess I’m used to the other shoe dropping when it comes to that. The pendulum could swing one way or the other with Papa. I guess… I guess it isn’t that way with Alex.

Still, I shouldn’t push him again. I don’t know him. And I don’t know what kind of harm he could really do to me if he wanted to. I just have to keep him at a distance, that’s all. Stay out of his way and not get caught snooping the next time. If I’m going to be a spy for my father, I’ve got to be smarter about this.