Page 39 of Dark King Daddy

“Pull all security recordings. Entrance, kitchen, service corridors, street. Preserve the devices, not only the files.”

“Yes,” he said.

“Arkady.”

He looked at me.

“You do not retaliate.”

His face hardened. “Daniil.”

“That was an order.”

“Gusev—”

“We find him. We take him alive if possible. No Voronin property is touched. No Orlov man is detained except under the same rules as everyone else inside this building. You do not retaliate, Arkady.”

Arkady stared at me as though I had struck him.

“When you’re Pakhan, you can punish us.”

His words from the security room returned.

Hours ago, they had been a joke.

Now Lev’s blood cooled on my hands.

“I am Pakhan,” I said.

Something broke in Arkady’s expression.

Not resistance.

Grief.

He looked at our father’s body. Then back at me.

“Yes, Pakhan.”

Anton turned to the Orlov men gathering outside the door.

“You heard him,” he said. “Orlov personnel comply. Phones surrendered. Vehicles stay where they are. No one acts without my order.”

The men hesitated.

Anton’s voice dropped.

“Now.”

They moved.

Ksenia remained beside Mikhail. One hand rested on the back of his chair, though he no longer sat in it. Perhaps she needed the support. Perhaps she did not realize she was using it.

I looked at her across the bodies of our fathers.

Minutes ago, I had held her against a corridor wall and wondered what else could make her blush.

I had wanted time.