Page 39 of Viktor

“Hold up. You cooked? You? Viktor Christianson?” Quintus laughed.

“It’s the effort that counts.”

“Where is my brother? You must be an imposter,” he joked. “Ah, Viktor, my oldest, favorite brother, I’m beginning to have suspicions about this human…she could be tied to you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Viktor chided, secretly suspecting the same.

“You ate eggs.” Quintus shook his head with a smile and poured a cognac. “No wonder you sent your donor running. This is all making sense now.”

“Can we stop focusing on me? I need your help,” Viktor told him, attempting to change the subject.

“Oh, I suspect you’re going to get all the help you need from the human.”

“Be serious, brother. I’m perpetually single and enjoying every minute of it. Listen. I’ve got a painting. I’ve seen a similar piece once, a long time ago, but if I could only have someone else take a look at it for me. Someone who knows art. Someone who knows about the doings of the church.”

“No.” Quintus tapped at the face of his cell phone, not looking up at him.

“Greyson dabbled around the church for a time. If you could just reach out.”

“I’m not doing it.”

“He was no stranger to the nuns,” Viktor continued.

“They protected him.”

“This painting. I suspect it’s an original Plautilla Nelli. I’d like to have him look at it.”

“The woman is a curator, right? Let her look at it.”

“She is, but—"

“Then why do you need Greyson? You know he’s still angry with you.” Quintus laughed.

Viktor tilted his head, recalling the incident. “It wasn’t my fault.”

“You were drunk. Drunk as a skunk,” Quintus alleged.

“Young Edward was a right chap. I did him a favor,” Viktor claimed.

“By letting him know his fiancée was doing more than praying with Greyson?”

“She was on her knees.” A smile formed on Viktor’s lips. “The way I see it she was most certainly worshipping something.”

“I believe he’s still angry,” Quintus informed him.

“He should be grateful. We both know that no matter how infatuated he was with the lass, they couldn’t bond. She didn’t belong to him except to sate his thirst and his dick. I did what any brother should do. I did him a favor by nipping problems in the bud. One day he’ll meet the one woman for him, but we all know it wasn’t her.”

“I agree, but he doesn’t see it that way.”

“I need his help, so he’d better get over it.” Lady Chadwick was better off without Edward or Greyson. Baxter would have killed her the second he discovered his brother fancied her. Their brutal master had killed everyone they’d ever cared about, taking pleasure in torturing every one of the children he sired.

Viktor stood and set the glass on the table. “I need this favor, Quint. Contact him and tell him to meet me at my place.”

Quintus released an audible sigh, shaking his head. “I will try. But I can’t promise you anything.”

“Where is he, anyway?”

“Last I heard he was restoring a castle in Romania.”