Page 41 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

“Unfortunately.”

“You say that like it’s a problem.”

“You have no idea.”

The painting pulls me closer anyway. Bold color fields. Violent geometry. Color that shouldn’t coexist, arranged until it does.

The painting doesn’t soften the room.

It interrupts it.

“Interesting choice for this space,” I murmur.

Mikhail leans against the bar behind me. “Elena bought it for him before she died.”

I turn slightly. “What happened to her?”

Mikhail’s mouth tightens, and for one second I think he won’t answer.

“Cancer,” he says.

I don’t know enough about Elena for that to hurt. It hurts anyway.

Because I suddenly realize someone once knew Aleksander well enough to choose something this personal for him. Someone once loved him closely enough to understand the architecture of his mind.

That’s not something you can fake with money. You have to pay attention. I put that thought down carefully. It has edges.

I move closer to the painting, studying it. “You know,” I say absently, “this placement is quite terrible.”

Mikhail nearly chokes on his wine.

“I’m sorry?”

“The lighting.” I gesture upward. “It flattens the texture completely at night.”

“You’re critiquing an eight-figure Kandinsky.”

“I’m critiquing the wall placement.”

“I’ve seen people react to a lot of things in this apartment. Never the lighting angles.”

I barely hear him.

Because now I’m focused on the mounting hardware behind the frame. The spacing is uneven. That bothers me irrationally.

I set my wineglass down on the console table and step closer. The frame is slightly off-level. Barely noticeable. But once I see it, I can’t unsee it.

Worse, the lower bracket is sitting wrong. Not loose exactly, but stressed.

“Don’t,” Mikhail says.

“It’s not seated properly.”

“Tamara.”

“I’m not moving it. I’m checking it.”

I reach carefully for the lower corner of the frame. It shifts under my hands—and then one of the mounting brackets releases entirely, faster than I expect, and the whole painting comes away from the wall.