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“How could you?” His French accent was heavy. He stared unblinkingly at Sasha. “I thought we were friends.”
The tension was thick enough to carve with a knife.
My brother responded a mild “We are.”
Philippe shot back, “Bullshit! Friends don’t prey on family, Sasha.”
What the hell?
I turned to face my brother and asked, “What is he talking about?”
But Sasha didn’t bother to look at me. He merely said to the angry Frenchman, “Listen to me, Philippe. He came to me. He seemed desperate. I just gave him what he needed. No harm, no foul.”
The face Philippe made was one of a man who couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “He is a twenty-one-year-old gambling addict, you inconsiderate prick. Why didn’t you call me?” His tone rose. “I would have called you!”
Frost lined Sasha’s words. “If he wanted you to know, he would have come to you.”
Looking back and forth between them, I was so confused.
Philippe rounded on him, and Vik stepped in his way, handing Lidiya to Mina. “Cool it, Frenchie.”
“Lidi, let’s go inside and see if Ada’s got a yummy snack for us,” Mina told the little girl with a feigned smile, but when her anxious eyes shot to Lev, he simply gave her a curt nod.
Philippe waited until the little girl was out of sight before he snarled at Vik, “Get the fuck out of my way, you second-rate mall cop.”
From the way Vik looked at him, a slow but vicious smile stretching his lips, I could tell he badly wanted to add another scar to the man’s face as he’d done the first.
Holy hell. This was escalating quickly.
I had to step in. This man had once meant something to me, which was why he and Vik would never get along. They would take any excuse to lash into each other. I stepped into the middle of them, putting my hand on Philippe’s chest. “Stop it.” When neither of them moved, I pushed at Philippe and said, “That’s enough!”
Philippe looked over my head, rage seeping out of every pore, smirking at Vik. “You always need a woman to protect you?”
If only that were the truth. But no. Rather, I was protecting him from Vik, because Vik would tear him apart. I witnessed it once before. It was utterly terrifying.
“Hey.” I cupped Philippe’s face in my hands and pulled at his cheeks. “Philippe.” Finally, he looked down, and when his eyes regained focus, I said gently, “Look at me.”
Philippe lost some of his steam. His quiet words were spoken just for my ears. “’Allo, mon ange.”
“Hi.” I smiled softly, and when his rough hand came to rest over mine, his fingers tightened on my own, and I returned the squeeze. Now that things were a touch calmer, I stepped away and looked around at the men around me, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice, and asked, “What the hell is going on here?”
No one spoke for a while, until Philippe let out a hostile, “What’s going on is that a person who I considered a friend went behind my back—”
“I did not go behind your back,” Sasha exhaled, very clearly frustrated. “He came to me.”
“—and decided to loan my younger brother a hundred and fifty large.”
My chest ached.
I slowly turned to look at Sasha, my expression stoic.
From somewhere behind me, Lev asked, “Is this true?”
Philippe went on, and his gaze on my eldest brother was unwavering. “Oh, it’s true, all right. Imagine giving an addict that amount of money. You may as well have put a bullet in his brain. How was he meant to pay that back, let alone the exorbitant interest? Huh?”
“Sasha.” My brow lowered, the disappointment I felt palpable.
My brother simply watched Philippe closely. “He’s a grown man.”
Philippe thundered, “He’s a child.”
When Sasha had nothing to say to that, Philippe reached into the back of his pants and took out two five-inch stacks of crisp hundreds, throwing them onto the table. “This is a hundred and sixty grand, for the inconvenience, and you’ll not get a cent more from me. Understand, asshole?”
“Easy,” muttered Vik dangerously, taking a small step closer in warning.
Sasha sighed then, and for the first time in forever, he actually looked contrite. “Philippe—”
But Philippe simply shook his head as he cut him off. “No. You had your chance to talk to me.” He took a step backward with a passing glance to my brother. “You will get no other.” His voice rough, he stated, “We’re done.”
And I could tell he meant it.
“Wait.” My heart broke for him as I watched him go. “Philippe!” I turned to face my cold, unfeeling brother. “Sash, you’re just going to let him go?” I blinked in disbelief. “Apologize to him!”
“For what?” was Sasha’s empty reply.
My heart beat a little faster. “Are you kidding me?”
Sasha picked up the money on the table, peering down at the heavy stacks in his hands. His blunt statement made me wonder if my brother really was the monster he made himself out to be. “It’s just business.”
