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Lefric sent a wary look across me to Dmitri. “They do. But it takes more money than you’ll ever see in your miserable life to buy so much as the scraps off the tables of the restaurants the primary families have the right to eat at.”
Dmitri stiffened and glared at Lefric in offense. “You want to say that again, boy?” he demanded.
“Lefric,” I hissed as a warning.
“Dmitri is our guest,” Olympus said, wandering over from where he’d been talking to Magnus. Plotting was more like it, from the look of things. He’d been close enough to hear our conversation. Or maybe he was just the sort of lover who always had part of his attention on his beloved.
I wished I knew what that felt like.
“I won’t tolerate disrespect from your boy,” Dmitri told Olympus, stepping to stand behind me, where he could face Olympus more directly. He blocked me from being able to move away from the railing as he did. “I might not be as refined as you lot, but I’m just as much of a leader as any man here.”
I exchanged a look with Lefric. He rolled his eyes at me. I wanted to respond with some sort of a smirk, but I was trapped in more ways than just physically. Dmitri had me right where he wanted me until the time came to turn the tables on him.
“Lefric has every right to demand respect where respect is due,” Olympus said, standing toe-to-toe with Dmitri and crossing his arms. “He’s my lover, not my possession, and he might just be smarter than everyone on this boat put together.”
“Aaw, thank you, Oly,” Lefric said, blushing. Only Lefric could blush under a compliment in the middle of a confrontation between two iron-willed men.
“I respect you, Olympus Hakobyan, but I won’t have it implied that I am less than you lot,” Dmitri said. “Or that I’ve done anything worth being punished for.”
He glanced to the side of the boat, where Peter and Neil stood so close together I was surprised they hadn’t merged, Neil had his hand on the small of Peter’s back and appeared to be directing his attention to something along the waterfront. Peter had no idea Dmitri was looking at him.
It had been like juggling fish and knives to keep Dmitri and Peter apart for the last few days. There wasn’t anywhere that either of them could go, and it wasn’t fair for either of them to have to spend their journey locked away in stuffy cabins. Peter was already having a rough trip, if the things my friends had told me about the meetings that the Sons had had in Hedeon were anything to go by. Now he had Dmitri to contend with. He needed the fresh air and peace that water and travel usually gave people, not the specter of the man who had caused the worst moments of his life following him around.
Of course, it had been my job to deflect Dmitri’s attention from Peter, and it was still my job.
“I don’t think anyone means harm to any of us,” I told Dmitri, twisting so I faced him, my back against the boat’s railing. “We’re all just feeling cramped and eager to get off the boat.”
Dmitri continued to stare at Olympus for a long moment of calculation before saying, “My pup is right. Forgive me for any offense I might have caused. My mood has been soured by a lack of a soft bed and a long bath, and by the fact that the cabins are too small for me to fuck my pup the way I want to.”
My face heated, and I looked down, but not fast enough to miss Lefric’s look of horror. And he wasn’t the one who would have to endure whatever Dmitri had planned for me.
“We need to discuss our plan before we reach the Hakobyan dock,” Magnus said, striding over to join our group. Katrina and Ox followed, almost as though they were Magnus’s guards.
“Plan?” Dmitri scoffed, pretending to be bold, even though I could see the worry in his eyes. “What, have you been plotting ways to get rid of me the moment we set foot on shore? You’ll throw me into the bay and no one will ever see me again, is that right?”
My face heated even more, but this time from embarrassment on Dmitri’s behalf. All the bravado in the world couldn’t keep him from looking stupid by making assumptions when he had no idea at all what was going on.
Magnus and Olympus exchanged a look that, to me, confirmed they thought the same.
“We have a delicate situation on our hands,” Olympus said, looking at Dmitri again. “When Lefric and I departed just over a week ago, we left an investigation into the murder of my secretary behind us. We’ve had no word about how the investigation is going or whether my father—or rather, the investigators he hired—have learned anything new.
“We, on the other hand, have learned new things,” Olympus continued. “Several new things. Such as the fact that the steward of my father’s household, a man named Eneko, is a spy for King Julius.”
Dmitri tried his best to stand tall and to continue to look fierce, but his body was far too tight and his shoulders bunched too much for him to be anything but anxious and out of his depth.
“I assume you’re going to tell your father about this man as soon as you’re home,” Katrina said. The way she was dressed and the way her arms were crossed made her look more like one of the wild wolves than Magnus or any of the Sons.
“I’ve advised Olympus that he should do more than that,” Magnus said, speaking with more care than he usually used. He kept his eyes on Dmitri, doing nothing to conceal his contempt, but weaving a well-acted sense of being forced to concede to keep Dmitri alive, into his expression. “I’ve advised that he send for his father, any of his brothers who are at the estate and not at their businesses, and the steward, Eneko, to meet us at the ship. Eneko will be kept occupied by Captain Andreas while proof of his treachery is shown to Vikhrov.
“What Vikhrov chooses to do with Eneko, how he chooses to dispose of the spy, is his business,” Magnus went on. “But I also advise that when we reach the Hakobyan estate, all gates be sealed and guarded and every member of the household and staff be questioned. Eneko may have accomplices within your father’s walls that Hadrian’s notebook did not specifically name.”
“You’re right,” Olympus said with a nod. “I’m certain my father will agree to your plan. For all we know, he may already have uncovered Eneko’s guilt.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Lefric said, letting out a breath as though everything had already been resolved. “It would save us all so much trouble.”
“I don’t have anything to do with this intrigue,” Dmitri said with a shrug. “Why should I linger here, rotting on this boat, when I could be exploring the streets of Good Port?”
“Do you have any money?” Olympus asked him. I could see the strain of his efforts to remain civil. “Can you pay for food, for room and board?”
