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He looks at the other guards and says, “Otva, ‘li.”Fuck off.
They retreat, and Aleksi’s returns his attention back to me. “We will talk now, freely. You must be honest with me,sladkiy rebenok.”Sweet child.
I nod. “Yes, of course.”
He’s always called me that from the moment I’ve been old enough to walk.
“You will not be doing yourself any favors if you keep anything from me.”
“I wouldn't,” I say.
He nods, satisfied. “What happened?”
“I was on my way to the airport to fly out to Tuscany, and my cab got run off the road.”
“Your security detail wasn't there?” he questions, his face darkening.
I shake my head. “I was going from my apartment to the airport, Uncle, so I called them off. It wasn’t necessary.”
He stares at me, anger building on his face. “Katiya!” he scolds. “You must never do that again. Trust me when I say it will be the last time. You will have twenty-four-seven security now wherever you go.”
My face must fall when I try to protest because he tilts my chin back up to look at him.
“You have no idea the worry I felt when I had no fucking clue that those Medici assholes had you all this time.”
“They didn’t,” I say. “Only the last few days. At first, they had no idea who I was. I admit, when they rescued me, I was unsure who were the good guys and who weren’t. I’d been held captive for almost a week.”
He looks like he doesn’t believe me, and I know he’s itching to probably use this as an excuse to go and shoot it out with them.
“Katiya, the Medicis aren’t the good guys, no matter what you tell me. They’ve muscled this family out of every opportunity in Boston. Everything I have built and tried to start they have forced me to shut down or move my operation further out of the city. Don’t go thinking that they are good men, they’re not.”
I know I’m supposed to hate them too, but I can’t help it when I say, “But they let me go.”
His eyes come to mine again. “Yes, and I don’t entirely trust why they did that either, just for the good of mankind? It makes me question what they are planning. Don’t get me wrong,sladkiy rebenok,I am grateful you are not harmed, but the Medicis are not to be trusted.”
I shake my head. “They didn’t hurt me,” I say, unable to keep quiet about this. “They never intended on using me against you. I know it.”
He shakes his head. “You know nothing, Katiya. You don’t know how these men think.”
“I know howyouthink.”
His eyes are sharp. “Don’t ever compare me to them, Katiya. They are nothing like me.”
That’s where he’s wrong. They know what it means to be a family, more so than the Petrovs.
My family is more dysfunctional than the Kardashians.
“They may be, as you say, not good men,” I say quietly. “But you must agree that they freed those women and children from the cargo meant for the Middle East. You know I was supposed to be part of that shipment, a holding container for women to be sent as sex slaves to Saudi Princes, to brothels and used in any way those disgusting, horrible men desire. They saved me, Uncle. They may not be good men in all things, but I’m here and not in some brothel where I’d be shared among many.”
He needs to hear it from the horse’s mouth. It’s the only way he’ll listen.
He stares at me, and I see the anger and fury settle somewhere deep inside him. I've never seen him like this in all the time I’ve known him.
He points in my face. “I will fucking kill every last one of them that did this to you, Katiya. You have my word. There are no lengths I won’t go to that they can hide from me. I will see to it that they suffer, that they will die in pain they never thought possible. That is my promise to you.”
I nod, a cold shiver settling through me as I see the promise in his eyes.
I lay a hand on his arm. “Thank you, Uncle.”
