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“What information? And who was that woman?”
Pavel is about to reply, but it seems it isn’t his place to because what I hear slip past Alek’s lips changes everything. “That woman is my mother.”
I open but soon close my mouth, not even sure what I want to say. Alek takes a seat beside me while Ingrid opts to stand by his side, a move not missed by a glaring Zoey.
Alek waits for me to process what he just shared, but he’ll be waiting a while because what in the ever-living fuck?His mom?I don’t even know what to do with this piece of information. I knew she looked familiar, but I never thought that was because her son was the person who kidnapped me.
I need a minute.
“What Alek says is true,” Pavel says, filling in the silence. “That woman is Zoya. And the man she was with, that is Serg.”
When Alek shifts in his seat, it’s clear this is only the tip of the iceberg.
“Who is Serg?” I dare to ask, unsure what the answer will be.
Pavel is about to reply, but this is personal, too personal for Alek. “My brother.”
I blink once, stunned.“Brother?”He never mentioned any siblings.
Alek’s stern nod reveals I wasn’t hearing things. “Your mom is…is…” I’m searching for the right word, but Alek soon fills in the blanks for me.
“Is working with my brother? Is that what you’re asking?”
“I suppose I am,” I reply, unable to close my gaping mouth.
Alek clenches the arms of the chair. He’s barely keeping it together. “Yes. Serg is my half-brother.”
This is too much.
Thinking back to the time when Alek mentioned his father, it was clear he was fond of his dad. There was never any love lost between him and his mom because he mentioned when his father died, she was too busy spending her husband’s money to look after her kids. At the time, I didn’t give much thought to his siblings because I didn’t care to know, but now that I know his history, there is no guessing who Serg’s father is.
“Boris Ivanov was Serg’s father, wasn’t he?” The man Alek killed when he was thirteen years old.
The mere mention of Alek’s stepfather has him growling low as he twirls his pinkie ring—the one he took from Boris’s finger. “Yes.”
Holy shit.
Serg would have been a baby when Alek killed his father, so I can only guess what his relationship with Alek is like. He never knew his father, thanks to Alek. Nothing good can come from this.
“So what role do they play in this?” I ask, preparing myself for every outcome.
“Remember Chow?”
“How could I forget?” I counter quickly, shuddering at the painful memory.
Alek frowns, deep in thought. “I shot him because why?”
“Because you’re a narcissistic psychopath?” I offer, meaning every word.
Alek flinches, which instantly has me regretting my choice of words, but if he has a point, I wish he’d make it. I’m not here to play twenty questions. “Because he was selling to my rival,” Alek explains in case I’ve forgotten. “And that person was Serg.”
I almost fall off my chair.
No wonder it was personal for him. By killing Chow, Alek was sending a message to not only the underground he ruled, but to his brother as well.
“It seems crime runs in the family,” Zoey says, folding her arms across her chest.
“Serg thinks that by talking big, you’ve got pull in this city. But that’s not how it works. I needed to show him not to fuck with me and not to fuck with my empire, which I built from the ground up. And as expected, when he heard of Chow’s death by my hand, he went into hiding like the little momma’s boy that he is.” There is nothing but contempt toward Serg. It seems their hatred runs both ways.
