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For a moment, we sat there in silence as we finished out hot dogs. It was odd that there was a weird camaraderie between the two of us, despite having only met briefly for one moment. There was something about Isaac that sucked you into his easy smile. Leo had the same thing, but it was different. It felt more sinister and dangerous whereas Isaac’s felt warm and friendly.
“How are things with my brother?” Isaac asked.
The question wasn’t shocking, but I was surprised that he just asked outright. I crinkled my nose as I thought about his brother. “They are fine,” I said, not wanting to give too much away. It seemed that Isaac and Leo were not on the best terms, and I was not interested in wading into some family drama. Lord knew that I had my own family drama to content with.
Isaac chuckled. “That’s much more diplomatic than I assumed you would be,” he said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shrugged that good natured smile still on his face, but now, there was a part of me that wanted to slap said face as hard as I could. I was absolutely sick of people having their own opinions about me.
“Can I be blunt?”
I rolled my eyes. “I hate when people say that,” I told him. “Who the hell wants to be plied with lies?”
“True,” he conceded. “But I know that you are being forced to marry my brother, and if you’d rather delude yourself into having a good impression of him…” He trailed off, and I looked at him praying that he would continue. “I don’t want to destroy that if that’s what you’ve decided.”
I knew what he was saying. There were a lot of unhappy marriages in the Bratva. Even more unhappy women. Most buried their heads in the sand when they knew that their husbands were screwing their mistresses. The men were terrifying, dangerous, murderers after all.
“I prefer to live in reality,” I told Isaac. “I’m not the type to shy away from the truth. We live in a world that is filled with unpleasant things. It is better to know than hide your head in a fox hole hoping it does not get blown off.”
It was a graphic metaphor but one I’d adhered to my entire life. The only time I allowed myself to be lied to was when I believed that my father had enough sense to name me Pakhan. That had been a mistake, and I was seeing that now. If I had not been so naïve, I would have paid more attention, and I might have been able to change the trajectory of things.
Now, I was cleaning up a fucking mess, and things were likely to get worse before they got better.
“If there is something that you need to say to me, say it.”
Isaac released a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. It almost seemed as though he felt some sort of remorse about telling her whatever it was that he was going to say, which made me all the more intrigued.
“Leo is the golden child of our family,” Isaac said. There was a bit of anger behind his voice, or likely, resentment. I understood that. Though I did not have siblings, I knew what it felt like to be viewed as the black sheep of the family just by existing. “My father was married to Leo’s mother before he met my mother, and somehow, my own mother cares for him more than me - though she would never admit it.”
“Shit,” I muttered. The Petrov family was much messier than I thought possible. Why would my father want Leo to become Pakhan? This family sounded like they had the potential to be a problem.
“You can say that again,” he said.
“While this is interesting, I am not sure why you are telling me this. No offense, but the fact that Leo is apparently the second coming in your family just makes me like him less, but it’s also whatever. I don’t think that my father is going to suddenly start looking at other options because he’s perfect.”
A stormy look overtook Isaac’s face. “Obviously, there is more. I’m just setting the scene.”
I nodded, but I could feel myself losing interest in this conversation. Leo apparently caused a Blanchi woman’s death, which was terrible, but also no worse than most of my family members.
I had plenty of reasons not to like Leo, and several orgasms that made me question if there was a way he could be useful in my life. There really was not a lot that could be said to me that would make me change my opinion on him too much.
“Leo never wanted to go to law school. He wanted to leave the Bratva and go to architecture school.”
“What?” I was shocked. I knew that he was not keen on becoming a lawyer, but I could not picture him drawing buildings either. Leo struck me as the type who liked to be in control, but now, I wondered if this was a new thing that developed when he realized that he had little control over his own life.
“He was going to tell my father to screw himself and take his chances, but then, something happened, and next thing I know he’s in law school and being primed to take over the family.”
“What happened?”
Leo shifted uncomfortably. He might not love his brother. I suspected that he would have been happy if Leo decided that he was going to leave the family and take his chances on his own, Isaac would be primed to be the head of his family, which meant that he might have been able to be Pakhan. I wondered if that was what this was.
Was he bitter? And how could I use that to my advantage?
I laughed, even though it was forced. “Come on,” I pressed. “You cannot just leave me hanging like that.”
Isaac did not smile.
