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Kira smiled, but it didn’t touch her pale eyes. “Family is the most dangerous of all, Rocco Luciano,” she said quietly.
Rocco turned his attention to her. “And who might you be?”
“She’s my fiancée,” Kon said, and Kira’s face dropped any pretense of a smile. The woman looked murderous at his statement.
“She looks thrilled about it too. Anyway, back to Kat and Hanna. Where are they? I want to see them,” I stated flatly.
“And see them you shall,” Kon said, beckoning into the shadows.
Kat walked out of the darkness, her eyes flashing above the piece of tape over her mouth.
I reached for her, and Konstantin tutted. “Not so fast. First, an agreement must be reached.”
Kat rolled her eyes in annoyance, reassuring me she wasn’t hurt.
“Hana, too,” I maintained.
Something flashed through Konstantin’s eyes at the sound of my sister’s name. He shifted forward, looking every inch a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He braced his elbows on his knees and fixed his pale green eyes on me unwaveringly. For a wild second, I thought he might refuse to bring Hana to me. Was she hurt?
He nodded, and Kat disappeared.“She’s coming,” he muttered. “She’s quite the handful, your little sister.”
“That’s something we have in common.” I waited tensely for Kat to reappear. This time, she was leading Hana before her.
Hana’s eyes widened when she saw me, and I noticed that she, unlike Kat, wasn’t wearing a gag.“Jae, you came.”
“Of course, I came. I’m sorry you got mixed up in this. Did he hurt you?”
Hana turned and looked at Konstantin. That look was utterly unreadable. It went on for a second, but it felt like a lifetime. Rocco tilted his head to the side. He’d noticed it too. Something passed between Konstantin Ivanov and Hana at that moment, and I needed to know what it was. However, there was time for all that later when I got her home.
“No. He hasn’t. He’s been the perfect gentleman,” Hana said finally in a tone I couldn’t read.
Kon was staring at my youngest sister as if she was a puzzle he longed to solve. I needed to get her away from him as quickly as possible. Nothing good could come of the tension between them.
“Let’s talk terms, Konstantin, since you’ve been a good boy and not harmed your precious cargo,” Rocco interjected, breaking the spell that had fallen over us. “As I said, we are now all family. It doesn’t make sense to lose time and money fighting each other.”
“Agreed, so give me a piece of the Luciano-Song pie, and I’ll be happy,” Kon said, sitting back in his throne-like desk chair and grinning at us.
Rocco raised an eyebrow. “How big a piece of the pie are we talking?”
“I’m no math prodigy, but a third seems about right,” he said.
Fucking hell. I steadied my anger and forced a calm note to my voice. “A third? What do you bring that we don’t have?”
“Your wife and sister for a start,” Kon growled.
“I’m not talking about blackmail or leverage, I’m talking about business, and if you want to make money in this city, you’d better start thinking in those terms. New York is a playground for men, not boys,” I growled at him.
He flew toward me, a flurry of motion designed to make me flinch. I didn’t move a muscle when he got in my face. Close up, I realized why I’d hit a nerve. Konstantin was young—much younger than Rocco and me. That revelation made what he’d achieved even more impressive.
“Don’t patronize me. My father did that one too many times, so I boiled his head and fed the broth to my bratva,” he snarled.
The vivid imagery made me queasy. Only Kat’s rolling eyes reassured me he was exaggerating.
“Fine. We cut you into the alliance, but you keep your rabid wolves on a tight leash. You do what we say because we know this city. If it takes finesse, a Song or Luciano does it.”
“And if it takes skull smashing, an Ivanov does it? Are you trying to bargain your way into having a go-to bratva of enforcers?” he pressed.
I shrugged. “Why not go with your strengths and still get a third of the take?”
