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Tension clutched my guts. I’d known things with my father were escalating, but I didn’t expect it to spiral so quickly. I was distracted by Mallory, and mistakes could cost me everything.
I walked at an unhurried pace toward the makeshift office Viktor kept here. It was the same one where he’d blown out my knee seven years ago. Fuck, I hated the man with a passion, and one day, I’d keep my promise to my mother and kill the sick fuck.
“Kirill, son, thank you for joining us. You seem busy lately,” Viktor said, pointing me to a chair before his scratched-up desk.
Niko lounged by the window, looking like a true circus freak in the late morning sunshine. His neck tattoos stood out, startlingly black against his tanned skin, and his dark eyes watched me with dangerous amusement. Nothing that amused my brother could be good.
“Business is booming, that’s all.”
“Is it? Good to hear. In a different life, you could have been a great businessman. You always were good at making money.”
“Were?”
Viktor shrugged, enjoying having set everyone on edge. “Are.”
“The bratva makes a lot of money from my business,” I reminded my father coolly.
“I can’t say it doesn’t. My successor would be obvious if you didn’t make so much.” He nodded toward Nikolai. “Niko has the flare for this work. You don’t, but you bring home the most bacon.”
“I thought the purpose of the bratva was to protect each other and prosper, not to mindlessly engage in murder and mayhem for fun and no profit.”
Viktor nodded sagely. “I know you believe that. You’ve worked hard to make us prosperous, and marrying Sofia De Sanctis will cement that income.”
“I don’t need the De Sanctis’s. It’s another family to share the pot with.”
“It’s another family to spread the risk with,” Viktor argued.
“You’re being short-sighted,” I fumed, losing my grip on my temper.
Viktor’s meaty eyes narrowed. “And you’re forgetting your place, boy.”
He nodded to Niko, who wandered out of the room. My eyes were locked with my father’s, and I couldn’t afford to look away. Viktor was on the prowl for a weakness, and I’d only walk out of here alive if he didn’t find any.
“You know, being here reminds me of the night you came to me. I know you resent me for dashing your track dreams, but one day, you’ll thank me.”
“How do you figure that?” I snapped.
Viktor moved to sit on the edge of his desk. If he’d been armed, I’d suspect he was about to blow out my knee again.
Pytor and Ivan shifted in the doorway. They were loyal to me and would go down with me if Viktor had come to kill me in the same office where he had first taken my life.
But he folded his arms across his barrel chest and stared out the window at the murky water.“You didn’t know who you were then. You were pretending to be who your mother wanted you to be. You weren’t being true to your blood. Fiona knew that. Why do you think she worked so hard to keep you from me? She knew what lived inside you. Didn’t you ever consider that?” He turned his head and gave me a sideways, considering look. “She wasn’t keeping the dark out and protecting her son. She was holding it back to protect the world – from you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You never knew Fiona.”
“I knew her as well as a man can know a woman. As much as she’d let me. They never really let you in once they understand what you are. That was true for Fiona Lewis, and it’s true for Mallory Madison.”
A cold chill fell across me like someone had walked over my grave. Mallory’s name in my father’s mouth made me feel sick.
Viktor turned to me. “I told you to end it.”
“She’s not the reason I won’t marry Sofia.”
Viktor chuckled. “Isn’t she?”
I shook my head. I was frantic with worry, though I couldn’t show it. “I don’t want to align with the De Sanctis’s, and I’ll show you why.”
With a hand I prayed didn’t tremble and betray my anger, I reached for the printout I’d discovered this morning and handed it to Viktor.
