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"He is a man," Fabio replied. "Think, Anton. How are men kept in line, son?"
"Death," Yegor muttered from his perch on the couch. "Better again, go back in time and leave the bastard in the slums with his God and his god-worshipping mommy. That's where he belongs. If you don't have the heart to kill him, I'm sure his priest and his holy women would take him back in."
"Leave us!" Fabio barked loudly.
Yegor's sulky expression turned into one of shock. "But –"
"Get out," his father repeated. "You are thinking like a child and not the man you were raised to be. You disappoint me. Leave now before I decide to have two eunuch sons."
Yegor moved faster than I'd seen him since I got here. It wasn’t until he was gone from the room with the door closed behind him that Anton spoke.
"I don’t understand," he told his father, speaking in a far more respectful tone than his brother had used.
That's the one,my mind told me.
He'll take the throne.
"I mean no disrespect, Father, but the boy does not come across to me as being reasonable."
"He is not," Fabio agreed, clapping his oldest son on the shoulder. "But he is passionate. He is full of passion – overloaded with unrestrained, raw emotion. It is going to get him killed long before his time," he added with a long sigh. "But before it does, he is going to make me a fortune."
"And how do you plan on winning him over to our way of thinking?"
"Tell me, son," Fabio replied. "What do passionate men think with?"
"Their hearts, Father," his son dutifully replied.
Fabio nodded approvingly. "And what are passionate men drawn to?"
"Pussy," Anton replied without hesitation. "The ultimate weakness."
"Very good," his father praised. "It starts when a man is in the womb. Some grow attached to their birth whore. Natural enough – she provides them with nourishment from her body and the basic nurturing an infant requires. However, if the connection is not severed at an early age, it can become a terminal weakness to the man." He sighed heavily. "Unfortunately for your brother, the nun coddled him to her breast for far too long. She raised him with women and she made my son weak. He doesn't understand our world. He sees whores as equals – something he displayed tonight with your brother. Women are his weakness, son, and that is exactly how we will control him. We will offer him an incentive of sorts for his submission." He smirked. "A tempting prize he will undoubtedly conform for."
Anton frowned. "But the nun –"
"I'm not talking about the nun," Fabio quickly cut him off. "He is almost a man. He has sexual urges his whore mother could never sate. Urges that will sway his mind. Think smarter."
I saw the moment recognition dawned on Anton Crellid because his mouth fell open.
"Father." He shook his head. "She is supposed to be for one of your full-blood sons. She is promised to a Crellid – not a bastard."
"And yet, she belongs to a bastard," Fabio mused.
My heart flipped in my chest.
They were talking about me.
They were going to give me to the bastard.
Why was I not scared about this?
Why did this make me relieved?
"I will offer him the heiress whore," Fabio continued. "He's already interested – whether he realizes it or not. He's been watching her. Can't seem to help himself. His hungry, teenage eyes follow her everywhere she goes. A blind man could see that. And tonight's charade only signified how deeply he is affected by her." Grinning, he added, "My old brother-in-arms has given me a gift from beyond the grave with his daughter. She will be an irresistible carrot to dangle."
"He won't go for it," Anton was quick to say. "You saw what he did to Vas – she's too young. He shows honor – and respect to women."
"Exactly," his father chuckled. "There is more to passion than desire, son. With passion comes a deep sense of responsibility and the need to protect. And the bastard will protect her innocence to a fault because that is what his whore mother taught him to do. Women are his Achilles heel. She will become his greatest weakness. And I will take her back from him the moment he steps out of line."
