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“Remember, half the people serving you and your brother were once loyal to me. I have eyes and ears everywhere, Dima.”
The more I listen to this woman, the more uneasy I become. If I’m not already on her bad side, I want to avoid it at all costs.
“Your father will be fine,” Catherina says coldly. Without another word, she wheels Lev out of the room and disappears from sight.
Chapter 17
Dimitri
I’m livid.
Who does Catherina think she is? She can’t just walk into my home, take my father, and ship him off to another country. Sometimes I’m convinced she isn’t human. She left in such a hurry I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. But she’s always been distant and heartless.
Catherina has a wonderful way of souring my mood.
“She justtookhim,” I grumble, my phone pressed to my ear. “I should have stopped her. Maybe it isn’t too late.”
“I need you to breathe, Dimitri,” Pyotr replies.
It’s almost midnight his time, but I know him well enough to know he wasn’t asleep. People like to assume we’re the same in many ways because we’re twins. They think we have some sort of psychic connection and can finish each other’s sentences, but that’s not the case. Pyotr and I have always been opposites, whether it was intentional to try and stand apart from one another, or it just happened to be that way, I can’t really be sure.
Where I’m the more outgoing one, Pyotr would rather stick needles in his eyes than hold a pleasant conversation with anyone. I’ve always been a morning person, while Pyotr has always been the night owl. It’s for this reason he’s my closest confidant. When I’m irate, he’s level-headed. What upsets me, doesn’t upset him and vice versa. We can vent to one another without having to worry about stressing the other person out.
“To be fair,” my brother goes on, “it does sound like you’ve got a bit of a situation on your hands. It’s one less person to worry about.”
I sigh heavily. “Lev has been by himself fordecades. And now she wants to lock him up someplace where he doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t know the people? It’s fucking awful.”
“Yes, I agree, but it’s also not your call.”
“He’s our father.”
“She’s his wife. Catherina legally has more say than the rest of us.”
“It’s bullshit.”
“I don’t disagree, but you’d be hard pressed to try and fight her. You know what she’s like once she’s made her mind up.”
I rest my elbow on the edge of my desk. My whole body feels heavy. “You’re right.”
“Damn straight, I’m right. Don’t worry, Dima. I know you want to make every problem yours to fix, but there’s no shame in admitting when you can’t handle something.”
I curl my nose. “I don’t do that.”
“Yes, you do. You’ve been like this since we were boys. You’re the mediator of the family, always have been.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Who was the first person to break up a fight when Mikhail and I got rowdy? Or what about the time Luka was being bullied at school? Who put a stop to it?”
I roll my eyes. “I was looking out for my family. That’s not something to applaud.”
“And when Mikhail decided to take over the Bratva from Konstantin, who decided to upend his life in New York so he wouldn’t have to do it alone?”
“Being a Bratva head is dangerous work,” I reason. “Too many snakes to look out for. Mikhail needed someone to watch his back.”
“Sure, that may be true, but…”
“But what?”
