AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Only because I took over for Mikhail.”
“You’re charming.”
“I think you’re the only person who thinks so.”
“And I’m sure you must know a thing or two about computers! You run a cybersecurity company, after all.”
Pyotr shrugs. “Not enough to be classified as a genius like Luka.”
I huff in disbelief. This is the first time I’ve seen Pyotr so vulnerable, yet he doesn’t look like he cares much what others think of him. Even his own mother. I wonder how long it took him to get to that place.
“I still don’t get why your mother would do this,” I say, running my hand over a burn in his shoulder.
“Catherina was angry at the world after we were run out of Russia. She needed a punching bag, so I guess using her least favorite son was her best option.”
I blink up at him. “Run out of Russia?”
“It’s a long story. Before your time.”
I laugh softly, despite myself. “Was that an attempt at a joke?”
“Did it work?”
“Only a little.”
Pyotr runs his fingers slowly through my hair. “When I was a little boy, our uncle, Konstantin, drove us out of Russia after my father betrayed him. We were on the run. If we’d been caught, it would have cost us our lives.”
I’d obviously heard stories about Konstantin Antonov. He was ruthless. Bloodthirsty. Unbending and capable of the truly unspeakable. But I always took those stories with a grain of salt. Most of the time, they’re more fiction than fact. This little tidbit Pyotr’s offered me, however, rings true.
“I had no idea.”
“It’s not exactly a story we blast all over the underworld. All that matters is we made it out, eventually came back to Moscow to claim what was ours, and the Antonovs have been in control ever since. That didn’t stop Catherina from being a miserable bitch and terrible mother, though.”
My heart sinks. “Where is she now? Rotting in hell, I hope.”
“No. She and my father live upstate. I refuse to see her. My brothers think I’m being too cold, but in truth, there’s no love lost between us.”
“Do they now know what she did to you?”
Pyotr shakes his head. “I suffered in silence. I was just a boy. It never occurred to me to ask for help. Even if I had, what could my brothers do?”
A heavy tear streaks down my cheeks. “I don’t know,” I say around a sniffle. “They could have donesomething.”
“And risk Catherina’s wrath? I would never have wanted that for them.”
“So you took the brunt of her cruelty for them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I love my brothers. I’d do anything for them. Hell, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” Pyotr wipes my eyes with the pads of his thumbs. “Don’t cry, Alina.”
“But—” I hiccup.
Now that I’ve started, I can’t stop. It’s no wonder Pyotr doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. After what was undoubtedly years spent suffering at the hands of his mother, why wouldn’t he turn himself into stone? I thought he was intimidating and cold by nature, but now I see it was the result of turning inward. Nobody can hurt him if he doesn’t let them in.
Suddenly it all makes sense. When I first got here, I thought this penthouse—his castle in the sky—was some sort of display of power as he looked down upon the rest of the world. Now I see it for what it really is. A fortress, a safe haven where no one can hurt him.
