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Dima gives me one of those piercing gazes that saysyou aren’t fooling me. “You’re always a second away from saying Taylor’s name,” he muses. “One day, you just might slip.”
I scowl and glance away from him. “That won’t happen.”
“Because you won’t slip?” he asks. “Or because you’ve decided to take my advice and swap the two sisters out?”
“You clearly don’t know much about women, do you?” I growl. “And even less about these two. Neither one will go for it, and I’m not about to make the suggestion.”
“Because you’re worried she’ll say no?”
He’s skating on thin ice right now, but he pushes through anyway. It’s the reason he’s lasted this long at my side. It’s also the reason I’m never more than a few seconds away from smacking him upside the head.
“I know she’ll say no. That’s not the point. I’m not about to exchange a tamed mare for an unbroken filly.”
“Even if you have real feelings for the latter?” he asks.
“She’s nothing more than the woman who’s pregnant with my baby.”
“Right. You know, you never did tell me what led to that night in the first place. You claimed it was coincidental—”
“Because it was.”
“…But there was something about this woman that forced you to break your dry spell.” I glare at him and he just smiles unapologetically at me. “Yeah, I was keeping track. You hadn’t gotten laid in ages before Taylor came along. And as for Celine, we both know—”
“What do you want me to say?” I interrupt. “That harps started to play? That there was a magical connection? A rush of chemistry? Fireworks in the background?”
“Oh, really? Sounds magical.”
“Fuck you,” I grumble. “I was horny; she was willing. That’s all there was to it.” I turn away before he can spot some telltale sign on my face. It’s easier to keep the mask on when you’re with people who don’t know you that well. It’s why I try to avoid Mila as much as possible these days.
“Benedict’s pride is wounded right now,” I remark, changing the topic back to more relevant matters. “He’s going to want to strike back hard. He’s going to want to erase the image of his hands in cuffs with a ball gag in his mouth.”
Dima squats down to the floor and picks up a stray bullet casing lodged between the boards. He toys with it before tossing it aside and rising again. “There’s one thing I’m trying to figure out.”
“Just one?”
“Two, actually. This, and ‘Why are you such an asshole all the time’?” He rolls his eyes. “No, my question is,What is Benedict’s end goal?All these years, things have been simmering. He’s wanted to be the one on top, but both of you have power, property, and influence. It’s an abundance of riches and he owns half of it. Does it matter that you own the other half?”
I think about the day that Benedict and I met. People assume that if the circumstances had been different, we might have been friends. But I knew from the moment I laid eyes on the snot-nosed Bellasio boy that it would never happen.
Benedict was a grade-A narcissist with no concept of loyalty. He expected it, he demanded it, but he wasn’t accustomed to giving it. Which was why he came to blows with his father so often.
Not that I could fault him with that. I came to blows with my father often, too. But then, he was a fucking monster.
“It matters,” I say. “It’s not enough for him to succeed. He needs to see me fail, too.”
Dima shakes his head. “Because you beat him in a fight once upon a time when you were kids?”
“No,” I say. “Because I humiliated him in front of his men and mine. And Benedict Bellasio never forgives a slight.”
“Time to humiliate the fucker once more, don’t you think?” Dima asks with a sly smile.
I nod. “Soon enough. For now, a meeting will have to suffice.”
“A meeting?” Dima asks incredulously. “With Benedict? After everything he tried?”
“I need a jumping-off point before this goes further. And we need to determine how much of a player the old man will be going forward. For that, I need him alive.”
Dima whistles low. “I smell a shitstorm brewing.”
