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“A gun, Benny?” I ask. “Really? And after I agreed to your terms, no less.”
Benedict narrows his eyes. “Trying to goad me, Ilarion?”
“Trying toteachyou, my friend. I did once before, but I guess the lesson didn’t stick. So here it is a second time: when you strip away all the excess, all the bluster and bravado, a man’s word is the only thing he has. Trust, Benedict. Trust can be worth a lot more than you realize.”
“How long do you think you can stay on your high horse?” Benedict scoffs. “It’s going to buck you off sooner rather than later. In fact—” He checks his watch. “My bet’s on ‘sooner.’”
I snort. “Of course you’re cocky now. You’ve got two guns on two unarmed men. But then, I suppose that’s your best chance of winning.”
His expression turns black. “Pissing me off right now isn’t your wisest choice, Zakharov.”
“Don’t you understand, Benedict? I can do and say whatever I want. I’m not scared of you. Never was, if you recall. And I never will be.”
His face flushes with anger when I bring up The Incident. He may be the one holding a gun, but the past is the only weapon I need to bring him to his knees.
“It’s going to look bad, wouldn’t you say?” I muse, meandering in his direction. “Killing me and my man in what was supposed to be a peaceful meeting? It’s not as if our respective families don’t know what happened fifteen years ago. Hell, whodoesn’tknow? Half the city was watching. So do it, fine—but you’ll come off looking like a coward. To no one’s surprise, of course.”
“You’ll be dead,” he growls. “I can tell the world whatever story I want and they’ll have to believe me.”
“Have to?” I ask. “No, I don’t think so. We both have reputations. My men know who I am. They know I would never dishonor a gentleman’s agreement. Not even for you. You, on the other hand…” I move my gaze to his goon. “Your men know damn well that you’re a coward.”
He cringes and marches closer to me, though he pauses just out of arm’s reach. His finger is trembling on the trigger.
Dima sidles up to my side. I know him well enough to guess that he’s planning to push me out of the way if he needs to.
But I understand Benedict better than he does. Better than anyone does. He’s not going to attack me until he’s got the last word in. Until he feels like he’s won the argument.
“Look at you,” he spits. “The only don I know with a moral compass. Tell me, Ilarion: where was your moral compass when you murdered your father?”
I loft a brow. “It was aiming the gun.”
“Ah, yes.” He nods. “That’s the party line, isn’t it? Except I know you would never kill your father. He was yourpakhan. Loyalty is everything with you Zakharovs. Well, most of you, at least.”
I tense up as he keeps talking, but I also take the opportunity to inch towards him. He’s so caught up in the melody of his own voice that he barely seems to notice.
“But there’s something to be said for a son who usurps the seat of his father. It was yours to take and the old man was making mistakes. It must have been easy for your men to accept.”
“Like I said, my men have faith in me.”
Benedict nods somberly. “Do they have the same faith in your lovely sister?”
My eyes narrow when he mentions Mila. Dima is similarly tense at my side. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?” he taunts. “Because as far as I understand it, you weren’t the one who killed your father.She was.”
61
ILARION
Fuck him. Fuck this motherfucker to hell. If the circumstances were different, I would leave him to rot in the corner of my darkest prison.
“I don’t know who your source is, but they’re wrong.”
Benedict shakes his head with a haughty chuckle. “No, no, I don’t think so. I think my source knows exactly what they’re talking about. That little hellcat has a look in her eyes… She’s capable of anything. I saw that in her fifteen years ago.”
“She was thirteen years old, you pervert,” I snarl. “She was a child.”
“Said like a protective older brother,” he drawls. “One who’s willing to look the other way when his sister performs the ultimate act of betrayal. Tell me, would your men be as willing to forgive if they knew Mila was the one who killed theirpakhan?”
