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“You will gain more trust from a woman as her caring husband than as some emotionless pakhan, Andrushka.” She hands me back the empty glass. “Youare the best one to get her secrets. Remember, it’s easier to attract bees with honey instead of vinegar.”
“Her father knew Sidorenko.”
Sonya nods, and her bubbly mood shifts to thoughtful. She hasn’t been raised in the Bratva, but she’s witnessed enough from a close distance to recognize the names. She knows the players and who to avoid.
“Mama says theweddingwas fake, but themarriageis real,” Sonya continues and pats my arm. “For her sake, I will spend the day with Paige. Help her see the perks of being a pakhan’s wife. Maybe she’ll appreciate it and you a little more.”
I place the glass down, not bothering with a refill. “And if she trusts you, she might talk to you.”
Sonya sighs as if the battle has been lost. “Don’t ask me to be your spy, Andrushka. Not with your wife.”
“She’s the key.” My voice is insistent. “And her father may help me find The Thief, Sonichka. I have a duty before anything else, and that duty requires me to know her secrets.”
Sonya tilts her head to the side and stares at me the same way Mother does. “But not to fall in love, my dear brother?”
And before I have a chance to respond, she’s out the door.
***
We rarely speak at dinner. Mother insists upon not eating with us. She claims that she wants us to get to know one another better while she spends more time with Sonya. But I think it’s the sight of the two of us fighting in the same room where Father used to beat her that gives her some pause.
Paige pokes at her plate with her fork, moving her food around to hide the fact she’s not eating.
I put my napkin on the table, and she looks up. “My sister Sonya wants to spend the day with you in Twin Rivers,” I say.
She shrugs. “That’s nice.”
For a second, I frown, then recover.Honey, not vinegar. “She was concerned about the misunderstanding.”
Paige’s eyes widen into circles. “You told her?”
“I didn’t need to.” Now, I’m the one who shrugs. “And anyway, you are related now. She wants to show you the perks of being part of the Bratva.”
“You mean looting and killing are not perks?” she asks sarcastically.
I scowl at her, and the smirk vanishes off her face. She concentrates on her food again. What was once a gourmet meal on her plate now resembles a cranky toddler’s mess.
“Sorry,” she replies. “It’s nice of her to ask. And I’m also sorry for how I reacted.”
I don’t speak until Paige looks up so that I have her full attention. “I admire the fire I saw in you as you stormed toward me. It’s a reminder of what drew me to you in the first place. Courage when I least expect it.” My voice is deep, revealing too much. “I like that you want to keep what belongs to you.”
She scowls. “You have no idea.” She looks down at her plate again and mashes a pea with the tines of her fork.
A moment later, she asks, “If Sonya’s your sister, then why wasn’t she at the wedding? And if she’s your half-sister, then who was her father?”
I lift the wineglass to my lips but don’t drink. My own thoughts halt my hand as the past reappears in my mind. The memory will never go away.
A sobbing woman clutching her swollen belly on the floor as blood pours from her lips. A helpless boy screaming futilely at a monster through a haze of defiant tears. And all around them, a rain of fists falls like a storm amidst the sound of cracking bones.
“We all have our secrets,” I tell her and then take a sip of wine. “And this one is Eva’s.”
Chapter 29
Paige
I stand there pigeon-toed, clutching the straps of my purse. One of my former neighbor’s beloved house cats escaped the apartment building and we found it an hour later, shaking under a city bench. It leaped into her arms and never left the house again. I remember laughing at the silly animal. But I get it now.
Before I can leave to meet Sonya, Andrei lines up his men in the foyer. They stand shoulder to shoulder as he marches in front of them, giving them strict orders to keep me safe and never lose sight of me.
