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“Fuck, brother. You remember you were getting on to my arse not that long ago about trying to do things on my own. Never let anyone outside of family dispose of anything that can be tied back to us. We'll have to rectify that ASAP.”
“Yeah, given the circumstances, I couldn't agree more. I don't know how deep the betrayal goes, but I think, at minimum, Liam is part of it.”
Lennon goes over to my wet bar and pours himself a drink. “Shite, I need a drink for this mess. I can’t believe this wasn’t the first thing you told me last night. I knew something was wrong. Why do you suspect Liam?”
“Liam referred Shane for the job when I explained I didn’t want to pull all of my men from New York. I still needed some to remain to keep watch of my other properties. He told me he knew a guy, and with the addition of him that we could make it work. He said he and Shane were longtime mates and worked a regular security job together about ten years ago. He doesn't know what I've managed to discover last night when I finally decided to dig deeper. The real Shane only went missing a week ago, which coincides with the hire of the impostor.”
“Damn. That means Liam would’ve had to know he was an impostor. You don't have a longtime mate and not know what the fuck he looks like. This is worse than I thought.”
“Yeah, because now I don't know the real reason for him bringing ‘impostor Shane’ here. The only info I have is that the impostor was talking shite about me to Vasilisa. Telling her that I'm dangerous and could hurt her if she wasn't careful.”
I decide to join my brother for a drink. I fix myself two fingers neat of whiskey before we take a seat on the sofa.
“He was working on building her trust,” Lennon says finally. “But the question is why? Nobody is supposed to know you're here or that you're arranging to marry into the Russian family.”
“But if Liam has gone rogue, that may no longer hold true. Fuck, he's been with our family for over eight years. Our father trusted him. We trusted him.”
“Fuck that sentimental bullshite. We took out half our clan for being disloyal. He will suffer the same fate.”
“I'm not being sentimental. You forget I was there and an active participant in that bloodbath. I will always do what is necessary, but not before I torture the truth out of him.”
“Good. This needs to happen sooner than later. Every minute he is allowed to be on this earth is another minute he has to betray our family—our clan. And trust me, I plan to be right there when you get answers.”
“Yeah. I didn't want to dump all of this on your plate. You have enough with being the new Clan Chief and all that comes with that. Not to mention, our continued search for our father's murderer.”
“Bullshite, brother. I will always have your back and anything that affects you is clan business.”
I nod in agreement, relieved to actually have my brother here even though I didn't invite him here. I wanted to show that I'm capable of handling things on my own. “I appreciate that,” I acknowledge. It's good to know our brotherly telepathy transcends across states.”
“Always, although we shouldn't need telepathy. We can't start keeping shite from each other. Especially not now. We're all we've got.” He takes another sip of his drink before leaning back on the sofa. “So what's the plan?”
“First, we brunch with the ladies so they can meet Vasilisa, and then we head down to my security quarters to have a little one-on-one with Liam.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Lennon says, finishing off his drink. “So tell me about Vasilisa? How are the two of you faring?”
“What about her?” I ask, obviously deflecting.
“She's been here for a while now. Does she seem to be warming up to you or the ideal of marriage? I couldn't find much about her, but from what I hear, she is a real firecracker.”
“She’s definitely a firecracker and a true enigma.”
“How so?”
“She has a hard exterior and tries to be so damn tough all the time. I already told you that she tried to throw my last principal over the balcony over some guy who rejected her. Sometimes I think she's bat shite crazy and other times a glimpse of her sensitive side filters through.”
I don’t share info about her kink. That would, in turn, be revealing mine—not exactly a conversation I want to be having with my brother.
“She sounds like Aurora when I first brought her into my home. You have your work cut out for you, brother.” He laughs.
I chuckle, knowing Lennon is right. “Yeah, but I've never been one to back down from a challenge. I will break her in the end.”
“That's what I'm afraid of,” he says, teasingly. “You're underestimating the work it’s going to take, but we can chat more on that later. You’ll have to approach her differently. If it’s just pure dominance, she is prepared for that … hell, being the daughter of a Mafia boss prepared her for that. You will never get through to her by just being a dick. You have to give her a reason to submit,” Lennon surmises.
“Her reason is that I own her.” I chuckle. “Don't tell me marriage has already made you soft.”
“Hell, no,” he insists. “But don't say I didn't try to warn you. That was some solid advice.”
We join in laughter before I finish my drink and make our way back to the solarium where the women are already enjoying brunch. Vasilisa catches my eye, and I can see the guarded expression on her face. I give her a reassuring smirk before taking my place at the head of the table. I forgot I asked Samuel to bring her down for brunch. The women already seem to be taking a liking to her.
