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“Damien tends to be an ass. I’m sorry that you have to deal with that,” she said. “We’ve had our issues, and I’ve done things I regret, but he doesn’t have the mentality to forgive and forget. He holds grudges.”
“What made him hate you?” I asked as I began beating the eggs. “It seems like you’re a pretty nice person.”
Her smile widened, but I saw something cunning in her eyes. From that alone, I could tell that she wasn’t sharing everything, but that didn’t bother me much. She was on Viktor’s payroll, and that had to come with secrets. Maybe she’d done something that she didn’t want to talk about.
“It was my fault that his fiancée left him,” she admitted.
“I can see why he’d be mad.”
She nodded. “He makes judgments and then rides with them. He hates me for a good reason, but he hates you, too. I can’t figure out why he would. You seem like a good match for Viktor, but he can’t see it for some reason.”
“I’m aware,” I grumbled, stirring the eggs and adding freshly grated cheese. “He’s trying to look out for him, I think.”
Nadia nodded, biting her thumbnail as she stared at the counter in front of her. It looked almost as if she was trying to decide whether or not to tell me something, but I didn’t push. I let her think as I continued working on the breakfast. Finally, after a few minutes, she looked at me again. “I want to tell you something but don’t want to start issues. The last thing I want to do is cause drama for my brother, even though he deserves it sometimes. Can we maybe just keep it between us?”
I nodded, having no idea where she was going with this. “You can bring anything up to me,” I told her.
“I’m just concerned about what Damien plans to do next,” she admitted. “I know you’re dealing with a lot right now, and it’s not fair to put more on your plate. But I want you to be wary of him. He wants to see you fail, and you already have a bounty on your head. I don’t want him to get ideas to profit from that while getting rid of you.”
I froze, looking up at Nadia. It hadn’t even crossed my mind that Damien would ever do something so heinous. I knew he didn’t like me, and if I fell out of Viktor’s life, he’d certainly be happy. But… it made sense. If he wanted to get rid of me, using the people already on my ass would do that more efficiently than anything else.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t want to freak you out, and I doubt he would ever do that.”
But he would, and Nadia only said it because she suspected something like that, too. She would never have mentioned it if she wasn’t concerned. And now, a bit of concern welled in my own chest.
Nadia left a few moments later, claiming that she had a lot of work to do after Andrei handed her down some of his more menial tasks. I finished preparing breakfast in silence, going as far as to turn down my music as I thought about the possibility of Damien betraying Viktor in such a way. There was no proof, and Nadia had made me promise to keep it between us, but what if I didn’t tell Viktor and something happened?
I could at least tell him about my suspicion, even if it may have been unwarranted.
I brought platters of plates, stacked up both of my arms, to Sean’s room, and Viktor was the first to jerk awake, the dregs of sleep still heavy in his eyes.
“Good morning,” I whispered, setting the food between us. I moved back down the stairs and gathered the orange juice and cups, carrying those upstairs, too. By the time I returned, Sean sat up in bed and stretched, looking between me and Viktor.
“Breakfast in bed?” he asked excitedly.
“You were a trooper last night. You deserve it,” I told him with a wide grin. “And so were you,” I told Viktor, giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek.
Sean reached forward toward a plate, but I smacked his hand away. “You need to wash your hands,” I reminded him.
He grumbled and rushed into the bathroom, likely to rinse his hands and rush back in. It didn’t matter, though. I leaned into Viktor, knowing I needed to tell him my thoughts before breakfast. “Thank you,” I whispered to him.
“No thanks are necessary.”
I bit my lip and nodded. “So, I was thinking about this whole situation, and I… I was wondering how you feel about Damien?”
“Why?” he asked, his expression hardening.
“Nothing happened. And I have nothing to go off of. I’m just wondering how far he’d go to get away from me. I know he’s trying to protect you, but I also know he stands to gain a lot from the Irish mob if he goes about it a certain way.” I shrugged. “It’s a long shot to even assume that. I just—”
“I’ll look into it,” he said, cutting me off. “It’s never bad to be too cautious.”
By the time Sean came back into the room, we were assembling plates, but I saw the hard, determined look in Viktor’s eyes. I knew that if there was something here, he’d find it before it became a threat.
Chapter Fifteen
Viktor Nikolaev
Andrei sat across from me as we went through the file, and he never once questioned the reason we pulled all of Damien’s tasks and recent jobs. He searched for any connection Damien had to the Irish mob boss, but there was nothing documented. Nothing short of extorting and collecting their debts. Anyone affiliated with crime in my territory had to pay to live here, and if they didn’t. Both Irish and Italian mobsters alike had to pay for their relative safety in Brighton Beach, and Damien had the job of collecting those debts monthly.
