AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I asked her the obvious question. “Why do you care?”
Taking the slightest pause in the doorway, there was no answer, so I kept going, fuming the whole way to my apartment. There was a missed call from Sergei, so as soon as I had an ice cold beer in my hand, I called him back. I wasn’t kidding myself that I’d get any more work done that day. Karine had done a number on my concentration.
He brushed off my greeting, launching into a tirade. “I found out some things you need to know,” he said. I could hear traffic noise in the distance and the babble of unfamiliar language floating around.
“Still in Tokyo?” I asked.
It was clear by the tense sound of his voice he wasn’t going to fill me in on how the conference had gone. And I frankly didn’t want to hear anything else from him about my arranged marriage.
“Listen, Roman, I dug up some stuff about your new family—”
“Which one?” I interrupted. “The one you’re equal part of and refuse to accept?”
His annoyed rumble told me he didn’t want to hear anything about that. I didn’t give a shit about him not showing up for my sham marriage, but it bothered me that he still wouldn’t have anything to do with Oleg, or any of the Morozovs. He’d dismissed them as completely as if they didn’t exist.
“You could at least shoot Oleg off an email,” I said. “He’s dying to get to know you. And he’s not in the best of health, you know. I think you’d feel like crap if—”
“Stop,” he said, loud enough that the voices in the background went silent for a second. “Damn it,” he murmured lower. “I’m out on the terrace of a coffee shop and you’re making me look like a loud American.”
“Isn’t it the middle of the night over there?” I asked.
“It’s the crack of dawn, and I’m actually working.”
I reeled off the number of calls I made that morning. “Even on my honeymoon, I’m getting more work done than you,” I teased.
His laugh was humorless. “Yeah, about that. I found out more about the Drygas. They’re killers, Roman. Down to the least important lackey in their crew. What in the hell do you think you’re risking your life for? Some stranger?”
My laugh was bitter. “I know exactly what the Drygas are capable of. And Oleg isn’t a stranger.”
“The fact he could put you in such a situation shows he’s not a father, either. You’ve got to snap out of this fantasy that you’re part of some big, happy family, Roman. They’re criminals. And frankly, it’s an insult to Mom’s memory.”
Even though we teased each other mercilessly, I rarely told my brother to fuck off and mean it. I meant it now.
“Fuck all the way off with that,” I spat. “Don’t ever say I’m disrespecting her.”
“She ran from him for a reason.”
“He was honest about them not really being in love, and sure. Okay. She didn’t want to be part of the Bratva—”
“Jesus, how can you throw around those words like you’re already one of them,” he said.
His voice was full of despair that twisted my guts. I didn’t like being on the outs with my twin, but as pissed off as he was at me, I was equally angry that he wouldn’t even meet our father. But we were about to start going around in the same endless circles we’d been going in since he found that folder among our mother’s things. He’d either come around or he wouldn’t, and I couldn’t let it distract me from the mission I’d committed myself to.
“Not doing this right now,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “Let me know when you’re back in LA so we can coordinate our schedules.”
After a long silence, Sergei said, “Be careful, man.”
We hung up, not really in a fight, but not on the best of terms, either. Taking my sweaty Tecate bottle, I headed toward the balcony to get some fresh air. My reflection in the glass door was tense, my hair standing on end from repeatedly running my hand over it in frustration the entire day. I saw Sergei’s face staring back at me, not angry, but worried. He didn’t understand.
We might look identical, but we really couldn’t be more different. My brother needed to stay on the straight and narrow path and follow every regulation. He couldn’t even look at our tax returns because he suspected, rightly, that I had our accountants tweak whatever they could to get us the best deals. Never outside the law, but close enough to the edge that it made him queasy.
Now, I didn’t mind bending the rules. I found it invigorating, in fact. Between us, we’d made our business more prosperous than our wildest dreams. And maybe he was somewhat right. Now that I knew we had a father out there who wanted to be in our lives, I wanted more than just our vast riches. The houses, the vacations, the slick gold watches and cars that turned heads, wasn’t enough for me anymore. Now that I saw a glimpse of what a big, happy, close-knit family looked like, I wanted to be a part of it. I’d never blame my mother for her choices and doing what she thought was right, but now I wanted what I’d been denied for so long. No matter what it took.
And it took marrying Karine Dryga. God, I’d really done it. If it turned out to be a long game, we might be expected to produce an heir. Feliks was definitely the type who’d want a soccer team’s worth of grandkids to show off and mold in his image.
Thinking about Karine holding a baby—our baby—in her arms, running and playing with a golden-haired toddler on the white sand beaches, gave me an oddly warm feeling. I quickly shoved it away. That wasn’t the kind of family I was looking for. If that was what I was after, I could have been married a dozen times by now with how women threw themselves at me.
If and when I ever brought a child into this world, it was going to be the real thing, not part of a revenge plot.
