AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And our mother was?!”
“I had no knowledge of that until it was too late, until after the failed attempt on Katya.” I nod toward her and she winces.
“Failed attempt?” Alexei questions.
Ah, she didn’t tell him.
“Derek has been posing as her boyfriend for the past few months. He attempted to kill her in Spain, but she got away. If you peel up the back of his shirt there you will see the ill-healed cuts on his back that were inflicted by my father as his punishment.” That part, I’m taking on faith. It’s what my father likes to do to anybody that disappoints him. Including me.
Alexei glances at his sister. “Is this true?”
Katya’s nod is so small that even I almost miss it - and I’m watching her quite closely.
Pain flickers across Alexei’s eyes. A tiny gesture that I’m sure he did not mean to make with me standing so close to them.
“Enough is enough.” I mutter gently. “There’s other ways.”
Alexei can’t take his eyes off of Katya, and she’s looking anywhere but her brother’s face. “A coup?”
“Something like that. I’m not particularly interested in joining forces, but this war is pointless. You know it as well as I do.I plan to install myself in his seat,” I admit. It’s the first time that I’ve actually said the words out loud. Dario and I have danced around that very subject countless times now. I think that, somehow, some part of me always thought that if I actually voiced the words out loud that my father would justknow. “I won’t deny that I was complicit in my father’s actions… but there are lines that ought not to be crossed.”
One moment I’m looking at Katya, hoping that she might understand where I’m coming from, and the next pain explodes across the side of my face.
“Lines like conning a person into bed with you? Like presenting yourself as something that you’re not?!” Katya’s voice shakes as she yells at me and it rattles something dark in my chest.
“I did no such thing.” It was hardly my fault that she did not ask for my name. “You did not ask anything personal about me, I had no reason to lie. Do not pretend that you did not enjoy yourself.” My eyes rake over her frame before I can stop myself and I earn a blow from Alexei as well.
That’s quite enough of that.
“You might not like it, but I’m here for change. Even if my methods are unorthodox, the intention is true.” I grind out through my teeth. I can’t even remember the last time that I took a hit without hitting back. Not Katya’s slap, I deserved that.
“And we are just supposed to take your word?” Katya asks.
I shrug one shoulder. “Keep me hostage if you need to. That’s what you want to do anyway. I won’t oppose you tying me up.” I wink at Katya, satisfied by the blush to her cheeks. “Station me as your body guard at the very least. I know how my father’s men work. You haven’t been able to stop them for a reason. You don’t know what my father’s got up his sleeve.”
“So tell us then.”
My gaze flattens. “I know you think we’re stupid, but really?”
“And yet you think that I’m going to let you anywhere near my sister after this conversation?” Alexei retorts.
“She took on a man three times her size and fled the country without you knowing. I think she can handle herself well enough. Think of me as insurance.” I roll my eyes when Alexei doesn’t budge. “I had your sister alone in a secluded location and did nothing to her that she didn’t beg for me to do. I could have killed her countless times and I didn’t.”
“If he’s telling the truth and it will put an end to all of this…” Katya’s eyes slowly, almost reluctantly rake over to me. “Then I say we do it.”
“And if this is a trap, I’m just supposed to keep the son of my enemy in my complex like some Italian trojan horse?! Wake up in the middle of the night with his hand around my neck?” Alexei points at her with a warning look that makes me think Katya is thinkingexactlywhat it would be like to wake up with my hand around her neck in another capacity. “Don’t” he warns.
“Sorry.” Katya mutters, but I see her shift the way that she stands. Good to know that she’s still as affected by me as I am by her.
The other truth that I don’t bother saying out loud is the fact that Alexei needs all of the help he can get to turn the tides of this war… but I can see that he’s thinking the same thing that I am from the look in his eye. He’s calculating if the knowledge that I possess about the inner workings of my father’s operation will turn things around.
Katya folds her arms across her chest. She gives her brother a knowing look but I’m not privy to their silent conversation. Whatever she said with her look, Alexei caves.
“Hostage it is.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
KATYA
