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Turning slowly, I look straight at Alina.
She sucks in a gasp.
I can almost see the charged tension crackling through the room like lightning bolts as the other four Petrovs notice my gaze. They instinctively shift their positions as if to defend her.
A cold laugh escapes my throat because I now know that my plan to ruin her before dumping her back on their doorstep is going to fucking break this family. But I’m not here for that tonight.
“Stay away from my brothers,” I say as I turn back to face Mikhail.
Confusion flits across his features. Across all of their faces, in fact. As if their minds are trying to catch up with the direction that this negotiation has just taken. Which was of course entirely intentional.
Using their moment of disorientation, I reach into my pocket and slide out a small listening device that will be able to pick up any conversation they might have inside this kitchen. Then I nonchalantly lean forward over the kitchen island while attaching the bug underneath the edge of the countertop. It’s not the best location ever, but given that this is where they brought me, it’ll have to do.
“Did you hear me?” I prompt.
“Your brothers?” Mikhail says. “You’re not here for…?”
“Alina?” I straighten from the counter again and shrug. “No.”
I cast her a highly dismissive look over my shoulder. She draws back slightly, looking hurt. Good. She will be more than hurt when I’m done with her. She will be utterly broken.
Locking eyes with Mikhail once more, I repeat. “Stay the fuck away from my brothers. This is between you and me. If you try to attack them or hurt them or involve them in this war in any way, I will release that video. Am I making myself clear?”
“Then you stay the hell away from my family too,” he counters.
I snicker and give him a contemptuous once-over. “Oh Petrov, don’t you know? You need leverage in order to blackmail someone. I have it, and you don’t. Which means that my family is off limits while yours is…” I slide my gaze to Alina while a cruel smirk curls my lips, “fair game.”
“If you hurt her, I will—”
“What?” I snap, my voice hardening and cracking through the air like a whip. “You’ll do what exactly?” With that merciless expression on my face, I shoot a pointed look up at the clock above the stove. “You have five minutes left before the video is released.”
His gaze darts up to it as well, and dread flickers in his blue eyes.
“What’s it gonna be, Petrov?” I mock, echoing the exact phrase Rico used when he forced Mikhail into groveling in the first place.
He tears his gaze from the clock and looks from face to face. Or at least he looks at his little brother and his cousins. All three of them nod as if they want him to take the deal. Mikhail flexes his hand repeatedly and clenches his jaw.
“Either you leave my brothers alone and I keep the video to myself,” I say. “Or I’ll ruin your future before you even graduate.”
His chest heaves with angry breaths. The clock ticks loudly into the deafening silence. By the doorway, Alina casts worried glances between the five of us.
“Fine,” Mikhail presses out at last.
“Fine what?” I demand.
“Your brothers are off limits.” He practically growls the words.
A cold smile stretches my lips. “Wise choice.”
Pushing off from the counter, I saunter up to Anton and pluck my phone from his fingers. He watches me with furious gray eyes. So similar and yet so different from Alina’s.
“Make sure you keep your little brother and cousins in line too,” I say as I start towards the door. “Because if anything, and I mean anything, happens to my brothers, accidentally or otherwise…” Lifting my hand, I wiggle the phone in the air above my shoulder as I continue towards the hallway. “This goes viral.”
I can practically hear Mikhail’s teeth cracking from how hard he must be clenching his jaw, but I don’t turn to look.
Instead, I glance down at Alina as I pass her on my way out.
She watches me with a mixture of anger, fear, and… something else. Something I can’t quite identify.
