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“What do you mean?” I zip up my fly and strut to the sink to wash my hands. We’ve been here for hours, and my patience for this nonsense has worn thin.
“You and Katya. You’re acting like you have feelings for her.”
My head snaps up, and I meet my brother’s eyes in the mirror. “She’s my wife.”
“I can see you like saying that for effect, but is she more than a possession to you?”
Anger roils through me. “That’s my business.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Lachlan.” Riordan gets in my face. “Kieran bought Isabella from her father, and the Cosa Nostra lost both the don and underboss. That reinforced our power in this city. You stole the Russian princess in a shoot-out. That makes us look reckless. People are talking, Lachlan.”
“They’re talking aboutyourwife, too. And I took care of it.”
Riordan exhales. “Thank you.”
I push him against the wall. “You never say thank you to me. I’m not hired help. We’re one. Brothers. And Priscilla is my sister now.”
“I appreciate you feel that way about my wife. Butyourwife’s father is foaming at the mouth to get her back. She’s all he’s got to bargain with.”
“That’s why we have to work harder to find Stasia.”
“Balor is coming up empty.” Riordan shakes his head. “I don’t get how a twenty-one-year-old princess who left town with no money can allude his tracking.”
I close my eyes and worry she’s dead. That will destroy Katya.
Changing the subject, I say, “Katya is not Alexei’s to bargain with anymore. She’s my wife and her own woman. She’s auditioning next month to get into a London dance conservatory. If she gets in, she’s going.”
“You’re moving to London?” The vein in Riordan’s neck nearly bursts. “Does Kieran know this?”
“I’m not going anywhere. This is what she wants. I’ll hire a bloke from Waterford to guard her.” The words come out of my mouth easily, but something feels off.
He exhales. “Good. We’ve been hoping you’d come to your senses and let her go.”
The words being said out loud give me a sudden and uneasy feeling about Katya being alone in the ballroom.
“With Grigori out of the country, the brotherhood is falling apart,” Riordan continues to talk business. Shit we used to discuss every morning at breakfast. Now I get info dumps while taking a piss at a gala. “You’re giving Koslov the green light to attack us. You stole his daughter. Our bluff to hand over those wire transfers that we don’t have won’t hold.”
“That poor girl was going to live a life getting beat to shit every night. Excuse me ifIknow what it’s like to be sent away somewhere I don’t want to be.”
Riordan’s guilt wafts off him. “I know what you’re saying. You also know how powerful Da was back then. How ruthless. Neither Kieran nor I could talk him out of what he did.” He grips me by the jacket, surprising me with the physical contact. “I see the way you look at her. You’re lying to yourself if you’re just going to let your wife go off and live on another continent. What are you doing?”
“She has to pass the audition.”
“You didn’t answer my other question. Do you have real feelings for her?”
I put my hands on the counter, annoyed to face what I’ve been denying. She’s gotten under my skin. The way she makes me feel brings out another side to me. It’s new and terrifying, yet when I’m inside her, I feel more alive than ever.
“She’s a pleasant wife,” I mutter and eye my brother with a look that signals he back off.
“Right there. Your face, when you said that. I know you, Lachlan. You feel something for her.”
“I’m falling for her, all right!” I roar and strut past him.
I stomp through the lobby to find my wife and bring her the hell home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Katya
