“I’d still rather we didn’t talk about him.”
“That doesn’t make him disappear.”
“I can pretend to.”
“I don’t know what happened back then that you hold a grudge against him, but it’s different now that he’s Igor’s son.”
“Do you really believe that he’s Igor’s son?”
“You don’t?”
“I don’t know. It just feels fishy that he’s coming all in, to the extent of claiming familial ties. Why now, of all times?”
“If anyone can find out, it’s you.”
“Oh, you bet I will. He thinks he’ll get the all-access card by marrying me, but he doesn’t know that he’ll be poisoned in the process.”
“Keep your cards close.”
“You don’t have to remind the snake to be poisonous, my dear Vlad.”
“My name is not Vlad.”
“Whatever.”
He grunts out a response. “The Pakhan ordered me to get you all the financial reports from the four brigades.”
“Hello, Mikhail’s trouble.” I stare over my shoulder at Ruslan. “How much do you bet we will find something fishy in there?”
“A hundred,” he says in his somewhat sophisticated accent.
“That’s so little,” I tease him.
“Five hundred.” Katia places a tray of coffee in front of us and steps back to stand beside Ruslan.
I grin. “Now we’re talking. I will call you on that.”
Vlad takes a sip of his coffee. “You need to submit V Corp’s reports too.”
“To who?”
“To everyone. Sergei wants everything to be out in the open with this one.”
“Why now?”
“Adrian might have something to do with it. He stayed with him last.”
I lean my elbow on my knee and tap my chin with my forefinger. “You think he’s plotting something behind our backs?”
“Most likely. Remember, he only pushed Sergei up when he knew Ivan was dead and couldn’t be Pakhan. You need to be extra careful with that one.”
“Why? Did you hear something?”
He pauses with his cup halfway to his mouth. “Maybe.”
“What is it?”
“My spies tell me he had a meeting with Igor and Kyle prior to coming to today’s meeting.”
“Motherfucker.” I ball my hands into fists. If Kyle has Adrian by his side, I’m most definitely screwed. “If you knew that, why the hell did you vote for him to stay? Why did everyone? I just don’t understand why Dedushka favored him so much, and now even Sergei does.”
“Simple. He’s efficient. You can’t deny that during the times he was with us, no one dared to come near the brotherhood. They knew they would be sniped in their sleep by him.”
“He’s still a killer.”
“We all are.”
“We kill for necessity, to protect our honor and our own. He kills for sport and profit. People like him who follow no codes of honor and have no loyalty are the most untrustworthy.”
“No one trusts him. We’re all just using his skills.”
I pause at Vlad’s words, the meaning behind them sitting badly with me for some reason.
“Do you know why I’m a shadow, Princess? It’s because no one notices when I’m gone.”
I shake Kyle’s words away, refusing to allow them weight.
They do remain in my head, though.
They grow and magnify until they’re the only thing I can think of, because I did notice when he was gone.
I did more than notice.
It ripped me apart from the inside out, and I’m still not sure if the wound will ever heal.
Now, I have to marry him and dig the knife deeper with my own hands.
8
Rai
Today is my wedding day.
It might as well be my funeral.
I don’t know why it feels like something inside me is struggling for breath, smothering in nothingness and slowly dying. Maybe it’s been dead for a long time, but I’m only noticing it now.
During my entire life, I’ve never been the type who dreamed about fairy tales and weddings. I preferred stories about monsters and demons. I thought they were more realistic than the cheesy Prince Charming ones.
Reina believed in her white knight and her fairy tale. She secretly loved Asher since they were children, and those feelings only got stronger as they grew up. She painted her own fairy tale and didn’t stop until it finally came to its happy ending.
Well, the process wasn’t exactly fairytale-ish, but the result is what matters. They’ve been happily married for many years and even had little Gareth.
Me? I always thought that type of life was not meant for me.
But even with my lack of belief in such things, I never thought I would get married this way, like cattle for the best buyer.
I shake my head as I stare at my console mirror. I’m wearing a simple white dress that falls to my feet. Lace is buttoned to my neck in the back and the front and covers my arms.
My hair is gathered into a neat twist at the back of my head. My makeup is thick, as usual, but I opted for red lipstick, because the devil needs to look pretty to lure in her prey.
If it were up to me, I would’ve changed the color of the dress to black, but that would reflect badly on Granduncle and the brotherhood in general, so I smothered that urge and went with this look.
The face that greets me is calm, serene, almost like this is in fact my wedding day.
It isn’t. Today is the day I take the next step toward my goal.
There’s a knock on the door, and I clear my throat. “Come in.”
Sergei walks inside, his steps moderate as he tries not to put too much pressure on his stamina. His white hair is neat and well-styled, and he’s dressed in the tux he reserves for special occasions. I don’t know if I should be flattered or sad that he thinks this is a special occasion for me.
I stand up and kiss his knuckles. He places his other hand at the top of my hair, stroking gently before letting go. “Nikolai would’ve been proud of you.”
My throat closes at Dedushka’s name. Today is the worst occasion to mention him or how much I miss him or how much I wish he was standing by my side.
I bottle up my emotions and say, “If he were here, neither Anastasia nor I would have to be compromised.”
Sergei sighs, and the sound comes out a bit scratchy, like he finds it difficult to breathe. “It would’ve eventually happened. Neither Nikolai nor I could protect you for life.”
“But you could at least protect Anastasia. You had her at forty—doesn’t she mean anything to you?”
“She means the world to me, but she was born into the brotherhood and she will follow the brotherhood’s rules.” He pauses. “As will you.”
“Yeah, yeah, because a woman can’t go so far.” I try to keep the mockery out of my voice.
“Who said she can’t?”
“You and everyone else here. That’s what I’ve been told since I was a little girl.”
“That’s because we wanted to protect you.”