Page 58 of No Longer Mine

Alexei leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, a bored expression masking whatever was going on in his head. Ivan sat stiffly, his fingers drumming against his knee. Griffin, the softest of us, was visibly shaken, his pale blue eyes darting between us, looking for answers none of us had.

Ace? Ace was late. Of fucking course, he was.

“Does anyone in here have a secret?”

Each brother looked at each other, but no one answered. I let out a growl. Griffin jumped at the sound of it, and I rolled myeyes. He was certainly not harboring any massive secrets, and if he was, it wasn’t anything that had to do with trafficking.

I leaned forward, my forearms braced against the table as I scanned each of my brothers. The silence stretched thick between us, but I wasn’t buying it.

“Let me rephrase,” I said, my voice dangerously low. “Does anyone here know something that I don’t?”

Ivan’s fingers kept drumming. Alexei’s lips curled into something close to amusement, but I knew him better—he was just waiting to see how this played out. Griffin was still too shaken to do anything but shrink under my glare.

And Ace?

Ace strolled in like he owned the place. Like we weren’t in the middle of an emergency meeting about the depths of our father’s depravity. Like I wasn’t one second away from throwing this entire table across the room.

He tugged his cuffs, then smoothed his tie before finally, finally, looking at me. “I don’t like the way you phrased that,” he mused. “Secrets imply guilt. And I, dear brother, have nothing to feel guilty about.”

“Nice of you to finally join us,” I muttered as I rubbed my temples. This was the absolute last thing I wanted. I also hated that we were doing it at my home, but it couldn’t be helped. We couldn’t meet anywhere else. I didn’t trust anywhere else.

“I had business to attend to. What’s all of this about? I don’t have all day.”

Alexei let out a humorless laugh. “Of course you do, because you’re Father’s little bitch.”

Ace’s brows shot up as he turned toward the other brothers around the table. “Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?”

“Why is he here?” Alexei leveled me with a glare. “He shouldn’t be here.”

Ace held up his hands. “I’m not sure what’s going on.”

Alexei slammed his palms down on the table and stood up slowly. “We could start with the fact that you knew what Father had planned for after your wedding, and you never stopped it. You could have warned us.”

Our older brother blinked slowly. “What?”

“Don’t play fucking stupid, Ace.”

Ace shook his head as he took a seat as far away from Alexei as he could. It was a smart move. “I’m not playing. I know something happened, but I didn’t know it was going to happen. I might run around for Father, but I am not in on his day-to-day dealings. He has a lot of shit he keeps from me.”

“Apologize, or you aren’t a part of this.” Alexei ground his teeth together as he sunk back down into his chair.

Ace rolled his eyes to the ceiling and let out a breath. “I tried to warn you. I tried to help you. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do more. I love Audrey, she is my wife’s chosen sister. Carina would have taken my balls if I’d known anything.”

Alexei pressed his lips together, waiting.

Ivan sunk down in his chair slightly and let out a sigh. Griffin still looked like he was ready to bolt. I desperately wished Benson could have made it to this meeting.

“Fuck,” Ace let out after a beat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Why are you working for Father?” I asked.

Ace looked at all of us around the table. “Because I have nothing else. He was preparing me to take over the legacy and be his heir. He controls all of my money. He controls almost everything about me.”

“Do you want it to be like that forever?” Alexei asked this time.

“No,” He looked down at his hands in his lap. “I do not want to do this any more, but if I stop, I will lose everything, and he watches me very closely. I won’t support you in your office seat.”

I ran my tongue over the front of my teeth. I knew he wouldn’t. “Okay, so you plan to tell father what I’m doing.”