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I dump the grapes on the side table. “Next time, don’t get shot. I need you.”

“Next time, I’ll just hand over your woman.” The steel in his voice makes me smile.

Ilya would lay down his life for Sasha and Erin and he almost did.

“Shit,” I mutter, “you scared me half to death. You almost died, Ilya.”

“Found out you can’t replace me, eh?” he says in Russian.

I switch, too. “Never, my friend. You’re family.”

“Finally, you see my worth. Can I have a raise?”

“Hell no,” I say, stealing a grape. “You’re family, family doesn’t get paid.”

“Asshole,” he says in English.

And I laugh.

“How’s Erin? Last I remember, they grabbed her.” Then he frowns. “And Sasha?”

“Fine, all fine. Home and safe and sound.”

“Good,” he says, “that’s good. And Alina? Is she okay?”

“She has ups and downs, but Sasha and Erin are good for her,” I say.

He frowns some more.

“Are you in pain?”

“Fuck yes, but I don’t like so much of these painkillers. They dull the mind. They made me sleep. Those and all the sedatives.”

“They had you in a medically induced coma.”

He sniffs. Then he goes back to Russian. “I knew you’d get Sasha, I told her that, but she was so beside herself, so worked up that she tried to escape to find him. That’s how it happened. They stormed the hospital and Erin was out of her room, under the guise of using a bathroom. Niko?”

“Niko’s dead. He took Sasha as a decoy. You’re lucky you’re alive.”

“Tough as nails,” he says. “So, how did you find him? Niko has many hiding places. Some even I don’t know about.”

I squeeze my hand into a fist and start to pace. “I found him through Sergio.”

“Fuck, Demyan.”

“I know,” I hiss. “I had to make a deal. A real deal with him, one where he got my word on tape.”

“Are you an idiot?”

“Erin’s life is worth it.”

He sighs. “There must have been another way. He wants to share in your empire. And I assume this deal is that idiotic marriage you got out of once.”

“Yeah.”

“We kill him.”

“Everyone will know, Ilya. Because I’m pretty fucking sure he’ll have safety nets about that. I touch him. Fuck, I break this agreement, and there’ll be a war.”