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“Wh—”
“Don’t play games with me, Igor,” I snarl. “He might’ve promised you an alliance, but he’s still a man on the run. A fucking coward who knows that his time is running out. Do you really think he can help you?”
It shows again—his uncertainty, his fear. “Think before you speak,” I warn him as he starts to reply, “because I won’t ask again. It’s your choice if you still have your life by the time I walk out of here. And you know very well thattheywon’t save you.”
It takes all of a moment for him to switch sides, giving up his stance with a shrug. “Fine,” he sighs. “I never trusted him anyway. He said he was going to give me his daughter, but he gave her to some bastard. Oh—” Igor tosses his head back in laughter when he realizes. He points at me. “That’s true. You kidnapped her, didn’t you? You beat me to it. I was blissfully unaware that my bride was being shipped off while I was out of the country.”
My fist slams hard on his desk, and he jumps, his hand flying to his chest. “Fucking hell!” He exhales. “What was that about?”
“You’re going off course,” I say simply as my fingers settle.
I don’t tell him it’s because I want to rip out his guts whenever he mentions Isabella. I don’twantto admit that she evokes such a visceral reaction in me, even in her absence…because it’s more than just owning her.
It’s everything else I can’t admit.
“Alright, alright.” Igor rolls his eyes. “You asked if I was behind the attack? Simple answer? No. If you’re asking if I knew it would happen,” he adds hastily, “then yes. Don’t get it wrong—I was offered, but I declined because I’d been fucked over once. I wasn’t going to go up against you, knowing he would dump me at any moment.”
For a man like Igor, spineless and stupid, it’s easy to know when he’s lying. And when he’s telling the truth. Which means, once again, Isabella was being used.
It’s as though they knew she was going to tell me.Or…The thought makes my blood boil.It was some form of emotional manipulation.
If Igor killed me, the man who kidnapped and held her against her will, then she’d feel indebted to him. Somehow, Marco thought it would make her willing to marry this?—
I look at him, at the slime and grime. I shake my head. How pitiful.
“What’s your plan?” he asks.
“None of your business,” I reply curtly.
“Why?” he jumps in right away. “You’re not the only one who was slighted, you know. I—I was duped too. Imagine discovering he’d promised other pakhans his daughter’s hand in marriage? I mean—” He huffs. “If I don’t get the girl, then I might as well get some compensation for it, right? He promised me a fraction of his wealth and connections too.”
My brows furrow as I tilt my head. “Why would he do that? What was the transaction about?”
Igor clicks his tongue. “I get what you’re not saying, Roman. And I would be offended, but I thought so too. I have a faction, but I have nothing substantial to offer him—not like your father did. Then again, it should’ve been my cue that he would dupe me. Knowing what I know now…” He sighs. “I can tell you that Marco Ricci is a stain on the earth. I mean, I might kill a man or two, but my wife? That’s cruel, man.”
Wife?
My brows jump at that.
I never cared to find out what happened to Isabella’s mother, not even when Marco was faking loyalty to my father. They had business; the rest was none of my concern.
“He killed his wife?” I ask, keeping my tone measured.
Igor nods enthusiastically. “Yeah, he did. I heard he tricked her into marrying him so he could take over her inheritance while he worked for her family as a consigliere back in Italy. They ran away because her family didn’t agree to their marriage. Then, a year later, he kills her entire family. She didn’t find out until a couple of years later, and then he killed her. Made it seem like an accident. I don’t know why he bothered—it wasn’t as if she could tell anyone. Oh wait—” He laughs, shaking his head and clapping his hands. “He was working for your father, wasn’t he? I doubt Volkov would’ve kept him around if he knew.”
Igor’s right.
My father would’ve dumped him the moment he found out. He was a ruthless man who didn’t hesitate to take out anything that stood in his way, but senseless violence wasn’t something he supported.
So, he killed his wife so he could bury his secret forever.
“How did you find out?” I ask when it occurs to me that he wouldn’t have told Igor after going through all that crime.
Igor holds up a hand. “Wait. You’ll see.”
He reaches into his drawer for an envelope and hands it over to me. It’s sealed with a string looped around a button.
“Like I said, I had my suspicions. So, I did some digging. That’s why I was out of the country. When I found out what he’d done,I gathered evidence. To nudge him toward keeping his word, of course.” He grins mischievously.