Page 2 of No Longer Mine (Rags & Riches #2)

Chapter One

Dimitri

The dining room table felt like a tomb.

Alexei and Audrey were absent, as always. Alexei had been cut off after defying our father and now made his own way in the world. I didn’t blame him for staying away, not after what our father had pulled.

I sat at the table, surrounded by my so-called family, the air thick with tension I couldn’t cut through.

My mother tried to maintain appearances by chatting with Carina, Ace’s wife.

Her laugh stood out in this desolate wasteland we called home.

She wasn’t born with a silver spoon lodged in her ass, and it showed.

She brought life to the table, even if I hated her husband.

I hadn’t always hated Ace. It was a recent occurrence when he didn’t stand up to our asshole of a father.

She gave him something none of us brothers had ever been allowed: a heart.

My gaze drifted to our father. He sat at the head of the table, a newspaper obscuring his face. His phone lay beside his plate, glowing faintly. He didn’t join the conversation unless he had a point to make, and tonight, he was silent. Listening. Calculating.

That was the problem with Sinclair Cristof. He didn’t need to speak to wield control. His silence was enough to remind us who held the reins.

I stared at my half-eaten plate. The conversation blurred, and the food tasted like ash. It had only been a few months, but it felt like a lifetime. Everywhere I turned, I saw Cassie. Her laughter in the corners of my mind, her warmth in memories that cut deeper than any blade.

The truth burned: if she’d never met me, she would still be alive.

“Dimitri.” My mother’s voice sliced through my thoughts—sharp and concerned.

I looked up, meeting her sad and searching eyes.

“You seem... far away these days.”

“I’m fine.” The words were hollow.

She didn’t push. She never did. She didn’t know how to. No one had—not until Cassie. Now she was gone, and the part of me capable of being reached had died with her.

I forced myself to eat another bite, chewing mechanically. I’d lost fifteen pounds since that night. I stopped going to the gym. Some mornings, I wondered why I even bothered to get up.

Then I remembered. I was still alive because of spite. Spite for my father. Spite for the empire he thought he could control forever.

“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” I said, breaking the silence. “Some new clubs and restaurants are being proposed in the area.” My father’s attention snapped to me.

I knew the mention of my recent ventures would get his attention. Since Cassie’s death, I’d been busy. Quietly and methodically busy.

I’d cleaned house. Sold off my lower-end clubs to Alexei. Distanced myself from the life that had brought Cassie into my orbit. On paper, I was a changed man. I no longer frequented strip clubs or rubbed elbows with lowlifes.

But paper lied.

I’d never been caught for the string of bodies pulled from the Harlem River, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

Killing was an art form I had no intention of giving up.

I didn’t just enjoy taking the lives of my enemies—I lived for it.

The blood on my hands wasn’t a weight; it was a reminder.

The difference now? I’d become smarter about it. Calculated. Patient. My revenge was no longer impulsive; it was precise.

I’d stepped into a new game. Politics.

It was bold, reckless, and dangerous. But I had the money, the connections, and the rage to fuel my rise. I’d always despised politicians—their false smiles, empty promises, and endless greed. But if I wanted to beat my father at his own game, I needed to do the one thing he would never expect.

I needed to outthink him.

This wasn’t checkers anymore.

This was chess.

And I was going to make sure Sinclair Cristof never saw checkmate coming.

My mother’s voice broke through my thoughts. “That sounds... interesting. I never knew you to be interested in such things.”

“Well,” I said, tilting my head slightly, forcing an air of nonchalance. I avoided my father’s probing gaze, though I felt its weight pressing against me like a vice. As much as I wanted to lock eyes with him, to dare him to challenge me, I knew better. Not yet. Not now.

Patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And Sinclair Cristof wouldn’t crumble in one, either.

“I’m just the muscle around here,” I said with a casual shrug. “But people slip up. They forget I’m there. They talk, thinking I’m not paying attention.”

I let the words hang in the air. Let him wonder what I’d heard, what I knew.

I shrugged again, as if it didn’t matter. As if I wasn’t playing the long game that would dismantle him piece by glorious piece.

Ivan leaned back in his chair while he threw an arm over the back of mine.

“Well, Brother, you’ve certainly had a glow-up.

Though not in the ways that matter.” He poked me in the ribs and I scowled at him.

I didn’t need him pointing out my weaknesses.

I needed to put on the perfect facade. As much as I hated myself, I knew I needed to get back into the gym.

I couldn’t wallow anymore, especially with my father’s eyes trained on me like they were.

“I had the stomach flu and lost fifteen pounds.”

Ivan’s blue eyes twitched, only slightly. The movement couldn’t be seen from the other end of the table where my father was seated but I didn’t miss it. “How unfortunate.”

None of my brothers that sat around the table tonight knew that I lost the love of my life—maybe Ace but I wasn’t so sure he could even be considered one of my brothers at this point.

Not a single one of them even knew I’d found her.

Hell, they probably thought I was incapable of love.

I didn’t even understand it myself. But here we were.

Carina’s eyes tracked my face, and I wondered what went through her pretty mind. For a moment, I wondered if she had any idea of the man she was married to and if she did… how could she live with it? “You’re the muscle for?”

Sometimes I forgot that she didn’t know everything, or at least she pretended well enough. I didn’t know if Father would approve of her knowledge. But Ace was an enigma.

I ran my tongue over the front of my teeth as I considered her question. “Yes, I handle… delicate matters for the businesses.” I scrunched my nose, continuing with the facade. “Sometimes people are messy, and they need to be cleaned up after.”

The words that left my lips made me want to grin like a feral buffoon but I had to play it all right. I couldn’t show my hand just yet.

“I heard you’re a psychopath.” Anyone else would have been insulted by it.

It was almost a compliment except I needed that to escape people’s thoughts when it came to me.

I couldn’t run for office with that tainting my reputation.

I hated it but it would be okay. I could stamp down who I was and what I did for the cause.

The cause being the long game of revenge against my father.

The cracking of my knuckles was loud in the dining room.

Everyone stared at me and seemed to hold their breath as they waited for my response.

The old Dimitri would have laughed. The new Dimitri looked at her with a straight face and a small smile.

“Maybe when I was young and dumb.”

This time Ace narrowed his eyes. He knew I was up to something.

I didn’t care. I no longer worked for him.

He could fuck off. There were very few expectations for us as the sons of Sinclair Cristof.

One of them was that we had to keep up appearances.

Marry rich and find influence. The second was that we kept our father’s illegal activities a secret.

We either participated in them or we turned a blind eye.

Alexei did neither of those things and decided to go head-to-head with our father.

He was now considered our father’s biggest competitor.

I wasn’t sure if our father knew it was his second born or not.

“I didn’t realize much changed over these last few months that drastically.” Ace said as he leaned back in his chair.

The old Dimitri would have flown across the table and screamed You know what he did! And would have of course, beat the shit out of him, but the new me simply raised a brow and stretched my arms over my head. “I decided it was time to grow up.”

“I hope this means that you’re looking into taking a wife,” My fathers words sliced through the room.

“Oh no, I can’t be distracted right now; I have too much planned for my life. Women aren’t in my near future.” A small chuckle escaped me and for the first time in my entire life, fear flashed across my father’s face.