Page 23

23

ERIK

T his is a bad idea.

Despite being the one who tasked me with the investigations, Viktor just can’t let things take their natural course.

We’ve not been seeing eye-to-eye lately, so maybe this is my fault, but walking into the emergency meeting with him, Anastasia, and Faina has my guts twisting into painful knots.

I asked Viktor to let me do my job and find out the truth.

It’s something that’s been a challenge with everything else going on in our lives, but his impatience knows no bounds, it seems.

But I need more time.

I need to make him see that he’s looking in the wrong place and that Anastasia is not the person he thinks she is.

Grief blinds people.

I know this down in my soul, but Viktor is like an old dog with a bone and I can’t help but feel like this is one big plot to keep her distracted and ensure that suspicion remains within our upper ranks.

“This had better be good,” Anastasia snaps, smoothing down the edge of her skirt against her bare knee.

“I was in the middle of a very important call.”

“Nothing is more important than this,” Viktor snaps.

“So for once, will you just shut up and listen?”

“Hey!” Faina snaps back indignantly.

“Don’t talk to her like that. You might have the respect of being the previous underboss, but don’t forget to show respect when addressing the Godmother.”

Viktor stands abruptly and begins pacing back and forth in front of the couch Anatasia and Faina are sitting on.

I walk around Viktor, trying to catch Anastasia’s eye, but she’s focused completely on Viktor.

Her head is tilted slightly to the left and her eyes narrow as Viktor grunts softly to himself and then comes to a halt.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush with this. We need to cancel the gala.”

“What?” All three of us have the same shocked reaction, though I quickly catch myself because it isn’t my place to have an opinion here.

I’m here to protect Anastasia, not comment on business plans unless asked.

Still, I never envisioned a world where Viktor would ever want to cancel the single most important event in our calendar.

“We need to cancel the gala,” Viktor repeats.

“No,” Anastasia replies simply.

“We’re not going to do that.”

“Enough, Anastasia!” Viktor barks.

“Enough of trying to show everyone that you’re the boss and that everything is normal. It isn’t normal, okay? We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” Faina cuts in, placing a calming hand on Anastasia’s knee as her eyes narrow further.

“Don’t you see?” Viktor puffs out his cheeks and then points at Anastasia.

“Don’t you see how stupid it is to put yourself and every other important member of our family and other families into the same building at a time like this? Have you any idea how easy it would be for someone to wipe us out?”

“No one is trying to wipe us out,” Anastasia sighs.

“I thought we talked about this already?—”

“No, you talked. I’m done watching you toddle about acting like you know how everything works. Like the world owes you nothing. There’s far too much unanswered right now, and it would be suicide to let the gala happen.”

I can’t tell where Viktor is coming from.

He sounds genuine, but I don’t entirely buy that he’s suggesting this out of concern for Anastasia’s well-being.

It would be quite the thing if Anastasia didn’t manage to host the annual gala in her first year as Godmother.

Nothing would scream a lack of control louder than that.

But in the same vein, I share his safety concerns.

Having Anastasia, as well as the heads of multiple families, all in the same building could spell disaster.

Security for that event is usually overkill, and Anastasia has been instructing me to make sure everything goes smoothly, but doubt still whispers at the edges of my mind.

“Are you suggesting I won’t be able to do my job?” I ask tightly, thickly cloaking my irritation at his constant nitpicking at my work as the security adviser and his spy.

“Do you not think I have every avenue covered?”

“I don’t know, do I?” Viktor remarks sharply.

“We are sitting here in the lounge of this great estate that was built on the back of your grandfather.” He points back at Anastasia.

“And yet, in the time you’ve been in charge, we haven’t been able to find the monster who killed your father. Oh, but we did help the Irish find out who murdered their Captain. On top of that, we don’t know who has been trying so hard to kill you?—”

“Not my immediate concern,” Anastasia cuts in, her voice like ice.

“There hasn’t been an attempt in months and Erik has been doing an excellent job in keeping me safe.”

Her words shouldn’t warm me the way they do, but it’s impossible to control the surge of warm affection that flows through my chest.

I bite the inside of my cheek to remain calm.

“The Cartel are now circling like sharks and we have done nothing to avert them,” Viktor continues.

“And now I hear the Yegorovs are sniffing around like they smell our impending doom in the water.”

Tension snaps across my shoulders and I glance at Anastasia.

Will she come clean and tell Viktor the truth?

It’s a tough cycle.

The more she closes him out, the more suspicious he gets and then he acts out like this.

And the more he acts like this by talking down to her, the more she closes him out.

Listening to his speech and the apparent genuine concern in his voice makes my heart tighten, and I want to reach out to him.

This man raised me.

He saved me from what was sure to be a terrible, painful life.

He’s given me everything and he’s hurting because his best friend was murdered in this house.

Now he’s watching the family and business he loves so much slip away from him, and he just can’t see that if he told Anastasia how he was feeling, she would let him in.

At least, I hope she would.

In our time together, she’s never struck me as a cold or vindictive person and of all four of us in this room, they are the only two who share the same pain.

I watch as her face pinches slightly and she presses her lips flat together.

She doesn’t say a word about the Yegorovs.

Instead, she shifts in her seat and her brows pull slightly together before she speaks.

“I’m not concerned, Viktor. I understand that you are, but I’m not, okay? Erik, who you appointed, by the way, is doing an excellent job at keeping me safe.”

The glare Viktor shoots at me tells me all I need to know about how he feels.

He thinks I’m blinded by her, which just isn’t true.

I see the truth far more clearly than him.

“My plans for this family are all in motion. We’re on our way to greater things and the money will be flowing sooner than you think. And like I said, there hasn’t been an attempt on my life in months. Frankly, I don’t want to give them the attention. If they’re still watching me, then they aren’t going to watch me run away scared, cancel the gala, and lock myself up in here like some kind of eighteen-forties maiden.”

“Anastasia—”

“No, Viktor.” She stands abruptly.

“Enough of this! You have been loyal to this family for more years than anyone cares to count, and I am deeply grateful for that. Your knowledge and wisdom in the day-to-day running of the businesses have helped us keep afloat even as we’ve shut down every disgusting source of income my father treasured so much. But you need to stop whatever this is! I see you approaching this through concern for my safety, but I see right through you!”

My heart begins to race.

What does she mean by that?

“You don’t trust me to lead. You don’t believe that I’m capable. I don’t know if that’s because we’re from different generations or because you don’t think I can do it because I’m a woman. Maybe it’s because you’re stuck in the same backward values that my father believed in. I don’t know. But I am tired of your questioning me. I am the Godmother of this house. I am the leader of this family, and it’s about time you show me the respect I deserve.”

Silence falls.

I watch Viktor like a hawk, praying he will say the right thing and tell Anastasia the truth.

If he told her how much pain he was in over the loss of Sergey, then she would understand.

I know she would.

But as always, Viktor acts like a bull charging through a crowd and does the exact opposite.

“Because you don’t deserve my respect,” Viktor hisses.

“You’ve been in charge for what, eight or nine months now? And all I have seen is the finances plummet, morale crash, and don’t even get me started on the sheer disregard for the murder that occurred here. Your father died, for fuck’s sake, Anastasia, and what have you done to find the killer, huh?”

“What more do you want me to do?” Anastasia suddenly yells.

“I have every assassin we have scouring for clues. I have all our minimal contacts in the police ready to hand us information as soon as they have it. I’ve waited for someone to make a move and scoured his files for clues or hints as to who could have done this, and I have nothing. Do you want me to bring the entire family to a halt to look for his killer? Do you really think all these sharks you’re afraid of will stand by and let us remain on top while we do nothing but scour the lands for his assassin?”

“It’s better than what you’re doing right now! We’ve had to dip into our savings to pay wages. You’ve shut down seventy percent of our empire.”

“Shut up about the fucking money!” she screams, throwing her hands up.

“Money is coming, okay? The Yegorovs you’re so worried about? I don’t know how you found out about them, but surprise! They’re going to be our allies. Do you understand? They will be our friends. I know my father never once allowed alliances—believe me, I checked—but they came to me with a good offer and I’m taking it. We’re going to work together on the condos and the penthouses. I build them and they’ll provide the clients. We’ll be making real money, decent money, Viktor, and?—”

“You can’t be fucking serious,” Viktor yells back.

But something is wrong.

Anastasia’s stance wobbles and despite the anger burning in her eyes, there’s something else too.

Pain.

She stumbles slightly and her lips part, then she takes a step forward and prods Viktor on his chest.

“Not every dollar needs to come from selling someone. We can make money in other ways. We can grow in other ways. There’s plenty of fucking crime in this city, Viktor. It’s New York, for crying out loud. We expand and grow with the times. We’re in a city full of reckless gamblers and nepo babies desperate for the hottest new apartment to show off how well they are doing. That is our market!”

“Loans and debt? Gambling? We’re not the fucking tax man,” Viktor roars.

“Hey!” I snap, striding forward.

“Maybe we should take a step back and calm down—Anastasia?”

She gasps softly and her hand latches onto my back, curling into the fabric of my shirt.

She gasps again, and when she looks up at me, there are tears in her eyes as she cradles her abdomen.

“Anastasia!” Faina is suddenly on her feet, gripping Anatasia’s arm and helping support her.

“Something—” She gasps.

She stumbles back with a pained cry, her face contorting in pain.

Then she looks at Faina, and something passes between them.

“Faina?—”

“I know,” she says.

“I know.”

“What the fuck is that?” Viktor snaps.

I follow his eyeline down to Anastasia’s bare legs, where a few streaks of crimson roll down the inside of her leg.

My blood turns to ice.

“What the fuck?” The argument flies out of my mind and all my focus hones in on her.

“Shit, we need to get you to a hospital.”

“I’m fine,” she gasps, her voice trembling.

“I just need—Faina, I need?—”

“I know.” Faina wraps one arm around Anastasia’s waist, but a roll of pain makes her sag forward, so I dart into her hold to help her.

“I’ve got you,” I say.

My heart pounds as my mind races.

Is this poison?

Something I missed?

Something worse?

“No, fuck this,” Viktor snarls.

“I’m not having some dramatic womanly moment get in the way of this very important?—”

“Viktor!” I yell, shoving past him as we hurry Anastasia to the door.

“This isn’t the time!”

“This is exactly the time!” He grabs my shoulder as Anastasia whimpers in pain once more, and a red fog descends over me as rage blooms up hot and fast.

Faina takes Anastasia with her, and together, they stumble out the door as I spin to face Viktor, then I punch him squarely in the face.

He stumbles back with a bark of surprise.

“Enough!” I hiss.

“This isn’t working, don’t you see? You’re so blinded that you can’t even see that something is wrong with her. She needs a doctor, and all you fucking care about is your vendetta!”

Viktor grabs my arm, hauling me into him with fire blazing in his eyes.

“It’s your vendetta too, Son,” he snarls fiercely.

“Or did you forget that while you were falling in love with her?”

“It’s not mine,” I say, ripping myself free.

“This is all you. You’re like a father to me, Viktor, and I was eager to help you because you were in pain. But this?” Disgust worms through my chest as all my concern pulls toward Anastasia.

“Who even are you anymore?”