Kolya never really understood his father’s need for those sorts of things, and he rarely found himself surprised by them anymore.
Walking into the Four Seasons hotel room to see two young ladies—likely a couple of years younger than him—dressed in what looked to be only short, white silk robes was nothing uncommon for Vadim. Both young women were draped over the four-poster bed, rolled onto their stomachs with their legs high in the air to give just a peek of their backsides beneath the robes, and overlooking magazines or some other nonsense.
The sheer curtains on the four-poster bed had been pulled as if to shield the girls from the view of the men, but that was only for show, too. Vadim meant for the girls to be seen, in the same way he demanded that his men didn’t look at them for longer than it took to notice they were actually there.
The women didn’t pay the entering men any mind.
Too busy pleasing his father with their games, likely. Pretty, young women were a favorite of Vadim’s, and he preferred to keep one or two on call for whatever his fancy was on any given day. Back when Kolya was a teenager, seeing this sort of thing had affected him much differently than it did now.
Back then, his mother had still been alive. Cervical cancer was the worst kind of monster because it took without care or concern, caused terrible suffering that couldn’t be appeased, and stayed hidden until it was already too late.
God rest my mama’s soul.
How someone as wonderful, sweet, and adoring as his mother had fallen for a man like Vadim Boykov was a mystery. Ana couldn’t have not known Vadim was a philanderer with a half of a dozen paid mistresses on call—serial, really. Like it was a disease the man couldn’t keep contained. And yet, Ana had never said a thing, nor spoken out against her husband to her three children. Kolya only remembered his mother loving Vadim and keeping his house like a queen should.
Now, though, Kolya barely felt anything at all when he walked in on one of these scenes. He saw them for what they were—another way for his father to show off and extend his power by way of controlling his men in an unusual way.
Look too long at the girls, and a man might lose an eye.
Touch one, and well, maybe you didn’t need that hand after all.
Konstantin, on the other hand, was still young enough—or maybe he just hadn’t gotten desensitized yet to all of this—that these shows were not as easy for him to swallow like they were for Kolya. Under his breath, in Russian, he said to Kolya, “If this isn’t some kind of shit. He’s got other rooms in here. They could be elsewhere.”
They could.
Vadim wouldn’t let them, though.
Kolya’s lips twitched with a grin that came out more like a sneer. Probably the closest thing to a smile that he could manage, honestly. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d genuinely smiled because something had truly amused him or made him happy.
Unless he was beating the hell out of someone.
Or killing them.
That usually made Kolya happy.
“Relax,” Kolya returned to Konstantin at the same quiet level. “Stop letting it piss you off when you know that’s something he can—”
“Do you have something to share with the rest of the class, Kolya?”
Kolya’s gaze drifted lazily to the man across the room. A good twenty feet from where the women were still pretending like the sheer curtains were doing anything to hide the fact they were still resting on that goddamn bed. Vadim stood next to the windows, haloed in the ray of color the inverted ceiling lights provided over the heavy, dark drapes.
As usual, Vadim kept hold of a glass of vodka that might as well have been his third hand. A man could almost guess by the way Vadim was holding the glass if things would end well for him in a meeting with the man.
Tonight, Vadim kept a light grip on the glass, which meant two things. One, he was pissed, and two, the glass could fly into any man’s face, should he be brave enough to challenge the man—even without meaning to.
Perfect.
It was only when Vadim kept a tight hold on his glass of vodka that a person should feel safe. It was for only that reason that Kolya decided to tread carefully with his father right then.