Fractured Ties by Bethany-Kris Page 0,54
of blood dripping and sawing echoed from the middle of the room.
“Come here,” he murmured, scooping the pup from his blanket.
He’d done well.
Stayed right in his spot.
Stayed quiet.
“Good boy,” Kolya said, running his hand down Sumerki’s back. The pup relaxed a bit—it was quite a bit of noise. “Someday, just you sitting there will be enough to make a man spill his fucking secrets, won’t it?”
“I thought he was going to bolt once,” Konstantin said, coming closer.
The first time he’d left his position at the wall all evening.
“I thought he would, too,” Kolya admitted. “Also, we have an issue.”
Konstantin frowned. “What is that?”
“The second attack—the one on you and Maya—wasn’t the Albanians.”
“Why would you think—”
“Valbon … he wants Maya. There was at least three minutes where you had no consciousness. You admitted it yourself. After the car rolled, no? Whoever it was had every chance to take her and they didn’t, Konstantin. It couldn’t be the Albanians. They have one purpose—they want her. The second attack wasn’t about her.”
Understanding dawned in Konstantin’s eyes. “You’re saying we have someone else after the Boykovs, besides the Albanians.”
Kolya nodded. “Da.”
“When did you know that?”
“I suspected it at the clinic when we were talking,” Kolya replied, “but I didn’t think for sure until about a half hour ago.”
Konstantin cleared his throat, and glanced away. “And you didn’t think to tell Vadim that he has someone else to worry about?”
“No.”
“Kolya—”
“Two issues are one too many for Vadim,” Kolya said, his grip on Sumerki tightening a bit. “And if he can get rid of one issue by simply handing Maya over, even if it will make him look a bit weaker to another organization so that his focus can be on the unknown coming at him from behind, then he will do that. I can’t let him do that.”
“That’s a dangerous game to play.”
“I’m aware.”
Konstantin’s gaze darted back to his brother. “You’ve really got something going on with that girl, no?”
Kolya shrugged. “Something.”
“Yeah, I can tell by the mess your back is. You should have kept your shirt on—those scratches look like they sting, Kolya.”
“Mind your own.”
He said it like a warning.
He still smirked, though.
Konstantin sighed. “Hey, at least one of us got to be buried in pussy tonight, no? That’s worth something.”
Kolya chuckled dryly. “You’ve still got time to go out and find yourself something to keep your interest for a few hours.”
His brother made a noise in the back of his throat and glanced at the dead body in the corner. “Not tonight—you gave me something to consider. Not even pussy is going to make me forget that.”
“Now, that’s a shame.”
“Tell me about it.”
10.
“BRAND HER properly.”
Kolya grabbed the hot water valve and turned it higher. The temperature of the water stung as it beat against his skin, but he didn’t care. It was the only thing he could think to do in order to get out of his fucking head, and away from those words of his father.
A call from Vadim first thing in the morning was never a good thing. It typically meant his father wanted or needed something, and Kolya was highest on Vadim’s shit list so the task was delegated to him.
This time, there was no task.
Just an order.
A simple demand.
Brand her.
Maya, he meant.
“Brand her properly,” his father had said while Kolya’s mind was still thick with sleep, and Maya slept comfortably and naked under the sheets with him. “Brand her, and make it clear where she belongs. It has to be done, otherwise, she’ll be free game to anyone. I am trying to make a statement to the Albanians about her—they cannot have what doesn’t belong to them. You’ll have her branded, Kolya, and you’ll have it done soon.”
Fuck Vadim.
Fuck his father straight to hell.
Fuck him for being right, in a way, but also asking something of Kolya that made him want to put his fists through the ceramic tiles of the shower’s wall. Vadim had a damn good point—with no visible mark to label her safe under the protection of the Boykovs, and no real status like a wife or a daughter might have … she was no one.
To everyone else, anyway.
To Kolya … he was learning she was quite a lot of things to him.
Even if it fucked him up sideways.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Konstantin’s voice drifted through Kolya’s haze and the constant downpour of the shower. He glanced at the screen of his phone that he’d set on the edge of the shower where the water