Fractured Ties by Bethany-Kris Page 0,71
this.”
Kolya didn’t give the man a chance to respond. He hung up the phone and slipped the device into his pocket before he could consider smashing it into the ground at his feet. That might have made him feel better in the moment but it would also be selfish.
It was the only number Maya knew to call—other than Konstantin’s—should she need something. Plus, she’d been texting him pictures all day on her trip out of the hotel, wanting opinions that he didn’t think he had any place to give. He did it anyway, knowing she probably smiled for each one.
He didn’t need it hanging over his head if one of her texts went unanswered because he was a prick who broke his phone.
Kolya didn’t miss the way Konstantin’s brow lifted as he entered his brother’s office at the Compound.
“What was that all about?” Konstantin asked.
“Hmm, what?”
“Your phone call. I heard it.”
Kolya gave his brother a side eye. “Spying is a bad habit, no? Quit before someone breaks you of it.”
“I wasn’t spying. You were talking loud enough for the devil to hear.”
“Same difference.”
Konstantin’s gaze narrowed. “Oh, you’re in one of those moods again.”
Jesus Christ.
“I’m not in a mood. This is how I am.”
And it would do everyone well if they would just figure that out, and quickly. Kolya was getting tired of explaining it again and again.
“Sure.” Konstantin nodded. “What, didn’t get to forget your own name from being buried in pussy this morning?”
Actually, he had.
And he’d done so happily.
Not that it was his brother’s business.
Kolya gave Konstantin another look; this one promising violence if he didn’t shut the fuck up, and fast. Konstantin only rolled his eyes in response. He swore the two of them had the strangest relationship—everything was always a competition to Konstantin when it came to Kolya. From business to their father, and even little things like challenging Kolya’s threats in a way no one else would dare.
Oh, sure, he respected his brother for it. How could he not? That didn’t mean he knew what to make of it, or why Konstantin felt the need to rise to every occasion where Kolya was concerned. It was the only way they actually got along, though, so Kolya indulged it.
He liked Konstantin well enough. Might even use the word love, although that felt a little strong.
He loved one thing—one woman—he had come to find, and nothing else felt the same in that regard. It was too heavy of a word to throw around, especially considering Kolya had no idea how he’d fallen in love, and he had yet to even utter the words outside of his head.
Konstantin moved onto something else, thankfully. “Since when do you throw your position in people’s faces like that? It isn’t like you to use that against someone—especially Grisha.”
Konstantin wasn’t lying.
It wasn’t like Kolya to use his position as his father’s heir to scare a man or set him straight. Mostly because Kolya didn’t want that fucking position to begin with. He never had, and he never would. It also wasn’t his choice to make; or so the story went.
“It just slipped out, yeah? Stop asking questions.”
“Fine. You should really take up a class on social skills and how to conversate with someone else, Kolya. It might help with … things, no?”
“But why?”
“Never mind,” Konstantin muttered, his gaze drifting past Kolya to the space behind him. “No puppy or woman today?”
“Sumerki is with Maya.”
“Playing fetch?”
“I’m going to break your face, Konstantin.”
Konstantin shrugged. “Probably someday. I figured you’d bring her in, since it’s your first day back working at the Compound.”
“She has other things to do.”
“Like what? She stays hidden in a hotel.”
Kolya chucked dryly. “Not today. She’s looking at penthouses in the city, and properties in the suburbs, actually.”
His brother turned into a statue behind the desk. “It’s that serious, yeah?”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“Tell me where I was wrong.”
Kolya sighed. “We’ve come to an understanding that she would like to stay with me, and not in a hotel, but also not in my dump of an apartment. So yes, she has taken Sumerki to look for places today. I have someone keeping an eye on her and the realtor she’s with, but from a safe distance. And it’s someone Vadim doesn’t know. Are you satisfied with prying into my personal life, now, or no?”
Konstantin grinned and leaned back in his chair like a smug fucker. Had it been another day, when Kolya had been just a little bit more pissed off, he