“You do know Misha is also our brother, right? Not just thePakhan?” Kostya chirps, but Sasha walks past him without so much as a glance, dismissing him as if he were already an afterthought.
“I swear that guy needs to get laid,” Kostya accuses with an ingrained scowl on his face. “Maybe then he wouldn’t be such a fucking asshole.”
“Hard to get laid when your heart belongs to a woman who doesn’t want you.”
“Shit, right. I forgot he’s still pining over that Irish chick.” Kostya rolls his eyes. “If she’s that into Remus, the least our brother could do is accept defeat like a man.”
“Unless she says those precise words to our brother’s face or until Remus puts a ring on her finger, she’s fair game in Sasha’s mind,” I say, feeling hollow and empty talking about my brother’s pitiful excuse of a love life, when mine isn’t any better.
“It’s so fucking archaic. Borderline medieval, the way he refuses to leave the poor girl alone.”
“That’s our brother for you. What do you want me to say?” I shrug, dragging my feet as if they were made of lead, as we walk back into the house and toward the library.
Misha made it sound like he’d be right back to talk to us in a few minutes, but two long hours pass before he finally shows his face.
“Apologies,” he says as he steps into the room.
“Not accepted,” Kostya grumbles, his ankles propped on the small table in front of him. “I could’ve taken a nap with how long you took totalkto Elena.” He adds air quotes to the word talk.
Misha slaps his feet off the table before taking the lone sofa across from the three of us. One look at his face, drained and tense with worry, and every one of us goes rigid with attention.
“What’s wrong?” I ask immediately, recognizing the kind of fear that can only come from something involving his wife. “What did Elena’s doctor say?”
Misha takes a slow, painful breath and then drops the last thing any of us expect. “Elena’s pregnant.” My eyes go wide.
“Mazel tov, Misha! That’s amazing!” Kostya shoots to his feet, ready to hug our big brother, only to slowly sit his ass back down when he notices there’s no joy on Misha’s face. Only fear.
And that’s when reality hits us. If she’s pregnant, that means no stem cell transplant. No stem cell transplant means the cancer can grow. And if the cancer grows… I shudder, unable to finish the thought.
“I’ll search for the best abortion clinics in London,” Sasha says, already thumbing through his phone.
“The fuck are you talking about?” Kostya snaps, snatching the phone out of Sasha’s hand. “Am I the only one happy that this child is coming into the world? Elena has wanted to be a mother since she was a kid herself. It’s all she’s ever dreamedabout. It’s all she ever used to fucking talk about before she got sick!”
“I know this is something that peabrain of yours might not accept,” Sasha snarls, yanking his phone back, “but we don’t always get what we want. Sometimes we have to do what’s necessary. And Elena needs that transplant.”
Misha hunches over, fingers buried in his hair, visibly shaken by everything crashing down on him.
“Let’s… let’s move to another topic,” he mutters. “Elena… I can’t think about this right now.”
We all hear the strain in his voice. The fear that is occupying his every thought.
Misha needs a distraction, even if that means burying himself in work so he doesn’t lose his damn mind right now.
I can’t even begin to imagine what he’s going through, the pain he must be in. On one hand, he finally gets to give Elena what she’s prayed for her entire life, a family with him. On the other, he risks losing the only woman he’s ever loved. The only woman who could ever love him just as he is.
Yeah. I don’t envy my brother’s circumstances at all. And here I thought my love life was in shambles.
Quick to pick up on what Misha needs, Sasha starts talking business, spurting out updates on what he’s been up to in London. After a while, it seems to do the trick of pulling Misha out of his spiral a bit, especially when Sasha mentions he might be able to take Whitechapel away from the Cranes.
“That motherfucker, Felix, is also being more of a nuisance of late. I might need to handle him differently. Or is he hands-off too now?” Sasha adds, cutting his eyes toward me as if I were the reason he can’t kill as many Cranes as he wants.
“Deal with Felix accordingly. If he becomes too much of an issue, then yes. Do what you have to.”
In other words, if Felix crosses Sasha’s path one more time, he’s as good as dead.
“Now, onto Chicago,” Misha says, turning his attention fully to me. “How is the construction on the club going?”
“Well. I should be opening the second week of January. That is… if you don’t need me here any longer. I can stay in Russia after New Year’s. My staff can handle the reopening if they have to.”
