“Wait…” I call out with a reluctant sigh.
“What?” he snaps, turning to look at me.
“We need to talk. We can’t keep going on like this,” I suggest.
He shrugs, pulling his mouth tight. “Fine. Talk.”
“Let’s get a drink,” I sigh.
Artur follows me to the living room bar, where I pour us each a vodka on the rocks. He watches me with his arms folded across his chest as he stands near the sofas.
“Do you want to sit?” I ask, handing him his drink.
“No,” he huffs.
I roll my eyes. “Well, I’m sitting,” I say, lowering into one of the sofas and leaning forward with my elbows resting on my knees.
Artur gives in and sits as well, but in the furthest possible seat from me.
All of these little gestures make it obvious that this isn’t going to be easy.
“Artur, the bottom line is that we don’t have much choice. We need to meet with Misha. And I know—”
“Not a chance,” he blurts out, interrupting me.
I clench my jaw, stopping myself from impatiently lashing out at him.
“Can you give me a chance to speak at least?” I say quietly.
He takes a big sip of his drink and presses his lips tightly together.
“I know it’s not something you want to do, but the bottom line is that Misha has already messed with one of my operations. He knows we have her, and hewillcome and find her. Weneed to stay one step ahead of him, and we’re already two steps behind. Unless you want him bursting in here and taking her away, we need to do this. Besides, man, you already won. You got her. Youmarriedher.”
He scoffs.
“That’s not good enough?” I ask.
“Why am I suddenly into making agreements with you?” he asks coldly.
“Since we’re allies. Or did you forget? I assume you entered the alliance because of some personal issue between you and Misha? And now that personal issue is affecting everyone, and you’re pretending it’s still just about you. Whatever is going on, we need to set aside our differences…between you and me… and we need to sort this out for the alliance’s sake,” I try to explain without provoking him further.
He is the most infuriating man. Never in my life have I struggled to communicate with someone so much before.Perhaps that isn’t true.There is, after all, still my father.
And my father is still out there, waiting in silence until he sees the right opportunity to come after me. I need the alliance to work. I’d better not forget that in all the chaos of trying to deal with Artur and his persistent ability to drive me crazy.
“Misha isn’t the only enemy we have,” I sigh.
“What does that mean?” Artur mutters.
“We are all Pakhans, Artur. We all came into this with enemies, with history. The whole point is that we work together to get rid of them. This has to end. This has to come to a resolution somehow,” I say.
He pulls one side of his mouth tight and ponders what I’ve said.
“Fine,” he shrugs, then drains the last of his drink. “Set up the meeting,” he groans.
Artur stands up and leaves the living room, and I realize that is the most I am going to get out of him. I guess that’s his version of setting aside our differences. And I guess it’ll have to be acceptable even though I still want to punch the guy in the face.
***
