We step into the foyer. The familiar smell of the house greets me. My father’s cologne, the cleaning stuff the maid uses on the floors, and the faint smell of food. My stomach growls. I haven’t eaten since breakfast…
I hear footfalls and a second later, my father walks into the foyer from the kitchen. He smiles at me and holds his arms out. “Natalya,” he says. “You’re home. Finally.”
He walks up to me and kisses my cheek. I flinch at his touch.
“I hope you had a nice vacation,” he said. “Come on. I’ve made us lunch.”
He turns to his men and waves them away. “Clean up, get rid of those cars and clothes…” he mutters at them in Russian.
We walk into the kitchen and there’s a sandwich platter on the island counter. “Help yourself,” he says.
My father has never “made” me lunch. In fact, he’s never cooked a thing in his life. This is no doubt the work of one of his people. He walks around the island to the cabinets and pulls out two plates. “I’ve just restocked the fridge. So, if you’d like something to drink, I’ve got soda, water, juice…” He pauses and looks over his shoulder at me. “I even have wine if that’s what you’d like.”
I don’t know what the hell this is so I say nothing. My father hasrarelybeen this nice to me and anytime it’s happened, it was around other people to keep up appearances.
He sets the plates out, sliding one toward me, then he goes to the refrigerator and pulls out two cans of soda. “I didn’t know what you would like. It’s been a minute since I’ve even seen you drink anything fizzy.”
He turns and sets the cans down by the plates. “Sit,” he says.
I sit down and watch as he puts sandwiches on both plates. “What is this?” I ask. He takes a bite from his sandwich as he stands on the other side.
“Ham and Cheese,” he says. “You don’t like ham anymore? I thought you loved it.”
“Not since I was eight,” I say. “And that’s not what I mean. Why are you being so nice to me?”
He smiles at me, then wipes his face with a napkin. “Natalya, you’re my daughter. Of course I’m going to be nice to you. Especially now since you’re finally home.”
I frown at him. It’s like I’m in the Twilight Zone. “Two months ago, you kicked me out for coming home late and less than thirty or forty minutes ago, you had your men kidnap me?—”
“Kidnap is such a strong word,” he says coldly. “I sent my men to go get you and bring you back here. And here you are.”
We stare at one another for a couple of seconds before he motions toward the sandwiches. “Eat. Please. It might be a while before you get anything else.”
I don’t know what the hell that means… but I reluctantly take a sandwich just the same. “So you brought me back,” I say to him after I take a bite. “Why? What do you gain by dragging me back here when you never wanted me here in the first place?”
He scoffs and opens his soda can. It hisses angrily as he pops the top. “When I found out that you and Anton Romanov had been together, I reacted as any father might react in my position. My twenty-three-year-old daughter was sleeping with a man most certainly close to being in his fifties.Andthat man was another Pakhan. He’s part of a brotherhood. Every way you turn this, he knew better than to ever touch you.”
The blue in his eyes turns icy as he speaks. It almost feels like the temperature in the room has dropped.
“I could have shown up at his door and put a bullet in his head and no one would have blamed me for it. His men probably wouldn’t even seek vengeance for it. He was fucking my daughter, after all.”
“So, why didn’t you just do that, then?” I ask him. “Personally, I would have loved to have seen you try.”
He snickers. “I’m sure you would at that. I didn’t kill him on sight because I still needed him. And if you hadn’t inserted yourself into my plans, I might finally be done with him and the Amur.”
I blink at him.The Amur?“What are you talking about? Anton never did anything to you?—”
He slams his hand on the counter. “You don’t know anything about what he has or hasn’t done,” he yells. “You’re just a spoiled Bratva princess who I should have thrown away in the trash after your mother died.”
I freeze in terror. He leans into me.
“This is Bratva business, Natalya,” he says. “I told you over and over again that it’s nothing to do with you. Now, because I was so distracted by your decision to fuck Anton Romanov, my plans to wipe out the Amur and Astrakhan almost passed me by.”
Through my fear, I try to understand what he’s ranting about. “I haven’t been involved in any of that,” I tell him. “I don’t even know?—”
“They were at war!” he yells again. “They would have obliterated each other and all I would have had to do is pick up the pieces of their empires. And then out of the blue, they call it all off. A truce! How exactly could that have happened, Natalya?”
He looks at me as if I know the answer. I don’t. I just stare wide-eyed at him, waiting for him to strike out at me. He stares at me for a few seconds, then picks up his soda and takes a drink, setting it down hard on the counter.
