Her brows arch. “Let me guess: you were too busy stalking my best friend again. You do realize that’s not a healthy coping mechanism for loving her, right?”
“I will never love that cursed woman.” I brush past her, heading straight for Konstantin’s study.
Of course she knows about my extracurricular activities. They all do. Not as though I’m subtle.
“Nice talking to you too, brother-in-law,” she calls after me. “You’re always so pleasant.”
She’s already made herself right at home in this family. And while her mouth is a damn menace, I will admit having her around isn’t the worst thing in the world. As long as she stays out of my way.
When I enter the study, they’re all already there. Anton dead-eyed as usual. Kirill with that smug grin. Konstantin sitting like a king behind his desk, shot of vodka in hand.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” he says, tipping his glass to his mouth before lowering it.
I shrug and drop onto the leather sofa between Kirill and Anton. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
Konstantin arches a brow, his mouth curving with dry amusement. “And we are all very grateful. Especially considering what we need to discuss.”
“And what’s that?”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “The Volkovs. And their connection to your lovely Fiona.”
My jaw tightens as I bury the chaos churning beneath my ribs whenever someone mentions her name. “She’s not mine.”
“Not yet,” he says with a low chuckle.
I start to snap something back, but he lifts a hand, cutting me off.
“Spare me the dramatics, brother. I have no interest in your love life, or lack thereof. What I want to know is what you plan to do about what Kirill uncovered.”
My tone drops. “Nothing.”
Konstantin’s gaze narrows.
“There’s nothingtodo. I will not let them touch her. That’s all there is to it. Anything else?” My teeth grind with irritation that I don’t bother masking.
He drags in a long inhale, eyes still trained on me. “And how do you plan to stop them?”
“I’m watching her. I know where she goes, who she sees. I’ll know before they move. It will be simple.”
“Hmm. Still stalking my wife’s best friend, huh? We really do need to find you a new hobby. It’s been a while since you have stepped into the ring. Maybe you need to bleed her out.”
Kirill laughs under his breath. When I shoot him a glare, he chuckles harder. If he wasn’t my brother, I would have killed him by now.
Still, Konstantin has a point. It’s been too long since I’ve fought. Since I stepped into one of our underground rings and let the violence unleash.
Anton follows the conversation with quiet observance, probably wondering why I’d let a woman get under my skin at all.
But of course it doesn’t make sense to him. Nothing does. Not since our father shattered a bottle over his head and left him facedown and bleeding on the floor for hours when he was nine. He never called a doctor. No one was even allowed to check on him.
I thought he was dead. I snuck in to see if he had a pulse, but my father caught me and beat me half to death for it.
When Anton finally woke up, the boy we knew was gone. We didn’t know it at first. But eventually, we realized he was a shell of who he was. All his emotions were gone. He didn’t feel love, anger, or hate. He felt nothing.
And for my father, that was a win.
Anton became his killing machine from a very young age. And ever since, he has been just that. Empty. Efficient. Unbreakable. The one man who’s never let emotion cost him anything.
Not like the rest of us.
