One pair of blue eyes does, too.
Aleksei is sitting in a high-backed chair at the far end of the room, flanked by men I don’t recognize. But I know those scowls and those scars. I could probably guess everything about them without asking—where they’re from, what kinds of parents they had, what things they saw and did before they were old enough to know right from wrong.
“Semyon!” my brother crows as he spreads his arms wide in welcome. “What a pleasant surprise.”
I stand in the doorway. “Can we speak in private?”
Aleksei’s smile widens. He waves one hand at the men. “Out.”
The men exchange glances, but they don’t argue. One by one, they file past me, their shoulders brushing mine as they go. The last one out pulls the door shut behind him with a soft click.
Then it’s just us.
Aleksei leans back in his chair, fingers steepled beneath his chin. “I’m glad you came by,bratishka. Truly. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me entirely.”
“I haven’t forgotten anything.”
“Good. Good.” He gestures to the chair across from him. “Sit. Please.”
I don’t move.
He sighs. “You know, Semyon, family is everything to me. Blood is the only thing in this world you can trust. Those men who just left?” He points his chin toward the door. “Loyal, yes. Useful, absolutely. But they’re notus. They don’t understand what we’ve been through. What we’ve survived together.”
“We haven’t survived anything together in sixteen years,” I remind him.
“And whose fault is that?” he chides. “I’ve tried, you know. I want us to be together. Three brothers working side by side in the family business. That’s how it ought to be.”
I shake my head. “Sage and I want nothing to do with you.”
He puts a hand on his chest like I’ve wounded him. “I wish I could tell you how much I hate hearing that, Semyon. It hurts.”
“You left feelings behind a long time ago, brother.”
“Wrong. So, so wrong.” He stands and circles closer to me, leaning up against the edge of the table. “I’m just a patient man. I mean what I’m saying to you: Family is the most important thing in the world to me. I understand why you’ve made the choices you’ve made. But you can’t outrun blood, Semyon, and what I have matches what you have exactly. Sage is one of us, too. We all belong together.”
I shake my head again. It feels like I do a lot of that whenever Aleksei is around. “Not happening,” I say flatly. “And that’s not what I came here to discuss.”
Raising a brow, Aleksei grabs a nearby chair and spins it around to straddle it backwards, facing me. “Then by all means, tell me what’s on your mind. Floor is yours, brother.”
“I know you sent him.”
Aleksei’s face remains carefully neutral. “Sent who?”
“Don’t play dumb,” I growl. “You’re a lot of things, but that’s not one of them.”
“Flattered, as always,” he says with a grin. “But you’ll have to catch me up to speed. Sent who?”
Grimacing, I reach into my pocket and pull out a driver’s license. I slap it down on the table between us.
Petya Egorov’s face stares up at his employer, unsmiling. Aleksei looks at it, then away. “Is he dead?” he asks.
“No. One pinky short, though.”
He laughs. “I like your style, Semyon. Knife work was always your finest skill.”
I bite back the anger rising in my throat. “You don’t get it, do you? I didn’t want to be that person again. I spent sixteen years trying to wash the blood off my hands, and you forced me right back into it.”
Aleksei tilts his head to the side as he looks at me with genuine bewilderment crossing his face. “Semyon, you protected what’s yours. That’s not something to be ashamed of. That’s what men like us do.”
