I pull out my phone with shaking hands and dial a number I swore I’d never call again. He answers on the first ring.
“Bratishka,” Aleksei purrs through the speaker. “I was wondering when you’d reach out.”
“We need to talk.”
“I imagine we do.” I can hear the smile in his voice. “Come to The Caged Bird. I’ll be waiting.”
The line goes dead.
I stand there for another moment, bow tie hanging loose around my neck. My gaze shifts from Harold’s saliva to the spot on the sawdust-covered floor where Eliana and I made love four nights ago. It was there, right fuckingthere. The world was so perfect then. It was ours. She was mine. We’d made it, both of us.
But maybe I was an idiot for ever thinking that I’d get to keep something so nice and pure. You can run and run and run, but you can’t escape what’s in your veins. Some sins can’t be forgiven. Some roots cannot be hacked away.
So I clench my jaw and flex my fists. Then I turn my back on that spot and walk toward the stairs. Each step takes me further and further from the man I’ve spent sixteen years trying to be…
… and closer and closer to the one I’ve always feared I’d become.
At this hour, The Caged Bird is empty.
Except for the man I’ve come to see.
Aleksei sits center stage in the middle of the main room, legs dangling over the edge. He’s got a fresh bottle of vodka andtwo glasses arranged beside him. “Semyon.” He pats the space beside him. “Sit.”
I don’t move from the doorway. “I’m not staying long.”
“If you say so.” He uncorks the bottle and pours vodka into both glasses. “But at least have a drink with your brother. For old times’ sake.”
I walk over, but I don’t sit beside him. Instead, I stand at the edge of the stage, close enough to take the glass he offers but far enough to maintain the illusion that I’m still in control of this situation.
We both know I’m not.
“You did this,” I begin.
Aleksei’s lips twist into something that might be a smile if it ever reached his eyes. Since it doesn’t, it looks more like a hyena’s smirk. He takes a sip of his vodka and smacks his lips before answering. “Did what,bratishka?”
“Don’t fuck with me. The building. Project Olympus. You gutted it.”
He shrugs. “I told you I needed your restaurants. You said no. So I created a situation where you might reconsider.”
“By destroying three billion dollars’ worth of infrastructure?”
“By showing you what happens when you refuse family.” He sets his glass down on the stage. “I didn’t destroy anything permanently, Semyon. I just… rearranged some things. Made them disappear for a little while.”
“Harold pulled his funding, you know. All of it.”
“Did he?” Aleksei’s eyebrows lift with mock surprise. “How unfortunate.”
The vodka glass trembles in my hand. I want to throw it at his face, watch it shatter against that arrogant nose. But violence is his language, not mine. I resist the urge. For now.
I throw back the shot and drop to a seat next to him. “So this is about punishing me for not toeing the line?”
“Punishing you?” he exclaims. “Oh, God, no, Semyon. No, no, it’s not that at all. You’re my brother. Iloveyou. I’ve said what I wanted from the very start: for all of us to be together again. Side by side, the way it should be.”
“I didn’t spend two decades working my ass off so you could launder blood money through my kitchens, Al.”
“You keep harping on the message. I’m talking about themediumhere, brother. Themeans,not the end. Who gives a fuck about the money? I don’t! I just want my brothers with me.”
“I don’t think you know what that word mean, ‘brothers.’”
