Both of them are watching me now. Alexei has gone still for once, his usual restless energy suspended.
"I'm not going to share details." My voice rough an angry. "It's not my story to tell. If you want to know more, Victoria has to be the one to share it."
I take a drink. Let the vodka burn a path down my throat.
"But there's one piece of information I have to tell you. Because it changes everything."
Zakhar leans forward slightly. Alexei's hand tightens on his glass.
"When she was twelve, a man violated her at her father's house." The words taste like ash. Like betrayal. Like necessity. "Shedoesn't know who he was. He wore a mask. But she remembers one thing about him."
I meet my brothers' eyes. First Zakhar. Then Alexei.
"A tattoo. Wolf with a dagger between its teeth. On his hand."
The silence that follows is absolute.
Zakhar's jaw ticks. Once. Twice. His breathing goes shallow, controlled. His hand on the armrest has gone white-knuckled.
Alexei reacts differently. He's on his feet before I finish speaking, pacing the length of the office with barely contained fury.
"That's impossible," he says, voice sharp. "The only person who wore the mark on his hand was—"
"Ivan Valkov," Zakhar finishes. His voice is quiet. Deadly. "The man we killed."
"The man who ordered my parents murder." I set down my glass because my hand is shaking and I refuse to let them see it. "The man we hunted for years before we finally ended him."
"He's dead," Alexei says, still pacing. "We watched him die. We burned the body. He can't be the one to—"
"He was." I cut him off. "When Victoria was a child, Ivan Valkov was at her father's house. At a party. And he drugged her and violated her while her father hosted his business associates downstairs."
Alexei stops pacing. His face has gone pale beneath the anger.
"Arthur Ainsley," Zakhar says slowly. "He's not just a banker who made bad investments with Albanian money."
"No." I stand, unable to sit with this weight pressing down on me. "He was connected to the Valkovs. Which means Victoria has been in danger since long before she married me. And we need to protect her from her own father."
"I'll kill him," Alexei says. Simple. Factual.
"No." I hold up a hand. "Not until we understand the full picture. Not until we know how deep his involvement goes and whether he's still connected to whoever is reviving the Valkov symbol."
"The warehouse thief," Zakhar says. "The tattoo."
"Yes." I meet his eyes. "Someone is using that mark again. Someone is recruiting. And Arthur Ainsley is somehow involved."
We're quiet for a long moment. Processing. Planning. The vodka sits untouched now, forgotten.
"We don't tell Victoria," Zakhar finally says. "Not about our connection to the Valkovs. Not about our suspicions regarding her father. Not until we know more."
I nod. The decision sits heavy on my conscience, another secret layered on top of secrets. But he's right. We can't burden her with this until we understand what we're dealing with.
"She trusts us," Alexei says quietly. "All three of us."
The words hang in the air. Loaded with meaning that goes beyond strategy and protection.
Zakhar shifts in his seat. Alexei stops pacing. I feel the energy in the room change, sharpen, become something else entirely.
"We should discuss that," I say.
