The muscles in my jaw tighten. “Let them test. I’ll make sure the next attempt is their last.”
“That’s what I figured you’d say,” Dmitri mutters. “Still, the timing is bad. I got word from the council this morning.”
He pauses, waiting until I meet his eyes. “They’re calling for askhodka. It starts in less than an hour. They want to discuss Father’s death.”
For a long moment, silence fills the room, except for the slow tick of the clock on the wall. I'm not even surprised. I saw this coming. In fact, I’d expected it to happen sooner.
“Of course they are,” I say quietly. “They finally decided to question what everyone knows needed to be done.”
“You’ll have to go,” Dmitri says. “Refusal isn’t an option.”
I lean back in my chair, steepling my fingers. “No. It isn’t.”
He studies me. “You still think you can convince them?”
“I don’t need to convince them.” I stand, cross to the window, and stare out at the city below. Gray sky. Cold light. “I’ll show them the proof. Every record. Every file. What he did to his wives. To Mother. To Ivan.”
My throat tightens around the name, but I keep my voice even. “They’ll see what kind of monster he was.”
Dmitri’s reflection appears beside mine in the glass, his expression darkening. “He was more than a monster, Alexei. He was rabid. If you hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve taken us all down with him.”
“He almost did.” I turn back toward the desk, the memory flickering in my head like a match. Yuri drunk, raving, confessing every crime like it was a badge of honor. “He killed our mother because she threatened to leave. Killed Ivan because he found out too much. Every woman he ever touched eventually became a target. Including Anya’s mother.”
Dmitri exhales slowly. “That’s what I came to ask you about. Have you told her? About her parents?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“You plan to?”
“Eventually.” My tone is clipped, but the thought claws at me. “She’s been through enough. All those years under his roof nearly broke her, Dmitri. What good would it do to tell her that the man she thought of as a stepfather murdered both her parents?”
“She deserves the truth.”
“She deserves peace,” I snap before I can stop myself. The words echo in the silence between us. I drag a hand over my face and drop back into my chair. “If I tell her now, it’ll destroy what we’re building. She finally looks at me without fear. I can’t take that from her. From myself.”
Dmitri studies me for a long moment, then sighs. “You always did carry more guilt than necessary.”
“It’s not guilt,” I murmur. “It’s responsibility.”Or maybe selfishness.
He leans forward. “You love her, don’t you?”
The question sits there, heavy and unspoken, but we both know it’s true. I don’t bother denying it.
“She’s the one thing I got right,” I say finally. “The only thing our father didn’t ruin.”
Dmitri nods once, then pushes to his feet. “We need to leave soon. I’ll have the car brought around.”
“Make sure our security detail doubles while I’m gone,” I say as he reaches the door. “Anya stays under watch at all times.”
He glances over his shoulder, dark brow arched in ill-concealed amusement. “Still protecting her from ghosts?”
“From men who think like my father,” I correct quietly. “And from anyone who thinks they can touch what’s mine.”
“There he is…” Dmitri says, his lips curving in a smirk. “The Alexei I remember. I know—”
He suddenly trails off, his expression instantly alert at the same time I jerk my head toward the door. The sound had been soft, but loud enough to be picked up by our trained ears.
Someone was eavesdropping. And only one person comes to mind…
