Roman took a slow step forward, his eyes flicking over me, then to Kara, standing just behind my shoulder. “You doing alright?” he asked her, his tone a little bit too casual.
“I’ve been better,” she said, her voice hoarse, but remarkably even.
His gaze lingered on her a second too long. Viktor Dragunov noticed, of course.
“Touching,” Viktor said, flicking ash from his cigarette. “You two planning to kiss or shoot someone first?”
“That depends on who keeps talking,” I said.
Roman’s eyes cut back to me. “Still bossing everyone around, I see.”
“Somebody has to,” I said, my tone even.
He smirked. “You look terrible, by the way.”
“I could say the same about your manners.”
The tension between us was familiar, an old rhythm we’d danced a thousand times before. Except this time, there was something different about him.
“You took your time,” I replied. “As usual.”
He smirked. “I was busy cleaning up your mess.”
I stepped forward just enough to remind him who he was talking to. “My mess?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re the one who got yourself tied to a chair, brother.”
“You came charging into a situation without thinking,” I said coldly. “As usual.”
He grinned, but there was nothing playful in it. “Somebody had to.”
Before I could answer, Viktor Dragunov’s voice cut through the tension like a hot knife through butter.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he drawled, leaning casually against a container, cigarette dangling between two fingers. “Why don’t you two just get your dicks out and measure them? Save us all some time.”
Roman turned his head slightly, glare sharp. “You’ve got a lot of opinions for a man standing between two Markovs right now.”
Viktor smiled, smoke curling from his lips. “Oh, I like watching you two. It’s like theater: tragic on occasion, but entertaining all the time.”
Roman’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t answer right away. His eyes flicked toward Kara again.
Viktor saw it too. His grin widened. “Ah. That’s why you’re so tense.” He tipped his chin toward Kara. “You’ve been staring at the girl since she walked in. I was beginning to think you’d forgo your brother entirely and just take her.”
Roman didn’t look away. “He can take care of himself, but she’s ours, whether you like it or not.”
Kara shifted beside me but didn’t speak. Her gaze was locked on him, unflinching, though her hands trembled slightly where they rested at her sides.
Viktor let out a low whistle. “A family of criminals adopting strays. Touching.”
“Careful,” Roman said quietly.
Viktor’s grin turned almost genuine. “You’ll make me blush.”
Demyan stayed quiet, just observing the scene around him.
Grigor stepped between them before the tension snapped. “Enough. Save the posturing for someone who cares. There are larger problems at stake here.”
Roman sighed and turned back to me, his voice icy cold. “Fine. Listen. We need to figure all this out. Quickly. I’ve got too much on my plate to argue with you further. I don’t know why you took Dmitri and Kara, but I need them more than you do. My younger brother Lev has been taken too.”
