Daniil glanced at his oldest with sympathy.
I moved out of her way, plastering myself against the wall. She was in some kind of mood right now.
Grigori hollered, “Oh, come on. I’m bleeding just as much as they are.”
I could hear Ember grumbling some pretty unflattering things about him under her breath as she kept moving up the stairs. I bit my cheek, trying not to laugh as Grigori watched her trek. He shouted, “Ember, honey. What would you have done?”
She stopped and glared at him over the railing, pointing at him. “That’s the point. What would I have done if the situations were reversed?”
Grigori’s eyebrows snapped together. “That doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to my question. I’m a man. See exhibit A,” he pointed at his crotch, “I have a dick. Therefore, I can’t really think from a female’s viewpoint. That’s why I asked.” Daniil and my dad and Kirill all started chuckling softly and shaking their heads at him, but Grigori kept digging his hole deeper, stating, “See exhibit B,” he pointed lower on his crotch, “I have balls. Big ones. You told them you didn’t want them, and then I asked them to leave, but they didn’t. I didn’t have to grow a pair since I already have mine, so I helped them leave when they couldn’t find theirs.”
Ember gaped at him, her mouth slightly drooping, and she mumbled, “The couch, Grigori. In fact, make it in another room now.”
He threw his arms wide when she started moving up the stairs again. “You didn’t answer my damn question. What would you have done?”
“Figure it out yourself,Mr. Dick and Balls,” she griped loudly.
“Ember, honey,” Grigori stated loudly, his arms still wide. “You’re acting unreasonable.”
I shook my head at that, right along with Chloe and my mom.
“And you’re impossible,” she hissed over the balcony, now at the top. “Enjoy the damn couch.”
“Ember!” Grigori shouted when she moved back, going into the hallway, most likely out of his line of vision. He paused and shouted again, “Ember!” I could see that she kept on moving, not turning around or stopping. Grigori’s arms crossed for all of three seconds, scowling at where she had disappeared from his view before he mumbled, “Dammit,” and dropped his arms, racing up the stairs. I plastered myself against the wall again since he seemed to have a one-track mind right now—and I could hear him mumbling different reasons under his breath, apparently trying to figure the best explanation why she was so pissed.
My eyebrows flew up at one of the reasons I heard him mumble, and I started chuckling, throwing a hand over my mouth. The man seriously didn’t have a clue. Apparently, Daniil’s un-reasoning skills passed on to him when he thought he was right. Glancing at Daniil, who was watching me with raised eyebrows, I shook my head. Grigori was going to fuck it up even more.
Daniil scowled, and barked, “Grigori! Wait!”
Grigori didn’t seem to hear him at first, almost at the top of the stairs, so Daniil shouted louder. That time Grigori stopped in his tracks, peering over his shoulder, his eyebrows together, but he kept glancing back to the hallway. Daniil stated in a hurry, obviously seeing his son’s short attention span, “I need your help in my study.”
Grigori scowled at Daniil, and then glanced down the hallway again before looking at his dad. “Papa, can’t you ask someone else? I’m kinda busy.”
Daniil shook his head. “No. I need you there.”
I was confused, but Grigori sighed, glancing down the hallway one more time before nodding, and turning around. “All right. Let’s go interrogate the bastard.”
My jaw dropped, and I turned my attention to Daniil.
He shrugged when he saw my expression. “I wanted you to eat first before I told you he was here.”
“Lord have mercy,” my mom muttered, throwing her hands up in the air, and shaking her head as she started stomping out of the foyer, mumbling, “None of these men have a clue in this family.”
“Agreed,” I said dryly, scowling down at Daniil. He was holding someone—probably not nicely—in his study and had let us all eat dinner before going in to take care of business.
Daniil just shrugged, though. “You were hungry.” He motioned for Grigori to come down the stairs, but kept talking to me. “We’re going to question him first before you,” his nose crinkled, “tell me what you want done with him.”
I shook my head, hurrying to cut Grigori off and began racing down the stairs, taking them two at a time. “No. I want to be in there.” Who knew what his ‘questioning’ would entail.
“Slow down!” Daniil barked so loudly everyone in the room froze from the obvious command in his voice.
I was no exception.
I halted, but slowly started taking the rest of the stairs down as he started marching to me. “Calm down. I’m not going to fall.” Hell, his face was a mixture of furious energy and worry. “And quit snarling orders at me.” If it weren’t for the honest worry on his face, I would have finished running down them, but instead, I took them slow and steady, landing on the bottom step where he had stopped and stood glaring at me. Crinkled nose and all. My positioning put the top of my head at his nose level, so I didn’t have to reach up as far to smooth the creases on his nose. “And I’m going in with you.”
His teeth clenched. “You won’t be able to understand us. We’ll be speaking in Russian.”
I shrugged. “Have Trofim come in with me to translate.” Or not. Really, I didn’t care about hearing what they said. I was sure Daniil would truthfully give me the details. I just wanted the man breathing.
