“You said he’d come alone,” Declan snapped.
The glare Stanislav directed his way could’ve peeled flesh from bone. “I saw no such thing tonight. Now go. Do as I say.”
He gave the order as if he expected immediate obedience. Whether out of fear or resentment, or some combination of the two, Declan did as he was told. He left, taking his handful of men with him, leaving Jamie alone with Stanislav, Kyle, and the two Russian bodyguards who moved to flank him. Jamie eyed the pair on either side of him, carefully weighing the risk of taking them out.
“Difficult to find good people,” Stanislav said, placing the gun back against Kyle’s side in a clear warning.
It reminded Jamie of a previous conversation they’d had last year in London, when their orbits first crashed against each other. Only this time, he didn’t try to ingratiate himself to Stanislav’s good graces for the sake of his country.
“I’ve noticed,” Jamie finally said, clenching his hands into fists.
“You were never good. But I saw that.”
“Did you?”
“I saw all of this, each step, each day to bring you here,” Stanislav boasted.
“I really fucking doubt that.”
The future was always changing. Jamie refused to believe they’d all made decisions based on a single man’s cutthroat desire for political power and monetary gain.
“Think what you like, but you are here, with no way out except through me.” Stanislav shrugged, hauling Kyle a little higher when his knees gave out. “And you won’t risk his life.”
The utter certainty in Stanislav’s voice was a terrible truth. Jamie took a step forward, eyes on Kyle, not liking the raspy breaths coming out of his mouth, nor the light sheen of sweat that covered his pale face.
One of the bodyguards grabbed Jamie by the shoulder and hauled him back. Jamie tried to shrug him off, but only got a heavy punch to his stomach for his troubles. The hit drove the breath from his lungs, and Jamie doubled over for a couple of seconds. Forcing his lungs to expand, Jamie drew in a deep breath that hurt as he straightened up. Stanislav watched him, still hiding behind Kyle with a smirk on his face.
“What do you want?” Jamie asked.
“Ah, now you think to bargain.” Stanislav tapped the gun against Kyle’s body. “All it took was a small persuasion.”
“Fuck you,” Kyle slurred, blinking rapidly.
Stanislav chuckled as he shifted his other arm, gliding his hand up Kyle’s wounded torso to wrap his hand around his throat. “Perhaps later I will take you up on your offer.”
“He’s not offering,” Jamie growled.
Stanislav’s gaze tracked back to Jamie, the shrewdness in his eyes not to be underestimated. “Is that so?”
“You took Kyle to get to me. He’s not who you want. I am. I’mhere, Stanislav. So what the fuck do you want from me? Money? Support? A way out?”
Jamie didn’t try to hide the desperation in his voice. Stanislav held all the cards that mattered to him in the shape of the only man he’d ever loved. Pretending he wasn’t affected was a lie they both would see through.
“I don’t need you to find my way out,” Stanislav told him. “Your government can’t stop me. Your team can’t stop me. You’ll do what I say, when I say, because the alternative is I put a bullet through your pet’s pretty eyes.”
“Not his fucking pet,” Kyle choked out.
“Ah, yes.Fiancé. The things people do for love.” Stanislav’s fingers tightened on Kyle’s throat, wrenching a horrible sound out of him. “Declan knows. You shot his wife, Jamie. If she had lived, he wouldn’t be a problem for you.”
“Then maybe she shouldn’t have been torturing innocent people with Splice,” Jamie said in a hard voice.
“People are a lucrative commodity. Metahumans even more so. But governments, they want to own us. They want to use us for their own gains. Are you not tired of this leash they have you on? My country, it is home. I love her, but she does not love me. I will not bow to the Kremlin as my father did.”
Jamie thought about what Yulia had said at the Empyrean brand party last November, when she implied the Pavluhkins had fallen out of favor with the Kremlin. It seemed she’d been right.
“But you expect me to bow to you?” Jamie asked.
“I expect many things from you, Jamie. I will give your father the presidency, let you keep your family alive, while you oversee your family’s many and varied companies. Do you understand?”
