“And it’s fine. You needed to kill him. But this is bigger than your vengeance. It’s bigger than any one person’s. That’s why we haven’t just put a bullet in Viktor’s head. He is aZakharov.”
Translation: There is more than one of them.
Cut one head off, and another grows in its place.
It doesn’t staunch my aggrieved exhale, or the glare I aim out the windshield. “I fucking hate this, Trifon.”
“I’m not exactly jumping for joy, either,bratishka.But this is how it has to be now.” He sounds exhausted. It incites a measure of guilt. I forget sometimes—I think we all do—how hard it must be to be the level-headed one all the time. To be the head that wears the crown.
I don’t envy my brother’s power. I never have. This is one of many reasons.
For now, I know I have to give in.
“Leo said he’s following a lead on one of the masked men,” I offer, a peace offering. A piece of good news, to counter the cloud of bad.
Trifon smiles, worn out but warm. “And Val renegotiated a truce with the Genovese.”
“And I’m about to make the love of my life very, very happy today,” I add, my own grin peeking through.
Trifon nods through the screen. “Then don’t keep her waiting. All of this means nothing without someone to share it with.”
Once upon a time, I hadn’t understood how my brothers could bring a normal, regular, run-of-the-mill woman into our world. I watched Trifon do it, and then Valentin. I’ve seen Trifon love us, and how much it sometimes costs him, and then have a child with Yulia anyway. It all seemed insane to me. I’d always been insane in a different way.
But—I think, as I pull up in front of The Great Escape—I get it now.
Sometimes, you just need a purpose for all of it.
***
“You’re early!” Janella accuses.
She turns around so fast that her skirt is left swirling around her legs. I don’t even make it through the door before she’s in my arms.
“I should go off for a week more often,” I tease, kissing her cheek before I have her off her feet. As if I can stand to be away from her this long. I’ve been going out of my fucking mind for days.
I could spin her in circles for hours just to earn the bright burst of laughter that spills from her cherry red lips.
But she always makes me set her down on her feet. Even if she never lets go of my hand, using it as a leash to pull me behind the counter with her, the inventory no longer at the forefront of her mind.
“Oh, don’t you dare,” she threatens, trotting on my foot like she doesn’t weigh ninety pounds soaking wet.
I shoot her an amused smirk. I reach out and cradle the side of her neck. “It would be a lose-lose situation anyway,” I say.
“Does that mean there’s still no sign of Viktor?” Janella asks, nuzzling up against me. Her hands slip around my waist, locking behind me.
We have no secrets between us these days,
“None since the gala.”
She nods, processing that. It doesn’t surprise me when, a beat later, she looks up at me adamantly and insists, “But you will. I know it. He’s a person, and we all slip up from time to time. Maybe the universe will trip him up and make him fall in love with the wrong person, too. Seems to happen a lot in this circle.”
“Oh?” A grin threatens my lips. “Is that what you call falling in love with me?Slipping up?”
Janella bobs her head from side to side. “I mean, there was some slipping.”
“Oh yeah?” I pull back from her, stealing her hands from behind my back and bringing them to my face. “Now that sounds like something I want to hear more about.”
“Of course you do,” she giggles. “All this time later, and you’re still fishing.”
