“Thank you.”
He sips his coffee and smirks at me, setting the cup down on the table. “You didn’t want to meet with me just to ask about that, though, did you?”
“You see right through me,” I say, returning his smirk.
A breeze picks up as if trying to warn me, or perhaps encourage me. It disturbs a few strands on Yanov’s head. “What else brings you to me?”
“Nikolai’s daughter,” I say. “Tatiana. I’m curious about her.”
He raises an eyebrow and his smile drops a fraction. “Curious?”
“Not that kind of curious. I’ve heard a few things floating around about her. I’m interested in knowing if any of it was true.”
He snickers and sips his espresso. “The Bratva Rumor Mill,” he says. “If all of you worked as much as you gossiped, we’d all be much richer than this.”
“This isn’t gossip. This is closer to… reconnaissance. Last any of us heard, she went away to school in Europe. Now, it’s being said that she was dragged back from overseas after prostituting herself.”
Yanov scoffs. “You are fortunate that this rumor hasn’t reached Nikolai. He’d have your head just for suggesting such a thing.”
“I realize that,” I say as I take a sip of my coffee. “Which is why I’m asking you about it and not him.”
Yanov sighs hard as if he’d been carrying a large load on his back. “You know, when his daughter was a teenager, I thought she was a handful then. Always wearing skirts that were too short or shirts that showed too much cleavage. That year she got the nose ring nearly sent Nikolai through the roof.”
“I remember.”
“It was like she got a rise out of aggravating every man she came across,especiallyher father. These rumors about her virtue aren’t new, as I’m sure you’re probably aware.”
I frown a little. I’m not. Perhaps because I was so close to Nikita. Nobody would dare say a word out of turn about him or Tati around me.
“Despite all that,” he continues, “much of what people have heard is mostly unfounded. All things considered, Tatiana was a fairly normal teenager before she left for Europe. And she grew into a normal young woman throughout her time in school. And then three years into her tenure, for reasons that even I don’t know, Tatiana decided that she’d had enough of college left and left London. We didn’t find out she’d dropped out for about a year and a half. The school contacted Nikolai about a supposed ‘gap year’ that she’d taken. He hit the roof.”
I grunt in acknowledgement. I can picture Nikolai spitting fire over something like this.
“I spent the following year and a half after that scouring Europe for her, using every resource and connection we have,” he says. He crosses his arms and scowls a little as if it were his money out of his pocket that he had to spend. “Finally found her in Amsterdam. Stripping for money.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Stripping?”
He nods. “As far as I know, that’s as far as it went. Despite the suggestion that she sold herself for money, all she did was take her clothes off for it. I suppose that means she still has some morals.”
I take that in for a moment. Her change in hair color, the overtly sexual nature of her advances. I guess she was right. She did get an education overseas, after all.
“I must ask again,” Yanov says, “why the curiosity about her?”
“My answer has not changed.”
He nods, then lifts his cup and finishes the espresso. “Let me give you a piece of advice, Viktor. In all situations, the daughter of a Pakhan is never an option. She is always off limits. To all of us. Even with his permission. It’s much too dangerous a thing to even consider pursuing.”
“My interest in her is strictly business,” I tell him, “other than to clear up the vile rumors that are being spread about her. I think we can agree that Nikolai wouldn’t be happy to hear that half his people think his daughter is a slut.”
“No,” he says, narrowing his eyes a little at me. “I suppose you have a point. Do you propose we inform him?”
“And have him lay waste to half of our forces?” I say. “Of course not. I will address the issue privately to any who spread the rumor.”
“That is wise, I think.” He pulls out his phone and looks at it, then shoves it back in his jacket. “Now, if that’s all, I have to take my leave. I have another engagement.”
“Right. Thank you for handling the security issue.”
He gives me a one-sided smile that makes his stone features look like hot lava has been applied to make them bend. “Of course.”
