“Yes.”
“And you just… didn’t think it was important to mention that to me?”
“I mean, it was a little important,” he teased.
That made me whip my head back toward him. “Boy!”
He sighed. “I was trying to keep you out of it.”
I laughed again, though none of this was funny. “Look around. How’s that working?”
He didn’t answer.
“Start at the beginning. No edits. You owe me all of it,” I demanded.
“I… you sure you ready for this?”
I turned my nose up at him. “I’m not fragile,” I said.
“I didn’t say you were.”
“You act like it.”
“Nah. I act like you precious,” he corrected.
Ah, shit. I looked away so he wouldn’t see the tiny crack in my anger. He spoke before I could say anything else.
“My father was already deep in Bratva life before I was born. My mama got caught up with him and had me.”
I frowned. “Caught up?”
“It was supposed to be a little fling, she said. They caught feelings. Still, I wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Well, damn.
“Keep going,” I directed.
“I told you; she suspected his lifestyle was… undesirable, so she hid me. I grew up with my mama and her family in Kansas City. I had a normal life on the outside. I went to school, played ball, hung out with friends. I had a lot of questions, but I didn't ask. Then, I went to college.”
He stopped, his face changing, eyes going cold.
“And?” I pressed.
“One of Sergei’s oldest guards turned on him for another family. Told them every weak spot he could think of, everything and everyone my father had ever loved. He remembered my mama. They dug into her life. Found out about her gray-eyed, fatherless son. Had a bitch drug me, then ambushed me. They held me. Tortured me. That's how I got this fucked up face.”
He gestured toward his scars, smiling humorlessly.
I wanted to argue with him. His face wasnotfucked up. I didn't. Just waited.
“Turns out my father had that family under surveillance, had planted his own people in their inner circle. He found me pretty quickly, destroyed that family, and got his hooks into me and Mama.”
My head snapped back. “Targen!”
He smirked. “I'm just kidding. Sort of. Shit did change for us. Forever. He never wanted us vulnerable again, and I agreed.I started spending time around his people. Around Maxim. Learning things. Seeing things. Doing things.”
“What kinds of things?” I asked softly.
His eyes came back to mine. “Violent things.”
