His jaw clenches.
Yelena made a match with Lev because of her family’s wealthy business connections in Russia and Europe. It was a way to foster old relations, but there’s a stark divide between the way the shadows move among the New York Bratva and the ones in the former Soviet Union.
“Did you love him?” Roma asks curiously. “This Peter.”
She blinks like she’s forgotten her kids are in the room, then nods.
“So Dad’s first love was with an exchange student, and yours was with a Spider.” He snorts. “What?” he defends atthe multiple frowns he encounters. “We always knew Mom could make moves.”
I stay mum when it comes to the Zimin family drama. I scoot closer to Isolde, my arm barely touching hers. She doesn’t need me to maneuver this meeting, but I want her to know that I’m here.
“What happened?” Max asks his mother.
“After I was twenty-two, I never saw him again.” It’s fifty/fifty on whether Yelena knows what happened or if she’d prefer not to say.
“That’s fucking sad,” Ian says under his breath.
“Why is Cain Murray’s son in your house, Lev?” Boris asks.
Lev closes his eyes.
“He wants to make it as a triggerman,” Isolde replies easily before getting things back on track. “Will you help me?”
“Peter is dead.” Yelena shakes her head like that should settle the matter.
Dimitri bends down in front of Yelena. I’ve never taken this man to get on his knees, but his tone is entreating. “Something big is coming this way, isn’t it? You’re the only one who can give us a leg up on anything.”
“I do not know their plans.”
Dimitri stands and goes back to pacing. “How many Spiders are we even talking about? How many do you think are actually out there?”
Yelena stares at Isolde and doesn’t bother to reply.
“They’re going to come after me,” Isolde says. “Can you help me?”
She remains impassive.
“I don’t suppose you know of a tactical advantage we could use against them?” I ask.
“I’m sorry.”
Ren crosses her arms, but her voice is friendly as she speaks to her future mother-in-law. “Yelena, dare I say it, but you do know of some sort of tactical advantage, don’t you? You’re just not saying.”
Yelena is unmoving. Unyielding.
“Yelena, they’re coming either way,” Lev murmurs, his hand touching her shoulder.
Her eyes find Isolde’s. “I am not unsympathetic to your cause. But what you ask of me puts my children at great risk. A risk I am unwilling to take.”
Ren clears her throat. Roma looks over. His girlfriend is making a face at him.
He gets it a second later. “It’s. . . It’s okay, Mom.”
Lennie knowingly glances at her husband, the group still not knowing about their elopement. Elijah has been prowling around the room like a cat, a Cheshire grin on his face as he listens and watches.
“I’d quite like to be put at risk too,” he says. It’s unsurprising that he’d get a hard on at the thought of the Spiders threatening him.
That only leaves one son left.
