I pinch my brow and feign frustration. “What do you want, Tat?”
She shrugs and throws her hands up. “I just wanted to see my favorite brother. Is that too much to ask for?”
My lips lift with a smile. I can’t let her stay, especially not with Elena being locked up in the basement. If there’s anything my sister stands for, it’s equal rights and good treatment of women. I agree with her on that, but she’ll throw a fit if she finds out I’m keeping Elena locked up.
Of course, I don’t expect my sister to understand why that’s necessary.
“You’ve seen me. Now it’s time to go.” I grab her hand and start to drag her away. She’s a fragile little thing, so I make sure I’m not holding on too tightly.
“I went down to the basement and the door’s clocked,” she whines. “Is there something in there?”
I keep my expression flat. “Something like what?”
“You tell me. It’s your house. The basement is never locked, so I know you’re definitely hiding something.” When she pauses and gasps, I know she’s about to throw an insane accusation my way. “Are you hiding a dead body?”
I scoff. “Why would you think that?”
“Why not?” She stops walking, plants her hands on her waist, and frowns at me. “If you’re hiding a dead body in there, now’s the time to tell me.”
Seeing as she won’t drop the topic until she gets a satisfactory answer, I play along. “What would you do if I say I was?”
“I’ll call the cops,” she answers.
Knowing Tatiana and how obsessed she is with justice, I know she’s not bluffing. If she says she’ll call the cops, she most definitely will.
“You can be so cold sometimes.”
“Yeah. I wonder who I learned that from.” She stops smiling and studies me through narrowed, suspicious eyes. “Jokes aside now, what’s really in that basement?”
“Nothing that concerns you.” My voice is a little gruff. It’s my way of letting her know I’m done playing around. “Stay away from the basement. I won’t say it again.”
I feel my sister’s glare boring into the back of my head as I walk out of the hallway. Despite the intentional coldness in my voice as I warned her to stay away, I know that won’t stop her from prying.
My sister has a weird habit of not being able to stay away from my business.
***
Elena doesn’t turn around to face me despite the fact that I’ve been standing by the doorframe for over ten minutes now.
She has her back to the door. I can’t tell if she simply doesn’t care about my presence or if whatever she’s staring at through the small window by the side of the mattress is just that captivating.
I’m about to make my way toward her when Mikhail’s voice echoes through the hallway. “Nazarov.”
I close my eyes and draw in a sharp breath.
The bastard’s obnoxiously loud, and if he weren’t my cousin, I’d have ripped his tongue out just so I wouldn’t have to go through the torture of hearing his annoying voice daily.
He enters the room and smirks, his gaze bouncing between me and Elena. She still doesn’t even spare us a glance. It’s as if she can’t be bothered by our presence.
“I can tell from the back she’s prettier than I thought,” he says, then squints at her. “Why’s your doll not turning around? Is she broken?”
I glare at him. “Out.”
He shakes his head. “Whatever happened to your sense of humor? I was only—”
“Now!” I growl, not letting him finish. It’s not like I care what he has to say. It’s probably just his usual bullshit.
He throws his hands up. “Okay, okay! Easy now, big dog.” Backing away slowly, he adds, “You’ve really got to work on your anger issues.”
