Dmitry Arkady.
Date of birth: March 14.
Place of birth: St. Petersburg.
Height: 6’1”.
Eyes: gray.
Maxim’s eyes flicked over the card, his jaw tightening with every second that passed.
“Arkady’s son?” he muttered. “I don’t recall Arkady having a son named Dmitry.”
“Yeah, he is.”
Silence stretched between us as Maxim became lost in whatever thought was running through his head. On the other side of the room, Leo adjusted the IV line with steady hands, like none of this had anything to do with him. I felt proud of him. It couldn’t have been easy for him to be in the same room as Maxim, given the hatred he felt for my boss.
Would Leo ever learn to let it go? Bradley was already dead. Nothing we could do would bring him back. He was smarter than the rest of us—more practical—and should be able to understand that.
Maxim exhaled slowly, but there was nothing calm about it. “If Arkady’s son is here, and Arkady’s after you…” His gaze snapped back to mine. “Then he’s not just sniffing around. He’s involved. And yet you haven’t found anything tying him to our club?”
“Nothing concrete yet.” My gaze drifted to the bed. Dmitry lay still now, but there was tension in his shoulders, in the way his fingers flexed against the restraints. He had insider knowledge of his father’s operation. If we could get something tangible out of him, we could deal with our Arkady problem once and for all. Our rival Bratva Pakhan had been lingering in the background for far too long.
“I’ll get answers,” I said, lowering my voice. “So far, we have a dead nurse, an unknown drug in our territory that’s not ours, a dead distributor who would not give us any answers, and the attack on me last night. We’ll get answers out of Dmitry if it’s the last thing we do.”
Maxim didn’t respond. Instead, his attention shifted across the room to where Leo stood, talking to his patient in a voice that was too low for us to hear.
“What is he to you, Sergei?”
The pulse in my neck jumped wildly, and my heart skipped a beat. Technically, he could be referring to either of the two men, but I didn’t bother to seek clarification. There was no use pretending I didn’t understand the question.
Maxim’s gaze turned to me, and he shoved his hands into the pockets of his ankle-length black cloak. “I see.”
I clenched my jaw, not wanting to hear what I was certain would come. Nik already made it clear I was delusional for thinking Leo could feel the same way about me.
“You can be with anyone,” Maxim continued, his voice low but cutting, “anyone you want. I don’t give a damn. But not him.”
My head snapped up. “That’s not your decision to make.”
“The hell it’s not.” His voice came out loud, and Leo turned his head toward us. “He can never be trusted.”
“You trusted him enough with Wren’s life,” I pointed out,my chest aching from panic. I’d never wanted anything in my life. Never asked Maxim for anything, but I was a second away from dropping to my knees and begging him to let me keep Leo.
“Because I had no other choice.” Maxim’s expression didn’t soften. Not even a fraction. “You may not want to face it, Sergei, but he’s a wild card we can’t depend on.”
“He’s a doctor,” I countered. “He can be a great asset to us. Just give me time to convince him that?—”
“He’s a liability,” Maxim said, his tone final. “You already fucked up by letting him know of this place. Now this site is compromised, and we’ll have to find somewhere else.”
“He won’t say a word. We can trust him.”
“In case you forgot, I killed his husband,” he said. “Youhelped me clean up that mess. Do you honestly think he feels anything for you but contempt?”
All the times Leo had screamed at me, told me to fuck off—in less colorful words—and shoved me away, flashed through my mind. But that was before we kissed, and touched, and joined our bodies together.
“It’s not like that. He cares about me. I know he does.”
“Are you willing to bet my life on it?” Maxim took a step closer, his presence pressing in. “Sergei, your judgment is compromised.”
