Page 48 of Baby for My Ex's Brother

“What do you want, then? I don’t have more daughters.”

I smile curtly. “One thing, clearly stated. We can do this with witnesses if you prefer.”

“State it.”

“Your formal, unambiguous withdrawal of support from any move Hugo makes toward the leadership of this organization. Past, present, or future. He moves? You do not help. At all.”

“He’s my family now, Ivan. You expect me to betray my son-in-law?”

“Has he done anything to earn your loyalty?”

He exhales loudly through his nose. Irritated. “Have you done anything to earn my loyalty?”

“We’ve had dealings in the past. I was under the impression that you were happy with those transactions, as they were profitable on both sides. Were they not?”

Pyotr is quiet. He is thinking, or performing thinking—the two are indistinguishable in him at this range. “They were.”

“I, for one, would like to continue that aspect of our relationship. Profit, as you said. But I cannot do that with someone who supports a man who attempts to undermine me.”

“That’s not an unreasonable ask.” Pyotr sits back. “But he’s my son-in-law, Ivan. I cannot participate in undermining him without complications.”

“He married into your family. I recognize that means he’s in your family, but let’s not pretend it’s more than a piece of paper at the end of the day. He spent your daughter’s love to buy himself a seat at tables he had no business at. He’s playing at games bigger than he can handle, and forgive me for saying so, Pyotr, but that could leave your daughter in danger of getting caught up in his follies.”

His eyes narrow. “Are you threatening Olga?”

“Not in the least. As far as I’m concerned, spouses and children are off-limits. Call me old school, but there are limits to my dealings.” I pause. “But I’m not the only person in this city. There are those who do not hold to the old ways, and Hugo likes to feel like a big man. It’s going to get him hurt one day. I pray that does not involve Olga.”

“Keep it that way.” The old protective father has no tolerance for even a whiff of danger for his daughter.

Good. I can use that, if needs be.

“I will. Now, regarding Hugo?—”

“I can agree to your terms. I will not support his undermining of you. “What do I receive in exchange?”

“My goodwill, which is worth more than my enmity. And I will float you some of the tech business that comes through here, provided it doesn’t compete with Greenstone’s existing agreements. You manufacture things Greenstone does not. We buy from you.”

He drums his fingers on the chair’s arm. “Greenstone,” he says, the word clipped.

“A standing relationship of mine. Non-negotiable.”

“Mm.” The sound of a man swallowing something that went down crooked and deciding it stays down. “I’m amicable to those terms.”

I let the silence hold for a count of three, which is one count longer than comfortable and two shorter than aggressive. “Good. One more item. No more intelligence gathering inside my organization. No purchased access, no planted questions. And you leave the Lavender Girl alone.”

“I have no intention of harming that child. I’m like you—there are limits.”

“What even brought her up?”

He sighs. “I believe Jaba thought the witness to the Harmon murders would make for good leverage, should the right people come asking. Truly, I was at a loss as to why else he would tell me about her. That’s the only reason I can think of. That, or he was trying to sound like he had even more valuable information.”

Sounds like Jaba. I still don’t trust Pyotr entirely, so I make a note to send some protection her way. She’ll never know it, because she doesn’t need to. She’s a child who’s witnessed far too much in her twelve years. She doesn’t need more on her plate.

I clear my throat. “Understood. If I find another Jaba, another one of your spies in my organization, I’ll not take it as business. I’ll take it as a declaration of war. And I kill my enemies, Pyotr. I will execute them to the last.”

The old man is quiet for a moment. He is, I have come to understand, a man who respects declarations because he has made enough of them himself. He built his company in a decade where declarations were the only binding contracts that mattered, before lawyers got involved and made everything expensive and slow and deniable.

“It was just business,” he says, and I believe him, which is almost the problem. A man who acts personally is predictable. A man who does everything as business has no floor. “Nothing personal, Ivan.”