Page 105 of Bought By Sin

“I wish he were dead all this time,” I added. “It’s not right that he can try to break up the family—again.”

“What exactly happened back then?” Mila asked. She faced me, but she’d asked the question clearly and loudly enough for everyone to be able to answer.

“He planted a bomb at a meeting for many family bosses,” Adrik said. “His plan was to kill our grandfather, who was the Pakhan. He also wanted to kill my father, who was next in line to become Pakhan. The throne is passed from father to son first, then the brothers in succession.”

“So without your grandfather or your father ruling, it would’ve been him.”

Adrik nodded at Mila. “Exactly.”

“But why not you?” she asked. “If you were alive…”

“I wasn’t old enough yet. A Pakhan has to be an adult. Eighteen is technically the legitimate age to lead, but that’s never happened.” He scoffed. “Knock on wood that it never happens.”

Elena nodded, placing a protective hand on her belly.

“Then if you assume that Gregori is trying to attack the Bratva to weaken us now, all to get the throne, he’d need to remove you and all three of your brothers before he could get the power?” Mila glanced at me, catching my nod.

“Yes,” Adrik replied. “Which isn’t happening.”

It could’ve sounded cocky, like he was overly smug about that, but it was a fact. We were too guarded to allow a hit like that. Even with any threat of retaliation for our killing Yusef Antonov, my cousins were simply too hard to kill. Our security forces were that good.

“It had better not happen,” Alexei said at the tail end of a long exhale. “Because I was there at that meeting. As a boy. I saw my grandfather die trying to protect our grandmother.”

“I’m so sorry,” Mila said, her sincerity clear in her words.

My brother shrugged. “I’m just saying that it happened once, and it could be a valid risk again.”

I watched him, knowing that under all his cool layers of a tough exterior, he still hurt from that loss. While I’d been close with Uncle Dmitri all my life, Alexei had gotten along with Fyodor, our grandfather, the best. Alexei’s repulsion to Gregori ran deep, perhaps even deeper than mine. I wouldn’t know because he closed himself off from talking about the past. But his hatred started more with a side of guilt. He’d been unable to save our grandfather. He’d failed the leader we’d recognized first when our grandfather bled out on his deathbed, killed by his youngest son.

I reached over to set my hand on his shoulder to show that he wasn’t alone in despising the man who had given us life. Our mother had been “fortunate” to pass away when I was born. And I only saw it as a grand show of mercy on her because from what I’d heard from Uncle Dmitri, Gregori had treated her like she was a worthless waste of space.

Anyone having to be near Gregori would automatically suffer.

“We will always face risks,” I reminded my brother, “but he won’t be the one to topple our empire.”

Everyone in this room would swear to making sure Gregori would beg for the mercy of death once we found him. Because none of us would forgive him for the destruction he’d caused.

I shook my head, wishing I could clear the thoughts from my mind. Releasing my hand on Alexei’s shoulder, I sat back in my chair and sighed. Mila reached for my hand and held it, unerringly knowing that I needed her comfort and support, even with that basic contact.

I squeezed her hand and stared at the ring on her finger. My ring that I’d given her, an older piece of jewelry that I’d selected from the family vault.

As I twined my fingers with hers, I latched on to the bright hope ahead of me that sooner or later, I’d be able to obsess about her and our new life together.

A future that would burn so much stronger if the taint of the past had to linger for a little while longer.

You can try to hide, Gregori.

But we will find you.

And we will end you—for good.

38

MILA

It became easier with time to feel like I belonged in Lev’s home and in his life. It also became easier with time to get over the surgeries that I’d needed when I was shot at Yusef Antonov’s building.

My scars joined the many others that covered my body. Since I’d made that comment of worrying about how Lev saw me and whether my scars and the evidence of past abuse would make me less appealing under his eyes, he set out to change my mind.