Page 24 of Bought By Sin

Viktor patted the back of his hand at my chest once, sharply, jarring me back to the present.

I turned from the window, hating that I’d zoned out, again, to the thought of that woman. We were here. He’d stopped. I hadn’t even noticed.

He was kind enough not to tease me about it, laughing once and getting out of the driver’s seat.

I grimaced as I followed him. I hadn’t been able to resist bringing Mila into my world because she’d been such an enigma, a promise of something to pull me out of how I was spiraling with Uncle Dmitri dying and Gregori being an issue.

I didn’t realize she’d consume me like this, though.

Viktor and I joined everyone else in Adrik’s office. It had taken time for this large space to seem like my oldest cousin’s office instead of Uncle Dmitri’s. With time, though, little clues popped up to represent the transition. Elena often left her coffee cups in here. Adrik had hung up different artwork. The chairs were moved around. Small things that shooed away how this room had always held another man’s presence.

I heaved out a sigh, still not ready to see him go.

We got right to the meeting, and while it was about Gregori, I didn’t fall into the pit of frustration that I usually did when he was mentioned.

“It’s only rumors so far,” Viktor said, “but our informants suggest that Gregori’s explaining his influence through enforcement channels.”

Elena nodded, looking like she intended to speak up next. She’d more than earned her place in meetings like this. Carina too.

Could Mila?

I internally groaned at how she’d pop into my thoughts so invasively.

She’s a slave. Someone I bought.

Yet, that didn’t stand up to how Elena and Carina had come to be the Mafia wives—with power—that they had. Elena had been given to Adrik as a payment for a wrongdoing. Carina had been offered in an arranged marriage to Maksim. Neither had been bought like slaves.

I rubbed the back of my neck as I leaned forward, anxious to have fewer unknowns about Mila. Eager to have less indecision about her, too.

“The money trails Igor and I have been following suggest that too,” Elena reported.

“Like what, specifically?” Maksim asked.

“Probably paying off the local police,” Carina said.

Elena nodded again. “Bribing Feds, too. Maybe a couple of politicians. We’re tracking it all, but you know how it’s all hidden and layered.”

We did, but as I took a moment to consider what they were all sharing, about how Gregori wasn’t only trying to mess with the businesses that ran our empire, or meddling with trade agreements with the Cartels and gangs, I had to admit that this hadn’t even been on my radar lately.

Ever since I saw Mila, I’d been committed to thinking about her. I hadn’t been dwelling on Uncle Dmitri being gone and Gregori threatening my family.

I ran my hand over my jaw, debating whether how much she was consuming my mind was a blessing or a curse.

10

MILA

Itook my plates to the kitchen at Lev’s house, like I had started to after every breakfast I ate here. He’d told me that first full day that the house staff would clean up, but it wasn’t like I couldn’t carry plates to the kitchen for the older woman. Lev often took a call and stepped out of the room. Instead of awkwardly sitting there and waiting for his instructions, and deluding myself into the idea that I was a guest to be waited on here, I took my dishes to the kitchen.

Selma was an older woman who looked like she’d been working for the Volkovs for a century. I was curious what the story was behind her only having one eye, the other socket sewn up with old scar tissue. But I didn’t ask. Even with that incomplete pair, she didn’t miss anything. Unlike me, she wasn’t afraid to mumble her opinions.

Lev was pacing in the other room now, taking a call. It didn’t surprise me that he took calls where I couldn’t hear. Even though he seemed to want to keep me with him at all times, I knew I wasn’t actually “included” or important enough to matter past whatever job I could do for him.

Selma had her own thoughts about that.

“Wouldn’t it be simpler if you just lived here in the house with him?” She harrumphed.

I furrowed my brow. “Simpler how?” And simpler for whom?