Page 94 of Inked in Devotion

“Just said what?”

“He said they got to me.”

“I don’t understand.” Theo frowned. “Are you saying the people who caused your psychosis were responsible for Jeremiah’s sociopathic behavior?”

“That’s what I understand. Before we got sidetracked, remember I told you he mentioned being given drugs.”

My brother muttered an expletive.

“How hands-on are you with the operations of The Astorian?” Kolya asked.

“This wellness institution is attached to our pharmaceutical research company. It was more my parents’ vision than mine. My mother…well…you know the story. Bigger players in pharma used our lab for developing newer drugs.”

“I don’t want you staying here,” Kolya informed me. “I’m taking you home right now.” When I looked at him in outrage, he added, “Don’t argue.”

“Excuse me?”

“Petrov is right,” Theo agreed. “What you revealed is troubling.” He checked his phone. “Dr. Wyeth is handling Jeremiah’s case. I trust her, but I’ll have a review of the employee roster of this center.”

“I’m not liking the sound of this,” Kolya said. “It’s getting more twisted than I first thought.”

“There may be no link between Marena and Jeremiah’s condition. Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Theo said. “But there’s nothing wrong with being cautious.”

“You know who would love to unravel this?” I asked Theo.

“You have a PI?”

“No. But Lucy has already been entrenched in King and Zahkarov history.”

Theo shot me a dubious expression.

“Are you sure you want to alert anyone in your company?” I challenged.

“I trust my people.”

“Lucy’s also aware of the organization that’s giving me a problem,” Kolya said. “If anyone can connect the dots, it would be her. But if the people behind this are dangerous, Kirill’s not gonna be happy putting his wife in danger.”

“She’s married to the leader of the Russian mafia,” I scoffed. “It couldn’t get more dangerous than that.”

Kolya grinned. “True.”

Chapter

Twenty-One

Chloe

“Let me get this straight, these Vozhokari people want your super sperm?” I asked.

Lucy burst out laughing.

Kolya scowled.

We were in the mansion's basement. Three whiteboards surrounded a U-shaped desk, and on the center board, the word “VOZHOKARI” was written as a heading. Plastered underneath it were pictures of Kolya, Sebastian, and a few others with the last name Petrov. Flowcharts with scribbles of family history and cloud symbols of other related organizations like the Zahkarovs surrounded the pictures.

Kolya and Lucy ripped the Band-Aid off and told me about the assassin organization where the Petrovs got their start.

This was how I understood it. Petrovs had a bloodline in the Vozhokari. Because of the exceptional assassins they produced, Russian organized crime as a whole enticed the Petrov clan to split from the Vozhokari, but a condition of the divestment was that a blue-eyed Petrov would provide Vozhokari with its genes via copulation with one of their chosen vessels to breed the next assassin.