Page 11 of Ivory Ashes

I swore that much as I stood over my family’s graves. Even as I swore I’d never have another family again.

Add “sworn bachelorhood” to the long list of reasons why I have no interest in taking Trofim’s place at the altar today. I pledged my love, ‘til death do us part.

Then death parted us and took my wife and daughter with it.

One pretty woman moaning my name is not going to change my mind about the things I vowed while I stood over the corpses of my wife and daughter. Even if I go to my grave thinking about the way Viviana milked my orgasm out of me.

I’m sure six months without sex is like a lifetime for you.

It wasn’t. I did just fine for two and a half years.

The last six months, however, have dragged.

Hell, maybe I solved two problems last night. Trofim is out of the line of succession and Viviana should be out of my system.

I told her I only wanted one thing from her. The only thing I’ve wanted for six months. The thing I imagined every time I wrapped my hand around my cock.

So I took it.

Now, it’s time to claim the rest of what is mine.

My father is sitting behind his desk when I walk through the door. It’s barely dawn, but he’s in a white button-down and an undone tuxedo tie. The suit jacket he’s planning to wear to the wedding I just canceled is hanging from a hook behind him.

He doesn’t look up from the letter he’s writing as I enter. Someone probably warned him I was heading this way already. He knows it’s me. He just doesn’t care.

Until I drop Trofim’s signet ring on his desk.

He stops mid-sentence. Stares down at it. Sits back.

Then he carefully picks up the ring with liver-spotted fingers that have grown shakier over the years and holds it to the lamplight. A spot of blood I didn’t notice is dried into the grooves of the Novikov family crest. It was hard to inspect the ring too closely while it was deep inside of Viviana.

I bite back a rare smile when I realize I finger-fucked my brother’s fiancée with the ring I won from him. It’s almost poetic.

My father leans back in his chair and looks at me for the first time. He sighs, tired. “Is he dead?”

“As far as you’re concerned, he might as well be. You’re never going to see him again.”

Iakov rolls his lips together and places the ring in the center of his desk. “What’s the plan now?”

Are you going to kill me, too? The question is layered there, unspoken.

I could. It’s been done before. A hostile takeover from within is the kind of patricidal shit that happens when power is passed to the person who happened to be born first rather than the person who is more qualified to wear the crown.

I overpowered Trofim. I stripped the ring off of his finger.

His position is mine.

“I’m going to wear that ring and become the next pakhan.”

He nods. “And when will that be? My death?”

He’s speaking evenly, staying calm. He’s hiding it well, but he’s terrified. Yet another sign that the sun is setting on his leadership.

The bloodstained legend who has run this Bratva for the last three decades wouldn’t sit there and ask when he was going to die. He’d stand up and fight. But my father doesn’t even bother calling for the guards I know are stationed nearby. He sees the writing on the wall, clear as day.

“I’m not going to kill you unless I have to.”

His shoulders ease down from around his ears. If he’s sad about his oldest son’s fate, he doesn’t show it. For thirty-one years, my father prepared the way for Trofim. He poured everything he had into making him a great leader. Now, he doesn’t even shed a tear.

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