Page 110 of Emerald Malice

“Well?” Viktor demands when I don’t say anything. “What do you have to say to that? She was fucking our cousin in my fucking bed!”

I glare at my sniveling brother. “Let’s get one thing straight right now: this is my house. Therefore, it’s my fucking bed.”

Viktor’s eyes bulge wide with outrage. “Did you not hear me? She was fucking Leonty!”

“Unlike you, brother, I’m not slow. I heard her the first time. Speaking of…” I glance towards Mila. “Where is Leonty?”

“He—” She inclines her head in Viktor’s direction. “—knocked him out! He clubbed Leonty on the back of the head while he was checking on me.”

“You attacked a man while his back was turned?” I ask in disgust.

“He attacked me first!”

“Because you slapped me!” Mila cries.

Viktor’s face is red and mottled. “You fucking deserved it, you treacherous bitch!”

“She has done nothing more than you deserve,” I interject, causing them both to go silent again.

Viktor gawks at me. “You’re taking her side?”

“You’ve been conducting your own affairs out in the open since your marriage. Why shouldn’t Mila do the same?”

“Because I won’t allow it!” He sounds like a child. I half-expect him to stamp his foot.

“Maybe you didn’t.” It’s only with some effort that I keep the smirk off my face. “But I did.”

The color drains from Viktor’s cheeks. His mouth opens and closes, but he can’t find the words.

I turn to Mila. “Go check on Leonty.”

She scurries out of the room without looking back.

Viktor shakes his head when she’s gone. “What do you mean, ‘you did’?”

“I gave Mila my permission to have her own affairs.”

“You… You what?” His fists tremble at his sides. “You had no right!”

I take a step forward and Viktor stumbles back into the sofa. “I have every right. Do I need to remind you who I am? The crown I wear?”

He gulps, and I wonder for a moment if Viktor is smart enough not to run his mouth in the face of my wrath.

But I’m overestimating him once again. “You are my brother.”

“A title I grow more and more ashamed of every day.”

“You’d let her make a cuckold of me?”

“It won’t be the worst thing people say about you.”

“I have a reputation?—”

“You have a reputation as a drunk, a liar, a bully, a slacker. It will surprise no one that your wife is distracting herself with other, more worthy men.”

Viktor scowls and straightens up again, though the inches of height between us have never been more glaring. “I will not let this stand. You might be happy to make me a laughingstock among the underworld, but I will not tolerate it.”

“Do your worst, Viktor.” I smile. “But if you lay one hand on Mila’s head, you will answer to me.”

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