Page 91 of Unbreakable Vow

He sinks into the leather sofa. Fear rolls off him in a sour scent.

“He looks good. Didn’t even bruise him, huh?” I say to Andrei and Viktor behind me.

“He didn’t fight much. Just whined a lot.” Viktor’s voice drips with disappointment. After the chase this bastard gave us, I’m sure he wanted to at least get the chance to break one of his teeth.

“I don’t know why you’re looking for me.”

I stare at him. His black hair is slicked back from his face. There’s no resemblance here. Nothing about him reminds me of my mother’s family.

“I bet she didn’t appreciate your tattoo.” I tap the spot on my neck that mirrors where he has a snake’s head.

“She didn’t,” he agrees with a firm nod. “What do you want, Sergei?” he demands.

I lean back, taking in a breath. “You know Victoria is gone, right? And she’s not coming back to Chicago. Ever.” I press my hands into my thighs, forcing myself to remain calm.

That woman has caused more trouble than she has ever been worth. She can’t hold a candle to Cora.

“I heard. You had her dragged out of here.” He sneers. “Is that what you’re doing with me? It won’t work. My claim to Kustov Metals is just as legitimate as yours.”

“Is it?” I cock my head. “While Victoria has been doing her damnedest to get me to forget what a lying, manipulative con artist she is, I’ve been doing some digging. She actually helped; thinking that she was winning me over, she turned on you just enough to give me what I needed.” I bring out my phone and swipe it to life. “I thought it was weird the old woman didn’t include you in the inheritance. It was even more odd she included me at all, and then she put that stipulation on it.” I continue swiping until I find the information I’m looking for.

“She wanted to make amends, I think,” he says, but his voice falters. Fucking asshole never learned how to lie properly.

“Not at all.” I laugh. “She was a heartless witch to the end. Her back has been turned on my family because of my mother’s marriage to a Petrov man. I always believed it was because he was involved in the mafia. But I was wrong.”

Oleg’s throat works as he swallows hard. “I don’t have anything to do with what she did to your mother.”

I nod in agreement. “That’s true.” I find the document and open it. “It wasn’t that my father was a Petrov, it’s that he wasn’t an Antonov. They had business dealings with Gregor Antonov already, and her marrying into the Petrov family would have been very bad for their business. They cut her off so they could keep their relationship with the family and keep all the government protection that came with their connections back home. It helps when you have one third of your business tied up in arms distributions.”

“What does this have to do with me?” His voice cracks.

“Nothing.” I lift a shoulder. “After we were cut out, you should have been next in line. That’s what should have happened.”

“But it didn’t.” He snorts.

“No,” I admit. “You were cut. Why?”

“I don’t know!” Like a teenage boy, he whines.

“But you do.” I toss my phone into his lap. He picks it up, turning it until he can read the document. The color drains from his cheeks as he realizes what he’s looking at.

“You are not a Kustov.”

Slowly he brings his eyes to me. “How did you get this?”

“Like I said, Victoria was helpful.” I reach across and grab my phone back. “Your mother married my uncle and was already pregnant with some other poor bastard’s baby. You have no blood relation to the Kustov family. So your claims have no standing.”

“So you went and tried to get a fucking detective, who works on a force we have in our pockets, to start causing trouble for us,” Andrei booms behind me. “You wanted to get the Feds to tie him up in some investigation. Did you actually think you’d get them to find something they could use on him, or us?”

“Or that any of us would actually go to fucking prison?” Viktor adds, his anger clouding the air.

“No.” I lean back again. “He didn’t. He was hoping that I’d be so twisted up with legal trouble that I wouldn’t fight his legal claims.”

“Victoria said you’d have no interest in the company if you were busy trying to save the Petrov family,” Oleg spits out.

I put my hand up when he looks ready to spew out everything she convinced him of.

“She was wrong. She always is.” I shake my head. “She went after you because she thought you’d be inheriting the company eventually, right?”

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