Page 13 of Claimed By Desire

“Thanks, bro.” Lev gives Alex a fist bump. “And I appreciate you snagging my sister here. I hope it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.”

Alex stares at me. “Not at all.”

I look back at him, struggling internally. There’s Alex, the man that has always treated me like I’m nothing, that didn’t tell me that my brother’s dead, that dragged me back home even knowing what’s waiting for me.

And there’s Alex, the man that ruined me that night, that man I’ve always had a weird crush on.

He leaves before things get too awkward. I watch him go, wondering if we’ll ever get over this tension between us.

Not that it even matters anymore.

“Come on, Dad’s waiting for you,” Lev says gently and nods toward the hall that leads to his office. “I just want to say that I had nothing to do with this.”

“You never do.” I pinch his arm, but not too hard.

He yelps, grinning, and dances out of my reach. “For what it’s worth, I told him to let you stay in Paris for as long as you wanted.”

“I’m so glad he listened.”

“You know how it goes.” His laughter dies away. “We do our duty.”

I head into my father’s office and leave Lev behind. The interior is brightly lit, the big windows overlooking the back yard letting in a lot of natural light. Floor to ceiling bookshelves are backed with old adventure novels, and I remember sneaking in here as a girl and reading through them voraciously. I really liked the ones with sex and violence, and I felt like I was breaking a ton of rules by looking at them. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure Dad knew what I was doing, but he just didn’t care.

“Natalya,” he says, looking at me from behind his desk. I swear, it’s weird when I see him standing, because he’s almost always sitting back there. He looks older, more drawn and haggard, and I wonder how bad things have been here in my absence.

“Dad.” I sit down across from him and keep my back straight. He was always an asshole about posture. “I’m home.”

“You’re home.” He doesn’t seem happy about that. “How was your vacation? I hope it was very fulfilling.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I doubt you’ll be taking another trip anytime soon.” His head tilts to the side and his eyes narrow. A spark of fear bubbles in my stomach. “You embarrassed me.”

I know better than to argue. That’ll only make him angrier. I could say,you told me to the pakhan, and that wouldn’t matter. Because in his mind, he did nothing wrong.

Now he’s doing it again.

“I know.”

“You jeopardized our plans.”

“I’m aware.”

“If Valentin hadn’t found his current wife, if that war hadn’t brought everyone together, if I hadn’t proved that I can be a loyal and worthwhile ally—“ His jaw works, and I know he’s really mad. This is the Dad I know very well: right on the edge of boiling over.

“Stepan died,” I say, looking him right in the eye, too sad to really care if it pisses him off even more.

But instead, he deflates slightly. His shoulders slump, and he nods. “Stepan died. His sacrifice was not in vain, however. Valentin Zeitsev saw what we gave to the cause, and he rewarded us with everything we wanted. Now our ties to the Zeitsev organization run deep.”

“Congratulations, Dad. You got everything you wanted.”

He slams his fist down. I flinch back, cringing away.

“I lost my fucking son. Do you think things have been easy here? While you were away playing house in fuckingParis?”

I shake my head, not looking at him. I feel small again, and I loathe myself, but I can’t help it. Dad has this power.

“I didn’t know,” I say quietly, my voice so tiny it’s pathetic.

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