Page 59 of Kings of Cruelty

Motherfucker.

“Uh, let’s go the other way,” I say, taking Sierra’s arm and turning around.

Unfortunately, my father already spotted us. “Kolya! Kolya!” he shouts.

I try to keep walking, but he catches up to us.

“Kolya, there you are,” my father says. “I thought I’d never find you in this…” He wrinkles his nose as he looks around.

“Kolya?” Sierra asks, looking between us.

I sigh. “It’s the nickname for Nikolai, but we’ve already got…” I trail off, because there’s no way I want my father to know that I call my bossKotyalike we’re extremely intimate. Not even Kostya, which would still be weird for a subordinate to call Konstantin. I should really be calling himKonstantin Igorevich, properly formal and everything. “Anyway. Sierra, this is my father, Vasily Bacurin.”

Sierra tenses at my side. She doesn’t know anything about my father, but she’s smart enough to be wary of anyone in this world. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bacurin,” she says politely.

My father looks at Sierra with narrowed eyes. “Who’s this? You didn’t say you had a woman.”

“She’s…” I scowl. “You told me to date someone else’s girlfriend. So I am,” I say, practically daring him to make a snide comment about that.

Sierra doesn’t comment, which I’m silently thankful for, though I have no idea how long she’ll hold her tongue.

He glances past us at the shoe store we’d come out of. “You date somebody else’s woman so you don’t have to spend money on her!” he says with a scoff.

I almost snap that it’s not my money I’m spending, but I don’t want to open up that line of conversation. “Why are you here?” I ask instead. This is hardly the kind of place I’d expect him to show up in, which means he was fucking following me.

The question is why.

“I was shopping, for me,” my father says, standing up straighter. Pedestrians brush past us, annoyed that we’ve stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to have this chat.

“You don’t shop here,” I say.

“Why not? I like good suits.” He points across the street to one of the expensive suit stores.

Sierra lets out a small huff. “My brother used to buy suits there. They’re good quality.”

“Used to?” my father demands suspiciously. “Why’d he stop? Did quality go down?”

I grimace and pull Sierra closer to me. “He moved out of town.” I really don’t want to talk to my father right now, but I can see the curiosity in Sierra’s eyes.

“My brother finally learned that the suits didn’t, ha,suithim.” She smiles at my father. “But I bet you’d look amazing in one of theirs, sir. ”

My father preens and looks at her properly. “That’s right. You have an eye for these things, girl? Maybe I should have you help me pick the right one.”

“I don’t think so,” I say with a scowl. The last thing I want is for her and my father to be around each other any longer than necessary.

“I would love to,” Sierra says, ignoring me entirely. “You just need to tell them if it’s for a wedding or a party or for day-to-day use, preferred colors and style, and they’ll get you situated.”

Realizing she’s not going to let this go, I let out an annoyed sigh. “Fine. We can go suit shopping.”

“Maybe Kolya should buy himself suit too,” my father says as he takes Sierra’s arm. “He always wears trash.”

I don’t like him touching her at all, and I stare hard at their linked arms for a moment before I shake myself out of it.

Sierra lets out an awkward laugh. “I don’t know. I think he cleans up nice. But maybe a new suit wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“I can get a new suit,” I say sullenly. “Maybe if you pick it out, it won’t be so bad.”

“At least we know which shoe size fits you,” Sierra says, and I get the feeling this might be revenge.

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