Page 77 of Kings of Cruelty

Nikolai is still holding me, and I feel him tense at my back.

Yuri starts laughing. “So this is your fault, Kotya.”

Konstantin shoots him a murderous look. “I didn’t expect her to know who Giulio Pavone is.”

It’s my turn to laugh, bitter as it is. “Yeah, well. Even if I didn’t, you’re the one who put it as… Hmm, let’s see. You’ve been too soft on yourmistress. I willobeyyou like the fifty-something-whatever men who jump to your command, and you’ll make me regret it if I don’t. Is any of this ringing a bell?”

Nikolai lets out a choked sound. “You saidwhat?”

Yuri takes several steps away from Konstantin. “What the fuck?”

Nice to see that neither of them knew about that part, at least. Konstantin must know that he fucked up.

Konstantin lets out a frustrated noise. “I didn’t—It wasn’t like that. But Sierra was talking aboutleaving.”

“And that makes it okay for you to change on me?” I demand. “To act like some hurt manchild because I called you out ontrafficking women? I have stayed with you, I have defended you, and I even made damn sure Pavone had no reason to lash out at you over me leaving even though I had every right to storm out of there and call my brother. But no. I chose to trust you, and you—” I shake my head. “I don’t even know why I came back,” I say, sounding every bit as tired as I feel. “Because you terrify me.”

“Called me out on—I don’t know what that means,” Konstantin answers.

Yuri says something in Russian, and Konstantin’s expression stutters. Yuri then looks toward me. “If the problem is Kotya, then you and I can get on a bike and disappear.”

“The problem is whatKotyais doing,” I say bitterly. “If the problem was him, I wouldn’t have come back to try to…” I make a frustrated sound. “Salvage this, I guess.”

Nikolai’s arms tighten around me. “You and Yuri aren’t going anywhere without me. Because you know I think this is fucked-up, Kotya. You want to lose everything for a little bit of extra cash?” He says something in rapid Russian.

Konstantin runs his hands through his hair. “It is not so simple. My father?—”

“Fuck him,” Yuri interrupts. “He isn’t here. He isn’t the one I’m following. I don’t want to do what your Papa says.”

“And neither do you,” Nikolai says. “Do you really want to lose everything because ofhim?”

I stay silent as the pieces continue to fall into place. Money and pressure from his father… I guess I can understand the desire to please your family, but not at this cost. I thought better of Konstantin than this, but at the same time…

Is my family really so much better?

“If I defy him…” Konstantin trails off, and for a split second, there’s something vulnerable in his eyes. “He will not be happy. I already had Petrov giving me orders. Andronov has met with Roman. I cannot simply change plans.”

“Tell them…” I try to think. “Tell them there’s already enough of a presence here, or some shit. I don’t know. They have to know you met with Pavone by now.”

Nikolai shakes his head. “We can’t lie and say Pavone refused to let us operate here,” he says slowly. “And it’s not like we can askhimto lie.”

Yuri tilts his head. “He might. It would benefit him, right? And one of the guys I met in jail, he used to work for Pavone. He said Pavone often did shit for fun.”

“For fun,” I repeat, shaking my head. “He’s fucking disgusting. He stoppedjustshy of outright threatening my family and smiled while he did it.”

“He did not threaten your family,” Konstantin says, scowling. “He wanted me to know that he is aware of who you are, and that he does his research.”

“Yeah, well,” I mutter. “He didn’t need to comment on them.”

“Either way,” Nikolai interrupts. “Maybe hedoesn’twant you in his territory selling women. Maybe he was fucking with you by having that meeting, or whatever it was.”

“I think he wanted me to like his wife,” I say abruptly, thinking back to Vanessa Pavone’s sad eyes. I let out an aggrieved sound. “Not that I’m going to be friends with her. I couldn’t if I wanted to.”

“Why not?” Yuri asks. “Be friends with her, ask her to ask her husband to play along with… everything. If nothing else, we can stall for time while we figure out what to do.”

I grimace. “Because if I’m friends with her, it meansIhave to look the other way, too. It means I have to ignore the fact that she’s complicit in all of this—and don’t try to tell me she’s not.”

“You think Vanessa Pavone would be able to stop her husband?” Konstantin asks. “Would he listen to her?”

---