Page 35 of Deadly Offer

Nikon felt himself go utterly still, instinct taking over as he waited for his moment. “Andrey, think about this.”

“I’ve thought about it.” Andrey backed toward the elevator, dragging Reuben with him. “I’ve thought about it for months while you all plotted against me.”

Reuben remained eerily calm, his eyes meeting Nikon’s. In that gaze, Nikon saw not fear but calculation. Reuben was already planning, assessing angles, opportunities.

“Let him go.” Nikon’s voice dropped to a dangerous register. “This is between us,nothim.”

“Wrong.” Andrey’s finger tightened on the trigger. “He’s been between us from the start. And now he’s coming with me—my insurance policy.”

The elevator doors stood open behind them. One step, then another. Andrey’s eyes darted between his brothers, the gun never wavering from Reuben’s temple.

Nikon’s heart hammered against his ribs. Time seemed to slow, each second stretching into infinity. The impossible decision stared him in the face: his brother or his lover.

His blood or his heart.

The vodka soaked into the carpet, its scent filling the air—the sharp, clean smell of his father’s favorite drink. The drink that had marked every significant family moment. Births. Deaths. And now, this final severing of ties.

Nikon took a single step forward.

“Stay back!” Andrey’s voice cracked. “I’ll do it. I swear I will.”

In Reuben’s eyes, Nikon saw the flicker—the signal. Three rapid blinks. A barely perceptible nod. The language they’d developed over the months they’d been together. It was a silent code born from nights analyzing each other from across the poker room, and mornings studying each other’s bodies. It was a language no one else in the room could decipher, not even his brothers, who’d known him all his life.

Reuben’s eyes shifted minutely downward, then left. Whatever happened next would happen fast, and Reuben was seemingly already three moves ahead.

Nikon had never felt more a Matvei than in this moment. A moment where Reuben’s heart beat just one trigger pull away from silence.

His palm rested on the grip of his gun, the decision already made in the silence of his mind.

Chapter 13

The barrel of Andrey’s gun dug into the side of Reuben’s head, a cold circle of certainty against the chaos of the moment.

The metal pressed harder with each ragged breath Andrey took, sending nauseating pulses through Reuben’s skull. Broken glass crunched as Andrey dragged him backward toward the elevator, the spilled vodka spreading across the floor of Alexei’s conference room like a flood of lost family traditions.

Reuben’s gaze locked with Nikon’s across the room. In those blue eyes, he saw something he’d never witnessed before... raw fear. Fear for Reuben.

“Nobody follows,” Andrey’s voice pitched higher than normal, a warning sign of escalating panic. “Or I paint the walls with his fucking brains.”

Grigorii’s hands flexed at his sides, his body weight redistributing subtly. Like a veteran fighter reading the rhythm before making his move. “Consider what you’re doing, Andrey. This family can still—”

“Family?” Andrey’s laugh scraped against Reuben’s ear. “The same family that put dad’s vodka on the table? The same family ready to execute me?” His arm tightened around Reuben’s throat. “Don’t talk to me about family.”

Alexei took a careful step to the left, his movements fluid and deliberate. “Every problem has a solution if we approach it rationally. This doesn’t have to end with—”

“With what? A bullet in my head?” Andrey’s breathing grew more erratic against Reuben’s neck. “Youalwaysthink you’re so fucking clever.”

Reuben estimated the distance to the elevator at twelve feet, while Nikon stood roughly eight feet away diagonally. He registered the slight tremor in Andrey’s gun hand where it pressed against his skull. Though his heart hammered against his ribs (each beat a countdown to what might be his last moment), his mind refused to surrender to panic.

Instead, Reuben clung to numbers and angles, finding control where chaos threatened to overwhelm him. As seconds stretched into eternity, he worked through variables, probabilities, and outcomes—the same defense mechanism he’d relied on since childhood.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep me alive until you’re safely away?” Reuben struggled to keep his voice neutral. “I’m your only guarantee out of here.”

Nikon’s eyes narrowed, then cleared. A silent acknowledgment of Reuben’s strategy.

Their eyes met again, a connection more intimate than words could express. Three rapid blinks from Reuben—their private code developed over late-night whispers, when they’d discussed what to do if the worst happened. A nearly imperceptible nod from Nikon—I’ll catch you. A language created in moments stolen between danger and desire was now their lifeline.

Now.

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