Page 33 of Luka

“Of course, there are other signs,” Arseni goes on, his lips pursing like he’s pondering. “The temper tantrums, for instance. It’s probably his suppressed sexuality making him cranky all the time.”

I roll my eyes. “He isn’t gay.”

“He refused to marry your sister… If I had her all over my dick, I would marry the shit out of that, you know what I mean?” He thrusts his hips slightly while pumping his fist, a stupid grin on his face.

“You’re a fucking moron, you know that?”

He laughs and raises a finger. “But that doesn’t make me wrong.”

My neck rolling, I huff a laugh with him, but it’s more bitter than amused. “Nikita is a smarter man than the currentleadership. I’m sure he could tell she was only after his power.” I look Arseni up and down teasingly. “She sure as shit wouldn’t have looked at you twice.”

Arseni smiles and flicks ashes off his cigarette. “Your familial love is so refreshing, you know that? Sometimes, I feel sad about being a stray, but then I think about how I could’ve ended up with a sibling like you and feel so much better.”

“Glad I can be of service.”

Arseni’s smile falls as the sound of the front door opening pulls his attention. We’re supposed to be stationed farther apart from each other, watching the fence line, always at the ready for intruders. Ironically, it’s our own people we’re most vulnerable to. Not everyone in the Bratva is happy about the change inpower, and my sister, along with my new brother-in-law, feel it’s best to be prepared for anything. Including a civil war.

And Mila oh so kindly volunteered me for the front line.

When I turn my head that way, I see Mila along with two bodyguards headed for the parked SUV out front. Her lips tilt up into a tight smile at me, a peace offering of sorts after yesterday, most likely. I don’t smile back.

When Arseni waves, she glances at him but faces forward and stalks to the SUV.

“Fuck you too,” he mutters under his breath before taking a pull of his cigarette. He studies the short bud as he blows out the smoke but doesn’t toss it to the ground. Not yet. His insistence on using every last bit of something is one thing about Arseni that can get annoying.

I turn to study the back of my sister’s head, her new cropped haircut looking ridiculous as ever. When she cut it, she showed up to my mother’s house for dinner with her chin obnoxiously high like she expected us all to say something.

My mother just stared, blinked, and conveyed her disapproval in a look you could see but couldn’t really accuse her of having. Leo asked why she wanted to look like a dude. I watched their fight unfurl dispassionately, knowing the whole time why she did it.

Because now she could.Nowshe was queen, and we were her subjects.

Her whole life, my father taught her how to be a whore to a powerful man. Finally, it paid off for her. She found the sucker with the big house, the powerful name, and the tiny brain. Hooray, Mila.

“You think he still fucks her with that haircut?” I ask as Mila sets her purse in the back of the SUV and looks back at the house.

“I don’t think it’s that bad… I’d still bang her, if that helps.”

“You’d fuck a cactus, Arseni.”

He chuckles. “You know, it would be way more fun joking about screwing your sister if you actually cared.”

“Everyonehas screwed my sister.”

“Even you?”

When I scrunch up my nose, Arseni makes a gun with his fingers and points it at me. “Got ya there, didn’t I?”

The smile vanishes from his face as he sees something over my shoulder that makes his face turn white.

“Shit,” he hisses, tossing the cigarette to the ground and hiking his gun up before darting away from me. I already know who he sees before I turn.

Vitaly, my sister’s husband and the Bratva’s new Pakhan, marches from the house toward the waiting SUV. He glances over at me, meeting my eyes, and neither of us make any move to greet the other.

I get off on the fact that he doesn’t like me. Once, he came with my sister to our mother’s house, and it was the most awkward dinner imaginable. My mother acted likeshewas the one who wanted to be married to him, fawning over him, being so weird as to call himsir. I’d never felt closer to my siblings as we exchanged looks with each other, taking turns rolling our eyes over the Ice Queen’s sudden warm demeaner. Vitaly hasn’t been back.

He climbs into the SUV with Mila, but it doesn’t pull away. Minutes pass while it just sits there, and I imagine them talking, arguing maybe.

My tongue prods at my two crooked bottom teeth with annoyance while I wait. Before today, my teeth have never bothered me. I’ve never even noticed them. But lately, my physical flaws have been popping to my attention.

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