Page 117 of Thorns of Lust
As anticipated, Sasha declared war on Illias. Vasili and Alexei, my other idiot brothers, backed him. The worst part, they both knew they couldn’t win against him.
Our family was a different level of stupid and fucked up.
I must have been a different brand of idiot myself because I worried about Illias. Maxim was his twin brother. Yes, he was an enemy and tried to hurt my family. If he wasn’t dead, I might have killed him myself for being crazy enough to attempt hurting my family. If he would have succeeded, I’d have declared war on the Konstantins myself, but I still didn’t like the idea of the dark devil mourning.
Yes, I needed a sanity check.
The Russian Pakhan was a big boy and certainly didn’t need me checking up on him. Yet, after two weeks of worrying about him, I finally caved in and typed up a text message to him.
For the first time ever.
My condolences.
I stared at the message. It was too cold. Too short. Too something.
Deleting the letters, I tried a different approach and typed up,If you need to talk or whatever, let me know.
Ugh, that wasn’t very compassionate either. So I deleted the message again. Oh my gosh. When did I turn into a stupid, insecure woman? This wasn’t me. I knew what I wanted and I went after it. I didn’t dwell on writing a text message.
So I typed again.Want a drink?
I clicked send, then inwardly groaned. That was a dumb-ass message too. Shit.
Illias’ reply was almost instant.My place.
My lips curved and something in my chest crackled and sparked, like sparklers going off on New Year’s Eve. This must be what a young crush looked like. I never had that swooning, stalk your boyfriend stage. Yet, now it was catching up to me. I was tempted to Google him and ask my brother for every single detail about him. Luckily, I hadn’t lost my smarts.
So I typed a message back, pretending to be cool.You want me now?
The reply was curt.I always want you.Swoon moment. My chest warmed and the vulnerability of my reaction to him was alarming.
My cell buzzed again.Wait for me at my place. French Quarter. I’m at a funeral. St. Louis Cemetery.
Shit, today was Maxim’s funeral. He had to be at his gravesite. But here in New Orleans? I started to think maybe Illias Konstantin was up for a war with Vasili. Otherwise, he would have buried his brother in California. Or Russia. After all, he was the Pakhan of those territories.
None of it made any sense. I’d have to ask him about it.
Despite it all, I didn’t regret Maxim’s death. It was either him or my family. But I regretted the pain Illias probably had to endure.
Inhaling deeply, I typed a short response.Ok.
It was dumb, but I trusted Illias not to hurt me. Call it an instinct. Or being just plain dumb.
He had plenty of opportunities to hurt me or end me and he didn’t.
And for the first time in my entire life, I felt the need to be someone’s comfort.
I grabbed my purse and hopped into my car, then rushed to the cemetery.
THIRTY-SIX
KONSTANTIN
Maxim’s tombstone rested right next to my mother’s.
It was where he was meant to be. I had always known it’d end this way. Everything Maxim had ever done led to this. It still pained me to see him gone. My sister and I had a quiet service in Russia for our brother. It gave her a chance to say goodbye. It was safer that way, and it kept her protected.
Maxim had been unhinged ever since his woman died. I had tried to show him it was best to move on, but he refused. He pushed the old Russo when he broke the arrangement with his daughter. Though it was only an excuse. That old fucker Russo was a greedy bastard.
