Page 31 of Dragon Billionaire

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A thick, leatherbound notebook landed on the desktop of Vasili Kuznetsov, tossed there by the man himself. He was seated in a slick office chair, the desk made of black plastic. Everything in Vasili’s office showed how he was the exact opposite of Semyon Kumarin, from the minimalism in the décor to the lack of plants of any variety. The space was almost scentless. Harsh lighting and no windows giving it a claustrophobic feel.

Vasili was a large man in every sense of the word. A large head on a thick neck over a rounded frame, completed by enormous hands, which he preferred to keep plaited together on his stomach. He wore knitted sweaters or shirts with knitted vests, grey pants, and brown patent leather shoes. He looked comfortable in his skin. He made Zeke feel uncomfortable in his, though he tried his very best not to show it.

Vasili nodded to the leatherbound notebook.

“You come for that?”

It was the ledger. Of course it was.

Zeke schooled his features into a passive expression as he turned his gaze on the notebook, then knitted his brows, quizzical.

“What is it?” he asked.

Vasili kept his gaze on him, waiting for Zeke to blink.

Zeke didn’t.

“You think I’m stupid?” Vasili inquired.

“Of course not,” Zeke replied.

“You think I didn’t figure out why you two showed up to this party the second you stepped out of your car?” Vasili demanded.

Zeke remained silent. Vasili seemed rather pleased by this. Zeke was proving a quick study, understanding when he was required to respond, and when he’d do better to shut up.

Anna remained silent. It was better that way. None of the five men in the room would take kindly to her interrupting them. Even less to her trying to offer an explanation when Zeke’s attempt had been shot down. In their eyes, she wasn’t a representative of her father’s. Only Zeke could step in and fill those shoes. She knew this, but Zeke could still feel how tense she was next to him, how much she wanted to contribute. Say the right thing, get them out of there.

“You know,” Vasili spoke, this time to the man on his right—Nikolai. “I think they thought I was stupid. That’s why they had the audacity to step through my front doors with the intention to harm me and mine.” He raised a hand when Zeke drew a breath to offer a response, effectively shutting Zeke’s protest down before it had even formed. “If you’d stayed downstairs, this meeting would’ve taken a completely different tone,” Vasili stated, eyes on Zeke’s. “But since you went to such great lengths to get past my guards and get yourselves all the way up to my private living quarters, what can I assume other than that it was to get your hands on that?” He nodded at the ledger. “Your fathers have sought it for years, did you know that? They’ve made a few attempts before so brazenly sending their own children in to do their dirty work, all of these attempts have failed. They didn’t tell you?”

Zeke clenched his jaws together, wanting to tell himself that Vasili was lying, but feeling certain, had his father actually made other attempts, he never would have admitted it before asking Zeke to succeed where all others had failed.

Anna’s hold on his hand was like an iron grip. He couldn’t tell if it was from fear or anger, or both. She clearly doubted whether Vasili was lying as well. The truth hit much too close to home. It wouldn’t be the first time they were manipulated into doing something they didn’t want to do because their father’s made a sound argument for why it needed to be done.

“Confess,” Vasili said, voice turning cold.

Zeke hesitated. Anna didn’t.

“You’re right,” she said.

Vasili’s gaze lingered on Zeke’s for another moment before he slowly turned it on Anna’s. Zeke almost stepped between them but knew, deep down, that Anna could handle it. If she couldn’t, she wouldn’t have raised her voice.

“What was that?” Vasili asked.

“You’re right. We did come here for that,” Anna repeated, offering a nod of her own to the ledger. “What you’re doing, how you conduct business, isn’t upholding the code. Is it?”

Vasili stared at her, his expression shifting from mild astonishment to a warning so stark it made Anna’s tension deepen. The hand not holding his moved to grasp at his arm as if to make certain he was there, and she truly wasn’t facing this monster on her own.

“The code,” Vasili smirked. “I haven’t heard that word in half a century. You think your father upholds the code?”

“He doesn’t sell children,” she stated.

Vasili glanced at Nikolai before both men barked a laugh. Vasili shook his head at his own mirth, looking ready to wipe tears from his eyes.

“No,” he then agreed. “He doesn’t sell them. He just stuffs their pockets with enhancements, sends them into the streets to be little invisible couriers for all his dealers. You know how many children are addicted to enhancements because of your father? Don’t come in here waving your family’s purity around, Anna Aslanova. It’s too stained to make much of a difference in this room.”

“You can’t keep us here, and you can’t hurt us,” Zeke cut in. “Not without risking repercussions you don’t even want to imagine, right? We all know it. If we’d not tried to get the ledger, you say this meeting would’ve been different. Why don’t we forget about the ledger—which was our fathers’ request of us, not our own idea—and discuss this between ourselves? Someday I’ll be the ruling head of both our families. Why can’t we start laying the foundation for future peaceful negotiations now?”

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