Page 41 of Vicious Games

“What do you want, Roman? I’m a little busy.”

I moved to the well-stocked sideboard and lifted the crystal brandy decanter. I turned to Richard and raised an eyebrow in a silent offer.

Richard shook his head. “A bit early for me.”

I splashed some brandy into a snifter and sat in one of the heavy upholstered chairs by the floor-to-ceiling windows. You could just make out the dark waters of the Thames beyond the treetops. It was early for me as well, but my morning with Aurora had rattled my nerves.

It was unsettling. I wasn’t a man accustomed to being rattled, especially not by a woman I was dating. It was almost as if she had a stronger hold on me than I wanted to admit. Brushing the idea aside, I raised the glass in a mock toast. “I hear congratulations are in order. I understand you’re planning a wedding.”

Richard frowned as he folded his equally tall frame into the chair across from me. He leaned back into the cushions and tossed one arm over the low back. His relaxed posture wasn’t fooling me. Our exchanges were always tense. “Who told you that?”

I took a leisurely sip before answering. “Now, what fun would there be if I were to reveal my source? I also hear the planning is a bit rushed. Any news? Are you about to make me an uncle?”

“Half-uncle and no. I simply see no reason to delay. When I see something I want, I claim it.”

I stared at him long and hard, uncertain if that was a cut against me. While I had my sources on him, I was aware he also had his own sources in my personal life. Had he heard something? Had that arrogant prick jeweler said something? I gripped the glass harder. I was already beyond angered by Aurora’s continued stubbornness in telling me no. My anger would know no bounds if it became common knowledge, especially to my elder brother.

Tempering my anger, I lightened my tone. “I assume my invitation got lost in the proverbial mail?”

Richard smirked. “Something like that. It’s to be a small affair.”

I nodded. “Sure, only several hundred of your closest friends and family at Westminster Abbey.”

Richard adjusted his seat. Clearly, I was making him uncomfortable. Good.

Changing the subject, Richard said, “I understand I have you to thank for Nicole becoming bothersome.”

I raised my palm. “Who was I to stand in the way of true love?”

Nicole was batshit crazy. I needed her away from Aurora and the only way I was going to accomplish that was if I gave her a bigger prize, Richard. She had always had an infatuation with him. Some misguided notion they were fated to be together because of old family connections. At least, that was one perk of being disowned and orphaned. No annoying family bullshit.

Richard’s lips thinned. “She went after Elizabeth.”

Fuck.

I sat up straighter. I set my glass down on the small table between us. Leaning my forearms on my thighs, I clasped my hands together and sighed. “Dammit, Richard. Sibling rivalry aside, I hope you know I didn’t intend that.”

It was one thing to bait one another, to repeatedly one-up each other in the business world by stealing companies and wrecking multimillion-pound deals just for the fun of it. It was another to go after each other’s woman. I would never have deliberately put his girl in harm’s way any more than I would expect him to do so with Aurora.

Richard sighed. “That’s the problem with psychopathic narcissists. They can be so damn unreliable.”

“Is the situation handled?”

“It will be.”

Seeing a lead-in to the true purpose for my unannounced visit, I leaned forward even further. “I may have a solution.”

Richard stroked his jaw. After a long pause, he said, “I’m listening.”

I knew I had to handle this delicately if I was going to get what I wanted. “I’m also aware of, shall we say, your auxiliary plans for your wedding.”

It was purely by happenstance that I learned of Richard’s plans to gaslight his new bride on their wedding day. The plan was pure madness, which, of course, meant it was genius. So genius, in fact, that I had decided to do something similar to Aurora. Albeit, while Richard’s aim was to get his bride willing to leave the country with him, no questions asked, mine was to force Aurora’s hand into marrying me.

Richard’s eyes, which were so similar to my own, narrowed. He clenched his jaw but said nothing. A true master negotiator. He wouldn’t admit to a thing unless I first confirmed what I already knew.

I raised a placating hand. “Don’t worry. Harris didn’t betray you.”

Harris was Richard’s right-hand man and his closest confidant. They had been friends for decades. Despite that, I knew Richard probably wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him between the eyes if he thought he’d betrayed him. I’d do the same. We were, after all, cut from the same cloth, even if my cloth came from the wrong side of the bed.

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