o go, I hav

p in the doorwa

e bed. One hand is resting across his stomach. Reg

ges. There's a reason he shields himself with an icy, indifferent mask. He reve

eyes before

ack, I slip into the ha

KH

el like a p

usted into the suite in the middle of Trofim's wedding

onged to him. Not in

a piece of shit becau

day we met

ily unity is important, Mikhail," he snarled when I suggested staying home. "You need

hattered. Still here after

ded, "Helen w

e any less about Helen Drakos, the Greek mafia princes

full might of the Novikov Bratva. He didn't want there to be any mo

his official heir, there were whisper

e questions with an obvious

their engagement party without ever really looking at the spectacle. She w

ana came

ing awareness. An itch down my neck. The same kind I feel when

Trofim needed everyone to see the woman he would impregnate and then s

father did. His father before him. A real noble lineage of Novikov

were only twenty-three when we got married, and

erk with a group of businessmen desperate to strike deals with our family and too afraid to approach

I

ut noticing the one thing

nted

e was standing in front of me. The moment she cur

times for me to know that there's no reason to roll over and show it your soft underbelly. No

sed the tail of the first: I s

I di

ill

first woman I've fucked-since I lost Alyona three

ong stretch. It's empty, thank fuck. Vivia

it wouldn't have been worth it if she'd tried to stick around afterward.

night: I didn't walk into thi

before she made her di

her's heir. I was done waiting in the shadows while someone else called the shots. I wa

y family's graves. Even as I swore

hy I have no interest in taking Trofim's place at the

s and took my wife

ings I vowed while I stood over the corpses of my wife and daughter. Even if

without sex is lik

just fine for two

onths, however

ght. Trofim is out of the line of success

ly thing I've wanted for six months. The thing I im

too

o claim the rest

n, but he's in a white button-down and an undone tuxedo tie. The suit jacket he's

enter. Someone probably warned him I was heading this

ofim's signet r

ence. Stares down

s and holds it to the lamplight. A spot of blood I didn't notice is dried into the grooves of the No

finger-fucked my brother's fiancée with th

and looks at me for the first ti

he might as well be. You're n

places the ring in the center of

e, too? The question is

patricidal shit that happens when power is passed to the person who happened t

. I stripped the rin

ition i

that ring and becom

when will that

ng it well, but he's terrified. Yet another s

nd ask when he was going to die. He'd stand up and fight. But my father doesn't even bother cal

to kill you unl

he doesn't show it. For thirty-one years, my father prepared the way for Trofim. He pou

erful enough to avoid it yourself, then you'll live long enough to see eve

ating his fiancée to see me coming and too drunk to resist. I

idn't kill him for hitting Viviana. You've alw

fusing me w