“We’ll all be damned, probably,” Yulian chimes in suddenly as he swings the door open and struts over to us.
“Where were you?” I ask impatiently. “I asked you to be here forty fucking minutes ago.”
Yulian checks the time and shrugs. “Shit, sorry. Didn’t realize.” I glare at him, but he only smiles sheepishly at me. “I’m sorry, bro. Got caught up.”
“Sit down,” I growl at him. “And when I give you an order, I’m not your fucking ‘bro.’ I’m your don. Is that understood?”
His smile falters for just a moment. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“It better not. What have you got for me?”
He straightens up a little and I can tell he’s trying his best not to piss me off further. “The word underground is that there are factions forming. No word on which side they’ll fall toward.”
“I think that depends on how this meeting goes,” I say, glancing at Lev.
“What meeting?” asks Yulian.
“Rodion just called.”
HIs jaw drops. “Seriously? Fuck. What did he say?”
“He was sussing out the situation. Kept his cards close to the vest.”
“Did he threaten you?” Yulian asks.
“Not explicitly, but I can read between the lines. He’s leaning towards the rumors, but he knows there’s a lot at stake if he chooses to break with us.”
“So… we need to convince him that you had nothing to do with Marina’s death?” Yulian suggests.
I narrow my eyes at my brother. “We needed to do that from the moment it happened. It doesn’t help that no one but you saw the body.”
Yulian matches my stare. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Because you thought I killed her?”
Yulian stops short. He struggles for a moment and then exhales tiredly. “Alright. Okay… yeah, I thought you killed her. I knew that I needed to get rid of the body. If Rodion got his hands on Marina’s body, then I thought he would have realized—”
“Realized what?” I ask.
Yulian falls silent. “Nothing. It’s not important anymore. She’s gone.”
“She’s gone, but she left behind a big fucking mess for me to clean up,” I say. “As per usual.”
“We just need to make nice with Rodion,” Yulian says. “Make peace and this will all blow over. No one’s going to challenge either one of you if they know that the Stepanovs and the Ivanovs are on good terms.”
“I’m not sure there are terms anymore,” I admit. “Now that Marina’s gone, Rodion has no real reason to name me as his successor.”
Yulian frowns. “You’re still his son-in-law.”
“Was,” I correct. “An ex-son-in-law who gave him no grandchildren. He’s not going to give me his legacy if it means I marry another woman and pass down that empire to a child that has no relation to him.”
“His daughter couldn’t even give you a child,” Lev snarls. “It was the least she could do, and she didn’t even do that.”
I used to feel that way. But it’s been a long time since I thought having a baby would bridge the divide between our families. There are only two ways to make this end now.
With lies.
Or with blood.