She nods. “You get it now,krolik.”
I peer into my teacup, studying the ripples vibrating across the surface of the liquid. “That still doesn’t explain how Pavel thinks.”
“Are you so sure?”
My eyes widen. “Oh.”
She grins when I look at her.
I blink at her, then look at the door to the suite, then look at the building. “Oh,that’swhy he talks like that.”
“I can hear the gears cranking in your brain. Careful. You might need oil on them.”
I shoot her an unimpressed frown. “Thanks, Viktoria.”
“For akrolik, you can be terribly slow sometimes.”
“Lucky I have you to light the fire under my ass.”
She holds up her fingers and pinches them together. “No fire needed.”
“No thank you.” I rubbed my arm. “The last one still hurts.”
Humor twinkles in her eyes as she rests her arm on the table and leans forward. A gust of wind cuts underneath the umbrella, ruffling the edges of the fabric.
Once the wind settles, she says, “You already understand honor,krolik. Instinctively. You demonstrated it at your baby shower.”
I frown as bile rises in my throat. There wasnothinghonorable about what I did at my baby shower.
I swallow hard and ask, “How?”
“You ordered Jonas’s execution without hesitation.”
I look away. “I was wrong to do that.”
“No,krolik. By ordering such terrible violence whennobodyexpected it, you forced the others to view you as someone who is dangerous.”
“It made me look like a loose cannon.”
“Precisely.”
I adjust my position in my chair. My stomach gurgles, prompting me to reach for the cookies that Viktoria set out. The chocolate chips are extra chewy today, making me melt in my seat.
“It made you unpredictable,” she points out. “And unpredictable people are dangerous. That might be why Felix hasn’t done anything yet. Because he’s terrified of whatyouare capable of.”
I swallow my food and retort, “That’s not true.”
She waves off my response. “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. It only matters if othersthinkit’s true. Appearances.”
I sigh. “Are everything.”
“As long as you can project an image of ruthlessness, then that appearance will be maintained.”
It’s sage advice coming from a woman who has made it to the age of sixty in a cutthroat lifestyle. If she didn’t understand the rules of Pavel’s cruel world, then she wouldn’t be here giving me the greatest insight in the world.
After all, I’m part of the Bratva now. I might as well start thinking like them, right?
“One more thing,krolik,” she says while pouring us another round of tea. “Always be willing to escalate, even if it may seem unsavory.”