“Ah.” He drags out the word, making a show of drying his busted knuckles on a dish towel. “This has something to do with the visit from Scorpion Andriani, no?”
I’m not surprised he knew Scorpion came to see me. He’s probably got cameras hidden everywhere, and his security detail would have told him if Yana hadn’t.
“He brought me a contract,” I say instead of answering him directly.
“Marriage contract, yes.” He opens the freezer and reaches for a bottle of vodka. “What about it?”
“There’s a particular section of concern.”
I don’t want to tell him I’m infuriated by the way he has mapped out and sold off every aspect of my life from now until I die. The contract was so disgusting and infuriating, I had to stop reading it because I couldn’t take in more. But making Misha angry won’t get me anywhere. So I’m trying to phrase it gently.
He retrieves a glass and fills it with the vodka. “Which part?”
I take a deep breath and then blurt it out. “Why do you want me to have a child with Andriani?”
Misha sips his vodka. “Collateral.”
That’s what I was afraid of, even if I am deeply disturbed by the fact that my brother is willing to use any child of mine, his niece or nephew, as a bargaining chip against the Mafia.
“You’d use ababy, Misha?”
He takes another calm sip, unperturbed. “Blood of their blood.”
I want to smack him, but I know I can’t risk inciting his wrath.
“You can’t believe I’d allow you to use any child of mine like that.”
“Do what I ask you to do, and you’ll be rewarded.” He lifts the glass back to his mouth calmly.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I need to make them think I’m remorseful. Marrying my sister to an Andriani and making sure she gives him a child will go a long way toward that.”
“Make them think you’re remorseful,” I repeat. “About blowing up their restaurant, you mean?”
Misha tsks. “Sestrenka, you believe their lies about me?”
“I don’t know what to believe. Andriani told me you planted a bomb in their restaurant.”
“I didn’t plant anything.” He shrugs. “Must have been someone else. This city is filled with Andriani enemies.”
“He said that a Russian handcuffed his brother’s girlfriend to the bed. He thinks it was Dmitri.”
“It may have been.” Misha finishes his vodka. “I wouldn’t know. I’m not my brother’s keeper.”
“He follows your orders now. If Dmitri is the one who did it, then it’s because you told him to.”
With Misha the new Pakhan, Dmitri has no choice, even if he wants to do the opposite. Misha says jump, and Dmitri asks how high. That’s the way it works, or Misha will remove Dmitri the same way he did the old Pakhan.
Misha sets his glass down on the marble counter with a clink. “Katya, Katya. I begin to wonder whose side you’re on. I don’t like to have to question loyalty. It makes me feel…unsettled. And when I’m unsettled, do you know what happens?”
I swallow hard, afraid to play his game and also afraid not to. “What happens?”
He slowly unscrews the lid from the vodka bottle. “People die.”
Then he calmly pours himself another drink as a chill goes down my spine.
“You know I’m loyal to you, Misha,” I force out, understanding exactly who and what he’s threatening.