“Because his mother was the second wife?”
“Mistress.”
I nodded, surprised he was even speaking about it. He opened a door usually barred shut. “And Dmitri?”
“An asshole.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “That suits him.”
His expression remained stiff. “We grew up close, did training and operations together. Until I took out my first kidney.”
He said it as if it were another line in a ledger. But the way his jaw tightened told me enough. Pain doesn’t just pass.
“What changed?” I asked.
“Our father turned him into a fool. We are no longer brothers.”
“So it’s because of your father.” He let out a dark chuckle. “What’s funny?”
“You missed the kidney part?”
“It wasn’t the kidney.” I frowned and asked. “Okay, if it was your sickness, how did you become the boss?”
He leaned in, voice dropping low. “One more thing about me. I always get what I want.”
My heart stuttered. He wasn’t boasting. He was stating a fact. His smile vanished as if it had never existed.
I lowered my gaze to my plate, suddenly unsure if I wanted more answers.
“That’s all the questions you have?” he asked after a beat.
I forced a smile. “I was just thinking about your situation. What will you do about it?”
He raised a brow. “What situation?”
“You know.”
“I don’t.”
“Come on... about the kidney?” He smiled, and I instantly realized he was teasing me. “It’s not funny.”
He picked up his glass, sipped the rest of his wine, and set it down. “It slips my mind.”
“Are you serious?”
“Enemies are more serious than sickness. They bite you from your back when you look away for a second.”
“Rodion...”
He cut me off. “That discussion is over.”
I nodded, exhaling. He had given me more than I expected, even if he hated every word.
And I didn’t want the moment to end. So, I blurted out the first ridiculous thing that came to mind. “Do you think you’re the kind of man who would eat a steak with a spoon just to prove a point?”
Rodion’s eyes narrowed as if trying to understand where that came from. But he answered anyway. “If there were no knives, yes.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “That’s not normal.”