8. Ilias
ILIAS
Now, all my siblings had moved on, and the brownstone was empty except for me.
Polina had gone off to college, Theo had gotten married, and Vaso and Kostas had moved out.
When we were growing up, with just the five of us raising each other, it was a nice space.
It gave me enough room to be alone, but we had the kitchen where we crowded together and let our cook, Evgenia, spoil us like a mother hen.
Still, it would be weird to think about someone else living here now.
There was plenty of room, I reasoned. I would hardly see her, although I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
I wanted her to feel safe here, and I would do whatever was necessary to make that happen.
Now that I’d seen her with her wild curls and big, beautiful eyes filled with all sorts of emotions that pulled me all kinds of ways, maybe I did want to see her.
Cora had left a few moments ago, giving Galena one last long look before Maxim kissed her goodbye. “Be good, you guys,” she warned, as if we weren’t trying our damnest.
Galena sat on the edge of the chair like she didn’t trust the ground beneath her.
Like if she leaned too far in any direction, she might fall through some crack the rest of us couldn’t see.
She clutched her glass of water in her hands that Cora had pressed on her earlier, and her eyes tracked my every movement, wary.
But she was brave as fuck for coming out and facing us head-on.
Even Maxim had been surprised when she’d appeared in the hall with that cloud of hair swirling around her face and her cheeks flushed with mad.
I stayed on the overstuffed loveseat where I could sit across from her and have a good view, but wasn’t too close.
The last thing I wanted was to overwhelm her and push her out the door.
This was the first time we’d been able to find her since she’d disappeared, and my first opportunity to talk to her at all.
When she fainted on the sidewalk, Maxim and I were both equally appalled and relieved at the same time.
It gave us a chance to scoop her up and bundle her into the car without any issues, which made us monsters.
Cora had already yelled at us plenty. Maxim barely caught her before she slammed into the pavement, and then the dick refused to give her to me.
I thought she might have hit her head a little, but it wasn’t bleeding, and Maxim wouldn’t let me look at her any closer.
Lev had finally made us stop fighting about it. The only reason I got him to bring her to my place was that we had agreed on it before we even went after her. For a hot minute, I thought he was going to back out of that, too.
The suites were all on the upper floors, but I didn’t want to alarm her by placing her in a bedroom where she had to hunt around to find someone. The library was the best place for her, and then we could sit in the living room where she could find us easily, and we could hear her if she woke up.
When she appeared at the edge of the hallway, her hand trailing along the wallpaper as if seeking reassurance, she almost seemed to belong in my house, like she had always belonged here.
“You okay?” It was a stupid question. Of course, she wasn’t okay.
She’d just learned her biological father had been one of the most ruthless men on the Commission, and a sex trafficker.
I was sure she had questions about how her mother had known Alexei.
I saw how that information had rocked her world.
We still needed to talk to her about her mother’s murder and the assault.
Neither Maxim nor I was convinced that it was a random act of street violence. We were sure it was a targeted attack.
There was a frailty to her that ate at me.
Her eyes were a true blue, surrounded by almost silvery lashes that matched her pale, blond hair, which puffed out from her head in huge waves that surprised me.
Most of the photos I’d seen of her had either shown her with a hood up or must have been when her hair was wet, because if this was a natural curl, it was amazing in a good way.
My sister had naturally curly hair, and while she hated it when she was younger, I’d always thought it was beautiful.
Galena was thin, painfully so, to the point that it was apparent she hadn’t been getting enough food.
Or maybe she was having trouble eating because of all the trauma and uncertainty in her life.
Either way, I knew Evgenia would be all over her like a hot rash, trying to feed her up.
I made a note to ensure that she didn’t overwhelm Galena too much.
She was quiet, not answering me right away.
Her gaze had drifted to the window behind me, where the late afternoon sun was bleeding orange onto the walls.
Then she turned back, face pale but set like concrete.
“Tell me the rest,” she said. “There’s more.
What was the deal that they made? My father and the others? ”
I nodded slowly, leaning forward, elbows on my knees. “You sure you’re ready for that?”
Her laugh was short, hollow as she picked at the platter Cora had assembled. “How much worse can it get?”
It was almost funny how wrong she was, but I didn’t say anything.
If she wanted the whole story, then I had agreed that there would be no lies.
In the background, I could sense Maxim wanting to jump in, but we had already come to our agreement.
He wanted my cooperation with his sister and my commitment to upholding the blood oath.
I thought I was a bad bet, but he and the others insisted that we continue … so we would do it my way or not at all.
“Okay,” I said.
She shifted slightly, as if bracing for impact. Her instinct was good because this was going to sting. Her brows knit together, but she didn’t interrupt.
“Back then, my father, Yianni, and Alexei were part of a four-man syndicate. The Commission wasn’t what it is today.
It was just a whispered alliance among the most powerful men in the Irish, Italian, Russian, and Greek families: Maxim’s father, mine, Conall’s, and Angelo’s.
They vowed to maintain their alliance to expand their trade lines and protect their interests.
To do this, they promised something to prove their loyalty to each other: they bound the next generations to each other. ”
She blinked. “Bound?” Her nose wrinkled.
“That’s right.” I nodded with a harsh laugh.
“They decided to sell off their own kids to get their little club going. Alliances sealed in blood. A promise that their children would marry into each other’s families, keeping the power within a circle no one else could break.
And sealed with more than signatures. With blood. ”
“So they sold you off? Weren’t you only kids?” Her face scrunched up as she worked around what I had told her. “That’s pretty cold. I guess they weren’t good guys, but still. So … Cora and Maxim? They didn’t choose to marry each other then?” She looked at her brother. “You had to?”
“It was arranged,” Maxim confirmed carefully. “However, just because it was arranged doesn’t mean we don’t love each other. I wouldn’t change it for anything. Don’t get me wrong, sestra , there was a long time when I was irate about the oath.”
I shrugged. “Sold, gifted, sacrificed. Depends on how you look at it. None of us liked it, but in the world we live in, there is no escaping a blood oath. We delayed it for decades. It was the best we could do.”
Her gaze turned sharp. “And what about my mother? She didn’t have anything to do with it, right?”
I hesitated for a moment, unsure how she would react to the next part. “I’m not sure if she knew about it or not, but you were the only other child born to Alexei Volkov, and he needed a girl. It could have been why she ran.”
Galena inhaled sharply, the color leaving her face. Her knuckles turned white around the glass. “But… ”
Maxim’s voice dropped. “At that time, things were unsettled in our bratva, and it was best for her to go. It wasn’t safe.
” Maxim looked out into the room, but not at either of us, as if he were deciding which truths to reveal.
“I was struggling to take over the Volkov Bratva. We’ve told you he was an evil man trading in lives, but once you saw it with your own eyes, you couldn’t unsee it.
Women, children … he trafficked them like cattle.
Shoved them into containers and sold them off like it was normal. ”
Galena sucked in a breath that was audible even across the room, and I knew the information scared her.
No sane person wanted to be part of that shit.
All four of us shared brutal memories of our fathers’ enterprises and our reasons for wanting to be rid of them.
He stopped and wiped a hand across his mouth, not able to continue.
I knew Alexei had beaten Maxim, and sometimes his brother Dimitri too.
His younger brother was the reason Maxim worked so hard to climb the ranks of the bratva and then kill his father.
Dimitri had left the Volkov Bratva entirely for a long time and made his own way, joining a motorcycle club out in Arizona.
It was only recently that he had even come back into the fold.
Maxim had believed for years that Dimitri would never speak to him again.
“Our fathers wanted us to continue their horrid, sick legacy,” I bit out. “Their little sex trafficking scheme. We all came up with our own plans. We didn’t want any part of that shit.”
“It took me years to build up the loyalty of enough men to put a plan into action. To be old enough to do it. A few years after your mother left with you, I was able to kill him,” Maxim told her bitterly. “He deserved it. You wouldn’t have wanted to know him.”