8. Ilias #2
“I’m not going to judge you for that. Sounds like he did deserve it.
” Her answer seemed to settle Maxim a little.
“You’re right. He doesn’t sound like anyone I would want to know.
” Galena’s mouth pressed into a tight line.
She looked like she wanted to throw her water glass across the room.
Instead, she set it down carefully on the table beside her.
“It sounds like you had a hard time growing up.” She tucked a runaway curl behind her ear and, for a moment, looked unsure of what to say before pressing forward.
“I’m not part of the blood oath thingy, right?
Because that was what you were saying … about me being the girl. ”
“I’m afraid you are,” I said, more forcefully than I meant to.
She looked up at me, startled. Something in the pit of my stomach made me want to make it clear to her.
“You are still part of it as his only girl. You might have been an inconvenience for Alexei at the time, but he needed to provide one Volkov male and one Volkov female to satisfy the terms. Maxim was his male heir, and you are the female heir. It was probably why he allowed Maria to carry you to term.” Alexei was a first-rate prick, but he wasn’t an idiot either.
There were three Volkovs running around, and I wouldn’t say any were accidents.
Her face pinched, and her eyes flashed with emotions that were easy to read.
Anger was the predominant one. “I promised you I wouldn’t lie to you.
That is the truth of it.” They might be hard truths to hear, but I wasn’t going to keep the information from her.
She stood up suddenly, crossing to the window and looking down onto the street as if she were trying to figure out where she was. Her arms were tight across her chest as she stared at a car passing. “That’s stupid. So he would have just made my mom get an abortion or something?”
Maxim gave a visible wince. “It’s hard to explain to someone who didn’t know him, but he probably would have killed a woman who he found out was pregnant with a kid he didn’t want.”
“Sounds like a first-rate a-hole.” Galena frowned. “Yay me.”
“He probably believed he followed the letter of the oath. He had one girl and one boy. When Maria left, it didn’t bother him too much. He didn’t need you right away, and he could always find you if he needed to.” Maxim looked away with discomfort. It sounded terrible, no matter how true it was.
“And now what? What does this mean for me?”
“Look, I know this isn’t ideal.” Maxim began even though I threw him a look.
She didn’t need us ganging up on her, and ‘not ideal’ was not the right phrase to use.
He ignored me and pressed on. “It means you have family. You aren’t alone.
Yeah, the blood oath sucks a little, but there are some bonuses. We are a powerful family.”
“ Not ideal? Bonuses ?” she snapped. “Family? Powerful? What good is it? You think knowing that you could have protected me instead of letting my mother bleed out on the concrete is comforting?” She broke off, chest heaving. Maxim looked as if he’d been slapped .
Maxim got up to approach her, tormented. “Galena. I’m sorry, sestra . I’m sorry, I should have come to you sooner. Protected you and your mother. You’ll never know how sorry I am.”
I remained still and didn’t add anything, because what else could I say?
She was right. There was nothing we could do to erase what had happened to her or her mother.
Her pain was a jagged thing, too wild to touch.
She turned slowly, eyes burning, hair falling over her face.
“You tell me then,” she demanded. “I have to marry someone according to this stupid thing? Who is it then? Who am I supposed to marry or whatever? You?”
“Yes,” I said quietly, admiring her intelligence.
“Why would I even agree to that?” She scoffed, but her eyes were glassy with what I thought could be tears. “I don’t want to marry anyone.”
“You’re a target because of this blood promise.
We suspect that could be a reason behind the attack on you and your mother.
” She flinched. “Once you and I are legally married, then that should prevent most of the danger, and I will make sure you are protected at all times with security when you go anywhere.” She said nothing, turning back to the window.
I wondered if she was concerned about the safety of those windows.
They were bulletproof, so she didn’t need to worry.
It was one of the first things I did when I bought this place.
“It would be in name only,” I added, watching her closely.
“I’m not interested in marriage either, but I will give you whatever you need.
Protection. Money.” She glanced over her shoulder at me and rolled her eyes, just like my sister would have done, and I was reminded of how young she was. “Anything you want.”
Her eyes narrowed at me and then at her brother before she turned back toward the windows, where I noticed her shoulders rising faster than they should.
Was she having issues with anxiety? A panic attack?
That’s what it looked like to me. Earlier, the signs had all been there as she dug her nails into her palm until crescent-shaped marks formed.
She was a juxtaposition of frailty and strength.
I could see her putting herself back together each time she faltered. It was fascinating.
Maxim paced back and forth near the couch, glaring at me, but he didn’t speak.
We’d gone over this, and while he looked positively feral, he knew that if he pushed me too far, I would back out altogether, and he didn’t want that.
Galena’s best shot, now that she had been exposed, was to have the blood oath fulfilled.
If we went forward with it, then she would be properly protected.
“Anything?” The word was soft. She had begun to trace her fingers against the glass in a heart pattern. “You’ll protect me, and you’ll give me anything, that’s what you said? I could live here? You wouldn’t expect anything?”
“Yes,” I answered quietly. “That’s what I mean. I’ll do all those things. You can live here and I won’t expect anything.” Protecting people was something I was good at.
She turned slowly, eyes burning. “Why do you think this happened now?” She pinned Maxim with a stare. “I’d been safe for so long.”
“We’re not totally sure. We had originally thought that it centered around Angelo’s mother, Carlotta.
Some things had happened with her that triggered some alarm bells.
It was why we checked back on you in the first place.
That’s when we found out about the attack and your mother.
” Maxim’s hands tore up through his hair, making it stand up on end.
“You had already disappeared by the time we looked in on you. I will say that you were very clever hiding,” he conceded.
“Now that everyone else has fulfilled their parts of the bargain, it means that the other parties are protected, but you aren’t.
Other players in this city might think to use that to their advantage to gain a seat at the table with the Commission by trying to marry you by force.
We don’t think that attack was random. You are a crack in the foundation, and someone is trying to exploit that. ”
Her voice was raw. “You think that’s what happened? Who?”
It was interesting to watch the play of emotions across her face.
She could never play poker; everything about her was an open book.
She knew something. Something big. Still, I answered her calmly, “We don’t know yet, but you’ve been pulled into this world now.
There is no going back to your normal life.
” That was the truth. She didn’t have a choice now.
I wouldn’t push her for details about the attack today, but soon she’d have to tell us about the men involved.
We knew the police didn’t have all the details.
She let out a bitter laugh. “No choice. Great.”
I stood up and took a step toward her. “Galena, listen to me. I’m going to protect you. We’re going to protect you. What happened was terrible, but nothing else will happen to you. I won’t allow it.”
She stared at me, searching for something in my face. Whatever it was, she didn’t find it. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Anthakos. The world is a terrible place.”
I smiled, just a little. “Every promise I make, I keep.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So what now? Do I go into hiding? Join the bratva?”
I huffed a breath. “No. Like we talked about. You stay here. We get married.” Seeing her wary look, I added, “In name only for the sake of the oath. Like roommates.” There was no way this would be a marriage like my friends had.
Maxim shot me a dark look, but this was another area where there would be no discussion.
Galena had plenty of trauma, and I was sure she was processing it on her own.
I was no great match for her. “This is a big place. Lots of room.”
“So I’d be under house arrest,” she mumbled.
“Of course not. You’d be under my roof,” I said, crossing my arms. The thought of her here brought me a weird sense of satisfaction. “Which is the safest place you could be. You could live whatever life you wanted.”
She turned away again, jaw clenched. I could almost see the fire raging behind her eyes, which was full of all sorts of emotions that churned just beneath the surface. “You don’t know what I want or know me,” she said softly. “Neither of you does.”
“No,” I agreed. “But we’d like to.” I understood that it felt weird to her that we might care about her at all. We were strangers. I struggled to put things into context for her. There was connection here.
She looked over her shoulder. “Why?”
I considered my answer. I could give her a half-truth. Say it was duty. But she’d see through it. “Because there’s something about you that reminds me of myself. I’d like to give you a chance. This won’t be as bad as you think.”
“You’re my sister. Why wouldn’t I want to know you?” Maxim said fiercely. For Maxim, it was just that simple.
She was quiet for a long time. Then, finally, she whispered, “I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
I nodded slowly. “That’s okay. Let’s find out.”
There was a stubborn firming of her chin. She had apparently come to a decision that I was sure we wouldn’t like very much. “I know what I want. I want revenge.” The words were fierce.
Maxim’s eyes glittered with delight. “We will get that for you, sestra . Of course we will, right, Ilias?”
“We absolutely will,” I agreed. Nothing would make me happier.
The quiet in the brownstone wasn’t peaceful.
It was the heavy kind, soaked in the echo of things you couldn't unsay. After I’d shown Galena upstairs to one of the bedrooms that she would stay in, Maxim and I stood in the silence like two statues carved from guilt.
We’d ruined any fantasy she had about her biological father or the life her mother had before her stepfather.
“She looks like Alexei,” Maxim finally said. He was still staring at the door she’d vanished through. “I feel like an asshole. Does she think I wouldn’t want to know my sister?”
“It’s a lot for her to take in,” I said, pouring him another drink. “And she doesn’t look that much like Alexei. Guy was a prick. She probably looks like her mother.”
He nodded. “I remember her a little. She wasn’t his usual. She was smart.” He snorted. “When she took off, it didn’t surprise me.”
“She didn’t deserve what happened,” I added quietly. “Neither did Galena. She wants revenge, and we need to get it for her. We’ll need to get the rest of the details about the attack so we can find those fuckers.”
Maxim drained his glass and set it down with finality. “I’m down with that plan.”