Chapter 26
VAL
“I thought we had an arrangement.”
I turn to face my brother as he steps into his home study, where his people escorted me earlier.
Yes, this is the current state of coming to see my only flesh and blood: his “people” having me wait in a secure room of his home to await The Marquis “when he becomes available”.
When he becomes available.
“I’m his brOTHER, motherfuckers,” I want to scream into their fucking faces. “Who the fuck are YOU?”
To say nothing of the fact that he summoned me here. It’s not like I just showed up on his doorstep looking to shoot the shit while he’s working.
“Oh, wow, Val,” I say sarcastically. “Shit, I am so sorry that I kept you waiting—and locked up—in my office for half an hour, even though it was me who gave you a specific time to drop by. I know your time is valuable, and I apologize for wasting that time. How can I make it up to you?”
Vaughn says nothing as he stands in the doorway to the opulent office, wearing a three-piece suit like he’s just come back from meeting the King of fucking England.
“That’s your line,” I mutter. “That’s what you’re supposed to say now.”
His brow furrows slightly as his nostrils flare.
“You smoked in here.”
It’s an observation, not a question. I really don’t care.
“Sure did.”
He looks right at me. “You know I’d prefer if you did that outside.”
I roll my eyes. “Then next time, let me go outside, instead of keeping me locked in your goddamn study like an unruly fucking puppy.” I glare at him. “I will piss on the rug next time, FYI.”
Vaughn sighs as he steps into the room and closes the door behind him.
“My people have strict protocols that they follow.”
He walks over to one of the windows and opens it.
No, I didn’t crack one when I was smoking in here. Yes, that was on purpose. I’m a petty fucker.
“Your people need to lighten the fuck up,” I mutter. “Also, do they even know who I am?”
He glances at me. “Of course.”
“You sure? Because they always treat me like the weird cousin no one wants to sit next to at family dinner.”
“Val, we look virtually identical,” Vaughn sighs as he sits at his desk. “Even if they weren’t aware you are my brother—which they are—it would be obvious.”
I shrug. “Whatever. Anyway, what were you saying?”
I know what he was saying, and why he was saying it. I’m just…stalling.
Vaughn levels a look at me as I sit in one of the chairs across the desk from him. “I thought we had an arrangement,” he enunciates slowly.
“What arrangement would that be?”
He rolls his eyes. “Are we really going to do this?” When I say nothing, he inhales slowly and drums his fingertips on the edge of his desk. “A heads up would have been nice, is all.”
Dasha. He’s talking about Dasha, and her disappearing act from the Bratva world along with that tall, sexy motherfucker Maks.
My relationship with Vaughn is…complicated. On the one hand, he’s my brother, my only living family. And even if I might have seriously conflicted thoughts about him leaving me there in that warehouse twenty years ago before he escaped with the Syndicate, I know he had his reasons.
He wanted something more for me.
I don’t blame the horrors that came later, with foster care and all that, on him. He saw the chance to hit the reset button on my life, and took it.
On the other hand, though, Vaughn is a lot more than just my brother. He’s “The Marquis”, which is, I've come to realize, much more than just a frilly title. In the Obsidian Syndicate, that title makes him a god-king, and with that comes insane power and responsibility.
But since we’ve reconnected, I’ve more and more come to realize that as well as being my brother and The Marquis, Vaughn doesn’t view the world or people the way most people do. To him, the world is a chessboard, and every single person in it is a potential pawn for him to utilize as he sees fit.
Even me.
Yes, we're brothers. But it’s become very clear to me that Vaughn has no issue using the fact that we are brothers to manipulate me.
Part of it is my steadfast refusal to accept handouts from anyone.
When Vaughn wanted to “gift” me the swanky new apartment and give me money so I wasn’t drowning in bills, I only took them on the condition that I’d “work” for him.
That’s how I ended up babysitting Claudia Torvallés at Vaughn’s little dinner party that first night I ran into Roman.
But more recently, he asked me to plant a spy device on Dasha Lukashova.
…And I didn’t do that.
This is probably why Vaughn has called me here, has kept me locked in a room for half an hour, and is looking at me like this right now. It's definitely why he opened with “I thought we had an arrangement.”
Because we did, and I didn’t keep my end of the bargain.
“Where is she, Val.”
I lift my shoulders. “Honestly? No idea.”
He sighs heavily. “You knew she was going to run.”
When I say nothing, Vaughn’s brow knits darkly, his mouth thinning.
“I don’t think it was that big an ask, Val,” he growls. “I simply wanted to be able to track Ms. Luka—”
“Not everyone is a piece on your chess board, Vaughn,” I growl.
“Agree to disagree.”
I stare at him. “Do you hear yourself?”
He exhales. “Knowing Dasha’s whereabouts would be extremely valuable right now.”
“She’s a person, Vaughn. Not a fucking pawn,” I spit back. “She had someone else and didn’t want to marry someone that her father told her to, so she found a way to run—”
“Financed by her ex-fiancé,” Vaughn says dryly. “What are the odds?”
Shit.
I keep my expression neutral but Vaughn smiles coldly at me anyway.
“Of course I know Roman paid her. Do I look like the head of some fucking Bratva family, who deal with everything using brute force? Or the Mafia, who think smartphones are cutting edge technology?” His brow furrows deeply.
“No, Val, I am the fucking Obsidian Syndicate. I see everything, and know everything, and—”
“You don’t know where Dasha is.”
He grits his teeth and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Your refusal to play a game you signed up for,” he growls quietly, “is just a inconvenience.”
I frown. “Meaning?”
“Meaning Dasha Lukashova was just one way to sway Cosimo’s allegiances.” He shrugs. “The other way is simply…removing the competition for them.”
My jaw tenses. “You mean going to war with the Nikitin family?”
Vaughn makes a face. “War is so messy and chaotic. It’s a blunt instrument: a finely honed blade usually works so much better.”
I frown as he stands from the desk and walks over to the window. What the fuck is he talking about?
“You know, at first, I was worried that the machinations I set in place weren’t panning out,” he ruminates.
My brow knits “What?”
“When Ms. Nikitin never showed up that night.”
My brother smirks. “You'd think that Club Venom, with their important underworld clientele, would have better cybersecurity for their app.”
It hits me like a plunge into ice water, sucking the air from my lungs. I stare at him, my pulse thudding as I slowly get to my feet.
“Did you fucking set me up?” I croak, my eyes narrowed to deadly slits.
Vaughn shrugs. “I merely…guided an inevitability. You were on that app looking for something—”
“Something private, you fuck!” I hiss.
Vaughn doesn’t blink. “And so was she.”
I’m across the floor and on him in seconds. Vaughn doesn’t even fight back when I grab him by the neck and slam him up against the bookcase.
“You were going to set me up to do that with my friend?!” I roar in his face. “Evelina Nikitin is a like a fucking sister to me, you fuck—!”
“But you didn’t,” Vaughn growls. “Fuck, that is.”
I stare at him, fury flooding my veins. “No, but only because she bailed!!” I yell, disgust surging through me. “Exactly what the fuck was your plan?! For me to screw my friend?! Then what?!”
“The human need for companionship and intimacy comes before so many other things, Val,” he says flatly. “You were both looking for that. I simply connected the dots.”
“And if she had shown up that night?!” I bark. “And I'd fucked her?! Then I’d be—what? Your little Trojan Horse into the Nikitin family so that you could destroy them from the inside out?”
“My my my. It would appear that we truly are brothers after all.”
“Fuck. You,” I snap, yanking my hands off him and whirling. I shove my fingers through my hair as I cross the room, my breath coming quickly.
“I thought when she didn't show up that night,” Vaughn says meditatively, “that I’d have to find another way into the Nikitin family.”
My heart stills and an icy coldness creeps down my spine as I slowly turn to look at him.
“But it appears,” he says quietly, “that I’ve found a way in anyway.”
My stomach drops through the floor.
Vaughn sighs deeply as he walks back to his desk and sits behind it. “I know about you and Roman, Val.”
I slowly start to shake my head. “Not fucking happening,” I hiss.
He smiles. “I haven’t even asked yet.”
“But you’re going to,” I growl. “The answer is no. I’m not going to pull some secret spy, Trojan Horse shit to get you inside that family via Roman. Not fucking happening.”
Vaughn arches a brow. “Why not?”
“Because I’m not like you!” I roar.
He chuckles quietly. “Of course you are. We’re brothers.”
“Maybe so, but our lives have been vastly different. You chose this,” I snap, looking around the room. “I chose art.”
My brother eyes me. “You also chose the new bike, the money, the glamorous loft apartment…”
I bark a cold laugh. “So those were your way of buying me?”
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be so naive, Val.”
“Fuck this.”
I pull out my wallet and slam the cash inside onto his desk along with the keys to the loft before I plant my fists and lean right into his space.
“Take them back,” I growl. “I don’t want them. I’m not anyone’s goddamn puppet, understand?”
Vaughn sighs, glancing at the cash and keys and then dragging his gaze up to my face. “Keep them,” he shrugs.
“No.”
“And if I call them gifts? “
I shudder.
It’s wild that I didn’t see this before.
I mean, yes, I knew Vaughn was clearly manipulative, and power hungry, and calculating.
But I’m seeing now, for the first time, the full extent of his psychopathic nature.
How deep he’s willing to go. How dark. How insidious he’s prepared to be with his methods to get what he wants.
I didn’t see it before because I wanted a family.
And he fucking knew it.
My eyes narrow on my brother.
“You want me to use Roman to get to his father.”
He shrugs. “Well, if we're being blunt—”
“You’re shit out of luck,” I snarl. “He and I are done.”
“What a pity,” he says dryly.
“Wow. I can feel the sincerity all the way over here.”
Vaughn exhales and sits back in his chair. For a few seconds, we just stare at each other, him impassive, me furious.
Finally, he speaks. “I know you think I’m a monster,” he murmurs.
I want that to be true, but it isn’t, not really.
“I don’t think that,” I growl. “I love you. You’re my fucking brother. But…fuck, Vaughn,” I hiss, shaking my head. “You make it hard sometimes.”
“You can love me and still think I’m a monster.”
I smirk. “Monster might be too strong a word.”
His eyes lock with mine. “It might be more apt than you think.”
We sit there in silence for another minute, just looking at each other.
Finally, my brother takes a slow breath. “I was molded by the Syndicate. It…” He shakes his head. “It just clicked with me, all of it. I was born to lead this empire, Val.”
“He says, stroking his evil villain mustache, sitting on his dark throne,” I mutter.
Vaughn smirks and looks away. “I’m trying, Val. I want you in my life. I want to be in your life. But the Syndicate…”
“Comes first?” I joke.
My brother doesn’t even crack a smile. “Well—yes,” he says, shrugging. “I do wish there was a way for you not to take that so personally.”
“I’ll try,” I say tightly.
He dips his chin, then steeples his fingers on the desk. “Do you really not know where Dasha Lukashova is?”
“Not a clue, and glad for it,” I mutter.
He nods and looks away. “I will get what I want when it comes to Cosimo Sangrini, Val, no matter who else might be trying to curry his favor. You can either help me with that, or I can use what I know—”
He grunts as I lunge across the desk and grab him by the collar.
“I’m going to say this as simply as I fucking can,” I snarl.
“One, this is my fucking life. Two, it’s over with Roman.
And three, and you’d better be fucking listening to this one…
” My eyes narrow. “If you ever, and I mean fucking ever, try and exploit anything about that motherfucker, his life, or his preferences in any way, shape or form…”
Black fire burns in my eyes as I look right at my brother.
“I’ll burn your fucking empire to the ground. Is that clear?”
Vaughn doesn’t respond right away. We just stay frozen, glaring at each other. Then slowly, his lips curl slightly at the corners.
“Crystal,” he murmurs. His brows slowly knit, all traces of his cutthroat demeanor of a second ago vanishing. “For the record, Val?” he says quietly. “I’m sorry it’s over.”
“I’m sure,” I mutter dryly. “Since it fucks with your plans of world domin—”
“I meant I’m sorry it’s over because you’re my brother,” he murmurs.
My hand drops from his collar. “It’s fine,” I shrug. “I’m over it.”
Vaughn’s mouth curls a little more as he eyes me. “Judging from that outburst?” He smirks. “Somehow, I doubt it.”