Chapter 26
Elana’s already on the screen when I sit down in my office chair.
“Hey.” She smiles brilliantly. Like she hasn’t been hiding away for the past three months, completely ignoring us.
“Elana.” My irritation at my little sister is no match for the relief that floods me at seeing her.
Her hair is pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head. No tired bags under her eyes or signs of obvious stress.
She’s safe.
“It’s me,” she says. “I know it’s been a little while.”
“A little while,” I bark, then catch myself. That’s an Alexander reaction, to go straight to yelling. “Where are you?”
She laughs. “Like you don’t know?”
Of course I know. We’ve known since she settled down in one place.
“Tell me anyway.” I force a light touch to my tone. One wrong word, too harsh a tone and she’ll be gone again.
“Your spies can tell you.” Her smile falls. “I heard you had to get married.”
“Don’t worry about any of that. When are you coming home?”
“Not yet.” She shakes her head a little. “I have some things to do first. But I’m okay, Kaz. I’m fine.”
“If you’re fine, then come home.”
“I just have to do something first.”
“What? What do you have to do?” I insist, hiding my fists outside the camera shot.
“Kaz.” She exhales hard and leans back away from the screen. “Alexander and Ivan…they hate me. They see me as a traitor.”
“No.” I shake my head emphatically.
She leans into the camera again. “If one of your men were found with a DeAngelo girl, had been having a relationship with her for months behind your back, what would you guys do to him?”
“You’re not one of the men.” My fists tighten. My knuckles might split.
“No. Worse. I’m blood. And I betrayed you.”
“He was using you, Elana.”
She laughs, and it’s haunting. “Yeah, that’s how stupid I was. I thought what we had was real. But he was just using me to get to the Volkov family.”
“Elana.”
“It’s fine.” She waves a hand. “I’m okay. Really. You think he’s the first guy to break my heart?”
“Then why did you run away?”
“Let’s not talk about that. I want to know about your wife. Is she horrible? I mean she’s a DeAngelo, right, so I’m guessing she is.”
My chair creaks as I lean back. “You should come home and meet her.”
“Tony never talked about a sister. Did they hide her in some tower?” She laughs, but this time it’s filled with awkwardness.
“Elana.” I warn. “She’s my wife.”
“Yeah. Because of me.” It’s soft, her voice, and full of guilt.
“No. The trouble with the DeAngelos started way before you. It had nothing to do with you. You were a pawn. Then you were a casualty.” She doesn’t know it, but I’m the one who put the bullet in Tony’s head.
I’d seen him, the disgusting sneer stuck on his face, saw the anguish in my sister’s expression, and I pulled the trigger. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Now, seeing how much she’s tormenting herself over that bastard, I wish I’d taken my time. I could have shot his arm, his leg, a few in his stomach. It takes a while to die from a stomach wound. Hurts like a bitch the entire time.
Yes, I definitely should have shot him in the stomach.
“Tell me about her, Kaz. Is she horrible?” Concern wrinkles her brow.
“She’s nothing like her brothers,” I assure her, fully realizing for the first time since I made Sienna speak those humiliating vows how innocent she was in all of this mess.
“So she’s not a complete monster, just a little one?” Elana teases.
“She’s not a monster at all.” I lean forward again, my jaw tensing. “No more than you are for having us as your brothers.”
“There is a big difference between what you guys do and what—”
“Is there?” I pause. “We put women in cages and sell them to the highest bidders. We move drugs, clean dirty money. We’ve killed, we’ve tortured. Hell, Elana, we have a fucking room specifically for that purpose. We aren’t that different.”
“You’ve never forced a woman into those cages. And you make sure they’re safe. You make sure they’re taken care of. You don’t sell them to be beaten and raped.” Elana’s tone turns ugly. “I saw the pictures of Coraline. Ivan showed me what they did to her.”
“The fact remains. Sienna is no more guilty of her brothers’ sins than you are of ours.”
She looks away from the camera. Tears shimmer in her eyes.
“You like her,” she whispers roughly. “Do you love her?”
“I’m more concerned about you right now.” I soften. She’s not herself.
Elana was carefree, sweet, and funny, and now she’s angry and beaten down.
I want to kill them all over again.
But not just them. I want to go back in time and be more of a brother to her. There were signs that she was seeing someone behind our backs.
Secrets I let her keep instead of making her tell us what was going on.
When Alexander wanted to force her to tell us what was really going on with dropping out of school, I told him to back off.
I gave Elana a comfortable existence. My fear of losing her kept me from being strong for her. From seeing something was wrong.
“I know,” Elana sighs. “Really, I’m okay. I just need to see some things through, then I’ll be back. I promise. I’m not staying away forever.”
“You’re not going to tell me what those things are?”
She laughs, and it’s lighter. “Of course not. Nothing you need to worry about, especially since you have your spies watching me.”
“That’s the second time you’ve said that. Elana, I don’t have anyone watching you. We all agreed to give you space.”
“But you know where I am.”
“Yeah.” I nod. “There’s a tracker in your phone. How have you not found it yet?”
“My phone.” She picks up the device, sending the screen on a whirlwind while she taps. “There it is.”
“Why do you think we’ve sent spies?”
There’s cracking on the other side of the line as she repositions the phone. When her face comes back into view, she wipes her hands up across her forehead, smoothing her hair back.
“I just assumed.” She’s lying.
“Is something going on?”
“Kaz.” Her eyes harden. “Nothing is going on. I’m fine. I just assumed since you didn’t have the Volkov army at my door, you had someone watching me.”
“If something happens, you call right away.” I point at the phone.
“Wow. You just got all big brotherly on me.” Her eyes go wide. “Okay, enough about me. Tell me about being married. Is it as horrible as you thought it would be?”
“I never said being married would be horrible.”
“Are you kidding? You never talked about getting married, and you never saw a woman more than once.”
“I knew I’d have to get married one day. We need more Volkov men in the world to keep you brats tamed.” I force a frown, but she sees right through it.
“You do like her.”
“She’s a pre-school teacher.” I roll my eyes. “Have you ever met a pre-school teacher that you could hate?”
“She’s a pre-school teacher? Why would she do that?”
“I told you, she’s not like her brothers.” The image of the scar on her back pops into my head, and my shoulders tense.
She’s never had anyone to protect her. Everyone who was supposed to failed her. No wonder she did whatever she needed to keep Tommy safe. She knew she was the only one that would.
I want to tell Elana about Tommy, but that would bring us back to talking about Tony. And I’d be just fine never saying his name again.
“Are you going to call Alexander? He’s been worried,” I say when the silence stretches.
“He’s not angry with me?”
“He’s worried. You know him, he’s a blowhard. He might lecture you, you’re used to that. You should call him. Ivan too. Let them know you’re okay.”
She squishes up her lips, like she’s considering it. “Can’t you just tell them we talked?”
“As tempting as it to rub it in their faces that you’ve chosen me as your favorite, not this time. They need to hear it from you.”
“My favorite? No, you’re just the biggest pushover.”
I laugh. She’s not wrong. When it comes to her, there wasn’t anything I’d let her get away with.
I always thought it was because we were closer in age, but it’s something else. She’s always had one foot out the door because of not being our full sister—a fact none of us gave a fuck about.
“Call your brothers, Elana.” I give her the sternest expression I can muster without falling into laughter again. Which only makes her laugh harder.
“Okay, Okay. I’ll call them.”
“And call me again, too, in a few days…tomorrow. Whenever, but don’t go dark on us, you got it? Or I will send the Volkov army after you.”
The smile falls away. She’s more somber.
“I’ll keep in touch.”
“If you get into trouble, or something happens, who do you call?”
“Artem?” She says, but her eyes aren’t directed at me anymore.
“What?” I lean into the screen, as though I’ll be able to see through it at what she’s looking at.
She refocuses with a shake of her head. “Nothing. I thought—never mind. It’s late, and I’m tired. I’ll call you in a few days, I promise.”
“Okay. And no more ignoring our calls and texts.”
“All right. Enough big brother stuff. I’m going to bed.”
“Call Alexander—”
“Good night, Kaz.” She waves a hand in front of the camera, then ends the call before I can finish giving my order.
I close the laptop and sink back in my chair.
She’s all right.
On my way out the door, back to my room where my naked wife is surely asleep by now, I shoot a quick text.
Where the fuck are you?