Vadim
Valentin joined us now that most of the security threats had been eliminated. He tapped his cards on the table before he spoke.
“Was there any substance to Sergei’s claim?” he asked.
“Shouldn’t you know? You’re the accountant,” Konstantin said, rolling his eyes.
I shook my head.
“Papa paid him out of his personal wealth. Without that generosity Sergei would never have entered the electricity market, let alone built a business from it,” I said, checking my phone.
“Besides, it was before my time,” Valentin said, tossing a piece of popcorn at Konstantin’s head. “How old do you think I am?”
“I heard you’re not looking at other women these days,” Ruslan drawled.
My eyes flicked up from my cards.
“Bogdan.” I reached for my cigar. “Shoot him between the eyes if he mentions women again.”
Bogdan nodded from his position by the door with the serene expression of a man who had been given clearer instructions.
“What did I miss?” Valentin asked, looking between us.
Konstantin glanced at me. I looked back at him. The silent dare delivered and received.
He sighed.
“I’ll message you later.”
Mudak.
“I miss Tau’s silent glares,” Ruslan said, with the timing of a man who understood exactly when to change a subject. “When is he back?”
I shrugged and checked my phone again.
She was back to ignoring my messages.
“Are you waiting on someone to get back to you?” my brother asked, with the particular innocence of a man who knew exactly what he was doing.
“Lev should have wanked you straight down the shower drain,” I said, without looking up.
“I can see how contentious these brotherly relationships can get,” Konstantin replied, as though he were commenting on the weather.
Ruslan sighed.
“How are we ever going to find your cousin if Sergei won’t talk?”
“I have a hacker working on it,” I said.
Well. Valentin had the hacker on the case.
I had to hold an immense amount of information on everyone and for the hacker’s protection no one could know their link to Valentin.
I checked my phone again.
Nothing.
She’d remember all my rules again soon enough.
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I woke to a banging headache and groaned when I sat up.
Iskra’s room. Her bed. Her scent around me.
I didn’t remember getting home. I didn’t remember coming here.
I glanced around. She wasn’t in the room.
Glasses and beer bottles on the nightstand. My clothes rumpled on the floor beside the bed. An empty vodka bottle lying on its side.
Where was she?
I glared at the bathroom. Door open. No sound.
“Bogdan,” I shouted, and immediately regretted it.
The door opened and he appeared.
“What happened last night?”
His eyes moved over the room—the glasses, the bottles, the clothes—with the measured assessment of a man cataloguing the evidence before he answered.
“You finished poker and came home, Pakhan,” he said, with a nod that suggested he was editing.
I nodded as though it was all coming back to me and waved him out. The door closed.
I sat there racking my brain.
Then—a fragment.
Iskra laughing.
I frowned and closed my eyes.
She handed me a glass.
We drank together.
Then nothing.
I gathered my things and went back to my room.
My gut told me something was wrong, but my pride refused to let me question it any further. People around me were always gossiping.
And I wasn't about to add fuel to the fire.
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By the time I was showered and dressed Iskra had left to run some errands. I had a quick breakfast and left for work, still pondering how she had managed to get me so drunk that I passed out. That had never happened before.
I pulled my phone out and stared blankly at it as the screen lit up.
My black geometrical wallpaper was gone.
Iskra had replaced it with a selfie.
A selfie of me passed out on her bed.
My finger stuck in a nostril.
While she lay draped on one side holding the phone up. I placed two fingers on the screen and zoomed in on her face. Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief—and that was the first genuine smile I had seen since—
I stared ahead at the road before glancing down again. I couldn’t remember the last time she had been happy.
Or when I cared.
All the women I fucked. I didn't remember them or their names. Even the ones that I considered for childbearing. There was nothing memorable about them.
Iskra was somehow more than others.
I stared at the picture a beat longer before I put my phone away, forgetting all about messaging her and demanding to know what took place last night.
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When I checked my schedule there were only two meetings set for the day. The quiet day left me room to think.
Instinct told me I needed to impregnate Iskra soon. I rubbed the back of the gold band on my finger.
In a moment of weakness I thought of my mother. She had found someone else and my father had punished her for it. He was not a lovable man in his lifetime.
He had given Sergei his dues. That business was concluded. The only motivation to remove my entire family was power and greed.
I glanced at the time.
Hours before my first meeting.
I messaged Tikhon to have the car ready.
It was time to revisit my uncle.
There was family history I needed to uncover.