Chapter 27 #2
Indigo narrowed her eyes at my father and took her hands back from his. “That’s a big ask. We haven’t done any trust falls or icebreakers, and you just expect me to trust you? Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to say the ‘T’ word too soon in a new relationship? It makes you look needy…or suspicious.”
“Iisus Khristos, you sound like your aunt Natalya,” my father said with a soft chuckle. “Trust me in public, and you can question me all you like in private, dorogoya. The Petrovs are a united front, always. Deal?”
My father extended his hand to shake hers, but Indi swatted it aside and offered up her pinky instead. “You got yourself a deal…if you throw in the chair.”
My father, unused to Indigo’s antics, blinked at her twice before saying, “The chair?”
Indigo jutted her chin over to the plush, high-backed leather office chair she’d been sitting in.
“It swivels, and I like the little lumbar support pillow thingy. I want to spin in it and make my butt dent in the cushion so the chair is beholden only to my ass. So I’ll trade you my outward trust and private inquiries for one of your rich people's office chairs. Deal?” She looked at me.
“I’ll throw in a mostly sincere apology for punching the Knob Lord over there in the face,” she murmured at my dad in a low voice, like I wasn’t standing three feet away and able to hear her.
“Deal,” Mikhail said, amusement dancing in his eyes. They shook pinkies, and Indigo turned to me with a fake plastic smile. “Riordan, I’m soooo sorry I had to punch you in the face. My thoughts and prayers are with you in this difficult time.”
I raised an eyebrow at the fake-ass apology. “Knob Lord?” I asked.
Indi shrugged at me as she walked over to her new chair. “Yeah, because of your knobbly giraffe knees. It won as your new nickname in the bracket Lennon and I came up with.” She settled into her seat with a purr of contentment and ran a hand appreciatively over one of the armrests.
“Wait,” I questioned, “you made a bracket? What the fuck, Indi?”
Indigo hunched her shoulders defensively and whined.
“Well, there were some good contenders in the running! We couldn’t decide unanimously, so we decided to throw together a bracket and let people vote.
The masses have spoken, Knob Lord. Wanna give me a push upstairs, and we can make Ivan help me get my new chair into Sheila? ”
My father was trying, unconvincingly, to smother a laugh at my expense, but I was relieved that Indigo seemed to be feeling better, so his betrayal didn’t sting. I moved to stand behind her prize so I could wheel Indigo to the elevator.
“I feel like I’m going to regret this, but I’m going to need to know exactly who voted in this bracket and what the other nickname contenders were, lisichka.”
Indigo stifled a snicker as I wheeled her to the door held open by my father, whose face had suddenly gone serious again.
He stopped us with his palm at the threshold.
“Before you go, I need to make one more thing clear.” My father paused, seeming to search for the right words to say, something I’d rarely, if ever, seen happen.
“It goes without saying that Roark Callahan is a liar. However, I feel the need to ensure you understand. You may be new to this family, but you are highly valued, and that value is not contingent on what you can provide my bratva.” Mikhail tilted Indi’s head up so that their eyes could meet.
She’d find only sincerity in their depths, and I knew this because the same sentiment was echoed in mine.
“Don’t allow him to convince you that he’s made you less.
You’re more than he could ever hope to be.
If anyone disagrees, feel free to direct them my way. I can be a very persuasive man.”
I hated the sorrowful look that haunted my cousin’s eyes.
Her bottom lip trembled, and that tremble ignited something within me.
I wanted to hug her with one arm and fucking break Roark Callahan’s jaw with the other.
I hadn’t brought up the trauma bomb that Roark dropped because I didn’t want to upset Indigo more than she already had been, but my father was right to clear the air and give her the reassurance she needed.
“You will not be forced to marry against your will, and no one will reproach you if you do not have children. You are free to live your life however you wish. That being said, if you want to ditch the broody biker, I can set you up with a Russian upgrade.” He winked at my cousin, who gave him a watery smile in thanks for lightening the mood.
My father stepped aside as Indigo sniffed and sat up straighter in her chair and whispered something that sounded like “I’m a bad bitch, not a sad bitch.
” She cleared her throat. “Mush, Knob Lord, mush!” The sound of my father’s chuckle was cut off when the elevator doors slid open, and I backed Indigo’s chair into the lift.
“Seriously, lisichka, Knob Lord? You cannot let Ivan hear you say that, or I’ll never, ever hear the end of it.
” She snickered to herself and refused to tell me what the other names on the bracket had been.
I wheeled her to the penthouse door, which was opened by Yuri.
We found Ivan and Lennon sitting in the living room.
“What up, Knob Lord,” Ivan said, followed by a chorus of cackles from the girls. Motherfucker.