Chapter 29
Kasimir~
While I didn’t answer to my sister-in-law, it wasn’t often that she summoned me, and when she had insisted that it was business, I’d found myself curious since she did her best to stay out of anything that had to do with the bratva.
So, with Viktor off doing whatever it was that my father needed him to do, Aurora greeted me at the door, and though still beautiful, there were faint shadows underneath her eyes, and I was sure that they were driving my brother crazy.
“You need to get more rest,” I said as I walked into the house, then bent down to give her a kiss on her cheek.
“Say that around Viktor, and I will gut you where you stand,” she threatened, making me grin.
“Then get some more sleep, and everything will be fine,” I retorted.
Aurora just rolled her eyes as she motioned me to follow her to her office, which I gladly did.
While she shouldn’t be working on anything at all, she had summoned me for a reason, and whether she liked it or not, I was going to mention the circles under her eyes to my brother.
If she wasn’t going to take care of herself on her own, then it was up to the rest of us to make sure that she did.
Once we got to her office, she sat down behind her desk, and when she let out a quiet sigh, I couldn’t stop myself. “I’m telling on you.”
“I never expected you not to,” she drawled out.
“Well, just so we’re clear,” I grinned.
Ignoring that, she said, “When I asked you how the auction went, you failed to mention how Zoya Orlova ended up as an option when all the girls had been vetted weeks before. Why is that?”
“It slipped my mind?” I posed, still grinning.
Aurora arched a brow. “You are aware that I know how to shoot a gun, right?”
Fairly certain that she wasn’t going to shoot me, I asked, “Is this the part where you tell me that Zoya is too good for me?”
She quickly waved that concern away. “Your love life is none of my business, Kasimir. As long as my word is still being honored and no harm is coming to her, I don’t care if you guys go on to get married and have a million little Korolevs.”
“I was thinking more like four, but only because I can’t see a million being a possibility,” I quipped.
“Kasimir, focus,” she drawled out. “I want to know how Zoya was able to take Montana Hughes’ place.”
Knowing that the auction was something that Aurora felt very particular about, I finally answered her.
“According to Zoya, one of the girls convinced her to take Montana’s spot once it was apparent that Montana wasn’t going to be able to make it.
Zoya and Montana looked enough alike for Zoya to have been able to use her ID. ”
“Who’s the friend?”
“She wouldn’t tell me because she didn’t want to get the friend in trouble, but after doing some digging of my own, I narrowed it down to Marcelle Jensen,” I told her.
“She works with Zoya at Ruby’s, and since all Zoya does is work, I can’t see where she’d become friends with any of the other girls. ”
Aurora leaned back in her seat, and I could see her brain working as her eyes darted around the room, probably trying to squash her homicidal tendencies.
Not for nothing, she was pretty vicious when she wasn’t being plagued by hormones, so I could only imagine how hard it was for her to control her trigger finger right now.
“Well, despite you finding your future bride in this situation and all, I can’t let this slide,” she finally said. “I’ll need to question Zoya and find out if it really was Marcelle Jensen who helped get her into the auction. I will not have this endeavor compromised for any reason.”
“I can understand that,” I remarked, giving her a terse nod.
Eyeing me, she said, “You’re also going to have to pay Zoya the three-hundred-thousand dollars that you owe her.”
“That’s rather pointless, don’t you think? She’s moving in with me tomorrow, and I plan on spending Monday adding her to my credit cards and my personal bank accounts.”
“Which is all good and well, but that money is hers, Kasimir,” Aurora countered. “No matter where you guys go from here, she was promised money for services rendered from the auction, and I will not have it be said that we’re not honoring our commitments.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a pain in the ass?”
“Your brother, almost every morning,” she retorted.
I grinned as I leaned back in my seat. “Well, he’s not wrong.”
Shooting me a look, she said, “Just make it right, Kasimir.”
“The woman is going to have access to millions of dollars within the next few days, who cares about three-hundred-thousand dollars?” I snorted.
“I care,” she shot back. “I’m already going to have to send a message once I confirm who was behind helping Zoya get into the auction, Kasimir. The last thing that I need is for it to get out that Zoya didn’t get paid, either.”
“You’re killing me,” I sighed. “But fine, I’ll pay her tomorrow.”
“Cash, Kasimir,” she ordered pointedly.
I smiled again. “Cash.”
“Thank you,” she replied firmly but sincerely.
After a few seconds, I said, “You really look like you need to get some rest.”
“See, I fucking told you.”
I turned to see my brother standing in the doorway of Aurora’s office, and he looked pissed, which only made me smile wider.
Viktor was too serious in life, and so I loved riling him up when I could.
Granted, he wasn’t one to fuck with when it came to his wife, but still.
We lived a dark life, so I needed to get my laughs where I could.
“I am not going to spend the next two months laid up in bed, Viktor,” she told him. “I’m home, and I’m already in my goddamn pajamas...what more do you want from me?”
“I want you to rest,” he answered unreasonably. “I want you to get rid of those damn circles under your eyes.”
“Well, hate to break it to you, but creating a whole other human being can take a lot out of a woman,” she replied sarcastically. “As long as the doctor says that my labs are fine, you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
“You’d like to think so,” Viktor threatened as he made his way into her office. “Don’t make me lock you in our bedroom, because I will.”
Aurora just snorted. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Okay, this sounds a lot like foreplay happening here, and that’s not anything that I need to be a part of,” I quipped as I stood up to greet my brother.
“What are you doing here anyway?” he asked, though he patted my back after I’d done the same to him.
“Your wife summoned me like a servant just waiting to grant his queen’s every wish,” I answered cheekily.
“You’re such a strange bird, Kasimir,” Aurora remarked, but you could hear the smile in her tone.
I just winked at her before telling Viktor what I was doing here. “She wanted to know why I didn’t tell her about Zoya sneaking her way into the auction.”
Shooting Aurora a look, he said, “So, you’re working.”
“I was having a conversation with my brother-in-law,” she countered, playing semantics. “Quality time, if you will.”
Viktor shook his head as he walked over to his wife, and then I watched as he leaned down to place a kiss on the top of her head, and if our enemies could only see us now. It was plain as day that Viktor Korolev finally had a weakness, but he was lucky that Aurora was just as deadly as he was.
“You’re driving me in-fucking-sane, baby,” he told her, meaning every word.
“Well, now that you’re in trouble with your husband, I think it’s time for me to leave,” I grinned. “My work here is done.”
“Just pay Zoya her money and let her know that I want to speak with her,” Aurora replied. “She might feel more comfortable speaking to me about her friend.”
That got a laugh out of me. “Only because she doesn’t know the real you. If she did, she’d stay far, far away from you.”
“If she can handle you, then she should definitely have no problem dealing with me,” she retorted.
“Who said that she’s handling me?” I teased.
“That’s enough,” Viktor announced. “Get out, so that I can get my wife back to bed.”
Now that I was finally in love, I didn’t blame the man one bit for kicking me out.