Chapter 45 Stan
FORTY-FIVE
STAN
“What’s in the box?” Kitty inquired, drawing my attention away from a discussion with Ilya and Dmitri about Yuri Dubrov.
With so many killers around the table, every nerve ending in my body should have been on high alert. Instead, I felt like I was among friends.
A battered case had appeared in front of Sofia. Long but wide and thin, the varnished wood held as many scratches as it did figures in the grain. I half-expected it to house a pair of antique flintlocks.
Eyes gleaming, Sofia didn’t answer verbally, just pushed it across the shiny mahogany surface. “We repay our debts in the Dushenka household.”
“Dushenka?” Kitty asked.
“My mother’s line. The only one I willingly embrace. Open it, Stan. You’ll like it.”
I arched a brow at the cloak and daggers then snagged the box and lifted the latch.
Again, expecting an antique gun, what I came across was two gleaming ruby-studded cuffs.
I gaped at them.
Frozen in place.
My heart stalling.
“Has he had a seizure?” Taube muttered.
“I think he’s happy,” Sofia mumbled back.
“When a man finds his legacy at the dinner table, he’s entitled to take a moment,” Ilya drawled lazily.
“I brought them over from my private collection,” Sofia told me with a soft smile. “Their disappearance is one of the reasons why Father is peeved about the circumstances of my death.”
Ilya nodded. “The Krestniy Otets believes the bomb was a distraction for the ‘heist’ going on inside.”
“Yes,” she chirped with a happy wiggle in her seat. “I cleared out the safe and brought everything with me. It was only when I had the contents valued—”
“Yes, because before that, you were using them to make trades!”
Sofia ignored Taube. “—that I was asked from the fence interested in purchasing them if I knew what they were. I think she might work for you? A woman called Samantha Ravenshaw.” She cleared her throat when I remained silent. “Stan? Are you okay?”
My fingers itched to stroke the lines of the hideous bracelets, but I refrained. Barely. Instead, I grabbed Kitty’s hand. “These are a gift?”
She squeezed my fingers with her own, sensing how important this was to me.
Hell, us.
She was a part of my family now.
Sofia beamed. “They’re what you seek? It isn’t that I didn’t trust Samantha to perform such a transaction, but… I would never have accepted money from you. Not after what you did for me.”
Her innocent pleasure didn’t seem naive. Couldn’t have been. Sofia possessed the mind of a young Marie Curie if given the appropriate lab. She was no ingenue with politics. And with Dmitri sitting at her side…
“You’ve no idea what you’ve given me, have you?”
If she had, they wouldn’t be a gift.
“Samantha said something about a queen and blood curses. I thought she was joking at first,” she admitted.
“You’re a scientist. A man literally of science.
Curses don’t…” Her words waned when I didn’t rush to agree with her.
“…but then I realized Samantha was being deadly serious. I told her of our acquaintance but that we’d never discussed antique jewelry and that I’d talk to you alone instead. ”
“Remind me to kill her,” I bit off. “She’s supposed to be working for us! What the hell is she doing, giving a backstory?”
“Probably wanted to increase her commission,” Ilya said dryly.
“Well, at least she wasn’t lying about your ties. I’d have hated for Dmitri to have to kill her.
“Anyway, I finally settled in Poughkeepsie and Maxim informed Dmitri that he’d be hosting a Summit, so Dima passed my message along to you.” She beamed again. “Are you happy with them?”
“I’d kiss the ground you walk on, Sony, but I doubt Kitty would approve.”
Kitty half-purred, “Damn straight I wouldn’t.”
“You like them, then?” Sofia pestered.
I shook my head. “They’re monstrosities.” A surprised laugh escaped her. “But fuck if they’re not two of the best monstrosities I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Even Taube laughed, but I wasn’t joking.
A part of me wanted to stride out of the room, slide them onto Kitty’s wrists, and fuck her with them on. Another wanted to contact Luc and Rory, to tell them we’d stumbled upon one of our lost treasures by chance.
Hell, I could even shove their faces in the fact that I’d privately hired Taube to save the daughter of a sworn enemy and it had resulted in this windfall…
I did neither.
I kept the box open until the conversation drew to a natural conclusion and we were guided to our suites by Sofia, playing the hostess.
With the case tucked under my arm, how I was about to fuck my princess while she wore the rubies of my bloodline dominated my thoughts.
Was it any wonder I rocked a semi?