Chapter 47 Stan
FORTY-SEVEN
STAN
Rory: Why do you want to know about Turgenev and Levin?
Checking our message thread after I showered, I replied:
Me: I’ll tell you later today when I’m back in the city
Seeing that Kitty was still asleep, I let her rest, mostly because I hoped to catch Taube or Ilya alone at the breakfast table.
Something about the pair of them made me think neither slept well.
And I was right.
Burdened souls were never granted eight hours of rest…
There they both sat, despite it barely being six AM, and they changed the subject once they heard my approach.
How did I know?
An assassin and a Russian mobster did not discuss the drapes in the breakfast nook.
Porca troia, did they think I was an idiot?
I slipped into a seat opposite them. “Are you going to call Chad today?”
“Fucking men,” she squawked. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m sick of penises. Consider yourself lucky that Kitty’s taken or I’d be sniffing around her.”
“You’re bi?”
“That is what you take from my statement?”
“What else is there to take from it? I’m not worried you’ll steal her from me. She isn’t sick of my penis yet.”
Ilya cackled and wafted a piece of pineapple he’d speared onto a fork at me. “Touché.”
“Fuck off, Ilya.”
“What did he do? I have a right to know, seeing as it led to that whole mess with calling her while I was torturing Dante.”
The sound of her knife scraping against bone china was overly loud. “A woman should know what she’s sleeping with.”
“Meaning that Chad kept you in the dark about something?”
“Are we really discussing my love life— Oh, my god. This is that thing, isn’t it?”
“What thing?”
“When you get with someone you want everyone else to be happy too.” She gagged. “This is disturbing. Please, tell me about C-L-O and psychological warfare, I beg of you.”
Ilya pinned me with a look. “Yes, I’m curious about the drug too.”
“Taube, you’re doing a really shitty job of being an ally.”
That earned me a sniff. “I think you’ll find I’m brilliant at being an ally. I’m a criminal matchmaker, Stan. That’s what I do best.”
Ilya snorted. “She isn’t wrong.”
“I should offer it as a paid service. You watch them make it into a movie.” She snapped her fingers. “And here I am doing it for free. You should be grateful.”
“For nearly breaking Kitty and me up? Or for discussing something that’s a Valentini secret with a potential enemy?”
“Ha! Ilya’s no enemy.”
“And how do you know that?”
“He used to visit—” Her eyes narrowed as she broke off. “Sneak.”
I smirked. “Used to visit… when?”
Ilya waved his fork. “You can talk freely, Lucinda. He is, as we’ve already ascertained, an ally.”
“Maybe I don’t want him knowing my beeswax, huh?” She grumbled something inaudible. “Yseult Brackton’s mother and mine were best friends as kids and were Pies—”
“What now?” I faltered.
“It’s a sorority.” Ilya took a sip of his coffee. “Pi Beta Epsilon.”
When I nodded in understanding, Taube plucked at a croissant. “We were very close growing up despite the difference in age between us. When Ilya visited his mother during the summers, we also got to know one another.”
“You fucked?”
Taube retched. “Have you seen his face?”
I glanced at the man in confusion. I was straight but fuck, even I knew Ilya could model for GQ.
“She doesn’t like my eyes.” Rather than sound offended, Ilya appeared amused by her disgust. Somehow, I knew that only a very small number of people ever brought that out of him. “Says they’re the eyes of a psychopath, which is ironic when we share this devolution.”
“Be like looking in a mirror.” She shuddered. “Anyway, happy now that you know the ins and outs of my personal life?”
“You told me one thing!”
She flipped me the bird. “More than you deserve.”
My lips quirked. She might be annoying as fuck but, not unlike Ilya, I found her entertaining when she didn’t meddle in my life.
“I had a thought last night—”
“Always dangerous,” Taube inserted.
“—if Sofia had your cuffs,” he continued like she hadn’t spoken. “Then perhaps my mother’s collection holds something of interest.”
“Only trouble being, of course, that she can’t access her shit. Only her son can. Seeing as she’s in a conservatorship with Graham Jr. holding the purse strings…”
“I didn’t need you to convince me to help,” I told them both mildly.
“I believe in incentives.” Ilya picked up another piece of pineapple. “Quite an enticement…?”
“Not really. Do you know how many rubies I’ve looked at since we found out about the Anjou set? I don’t even like them. Plus, there’s no guarantee they’ll be in that collection.”
“Agreed, but it’s likely. My mother’s jewels came from the same source as Sofia’s, after all. My grandfather passed down the position of Krestniy Otets to my uncle—”
“I didn’t know that.”
Taube tsked. “Imagine that. You not knowing something.”
She smirked at my glower, but Ilya continued, “—and ancient royal families obsessed my grandfather when he wasn’t plotting to bring down the USSR. What kind of piece are you looking for? A necklace? Ring?”
“Necklace.”
“Now, how the fuck did you know that?” I snarled at Taube.
“I have a death wish. Duh.”
“You’d better be an ally, Taube, or I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Put me out of my misery? Ha! Please. Do.” She sniffed before taking a sip of coffee. “We’re all friends here, Stan.”
“Until we’re not,” Ilya inserted. “How did you know that?”
Disapproval?
Even stranger, Taube blushed at Ilya’s demand.
“I overheard them talking last night.” She jerked her thumb at me. “Can I help it that my ears are sensitive and their voices carry? You both orgasm really loudly, by the way.”
“A ruby necklace…” Ilya carried on like Taube hadn’t brought up my sex life. “Mother had several. Mostly gaudy, some older than others. Once she’s free from my half-brother’s dominion, I’ll be sure to send you whatever she has in her personal vault.”
“I’d appreciate that.” I kept my tone formal but not altogether hopeful.
By this point, I knew we’d come across the Anjou rubies—it was distinu.
The sound of heels clicking in the hallway gave away another’s presence. When Sofia popped up, her eyes brightened at the sight of us.
“My three favorite saviors.”
Taube crowed, “That’s me. Jesus T. Christ.”
Sofia slipped into a seat at the head of the table. “You blaspheme better than anyone I know, Cin.”
“The clue’s in the name.”
Gradually, Dmitri appeared too, leaving only Kitty in bed. Conversation remained remarkably light among us, but I was under no illusion.
The real puppeteer behind this whole meeting still waited to speak with me.
When, eventually, Sofia, Dmitri and Taube drifted away as I expected, Sofia departing with a warning that she wanted to say goodbye to me before I left so not to shoot off, Ilya and I remained behind.
“My cousin’s generosity is notorious in my family. She was often beaten for it.”
Calmly, I sipped my Americano. “A man who beats his child is no man at all.”
“On this we agree. But a life debt is a curious thing. Gems are no true repayment.”
“I expected nothing when I asked Taube to get involved.”
“See, this I find interesting. A woman you meet on a forum. You choose to protect her while in the throes of grief?” His lips firmed. “You are a strange man, Custanzu.”
“That’s what my haters say,” I mocked.
“You give nothing away.”
“There’s nothing to give. I saw her once with Fyodor Turgenev and it clued me into her identity. I spoke with her repeatedly, came to think of her as a friend.
“That brain of hers should not go to waste. I hope… Dmitri, if they’re dating… will not put a limit on her studies.”
“I’m at a loss as to the status of her relationship with Dmitri too. I thought... well, I always suspected he was the father of her baby, but perhaps not.” At my lifted brows, he asked, “What?”
“He got her pregnant… when? She has a kid?”
“They were both teens and no, she miscarried.”
“Surprised you let him live.”
“She loved him and he was good for her. Until their fathers plotted to separate them, of course. Regardless, Sofia still seeks the cure for her mother’s death.
Not that she is sure of what killed her.
The doctors said cancer. I did not believe that prognosis then and I do not now.
I’m not even sure she does, but she’s an idealist at heart.
If she can stop another daughter’s grief, she will do so. ”
“What do you think it was?”
“The deadliest sickness of all… a husband.”
I grimaced. “Ah.”
“You might feel no debt was owed, but my cousin did not agree. This is how Sofia works.”
“Don’t we all?”
“Perhaps, but she is worse than most. She likes to owe no one anything. In truth, she should have been a medieval market stall holder.”
“She should?”
“Very good at bartering. Better at making trades.”
That evil smile curved his lips again. It glinted in his eyes like light on shattered glass, letting me understand what Taube meant about the man. The face was pretty, but the soul… not so much.
And yeah, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but yeesh.
“You would be a wise man if you were wary of me, but you saved Sofia, Custanzu. You won’t be betrayed by me. You can trust me as we work together moving forward.”
“Why didn’t you save her?”
“He rarely let me be around her. Especially the last few years. Wouldn’t allow us to communicate. As you can imagine, I found this particularly vexing. I love my cousin. It’s one of the reasons I’m loyal to Nikolai Veles.”
“I fail to see the connection.”
“Nikolai has Dmitri’s loyalty and I will forever be grateful for his actions. They saved Sofia from marriage as a young girl. Her pregnancy made her unviable to the perverts my uncle wanted to marry her off to.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Ergo, Nikolai also has my loyalty.”
“You align yourself with him?”
“Once I’m in a position to take power, I will.”
“Even if the Bratva loses more territory to The Forgotten Boys?”