Chapter 26
“Are you fucking shitting me?!”
I’m not a Buddhist monk. I’m not devoid of pride. When Eilish’s friends and family pile out of the fleet of armored Range Rovers I sent to bring them to the airport, I allow myself a smug smile when Calliope gawks at the private plane sitting on the runaway.
My plane.
Behind her, Ares, Neve, and Eilish herself step out of the same car, looking equally as shocked at the size of the jet.
So do Hades, Elsa, Nora, and Galina when they get out of the next vehicle.
Kratos and Dimitra Drakos, who are taking the slots I reserved for Cillian and Una, who it turns out aren’t able to make it, step out of the third car along with an extremely reluctantly impressed looking Castle.
There are private planes, and then there are private planes .
I know for a fact that both the Drakos and Kildare families have private jets.
But I’m certain their planes could fit inside the massive slate-black Boeing Business Jet 747-8i with “Ironclad Capital” written across the fuselage in elegant gold lettering.
It’s also not lost on me that this is the first time any of them are meeting me as Eilish’s…well, whatever-it-is she’s calling me.
In other words, it’s the first time they’re meeting me as not just the head of the Reznikov Bratva. The enemy. Just like it’s not lost on me that the last time I was face to face with Ares, Hades, Kratos, and Castle, my men were leveling guns at them.
Neve breaks the tension first, walking right over to where I’m standing with a polite but hard look on her face.
“Thanks for the invite.”
I nod. “Of course.” Then I frown in surprise when she steps right up to me, her eyes unflinchingly piercing straight into mine.
“Before Castle or Ares or anybody else comes over here and tries to scare you about not hurting Eilish, you should know one thing.”
“And that is?”
She smiles icily as she leans close, beckoning with her finger for me to lower my ear to her.
“ I’ll be the scariest motherfucker in the room if you ever hurt my sister .”
I nod, my lips curling as she pulls away. “I have zero doubts about that.”
Neve smiles a little less frostily and pats my arm. “Good. Then we’ll get along great.”
I chuckle as she slips back to the crowd of people staring at my plane. Ares immediately takes his wife’s place in front of me.
“I’d like to believe I can trust you, Gavan.”
I lift a shoulder. “Believe whatever you like. If I was going to come after your family or your empire, I probably would have done so already, don’t you think?”
His brow furrows. “Didn’t they teach you at business school that cockiness and smugness aren’t good negotiating tools?”
“I’m not negotiating, and I didn’t go to business school.”
A smirk plays around the corners of his mouth. “Okay then, how about this: you seem to make my sister-in-law happy, and I’m choosing to believe that means I can trust you. Also, I met your father once, in London.”
I blink in surprise. “I didn’t know that.”
He nods. “Vadim was an honorable man. I liked him, and he seemed to have the respect of everyone else in the room when we were introduced. I’d like to think that he raised you to be the same.”
Ares puts out his hand. I shake it firmly, and he grins.
“Does this mean I can get on that sick plane now?”
I chuckle. “Be my guest.”
Kratos, the giant among the Drakos brothers, walks his grandmother over, who gives me a sharp arch of her brow.
“I, too, would like to believe that you are a man we can all trust.”
She clears her throat, offering me a Tupperware container filled with what looks and smells like fresh baklava.
“Mrs. Drakos—”
She shakes her head, holding up a frail-looking finger. “Before you make any promises, we have a saying in Greek. Kalokagathían órkou pistotéran éche . It’s from the philosopher Solon, and it means ‘Put more trust in integrity of character than in an oath’.”
I smile as I nod at her offered baklava. “ Na fováste tous éllines pou férnoun dóra. ”
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts —a reference to the ancient Greeks and their Trojan horse, which gained them entry into the walled city of Troy.
Dimitra grins widely, chuckling as she puts the Tupperware into my hands. “So long as you are kind to Eilish, who I consider one of my own grandchildren, there’ll be no soldiers jumping out of my baklava come nightfall.”
“That’s a promise I can make confidently.”
She nods, smiling.
“Nice plane,” Kratos grunts, giving me a firm shake. “And thanks for the invite.”
“No hard feelings about the parking garage basement, I hope.”
He smirks, leaning closer as his grandmother steps out of earshot.
“Not exactly the first time I’ve had a gun pointed at me.”
Elsa gushes an exuberant thank you, giving me a hug that elicits a venomous glare from her fiancé. Nora and Galina blurt equally gushing thank you’s before dashing up the staircase and onto the plane hard on Elsa’s heels.
“Nice fucking plane,” Hades mutters, stopping in front of me. “But seriously. The Bijou Gala? How the fuck did you pull that off?”
I shrug deprecatingly. “Called in some favors, that’s all.”
He glares at me. “You realize this means I have to up my fucking game next week for Elsa’s actual birthday. Thanks a lot.”
“Competition breeds innovation.”
“Asshole.”
I grin. “You’re welcome to borrow the plane again for her—”
“I just might,” Hades smirks back. “And don’t think for a second I’ll be topping off the tank before I bring it back.”
I laugh as he gives me a strong slap on the shoulder and heads up the stairs.
Which leaves Castle.
Eilish’s blond, built-like-a-fucking-Viking former bodyguard comes to a glowering stop right in front of me.
The only reason this man’s obsessive, compulsive need to protect Eilish and be up my ass about her hasn’t pushed me into fury is because it’s quite clear the love he has for her is brotherly, and nothing romantic.
But still. He needs to stop getting in my fucking face.
“Are we going to have a problem?”
“No, but only because Eilish went out of her way to convince me that you had nothing to do with the Banshee bombing, or Theo Petrakis getting lit on fire.”
“Because I didn’t ,” I growl in a warning tone. “And I’m getting more than a little tired of your veiled insinuations that I did.”
He glares at me. “Don’t think for a minute that I don’t see something fucky with the way you and Eilish connected.”
I glare right back. “So long as you don’t think for a second that I don’t notice the way you and Calliope Drakos have been doing everything in your power not to even look at each other since you stepped out of the Range Rovers.”
Castle’s jaw clenches tightly. “You have a vivid imagination,” he mutters quietly.
I smile. “I’m sure that’s all it is. But how about we keep our respective suspicions to ourselves for this trip and just have a good time.”
Castle jabs a finger against my chest. “I want you to understand the ways I will hurt you if you fuck with Eilish in any—”
“I found the men who jumped her.”
He pulls back and arches a brow. “You did?”
I nod. “I took care of them. It was very slow, and extremely painful.”
He eyes me. Very slowly, his mouth relaxes. When I put my hand out, he takes it firmly.
“Enjoy the flight, Castle.”
Finally, after I’ve gone through greeting them all, it’s Eilish’s turn to stroll over from where she’s been leaning against one of the cars, an amused look on her face.
“That looked rough.”
I smirk, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against me. “Beyond brutal. But I’ll live.”
She bites her lip, turning to look up at the massive plane. “The plane, the tickets to the gala…” she turns back to arch a brow at me. “And Neve tells me you took care of the hotel rooms for everyone?”
I nod. She slowly shakes her head.
“This is… wow . I mean we’ve got a private jet. But holy shit— ”
“You know millions, solnishka ,” I growl, relishing her little gasp when I pull her even tighter to me and drop my lips to her ear. “Let me show you billions .”
* * *
I won’t lie: I’m gunning to impress. And if the full bar and dance club on the plane itself somehow didn’t quite do it for anyone on the flight over to France, the fleet of Mercedes G-Wagons waiting to take everyone shopping before going to their hotels finishes the job.
I smile at the way Eilish and her friends go nuts when we arrive at some of Paris’ most exclusive boutiques to find the perfect gowns for the gala.
Kratos, still flushed from getting a little too deep into the whiskey on the flight over, gives me a firm clap on the back and a nod when his grandmother steps out of her dressing room looking like a Greek Dame Judi Dench on a red carpet.
“Hey, Tsarenko?”
I glance over to where Ares and Hades are sitting in the lounge of the boutique in the tailored tuxes I just bought them—cigars and drinks in hand.
“I know I’m being bought,” Ares smirks. “But I’m not mad about it.”
I chuckle as Hades comes over with a glass for me, giving me an approving nod. “Not fucking bad, man. Not fucking bad at all.”
“You know I’m not actually trying to upstage you, right?”
He grins. “I mean, you are , but I know it’s not intentional. I’m still borrowing that sick-ass plane next week.”
“Deal.”
He nods past me, to where a grouchy looking Castle is having the finishing touches on his tux taken care of by one of the in-house tailors.
“What do we think, buddy,” Hades smirks at Eilish’s former bodyguard. “You ready to drop that chip on your shoulder?”
Castle scowls. Then a familiar laugh rings out across the boutique, and we all turn to where Eilish is modeling an absolutely stunning green gown. She turns in front of the mirror, and when her eyes catch mine, her cheeks flush and her smile splits her face almost in two.
“ Thank you ,” she beams. “I love it!”
Castle sighs, pulling my attention back to him.
“All right, all right,” he grunts. “I yield.” His gaze lands on me. “You keep making her smile like that, and we’re good.”
“I think I can manage that.”
I turn to watch her twirl some more for her friends. And I can’t look away.
At all.
This is becoming… real .
No, not “becoming”.
It already is . And I don’t know how to pretend I’m not happier about that than I’ve ever been about anything in my life.