Chapter 44 Dimitri
DIMITRI
Sienna stood in the middle of one of the guest rooms, staring blankly at the wall. She had been like this for several minutes, just…frozen.
My eyes were so dry it hurt to blink, my heart raced from the massive amounts of caffeine I’d consumed, and my phone vibrated angrily as it alerted me to yet another missed call, but I still couldn’t tear myself away from the computer screen.
I’d gotten a second monitor just so I could keep the house camera footage up while I worked.
I needed to keep a closer eye on her, to make sure she didn’t do anything to jeopardize our security again.
I had to keep everyone safe. Maintain control. Protection.
At least, that was my excuse. Deep down, I could no longer ignore the fact that I missed her.
Six days had passed since I confronted her, and I hadn’t stepped foot in the house since. She was too dangerous, too addicting to be around…she made me want impossible things. I never should have let my guard down, and I was paying for it now.
If only everyone else could get on the same page.
Aleksei had assured me all the accounts were safe and that the hacker wouldn’t be a problem anymore. He had been sure to emphasize, in an icy tone dripping with judgement, that Sienna had never posed a threat to us.
My father never would have tolerated such disrespect from his men. I had remained silent as Aleksei turned on his heel and left my office.
You are a weak, pathetic boy. I can’t believe I was stuck with a son like you.
The staff had ignored my directive to keep their distance from my wife, but I didn’t have the heart to tell Sveta to stop asking Sienna to watch a movie with her or Vasya to stop inviting her to his greenhouse.
It didn’t matter anyway, since Sienna had refused their offers.
She’d spent the past few days aimlessly wandering into rooms and apparently forgetting why she was there.
My office door opened and Maxim entered without knocking. I scowled, but kept my eyes on the computer screen, refusing to allow him to distract me.
He sat down across from me. The minutes ticked by, tension stretching in the air between us like a rubber band seconds from snapping.
I was the first to break.
“If you have something to say, spit it out.”
He shrugged. “Why bother saying anything when you won’t listen, anyway?”
I ground my teeth together as the sharp, painful guilt I’d carried with me the past six days reared its vicious head. Why couldn’t I suppress it anymore? I was flayed open. Exposed and out of control because of her.
“Is that how you speak to your Pakhan?”
Maxim sat back in his chair, the picture of ease with his relaxed shoulders and neutral expression. But we had known each other for two decades. Together, we had survived torture. Won back my empire. “Am I speaking to the Pakhan? Or to my brother?”
The urge to snap at him for his easy familiarity rose in my throat like acid, but I swallowed it down. He had every right to call me his brother because that was what we were—not by blood, but in every way that mattered.
I clasped my hands together. His eyes flitted down to take in my scabbed and bruised knuckles, evidence of my now-nightly fights at Mayhem. It was the only way to hold on to my final threads of sanity.
“Have you joined the rest of the staff in your hatred for me?”
His jaw ticked. “None of us hate you, Dimitri. Why would we, when you have enough self-hatred to last a thousand lifetimes?”
Something sharp twisted in my chest. “I’m busy, Maxim. What do you want?”
“Something’s wrong with Sienna. She’s barely spoken to anyone since her doctor’s appointment. Polina and Sveta are concerned.”
By the looks of it, they weren’t the only ones worried about my wife.
It was no mystery why Sienna was upset. I had been tempted so many times over the past few days to go to her, fall to my knees, and apologize.
But the cold, calculating part of me—the part that had kept me alive all of these years—refused.
To apologize would be to lose the leverage I had over her.
Without that, I couldn’t keep her in line. Couldn’t keep everyone safe.
Maxim pushed up from his seat, his face heavy with disappointment at my silence. “Try not to get yourself killed at Mayhem tonight.”
And then I was alone again.
I turned back to the video feed in time to see Vovk enter the guest room. He nudged Sienna’s hand, jolting her back to reality. She crouched down and wrapped her arms around his neck. I closed out of the surveillance feed when she started crying.