8. NIKOLAI
“Son. Come in, come in. It’s good to see you, it’s been far too long.” My father spreads his arms wide in the doorway in front of me, a broad smile on his face.
I nod, glad that he seems so willing to welcome me back after all this time. “You too, Dad.”
I step into his office, glancing around, reminding myself what it feels like to be back in his presence. This is the house I grew up in, and being here all over again floods me with memories that I hardly even knew I was holding on to.
“And such a pleasure to meet your wife,” he continues, as he pours us both a drink, handing a glass to me. I take it, swilling the scotch around in the crystal, staring down at it for a moment as I try to make sense of the fact that I am, well and truly, married.
“Yes, she’s…she’s quite a woman.”
It’s the closest I can come to the truth right now.
I still know so little about Andie, but she has adapted to this mess that she’s found herself in with little issue, and I have to admit, I’m impressed with how confidently she moves through this world.
How she handled my brother when he came to her looking for a crack in the visage, how she’s adapted to this place even though she was clearly overwhelmed by it when we first arrived.
“She must be, to have taken you on as a husband,” he remarks, and I chuckle.
I suppose he has a point. I’m hardly the kind of man most would choose as their other half if they had the choice, given the world that I’m a part of.
“And does she know?” he asks, leaning forward, clasping his hands in front of him and hitting me with a hard look. “About your world? Our world?”
I hesitate for a moment. I know if I tell him the truth, that she has little to no idea about this, it will look bad on my part. But at the same time, lying to my father seems a risk, something he might be able to see straight through if I’m not careful.
“She knows enough.”
He nods, his eyes narrowing slightly, clearly not entirely convinced by me. “Enough that she will be able to withstand the scrutiny when you return to America?”
I nod again. Something about Andie tells me that she’s more resilient than she looks—the way she adapted to everything being thrown her way when we were on the plane together, it tells me that she might have more sureness in her than even I knew of.
“Good,” he replies. “Because now that you’re married, I want you to take control of the American arm, once and for all.”
I can’t keep the grin off my face at the sound of those words coming out of his mouth. That is what this has all been in aid of, and hearing him say it like that, it’s a weight off my shoulders I hardly even knew I was carrying.
I have been all but running the American contingent of his business for the last ten years anyway, making sure that the routes in and out of the city are left unfettered, keeping law enforcement on our side,
ensuring the safety of our men and the business that we run there to cover for the illegal trade that takes place under his name.
But he has been reluctant to hand over the reins until he knew for sure that I had a family of my own.
A wife, an heir, all of it. I might not have gotten to the second part of that equation yet, but I will find a way to make it happen, whether it’s through Andie or a surrogate.
“I won’t let you down,” I tell him seriously, shifting my expression into one of complete certainty. I lean forward, clasping my hands on the desk before us.
“I know you won’t,” he replies. “You’ve been all but running it for me anyway. I know what you’re capable of, Nikolai. I wouldn’t have even considered you for this otherwise.”
Pride swells in my chest. Even though I am a man of nearly fifty now, there’s still something in knowing that I have done right by my father, proved myself to him, that comes as a salve I know I will do anything to keep hold of.
“But it’s her I’m worried about,” he continues.
I frown. “Worried? What is there to worry about?”
He shakes his head slightly. “She’s new to this,” he replies. “No matter how much she knows, it’s a different thing to be exposed to it as your wife. She must be able to uphold the family name, no matter what. I want to see how she manages all of this. All that comes with her role as your wife.”
Role. He speaks of it as though it’s a job, and I suppose in some ways it is. Andie is only doing this because she didn’t want to wreck her professional reputation. And now that she’s here, she might find herself stepping into a whole new side of this business that she hadn’t been prepared for.
“So how do we prepare her?” I ask keenly.
I’m willing to do just about anything it takes to prove to my father that I have made the right choice of partner.
What happens when Andie and I leave Russia, we can work out between us, but here, I need her to play the role of my wife with the utmost certainty.
“There’s a gathering tomorrow night,” he tells me. “A few of my suppliers, some friends, some colleagues. Bring her. I want to see how she handles their presence.”
I cock an eyebrow. Tomorrow night. That doesn’t give me much time to fill her in on the situation at hand. I will just have to hope that she knows how to handle herself—that her practice in dealing with the wealthy and powerful through her business is enough to get her through this in one piece.
“I’ll prepare her,” I promise him.
Before I can say another word, I hear a creak behind me, and turn to see Max standing there, watching the two of us.
“A family reunion, hmm?” he remarks, as he steps into the room.
I bristle. I know he’s trying to get under my skin, he has been since this morning, since his conversation with Andie in the kitchen. And he is the one I have to worry about.
My father will be so glad of the marriage that he will not look too hard into finding pieces that don’t fit, but Max—he will do everything in his power to unseat me from this new position that I’ve found myself in, and that means I have to keep my guard up around him.
“Dad was telling me about a gathering tomorrow night,” I tell him coolly. “Will you be in attendance?”
“Of course I will,” he replies, voice laced with a hint of venom.
I know it’s jealousy. As clear as day. I’m the one our father sent to America to manage the business out there, not him.
And it’s not just because he’s the younger of the two of us either.
No, by the time I was sent out there, we were both old enough that it wouldn’t have made much of a difference one way or another.
But my father trusts me in a way he doesn’t trust Max, whether he would ever admit it out loud or not, and Max is acutely aware of that fact.
“Wouldn’t want to miss the chance to get to know your lovely wife a little better,” he adds, and he flashes me a grin. It’s a warning, I can see that much, but not one I will bend to.
“I’m sure the two of you will get on well,” I reply, rising to my feet. “You seemed to take to her this morning, after all.”
I lock eyes with him for a moment, warning him, reminding him that I am the one calling the shots here—that I am the one our father has chosen and nothing he can do will change that, no matter how much he clearly wishes it would.
I brush past him and make my way out the door, leaving my father to discuss with Max the new approach to the business. And I can feel him glowering after me, glaring in my direction, as if he can barely believe that I have the nerve to brush him off like that.
But I have been living in America for a long time now, and during that time, my brother has made little effort to close the distance between us. No, he is happy to let it grow, because he wants what I have, more than he will ever be able to confess to.
And now that I have finally closed my fist around it—I can only imagine that his attempts to unseat me will grow even more intense by the day.