Page 48 of Vows of Blood
I pause mid-drink. “What does that mean?”
She just smiles at me as she takes a sip from her glass. “With any luck, you’ll never find out.”
Well. That’s unexpected. I leave it alone, though. Some things I really don’t want to know, anyway.
“So, what did you do to upset Alexei this morning?” she asks me.
I sigh, still wondering if I can trust her. “Just a disagreement between us. Marriage stuff.”
“Mm. I’d believe that if I thought you two married for love. What’s really going on?”
I regard her for a moment. Clearly, she’s not going to let go of this. Oh, what the hell? I can’t just walk around holding onto this. Besides, now that I think of it, she probably has more intel than I could ever have. “There’s something going on that doesn’t make any sense. You know about Alexei being shot, right?”
She nods in response. “Of course. It’s a big deal when a Bratva prince is injured.”
“Right, so… so now he thinks that my father arranged a hit on him.”
Her smile fades. “I see,” she says. “That actually explains a lot of the movement I’ve been seeing in the past twenty-four hours. I knew something big was happening. The club has been buzzing more than normal.”
“So, then, you know something about all this?”
“I don’t know anything. Not really. What I know about this situation you could stuff in a thimble.”
I don’t believe that. She wanders over to the couch and sits on the arm, sipping her drink as if there’s nothing more to be said.
“The weird thing,” I continue, “is that this just doesn’t track. Why would my father attack Alexei? He’s the one who wanted me to marry him.”
“Didn’t I hear that your sister was the original bride to be?”
“Not the point. I got the job when she bailed, and he didn’t exactly object to it.”
“Hmm. Sounds like a great guy, your father.”
I look down at my drink. That stung a little.
“Sorry,” she says. “I should know better than most that no matter how terrible your father is, he’s still your father.” She regards me for a few seconds as if debating something. Then she says, “You know, my father used to bePakhan.”
I’m gagged momentarily. “Really? Wait.” I try to think about when we broached this subject a month ago. “Sorry, I was under the impression?—”
“I deliberately kept that information from you,” she says, tilting her head slightly. “It’s a sore subject for Dmitri and me.”
I nod slowly. “So… so, he was the lastPakhan? Before Maxim?”
She takes a drink from her glass. “The story goes that he and my uncle never really got along. Even as children. They were always in competition with one another. And when my grandfather died, my father took over, as he was the elder brother and the most capable. It was expected of him.”
She took a sip from her glass. “What wasn’t expected was his little brother causing problems. Even though they were always at odds, no one believed that Maxim wouldn’t fall in line as soon as his brother took control. Suddenly, he was lax at doing hisjob taking care of his soldiers. Money and merchandise started to turn up missing. It was a mess. My father decided that something needed to be done about it, so he thought the best way would be to fight it out with him.”
I snickered. “Like physically? Are you serious?”
“Very serious,” she says. “Maxim had gained quite a reputation in the underground fighting circuits. He was known as ‘The Bear’ because his fighting style was so vicious. People would say that his opponents looked as though they’d been mauled after a few rounds with him. What is less commonly known is that it was my father taught him everything he ever knew. You see, he was considered a better fighter all around.”
I’m now sitting on the couch paying rapt attention to the history lesson. Anya pauses and takes another sip from her glass.
“I was very young when this happened, but I remember everyone talking about it. Gathering at our house to make bets. It was treated like some kind of recreation. A friendly match between brothers.”
“Friendly? Doesn’t sound like it was meant to be friendly.”
“And yet, in my father’s view, it was,” she said. “My father saw this match as… like a thump to the head of his little brother. Maxim was never supposed to be hurt too badly.” She pauses, her eyes taking on a faraway look as if she were looking through a window and into the past.
