Page 20 of The Brutal Arrangement

I nodded. “It means he has to have his phone.”

John scowled. “Too bad he disabled it for tracking.”

I shrugged. Of course, Nik had wanted to be untraceable. It was a critical factor when he was spying.

“And if he has his phone to send a message, he could use it to call for backup.”

John agreed with a nod. “Sounds just like him.”

If Nik had a strategy, I’d trust him with it. But in light of our family expecting me to marry Katerina Kozlov in his absence, I was more eager than before to get Nik back.

“And if one of our enemies had Nik, they’d be contacting us,” I reminded John.

He shook his head. “There hasn’t been a single hint of a message in that regard. From anyone.”

I grimaced. Someone had to have a gameplan with Nik’s capture. He wouldn’t have been taken for the hell of it. Holding Nik hostage had to serve someone a purpose, and we were banking on that to mean someone wanted to attack the Ivanov Syndicate at large.

“No one has come forward.” John shrugged.

He would’ve told me and Maxim the second correspondence happened. But so far, no one had come forward with a demand for ransom. No one had approached us with an intention to use our captive brother as leverage in a deal. No blackmail to get us to surrender something before releasing him.

And most importantly, no one had come forward to claim the glory of being the ones to kill him.

“It’s nothing but a fucking waiting game,” I muttered. And I was sick of it.

John talked with me about all the men he had placed to spy and listen for word on the street of where Nik could be held.We also discussed a little more about the second time someone had entered the Ivanov building, that night when a nurse had stopped Father from being poisoned again.

With no new information but a lot more accumulating frustration about this situation, I thanked John for the update and left.

Instead of going home with the plan to check in on Father again, I drove toward the cemetery a little distance from the city.

I wasn’t particularly sentimental about dates, but for some reason, I’d always remembered the date of my mother’s death. Beatrice Ivanov’s presence in the family had left a lingering and bitter aftertaste in all of our mouths. Her lies ruined us. Her betrayal nearly got me and my brothers killed.

Hatred and venomous dislike festered for years whenever I let thoughts of her enter my mind. And it was because of her that I—like Maxim—was so against the idea of trusting a woman.

Getting out of the car, I stuck my hands in my pockets and nodded at the guard who’d followed me here. He stood at the second car and dipped his chin in deference to stand back.

Alone, I approached the unimpressive tombstone for the woman who’d given birth to me. Father hadn’t wanted to bury her at all. Her remains were nothing but burnt ashes under the earth here, and the simple gray slab was unmarked with her name.

We didn’t need to label the spot where she remained.

We all knew.

I didn’t think anyone else ever came out here, and my stop at her grave wasn’t a visit. I wasn’t coming to reflect on her absence in my life.

All I could do was ponder what the presence of another wife in the family could mean.

Sloane was all right. I knew Maxim had chosen well with that former stripper, and I saw with my own eyes how utterly committed he was to her.

Like me, he hadn’t thought he’d ever be with a woman like that. In a forever sense. They weren’t married yet, but soon would be. According to Sloane, they’d have a wedding only when Nik was back to witness it.

And now I’ll be next?

I scowled at the blank stone, no happier about having to get married than I was the day before.

Katerina wasn’t the kind of woman I wanted.

I wasn’t surewhatsort of woman would interest me for the rest of my life. I’d never given it thought.

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