Page 29 of Toxic Temptation
“Important business?” His eyes are about to pop out of their sockets. “Card games?”
“Gin rummy, actually. Pavel’s getting better, but he still can’t beat me.” I meet Ihor’s glare with perfect calm. “Have a seat. I’ve got ten minutes.”
He’s practically vibrating with fury now. “I’ve been waiting out there for?—”
“Twenty. I know. Like I said, I had important business.” I remain standing while he reluctantly drops into the chair across from my desk. “What can I do for you, Ihor?”
“You know damn well why I’m here.”
I lean against the edge of my desk, arms crossed. “Pretend I don’t.”
His jaw works for a moment, like he’s chewing glass. “The organ trade. Have you lost your fucking mind?”
“My mind is perfectly intact, thank you.”
“Bullshit.” He slaps his palm on my desk hard enough to make my coffee mug jump. “Your father would never have?—”
“My father is dead.” The words come out colder than I intended, but I don’t take them back. “I’mpakhannow. My decisions are final.”
“Your father built this empire on smart choices. Profitable choices. And you’re pissing it all away for some misguided sense of honor? Do you think you’ll be agood manif you do this, Kovan? Will they make stained glass windows in your honor, with a little fucking halo on top of your head?”
I study his face—the weak chin, the shifty eyes, the mouth that never stops running. This man has been a cancer in my family for years. Perhaps it’s time to cut him out.
“The organ trade makes us enemies,” I say simply. “Enemies I don’t need.”
“The organ trade makes usrich.”
“Blood money.”
He laughs like a wheezing corpse. “You think the rest of our business is clean? You think our hands aren’t already stained?”
“Maybe. But they don’t have to get any dirtier.”
“Jesus Christ.” He rubs at his eyes with his knuckles. “You sound just like your brother. All noble intentions and moral high ground. Look where it got him.”
My face goes stony. “Careful, Ihor.”
But just like his stooge Afanasy, he’s too worked up to read the warning in my voice. “Vitalii thought he could clean up the family business, too. Thought he could be the good guy. And what happened? He ended up dead in an alley, and the woman he loved married his best friend.”
What a funny fucking way of spinning that story.His best friend.That’s what Ihor calls himself. Like he didn’t circle Yana’s grief like a vulture, didn’t prey on her vulnerability when the body was barely cold.
“Vitalii died because he was careless,” I say. “Not because he was good.”
“He died because he let his emotions make his decisions. The same mistake you’re making now.”
I push off from the desk, taking a step toward him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re thinking with your heart instead of your head. Just like he did.” Ihor’s smile is razor-thin. “Tell me, how is the good doctor doing?”
“What the fuck did you just say to me?”
“Dr. Fairfax. Pretty little thing. I can see why she’s got you so distracted.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I?” He leans back in his chair, suddenly relaxed. “Word travels fast in this city, Kovan. Especially when thepakhanstarts playing games with civilians.”
I’m across the desk before I fully realize I’ve moved, my hand wrapped around his throat. “Say her name again. I dare you.”
