Page 63 of Brutal Unionn
I zero in on him. “Let me ask you this, Alek. Would you give up the throne? Would you give up us… if it meant keeping Lily alive? If it meant you could be with her?”
Aleksandr stiffens, his eyes glancing towards the double doors.
For a moment, he doesn’t speak. Doesn’t breathe. His shoulders rise and fall once. Then he meets my gaze and nods.
“Without hesitation,” he says, voice low. “But don’t mistake my answer for approval. Nadia, you will get us all killed.”
“You don’t have to agree,” I reply, softer now. “You just have totrustme.”
Aleksandr mutters a string of Russian curses, half under his breath, and sinks back into the chair. “Like you trust us?”
I hold his stare, unflinching. “Thisishow you prove your loyalty to me.”
“And if we say no?” Nik asks, looking between Alek and me.
My eyes sharpen. “Then I’ll do what I have to, and whether you both survive or not is your business.”
“Fuck,” Nik hisses. “You better reinstate me.”
Aleksandr leans forward, hands on his knees. “This is your fate, Nadi. I will not stand in your way, and I will stand with you when this eventually explodes in our faces.”
The breath I didn’t realize I was holding slips from my lips, slow and shaky. Every muscle in my body unwinds like string, the tension bleeding out of me until all that’s left is the after-burn of holding on too much, for too long.
Then my phone rings. The sharp trill rings through the room. I glance down.
The caller ID shows the name Asshole which is still Sho’s name in my phone. This man has perfect timing.
I rise slowly from the chair, lifting the phone just enough to show the screen.
“You’re dismissed,” I say quietly. “Both of you.”
Nik arches a brow. “That’s him, isn’t it?”
“What about dismissed, do you not understand?” I cock myhead to the side, and Nik holds up his hands with a tiny smile on his face.
“I think she’s scarier with a boyfriend,” Nik teases, wiggling his eyebrows as he backs away to the door. Alek chuckles quickly following him out of the room.
I answer the phone, the smile that creaks across my face. “Boyfriend.”
“Girlfriend,” he says in a voice that makes me think his smile must be blinding. “I got a quick question for you.”
“Shoot,” I smile, leaning back in my chair and placing both of my boots on the desk.
“A really old, crappy guy is currently sitting with my blade against his neck, but he told me that you are supposed to hand me over to the fucking Yakuza?” Sho asks, in a voice that sounds too amused to be serious. “Is he lying, or do I get to pound his head in the rocks?”
The breath catches in my throat. “What old ass man told you that?”
“I’ll tell you that if I like your answer,” he grunts, the sound of waves crashing in the background. “Now were you, or were you not supposed to deliver me to the Yakuza in exchange for an alliance and the location of your father.”
I sit up straight.My legs slide off the desk and hit the floor with a dull thud. My spine locks into place as if bracing for impact. A slow, tight pressure coils in my chest, and I can’t breathe right.
“You don’t understand?—”
“Hime.” His voice is clipped. Sharp. Controlled in the way that only means he’s anything but. “What did you do?”
“Sho, this was before?—”
“Before what?” His voice hardens. “When did you make this deal?”
