Page 228 of Dance of Defiance
He grins, but then his brow pinches. “If we continue as planned…” He lifts a shoulder. “Pavel has many enemies inRussia. I don’t know how long he’ll live once he begins his exile?—”
“Yes, which is why they refer to this as thefind outphase.” I smile grimly. “You know, the part that comes afterfuck around?”
Stepan smiles and nods. “Just thought I’d mention it.” He frowns. “And your sister? How is she…”
“Taking it?” I shrug. “Good days and bad. She gets it, obviously. But Evelina…”
“Always had ita biteasier than you did,” Stepan says, sighing. He pats my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Roman. For the way I let him speak to you, and treat you?—”
“It wasn’t your fight, Stepan.”
“Perhaps it was.”
“Well, you saved Val’s life,” I reply, smiling. “Let’s call it even.”
He grins. Just then, the door to the conference room in Pavel’s house opens. Bane and his father enter first, followed by three AntonovavtoritetsI knew they were bringing along.
I shake my friend's hand firmly before I turn to his father.
“Mr. Antonov?—”
“Come now, Roman,” he chuckles. “You’re not in high school anymore and trying to pretend you didn’t just steal a bottle of vodka from my freezer. Let’s drop theMr. Antonovbit. Just Nikolai is fine.” He claps me on the shoulder. “After all, you’re going to be king after today, yes?”
I smile back at him. “Well…Nikolai…I need to apologize for?—”
“You don’t,” he says gently. He nods past me. “Let’s get to this, shall we?”
I let him walk over to the table first and hang back with Bane.
“Look, I know we talked about this already, but…” I frown. “If there’sanyweird shit here, just tell me. What happened was fucked up?—”
Bane smirks that slightly mysterious smile of his, his dark eyes flashing as he runs a tattooed hand through his hair. “All good, brother. We’re always good.” He rolls his eyes. “The fuck are you evenaskingme that for?”
He brings me in for a tight hug before he pulls back and we all take our seats. Val isn’t part of the Bratva, so it would be inappropriate for him to sit at the table with us. Instead, he sits right behind me, and I swear I can feel him checking out my ass, even though my chair has a back.
Beside me, Stepan glances at me, then stands with the help of his cane.
“My friends,” he begins. “Thank you all for being here. The purpose of this meeting, of course, is to ensure every party is aware what’s transpired the last few weeks.” He sighs heavily. “As you know by now, Nikolai…” He nods across the table at him and sighs “The bomb at the safe house that night was intended to kill you. Pavel had previously had his mercenaries wire the place up, and the bomb was under Pavel’s desk. All he had to do was turn on the timing switch, which was set to five minutes, and then walk outside for a cigar, knowing that you don’t smoke them,” he finishes grimly.
Nikolai nods, his eyes narrowed. “Except I ended up following him outside anyway, because his deal with this gamingcommissioner about the casino license was too good to be true, and I smelled a fed trap.”
“Well, you were correct, my friend,” Stepan grunts. “The gaming commissioner who wanted to work out a bribe with Pavel was indeed a federal agent, working on a sting operation.” Stepan frowns. “I hate to say it, but I believe Pavel’s intent to kill you that night wasn’t just to put an end to your objections to the casino.”
“The partnership agreement,” Nikolai sighs heavily. “It was in the fine print.”
Stepan nods solemnly. “Da. In the event of one party’s death, the estate is forced to sell that party’s shares of the agreement to the surviving partner,at original cost.”
Nikolai swears darkly under his breath in Russian, but he keeps himself in check.
I clear my throat. “Nikolai?—”
“Roman,” he says quietly, shaking his head. “The son does not need to apologize or atone for the sins of the father. I promise you that.”
“Obviously,” Stepan continues, “Pavel planned to frame the attack and your death as the work of the Obsidian Syndicate.” He shakes his head. “While Vaughn Bancroft declined to be here today, Roman and I are in agreement that his organization was not involved in the attack.”
Nikolai nods solemnly. “I believe you. I will not pursue anything with the Syndicate.” His jaw tightens. “Now, shall we discuss the snake himself?”
He glances at me, a slightly worried look on his face. I just nod.
