Page 103 of Mafie Queen

“Well, we can’t have them waiting. What if it’s important?”

She tries to move away, but I grab her and drag her back up against my body.

“Not much is more important than this.” My lips meet hers, and I count it as a victory that I caught her off guard. She can’t seem to figure out how serious she wants to be with me, but she has admitted that she wants me.

All too soon, she’s pulling back and walking to her closet to throw on pants. “Nice try, old man, but if they’re here then we need to get to them.”

“Always the reasonable one,” I quip as she strides past me.

“One of us has to be.” She walks through the doors as I am forced to adjust my pants.

When we get down to one of my studies, my attention immediately snaps to Ivan.

Shit. I forgot to ask Lev what he wanted to do with his father.

Then, I notice the mood and quickly find a seat. Evie is pacing nervously, and I look around at my son and her other husbands only to see them thoroughly concerned.

Well, this will be fun.

“Alright,” I say, causing Evie to flinch. Damien immediately goes to her and hands her a stick of gum. She takes it and thanks him while I choose to pretend like that is perfectly normal.

“So, what is going on?” I ask. “And why is Ivan here?”

Evie looks over to Ivan, then at me, then out the window before coming to sit down. “Everyone needs to sit.”

I watch my son as he hesitantly takes a seat beside his wife. Tension rolls through the room in waves. Alexi is clenching his fists nervously while Damien’s leg bounces to a beat that rivals Evie’s pacing. Evie finally speaks.

“I had a nightmare tonight that I quickly realized was actually a memory. As you all know, there are a lot of things I can’t remember correctly. So when the memory came to me, I went to Ivan to confirm if it was true or not.”

Ivans jaw locks and he looks down at his lap.

“Evie,” Damien starts, taking her hand in his, “I mean this as respectfully as possible. But if you don’t spit out whatever the fuck you’re trying to say right now, I will throw this table out of the window.”

He gestures to the coffee table, and Evie actually looks at it as if to decide if it’s value was small enough to grant her a few more minutes. It is not, and I will gladly grab it from Damien if it comes down to it.

“Rostya killed your mothers. All of them.”

I don’t think anyone moves. In fact, no one even breathes for a solid minute.

“What?” My voice vibrates with tension, enough that Nessa wraps her fingers around my arm, keeping me in my seat.

“I um…” Evie searches for the words as Damien remains as still as a statue. “When they first took me, after they made me watch what Ithoughtwere my men dying, Rostya told me how he set up your wives’ murders. He said he was forced to include his wife in the tragic event or no one would believe it was a coincidence.”

I see a tear fall from Ivan’s face from the corner of my eye as Evie continues. “He forced Ivan to believe that it was reallyBoris who set everything up and that he had used the boys to manipulate Lev into making his mother go too.”

Lev looks to Ivan but he doesn’t return his gaze.

“He set it up to make Boris weak and so that he could manipulate Alexi but that ended up not working.”

I look at Alexi, and I do not think I have ever seen his fists clenched tighter. “He used it to manipulate all of you and to set up for him to take over, making Boris look like the bad guy.”

My world starts to spin when Ivan finally speaks up.

“He tried to poison you too.”

“What?” I ask, my voice cracking at the end of the word.

Ivan keeps his head down but continues talking.

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