“You don’t even have to ask.”
• • •
Viktoria edged closer to the window of the bedroom she was using at the estate and peered down over the backyard. There, she found Pav and a mean-looking Rottweiler making friends, if that were possible. It was almost amusing to see him shaking a stick only to make the dog crouch back on his hind legs like he was going to jump for the wood.
She didn’t know who the dog belonged to—it was one of three that regularly walked around the property. They weren’t nice dogs, either. More than once, one had pinned back their ears and growled at her when she’d passed them by. Usually, one of the guards on the property would whistle to the dog in question, and it would back off.
At the moment, though, one of the three Rottweilers looked like a giant puppy with Pav on the grass. Pav tossed the stick, and the dog went after it the second it left his hand. She caught sight of his grin just before he turned his back to the house, and watched the dog run after his new toy.
She smiled, too.
A lot of things about Pav seemed … strange, at times. He sometimes seemed out of his element, but especially around a lot of people. He was always more comfortable being still and quiet, and lingering behind a crowd. He never wanted to be the center of attention, and even a conversation could really test his lines, at times. And yet, he could make friends with a nasty dog like it was nothing for him.
A throat cleared behind Viktoria, and she spun around to find her father standing in the doorway of the bedroom. Usually, she would close it, but after her talk with Pav in the woods a couple of days earlier, she was trying to settle in here a little more. Who knew how long she was going to have to stay, right? She might as well get used to it.
Unlikely.
“What are you doing up here?” her father asked.
Viktoria peeked over her shoulder, and watched the dog run back to Pav with the stick hanging out of his mouth. “Nothing, really.”
She turned back to her father in just enough time for Vadim to come stand beside her. There was no hiding the fact she had been spying on Pav as he played with the dog. For a long while, her father stayed quiet as he too watched the scene playing out on the grass below.
“Do they know about this? Your brothers, I mean?”
Viktoria’s brow dipped. “Know about what—”
“This. You and this man. That he clearly has an interest in you, and you are returning it. That it’s been physical.”
“How do you know—”
“I know many things,” Vadim muttered. “I did not ask you a question for you to reply in kind, Viktoria. Answer me, yes?”
God.
“They know,” she said quietly.
Vadim tipped his head up as though he were looking at Pav down his nose. Looking down at him, even though Pav couldn’t possibly know it. Her father stayed quiet for another minute, his gaze narrowing on the man as the seconds ticked by slowly.
Finally, Vadim asked, “Is that how Konstantin is controlling Pavel now, then? With you. Give the beast something he wants, and he’ll do anything you want him to do, I suppose.”
She blinked.
What?
Her father didn’t give her the chance to ask the question before he continued on, saying, “That’s what I used to do with him, too. For a period of time, whores would keep him in line. Although, he never hurt them or sent them back in any worse condition than they were sent to him. Other times, it was the promise of time away from the Compound. A night away, a taste of freedom … it was enough to sedate for months.”
Vadim chuckled and turned away from the window. He gave her a look, raising his eyebrows as he did, like he was suggesting something she should already know. She didn’t know a fucking thing, but especially not about her father.
“Maybe my boys learned more from me than I thought, if that’s what they’re doing by using you to keep him in line. Men are easily placated when something they want is dangling right in front of their grasp. Just because Pavel is a more complicated man doesn’t mean he cannot be simplified down in the same way as any other man, Viktoria. Remember that.”
She knew that wasn’t what her brothers were doing. They wouldn’t do that to her—they were nothing like their father. And she seriously doubted that Pav was as easy to control as her father liked to say. His life in the Compound’s chambers had not been an easy one. She didn’t need him to tell her the details for her to know. She had been around her father and his men more than enough for her to know he did not treat people with kindness and respect.
Everyone was just something to use to Vadim. If a person had a heartbeat, then he didn’t mind finding their weakness, exploiting it, and using it to his benefit. Pav hadn’t been anything different, and she didn’t think he was controlled just because Vadim gave him things he wanted like they were treats.
It went deeper than that.
It was worse than that.
Her father had almost walked to the doorway when she spoke again. Another thought had floated through her mind—something Konstantin told her, and something her father just said mixed together, and things clicked.
Like a lightbulb going off in her head.
Vadim said it—give a man what he wants; control him.
Konstantin said it, too—the sins of a father; the guilt of man.
“Is that what you did to me, Daddy?” she whispered.
Vadim’s shoulders tensed, but he
