“You will not be going anywhere,” Konstantin barked at his wife.
Amelia’s burning gaze met her husband’s. “I didn’t ask, did I?”
“I decided.”
“That’s nice.”
Pav almost smiled.
Viktoria would have enjoyed the scene. Then, he just got pissed all over again.
Fuck.
“How did this happen?” Kolya asked, his tone losing that rough edge from before. He didn’t pose the question to anyone in particular, and though for the moment there was only them in the office, the hallway outside was filled with men waiting for orders. “We had it all planned, Konstantin. We had everything set up just as it needed to be, yeah?”
“I … don’t know,” Konstantin replied.
Rather lamely.
Pav knew that feeling.
This whole thing left him feeling useless.
“We missed something,” Konstantin replied, “or someone inside the Bratva who had contact with Boris before he escaped. This plan was … on going for a while.”
All eyes turned on Pav again. He was Zhatka, after all. He should have the answers.
“Well?” Kolya barked.
“Well, what?”
Kolya gave Konstantin a look, but the other man ignored it. Konstantin, to his benefit, turned to Pav and asked, “Is there anything you might not have told us about Boris’ time in the chambers? Someone who visited him often, or would have had enough time with him to figure out a way to make this plan of his work?”
“No.”
“Pav—”
“Other than Kolya, who regularly came around once a week to use him as a punching bag,” Pav said, giving Kolya a look—“then for the most part, he was left for me to handle, yes?”
Konstantin quieted for a second before asking, “What does for the most part mean, exactly?”
“Vadim visited him often before he was exiled. A couple of times a week for anywhere from a half hour to an hour. I thought … after what you told me about Viktoria, that it was to remind Boris why he was there. Before I knew about that, I didn’t have a reason to question Vadim on what he wanted to do with people he put there. I learned not to ask for details, Konstantin.”
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Pav saw the dawning understanding in Kolya’s eyes where he stood beside his brother. Pav, too, understood what he had missed in those moments.
Was it possible?
Was it … Vadim?
“A waiting king never sleeps,” Pav muttered.
Konstantin’s jaw tightened when he asked, “What did you just say?”
“My mind is fuzzy—they kicked me in the head a lot.”
“So what?”
Pav wet his lips. “One of them told me to tell you that a waiting king never sleeps. There’s only one man who thinks of himself as a king, and would have the ability to do this, isn’t there?”
“Goddammit,” Kolya growled. “I told you … I told you to fucking kill him. Didn’t I tell you, brat?”
“Not possible,” Konstantin snapped. “I put him in exile. I have people watching him. I monitor his calls, his people … I know when he goes to fucking sleep at night! I know everything about Vadim, Kolya.”
“Kon—”
“I know more about him than I want to know about him!”
“But he has people who are loyal to him … he didn’t waste the years he spent controlling the Bratva. We know personally how manipulative he is. We dealt with several men who were loyalists for him, but that didn’t mean some didn’t learn, Konstantin. They could have learned to sit down and shut up unless they wanted to die. Who’s to say they weren’t working with him? He knew what was going to happen.”
“Men like Vadim always know,” Pav murmured.
Konstantin let out a harsh noise. “I would have known. If he were planning something, I would have known about it.”
“Not if he found a way around us, and you.”
“Viktoria has always been his favorite. He’s not going to sacrifice her a second time when—”
Kolya’s gaze slid to his brother, silencing him instantly. “So was I, for a time.”
Konstantin’s stare dropped to his brother’s chest, and then quickly snapped back up to Kolya’s face. Pav didn’t need to know what Konstantin was remembering. Zhatka had been there that night in true form when Vadim literally had the flesh burned from his oldest son’s chest to remove tattoos he no longer felt Kolya was worthy to wear.
If he could do that to his heir … and they already knew what Vadim had been willing to do to Viktoria before, then what would stop him now?
Nothing.
“Can we find her now?” Pav asked quietly. “I think we’ve talked enough.”
All eyes turned on him again. He wished he wasn’t so quiet. He didn’t know any other way to be.
Not now.
17.
DARKNESS.
That’s what Viktoria woke up to first. Complete and utter darkness surrounding her. It was too close, and it felt too fucking tight. Her first thought was to roll over and seek Pav out in the bed next to her. That was the last thing she remembered immediately. That they’d been in bed together, her in his shirt and tucked in close to his side, and his fingers gliding over her body as she drifted off to sleep.
But she couldn’t turn.
Her hands wouldn’t move.
Why were they at her back?
Attempting to straighten out her legs did nothing for her, either. The harder she tried to kick, the more it pulled on her arms. That was when she realized her ankles were tied to her fucking wrists at her back.
Like a hog.
She’d been hogtied.
Holy fucking shit.
Don’t freak out. Just breathe. Relax, Viktoria.
Her inner thoughts really didn’t do much to calm the situation.
