“Katya isn’t the enemy,” Kingston said without an ounce of hesitation. “She’s on our side.”
I gave him an exasperated look. “You don’t know that.”
Kingston snorted. “You just don’t want to admit I’m right.”
Kingston was wrong. I did want to be proven wrong, and I wanted Katya on my side. Not just the sweet Katya, but the fierce, brave girl who wasn’t afraid to toss a mean girl in a pool. That’s what made this situation so precarious. I needed to stay objective and not ignore the truth that was right in front of my face, just because I wanted to believe a pretty girl.
“The evidence doesn’t lie,” I said with a sigh.
“The only reason she’d ever cooperate with them is if they threatened her,” Kingston insisted. “If she’s talking to them, it means she needs us to help her.”
I rolled my eyes, but I started thinking of scenarios where Katya might be the victim, not the villain. It was possible that they were holding something over her – but what? Had they bribed her? Threatened someone she loved? Katya was strong and it would take a lot to scare her. I certainly hadn’t managed to do it yet.
“It would be much easier to just get rid of her,” I grumbled absentmindedly.
The words came out of my mouth, but I didn’t mean them. Even I recognized the lack of conviction in my tone. Something had changed since I first vowed to get Katya out of our lives. I was no longer convinced that she was the evil temptress she first appeared to be. If I had been handed this information when I first met her, I wouldn’t have hesitated to use it to destroy her. Now? I could recognize Kingston might be right. Katya might be an innocent stuck in a spider’s web.
Kingston gave me a knowing look. “I don’t think you want to get rid of her.”
I shrugged, unwilling to admit that the pretty ballerina had gotten under my skin. I tried to tell myself that only reason that I didn’t want Katya to be the villain in this scenario was because it would destroy Kingston and hurt my dad. It had nothing to do with my feelings for her, but I wasn’t in the habit of lying to myself.
I stretched out on my own bed and closed my eyes. I wanted to believe that Kingston was right, and Katya needed our help. However, the smart thing to do would be to sacrifice her to eliminate the mafia’s foothold into our lives. It wasn’t logical to risk everything for a girl who I barely knew.
I already knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t abandon Katya if she needed us.
A cold hand squeezed my heart at the thought of Katya at the mafia’s mercy. They’d shred her innocence, destroy the fire in her eyes, and rip her apart. It was stupid to try to put myself at risk by protecting her, but that didn’t stop my mind from racing ahead.
“We’ll see what Henry finds when he gets the audio back,” I told Kingston.
“Do you want to make a bet?” King challenged. “If Katya’s innocent, then you have to wear a dildo on your head to the first day of school.”
“I’m not taking that bet,” I said wryly.
“See?” Kingston said smugly. “You already know the truth. Katya’s in trouble and we need to help her.”
“It’s not going to be easy,” I murmured to Kingston. “Henry just started looking into Sergei, and he’s into some serious shit.”
“So?” Kingston said with a shrug. “We’re Wilders. We were raised to rule the world while wearing the polite faces of nice businessmen. If we can’t take down a petty mafia dude, then what good are we?”
I laughed at Kingston’s casual confidence, but he was right. We were mother fucking Wilders and we weren’t going to cower in the face of a mid-level mafia boss. Sergei was going to regret coming up against us.
And Katya? My gut was telling me to trust her and that protecting her was the right thing to do. However, I didn’t have the luxury of indulging in my emotions like Kingston did. Katya would have to stay at arm’s length for now. She was tucked away at Bedford Academy for the summer, and Abby was keeping a close eye on her.
“Yo!” Kash called as he barged into our room. “I got a hot date tonight.”
His eyes skimmed over my dresser and he grabbed one of the bottles of cologne. He sprayed it liberally, then started to choke.
“Dude!” he gasped. “What the fuck?”
The smell reached Kingston next and he jumped out of his bed. “Bro!”
I grinned when the scent of some seriously stinky cheese reached me. “Looks like Katya didn’t want us to forget about her.”
Kingston used his pillow to fan the fumes toward Kash and the doorway. “Out, dude.”
Kash cursed. “I’m going to be late.”
“You should probably cancel,” I advised him. “You’re going to need at least fifty showers to get that smell out.”
Kash slammed out of our room, cursing down the hall.
Kingston wrinkled his nose. “I can still smell it.”
I cracked one of the windows opened and hit the switch for the overhead fan. “We’re going to have to leave the door open to get a cross breeze going.”
Once we had some airflow in the room and disposed of anything that Kash might have sprayed, the scent was tolerable, but still there.
Kingston sighed and plopped back on his bed. “She got us again. I told her she wouldn’t be able to.”
“That was probably left over from the first time,” I reasoned.
Kingston looked worried. “You think she messed with more of our stuff?”
I shrugged. “I suggest testing each bottle of cologne before spraying it.”
Kingston groaned, but he had a smile
