Yannick
“Look what the cat dragged in.” Irina sauntered into the kitchen, done up to the nines at seven on a Sunday morning. I’d just poured a stiff drink and sat down with the iPad to sort through the following week’s appointments, wondering why the hell I’d come back to this house instead of going to Sandir’s.
“You miss me?”
“Always, darling, always.” Trailing her fingernails across my shoulders as she passed, she sat down in the seat next to me. “What are the plans this week?”
“I’ve made an appointment so we can meet with the lawyer, get the ball rolling.”
“The ball rolling?” Her tone was idle, as if she had no idea what I was talking about.
“You owe me a divorce, dear wife.”
Jumping from the chair, she rounded on me, picking up the glass I was drinking from, and throwing the damn thing full force at the wall. “I owe you nothing!”
There it was - the confirmation Irina wasn’t about to take anything lying down. What on earth had I been expecting? She was going to be hostile, and it was going to get ugly. I drew out a breath, tired of it all, especially the theatrics I knew would be thrown my way. Irina could act out with the best of them.
“Come on, Irina, quit it. If we’re fighting, it makes us look bad, vulnerable, and others will see it. I want an amicable divorce, the settlement between us fair. Hell, you can have it all, Irina, I don’t give a fuck.” I threw an ugly look her way, suddenly irritated and angry because there was no point in trying to reason with her. I switched tack, hoping she’d understand she wasn’t getting to push me around anymore. “But fuck you, bitch. You owe me everything. Don’t you dare stand there and pretend you weren’t complicit in what our fathers did, what Lev did. You can’t have me anymore, you knew this day was coming, have had fifteen years to prepare for it. You want to fight dirty? Bring it the fuck on, you know damn well if you drag this out, I’m going to destroy you. Enough is enough.”
“You’re playing me,” she seethed.
“Sit the fuck down and be an adult for a change. I’m not playing you. I don’t want to leave you with all the headaches, so can we please have a civil conversation for once?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sit. Down.” This woman was not running this show, no fucking way.
Tapping her nails on the table, she grimaced. “Give me a year, a transition period, if you like. I presume your threat wasn’t an idle one. You want out, out of everything, not just this marriage?” Finally, she was getting it enough to put a voice to my intentions. “Why, Yan? That’s a lot of years to throw away. People will see you as weak and come for you, come for me.”
“I’m not giving you another year, you’ve had enough. This was meant to be Yosef’s, not mine, and I’m fucking done.”
“Yosef’s not here. This empire is ours, we did this together. Built a fortune on the foundations, it belongs to us and no one else. This is not what our fathers made.”
“There all dead, Irina, and Lev will be soon too. If you’re worried about him, I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been a threat to either of us in years. We can make our own rules, not bend to those of ghosts with vendettas and misplaced loyalty. Time’s up. You know how much power you wield, you don’t need me anymore.”
“Did you forget he pulls the strings? You only need to take another look at all the books, Yannick, it’s all his. And your men - I’d be losing four that are loyal to you, in turn loyal to me by default. Those loyalties crumble if you leave.”
“Why didn’t you make your own alliances? There were plenty of opportunities.” She didn’t answer, so I did for her. “You thought this would be forever.”
“I will put a mark on your back, your men too if you don’t give me the year I’ve asked for. Don’t push me, Yan. I’m not a woman you want to cross, something you should know well by now.”
“Then be sure to sleep with one eye fucking open.” I slammed the iPad down on the table, the screen cracking with the force, then scraped the chair backwards to stand.
“I won’t be lenient because it’s you.”
Flying at Irina, I dragged her from the chair and pinned her to the table with my hand around her throat. Wedging my body between her legs, I loomed over her, squeezing my fingers. “Understand this. I despise you. There is nothing in this world that would ever make me give you forever. It’s not yours to have. Take the so-called empire, I don’t care. But I warn you, if you come for me, you will get one shot only and you best make sure you’re successful. If not, I will kill you slowly and take great pleasure painting this house you love so much, with your blood and guts. I am not to be played with anymore.”
“Yannick!” Tayte’s firm call was ignored as I stared down at Irina, noting the subtle hint of fear there in her eyes.
“Understand?”
She grinned up at me as I loosened my grip while she wrapped her legs around my hips. “Perfectly, dear husband.”
“Call the lawyer. Don’t waste any more of my time, tell him you’ll be there, or I’ll come looking for you and you won’t like the way you end up sitting in front of him while we hash out the details.”
Untangling from the bitch, I swept from the room ignoring Tayte on the way by. I wasn’t about to wait for the lecture he’d give me about intimidating Irina, she wasn’t a
