laptop screen, lips pursed in mild agitation. My jaw ached, a slight flare of pain spreading out across my face as I opened my mouth to finish the rest of my drink. Fuck, Ivan hit hard. Had it been anyone else, I would have killed them for daring to step out of line like that. Ivan got away with it purely because he was Tatiana’s father. And…well…because I deserved the strike. He was right. I had let Tatiana down. I didn’t deserve her, but do you think that was going to stop me from having her anyway?
No fucking way.
Tatiana was probably going to kill me for getting into it with Ivan. Usually, I could hold myself back from retaliating against him. I could ignore the way he looked at me with disgust and contempt. I could ignore the disrespectful words he grumbled whenever I walked past. The one thing I could not ignore was him telling me that he planned to marry Tatiana off.
The rage that had consumed me swallowed me whole. There was no way I was capable of holding myself back from that. Even if I wanted to—which I didn’t.
Just the idea of it…the notion of her being bound to another man, kissing him, touching him, fucking him—
The glass in my hand shattered, my rage uncontrollable. I cursed, letting the remaining shards of glass slip through my fingers to join the others on the floor.
I’d marry Tatiana right fucking then and there if she’d let me. I’d plan a big, grand, elaborate proposal—one worthy of her—drop to one knee at her feet and ask her to spend the rest of her life with me, if I thought there was even the slightest chance she’d say yes. I knew there wasn’t though. I had to work my way up to that, which I was beyond determined to do.
My laptop beeped, letting me know the file I was downloading had finished. I opened it and quickly scanned the information. I needed to find out everything I possibly could on Talon. His strengths. His weaknesses. His fucking shoe size. I wanted to know everything there was to know about him. Nothing was off limits.
Talon Scardo. Fifty-four years old. Attended Sunset Boarding School for Boys and graduated top of his class.
I scoffed. Another perk of Daddy’s money.
No college listed, which meant he most likely didn’t attend one. CEO of a few massive Fortune 500 companies in the US, as well as several other companies all around the world. He had his fingers dipped into everything, from private security firms to run of the mill cleaning businesses. An idea flourished in my mind and I couldn’t hold back my grin. If it was possible, if I could somehow make it work, I had my in.
I need to run it by Mikhail first, if he is still here. See if he knows—
A hand slammed my laptop closed. “Get the fuck up.”
I looked up, staring into my sister’s angry blue eyes. She was glaring down at me like she wanted to slit my throat.
“Are you deaf? I said, get the fuck up,” she growled.
I arched an eyebrow. “A little early for a visit from the Red Dragon, isn’t it? That period calendar Lukyan and I made is usually pretty accurate.”
Her face reddened, teeth clenching so hard that I was sure she’d shatter them. If it was physically possible, there’d be steam coming out of her ears.
“Don’t joke,” she spat. “How could you?”
I sighed, rolling my eyes. “You’re going to have to be more specific. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Illayana was easy to anger. She could be talking about any number of things. Maybe I moved one of her belongings and didn’t put it back exactly where I found it. Or maybe I accidentally ate something in the fridge that she’d planned on eating herself (yet neglected to tell anyone about). Those were just a few examples of times she’d gotten pissed with me in the past.
“You’re seriously going to play dumb right now?”
I rubbed my temples in exasperation. “Illayana—”
Lukyan burst through the front door, panting heavily. His coat hung off his shoulders, like he didn’t want to waste the few extra seconds it would have taken to put it on properly, and his shoelaces were untied. “Okay, okay, I’m here. I’m—” he frowned, his eyes darting between Illayana and I. “Uh, what’s going on?”
We both ignored him.
“How could you keep something like this from me, Nikolai? How?”
I stiffened, my entire body going cold. That look in her eyes…the hurt layered in her voice…
Glancing over my shoulder, my eyes connected with Tatiana’s. She was wringing her hands together in front of her, chewing her bottom lip nervously. My girl didn’t get nervous, so it could only mean one thing.
I exhaled heavily, turning back to Illayana. “She finally told you.”
“Told you what?” Lukyan asked.
“You should have been the one to tell me, Nik. You!” She shoved me hard in the chest, forcing me to hit the back of the couch. “I can’t believe you would keep something like this from me. Both of you!”
Anger pulsed through me. “Don’t make this all about you, Illayana. Don’t. This was between Tatiana and I. It had nothing to do with you.”
“Nothing to do with me?” she breathed out, aghast. “You’re my brother. She’s my best friend. He was my—” she cut herself off, shaking her head. “Don’t act like this doesn’t involve me. It fucking does.”
Aleksandr walked into the room, most likely having been alerted to the brewing confrontation by Illayana’s loud, angry voice. “What’s going on here?” His wife stood at his side, watching on with a frown on her face.
Illayana spun to face him. “Did you know?”
“Know what?” Lukyan demanded.
Aleksandr’s gaze darted between the two of us, assessing the situation. He must have figured out what she was referring to, because his shoulders dropped slightly, head tipping forward.
Illayana’s breath hitched. “You did,” she choked out in shock. “You knew…and you never said anything?!”
“Illayana—” Aleksandr began.
“He told you?” Tatiana cut him off mid-sentence.
“Told you what?” Lukyan growled, cutting in again, his eyes flicking around the room. “I swear to God, if someone doesn’t tell me what’s going on right now—”
“Shut up, Lukyan!” we all yelled.
His lips set into a firm line but he didn’t say anything else, keeping his mouth shut.
“Not by choice,” Aleksandr quickly said to Tatiana. “I…overheard the argument you guys had here a few weeks ago.” He was defending me, trying to make it clear to Tatiana that I didn’t betray her confidence and tell him when she expressly told me not to say a word to anyone. There he went again, always looking out for me.
“This is unbelievable,” Illayana hissed, her anger climbing. “I didn’t realise this was the type of family we were. The type that kept huge, life-changing secrets from each other. Well, I’m glad I know now.”
“Stop being childish,” I snapped. “This heart-breaking moment happened to Tatiana and I. Stop making it all about you.”
“Oh, that’s it.” Illayana took two steps back, putting her fists up. “Get the fuck on your feet. I challenge you to the ring.”
“Illayana, no,” Tatiana said, shaking her head, her hands in the air in a calm, surrendering gesture.
She should have known what a waste of time it was, trying to reason with my sister when she was in a mood like this. The only one who could probably calm her down was thousands of miles away.
“I’m not going to fight you, Illayana.” There would be no point to it. She wouldn’t win, and it would just piss her off even more to lose. I could always let her win, but I was pissed off too, and wasn’t willing to concede to her bratty behaviour.
“You act like you have a choice in it. You don’t. Either get up and come to the warehouse or I’ll fight you right here.”
I scoffed, not believing a word she said. She knew as well as I did that we weren’t allowed to fight in that room—
Illayana charged, slamming into me, her hands wrapping around my throat. The couch tipped backwards and we tumbled to the ground, grunting on impact.
Son of a—
Illayana punched me in the jaw, pain shooting across my face, then she went right back to strangling me. She had the advantage, basically sitting square on my chest, using her weight to keep me down. But I was done placating her.
I gripped both of her wrists tightly, hard enough to make it hurt. She winced. I twisted outwards, forcing her to let go and then I reared forward, smashing my forehead into her lips in a brutal headbutt. Illayana cried out but recovered quickly, latching her teeth deep into my forearm, biting me.
“Ow! Illayana!” I shook my forearm, trying to dislodge her. She locked her jaw, refusing to let go, like she was some kind of rabid dog. She was certainly acting like a bitch.
I stuck her across the side of the face—once, twice. She finally released me from the death grip of her teeth, and I went to strike her again.
“Dostatochno!” Enough!
Years of conditioning made me freeze instantly, my fist hovering an inch from Illayana’s cheek. God, if I wasn’t entirely sure Father wasn’t there, I could have sworn that was him. It sounded exactly like him. Exactly. I knew that was the only reason Illayana froze too.
Loud footsteps reverberated around the now-quiet room and then Illayana was yanked off me by the back of her shirt. I jumped to my feet quickly, catching Aleksandr’s disappointed glare. He was still holding Illayana up by the back of her shirt.
“Don’t look at me like that. She started it.” I pointed an accusing finger at Illayana.
She opened her mouth to respond, but Aleksandr shook her roughly.
“Quiet,” he snapped. “You both know Mother’s rule. No fighting in the family room.”
“She’s the one—”
Aleksandr growled, slicing his hand through the air to silence me. “I said, quiet. We have more important things to deal with, so we’re going to settle this right now. Illayana has the right to issue you with a challenge, and you do not have the right to deny her. Father’s rules.”
My fists clenched at my sides. He was right. Father invented the concept of the ring for several reasons. One of which was to settle any disagreements between us. He didn’t want us holding grudges or resentment towards each other. We would challenge them and fight it out instead. Once the fight was over, that was it. The matter was considered settled and we both had to move on.
Aleksandr finally let Illayana go and forced her to look him in the eyes. “Do you still—”
“Damn fucking straight I do,” she gritted out behind clenched teeth.
“Fine.” I cracked my neck. “Let’s get it over with, then.”
I reared back, avoiding Illayana’s fist, ducked underneath her arm and jabbed her in the ribs. She sucked in a pain-filled breath, her eyes widening. I dropped, stuck out a leg and spun, kicking her feet out right from under her and making her slam to the ground. I rose to my full height and placed a foot in the centre of her chest, keeping her down. I didn’t apply too much pressure. I wasn’t trying to kill her. But she’d pissed me off so much, I wanted to at least make it hurt a little. Or a lot.
We’d been fighting for the better part of an hour, and I feared there was no end in sight. My sister was angry. Beyond angry. I think a lot of that anger stemmed from being hurt. Instead of dealing with that emotion, she leant hard on her anger, letting herself succumb to it.
I was having a hard time holding her back anymore. She just kept coming, and coming, and coming, refusing to tap out or give up.
As the challenger, the fight couldn’t end until she ended it, by tap out or KO. And I was running out of options on ways to end this fight safely.
“Give up, Illayana.” I’d said those same three words multiple times already and she’d done the same thing she was doing then; she bared her teeth and shook her head, flat out refusing.
“I’m not stopping until I knock your fucking teeth out.”
I sighed, applying a bit more pressure, making her choke. “You’re going to look back on this moment and regret how much of a fucking idiot you’re being.”
She gasped. “No, I won’t.”
“Yes, you will. You’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting?” she screeched. “You lied to me for years. You hid this massive, traumatic event from me—”
“Look how you’re acting!” I screamed down at her. “Can you honestly blame us?”
Movement behind me made me glance over my shoulder, catching sight of Tatiana climbing into the ring. People stood around the outside, watching on. Aleksandr, Drea, Lukyan, Illayana’s guards and a few other soldiers. Way at the back of the crowd stood Ivan, his feet planted firmly on the ground and arms folded across his chest.
“Let her go, Nikolai,” Tatiana commanded.
I took my foot off Illayana’s chest and stepped back. She immediately jumped up and went to run at me again, but Tatiana wedged herself between us, stopping her.
“I’m the one you really want to fight, Illayana. Not Nikolai. If it were up to him, he would have told you all about it the moment that it happened. I’m the one who told him not to say a word.”
“Tatiana—”
“No, Nikolai.” She put a hand up, telling me not to say another word. “You know it’s true. I’m the one who wanted to keep our relationship a secret. I’m the one who didn’t want to tell them. The only person to blame here is me.”
There was nobody to blame. Tatiana and I had the right to keep what was happening between us private. We weren’t obligated to tell anyone a damn thing. I wanted to say it. I even opened my mouth to do so, but one glance from Tatiana had me snapping my mouth shut.
She looked at Illayana head on. “Once we do this, it’s over. We leave it all here. We move on. Agreed?”
Illayana pursed her lips in distaste, her eyes still burning with anger. She nodded once. “Agreed.” She stepped back and put her fists up.
Tatiana cracked her neck. She slipped a hand over her slender fingers and pulled off her rings, holding them out to me. I took them from her and she pulled out her earrings next, dropping them in my open palm.
“Tati—” I began.
“We both know this is the only way for this to end. She needs to fight it out. So I’m going to let her.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
She shrugged before giving me a wink. “If I wanted a sane, reasonable best friend, I wouldn’t have chosen Illayana.” She flicked her head to the side. “Go, quickly. Before she changes her mind.”
I didn’t care if she changed her mind. I didn’t care if she was still pissed off. I didn’t care if she wanted to fight until she couldn’t stand on her own two feet any longer. At that moment, all I cared about was Tatiana.
She was putting on a brave face, but I knew reliving the past was painful for her, and that she was willing to accept whatever punishment Illayana dealt out because inside, she felt like she deserved it for hiding it from her all these years. Illayana was her best friend. The guilt of keeping this secret weighed heavily on her every single day, and suddenly it was all coming out.
Exhaling an annoyed grunt, I turned and climbed down from the ring. Cheering rang out through the room, loud and boisterous as Tatiana and Illayana ran at each other.
“Here. For your eye.” Lukyan shoved an ice pack at my chest, keeping his gaze locked on the ring, refusing to even look at me. He—like Illayana—was angry that I never told him about what happened. His choice of punishment, however, was the silent treatment (as much as Lukyan was capable of being silent, that is). He viewed the loss of his “dazzling personality” (his words, not mine) as a punishment worse than death.
The crowd groaned when Tatiana landed a brutal right hook, Illayana’s head whipping to the side, and then planted a fast front kick to her chest, sending her flying back. I’d feel sorry for her if she wasn’t being such a brat.
Aleksandr walked up to my side. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I grunted, wincing when I lay the ice pack against my skin. Fuck, she got me good. My face, arm, shoulder and abdomen all ached. Despite her anger, she didn’t cause any lasting damage. I’d have a shit-ton of bruises though.
Aleksandr sighed. “Nikolai—”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Fine. But, later.” His tone brokered no debate on the matter, so I just nodded my head, and focused back on the fight.
