Deceitful Vows by Brook Wilder
Chapter 28
Andrei
Her cryptic answer only makes me want to dig deeper.
So far, no one has been able to tell me anything worth knowing about Gerald Reyes. He’s a common man with an ordinary life and unfortunate problems. But a deadly assassin lurks in his past. Something isn’t adding up.
Sonya taps on my office door, holding her phone as she enters. “I saw your text. What do you want to talk about?”
“Paige.” I’m sitting on the couch where Paige left me, still admiring her reaction. She left the office with grace and walked out like the queen she resembled at our fake wedding—with her head held high and dignity in each step.
Sonya sits down beside me, rests her elbow on the back of the couch, and faces me. “She’s not what I was expecting.”
I quirk an eyebrow. “What were you expecting?”
“A woman that can kick ass.” She shrugs. “She seems a little frail.”
“She has hidden talents,” I reply, avoiding her gaze. “And secrets that I need your help to find out, Sonichka.”
Sonya sits up and tosses away a short laugh. “Shouldn’t you have found out about her before the wedding? Mama adores her. She says you’re in love.”
“Why would she say something like that?” I ask, staring hard at her.
Sonya laughs again, not easily intimidated by me. “She says only people in love fight the way you two do.”
I get up quickly and grab a glass from the bar. Dmitri finished the scotch, so I settle for whiskey. “Love is not a possibility—a pakhan has no time for love.” I pour it neat. “I’ve seen how that ends up.”
“You are not Vasily, no matter how much you think you are.” Sonya sighs and shakes her head as she gets up to sit at my desk. “There’s no need to act like him, and every time you do, it breaks Mama’s heart.” She runs her hands over the smooth teak. “Maybe you should be more lenient with your bride. A few freedoms will make her feel less like a prisoner, more like a wife.” She smirks as I tighten my jaw and glare. “Mama told me.”
The whiskey goes down smooth and leaves a slight sting in my throat. Vasily is dead, and I’m competing with a ghost. Sonya spins the chair around and gracefully leaps to her feet. She snatches the glass out of my hand and drains it in a single smooth motion, wrinkling her nose. She never came here when Vasily was alive. Mother feared what would happen if he ever saw her.
“You will gain more trust from a woman as her caring husband than as some emotionless pakhan, Andrushka.” She hands me back the empty glass. “You are the best one to get her secrets. Remember, it’s easier to attract bees with honey instead of vinegar.”
“Her father knew Sidorenko.”
Sonya nods, and her bubbly mood shifts to thoughtful. She hasn’t been raised in the Bratva, but she’s witnessed enough from a close distance to recognize the names. She knows the players and who to avoid.
“Mama says the wedding was fake, but the marriage is real,” Sonya continues and pats my arm. “For her sake, I will spend the day with Paige. Help her see the perks of being a pakhan’s wife. Maybe she’ll appreciate it and you a little more.”
I place the glass down, not bothering with a refill. “And if she trusts you, she might talk to you.”
Sonya sighs as if the battle has been lost. “Don’t ask me to be your spy, Andrushka. Not with your wife.”
“She’s the key.” My voice is insistent. “And her father may help me find The Thief, Sonichka. I have a duty before anything else, and that duty requires me to know her secrets.”
Sonya tilts her head to the side and stares at me the same way Mother does. “But not to fall in love, my dear brother?”
And before I have a chance to respond, she’s out the door.
***
We rarely speak at dinner. Mother insists upon not eating with us. She claims that she wants us to get to know one another better while she spends more time with Sonya. But I think it’s the sight of the two of us fighting in the same room where Father used to beat her that gives her some pause.
Paige pokes at her plate with her fork, moving her food around to hide the fact she’s not eating.
I put my napkin on the table, and she looks up. “My sister Sonya wants to spend the day with you in Twin Rivers,” I say.
She shrugs. “That’s nice.”
For a second, I frown, then recover. Honey, not vinegar. “She was concerned about the misunderstanding.”
Paige’s eyes widen into circles. “You told her?”
“I didn’t need to.” Now, I’m the one who shrugs. “And anyway, you are related now. She wants to show you the perks of being part of the Bratva.”
“You mean looting and killing are not perks?” she asks sarcastically.
I scowl at her, and the smirk vanishes off her face. She concentrates on her food again. What was once a gourmet meal on her plate now resembles a cranky toddler’s mess.
“Sorry,” she replies. “It’s nice of her to ask. And I’m also sorry for how I reacted.”
I don’t speak until Paige looks up so that I have her full attention. “I admire the fire I saw in you as you stormed toward me. It’s a reminder of what drew me to you in the first place. Courage when I least expect it.” My voice is deep, revealing too much. “I like that you want to keep what belongs to you.”
She scowls. “You have no idea.” She looks down at her plate again and mashes a pea with the tines of her fork.
A moment later, she asks, “If Sonya’s your sister, then why wasn’t she at the wedding? And if she’s your half-sister, then who was her father?”
I lift the wineglass to my lips but don’t drink. My own thoughts halt my hand as the past reappears in my mind. The memory will never go away.
A sobbing woman clutching her swollen belly on the floor as blood pours from her lips. A helpless boy screaming futilely at a monster through a haze of defiant tears. And all around them, a rain of fists falls like a storm amidst the sound of cracking bones.
“We all have our secrets,” I tell her and then take a sip of wine. “And this one is Eva’s.”
