Reckless Heir (Underworld Kings)

The look my mother gave him was one of surprise, but there was something else, something that subtly screamed right in your face that she’d never see him as family. That, right there, the clouded hatred in her blue eyes, was reminiscent of my father looking through her.

Oh mamma.

She cleared her throat and inclined her head. “Claudia,” our mother said and I looked at my sister.

Playing it off like I didn’t want to rush over there and embrace her was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. But I couldn’t keep that mask in place when I saw the nasty bruise on her cheek.

“Claudia,” I whispered and was standing in front of her before I even realized I’d moved. “What happened?” I let my fingers hover over her face, afraid to touch her cheek and harm her further.

“It’s nothing. An accident.” My mother was the one to speak and I gritted my teeth as I kept my focus on my sister.

An accident. I felt my blood boil. “Father did this.” My voice was so low only Claudia would hear. And it wasn’t a question.

“It’s fine,” Claudia said in a hard whisper and I knew she didn’t want to talk about it. But she didn’t have to.

Our bastard of a father had hurt her.

I reached out to take her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, a slight smile covering my lips that I hoped conveyed I’d make sure everything would be okay.

When I exhaled and looked over my shoulder at Nikolai, I could see his focus on me, his jaw set hard. His gaze slid to Claudia, and I saw a muscle under his jaw tick as he no doubt saw the bruise she sported.

“I know Marco mentioned having a word with you before we sit down for dinner,” my mother addressed Nikolai.

He casually placed his hands inside his coat pocket and stared down at her with a blasé expression. “And where is he? He couldn’t greet us at the door? He sent you to be his errand boy?”

Although I didn’t approve of Nikolai speaking to my mother with such a hard tone, at that moment I didn’t care because my sister had been hurt and clearly my mother didn’t see any issue with it, not with her calling it an “accident”. So I couldn’t find the energy to care if she was offended. Which she clearly was by the startled gasp she made.

“Excuse me, Mr. Petrov?”

Nikolai gave her a tight smile. “You heard me. How about you tell Marco we’re waiting in here for him. If he needs to speak with me he can walk his ass to his own sitting room and address me himself instead of sending his wife to do it.”

My mother’s face turned red and she bristled, but she knew better than to say anything else. She smoothed her hands down her dress and nodded once before side-eyeing me and Claudia, and then leaving the room. When she was gone I exhaled and Claudia gave a little laughter.

“Holy shit,” my sister cursed and I held in my laughter at hearing her say it. “That was probably the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”

We didn’t say anything else and only a few moments passed before I heard the heavy footsteps of my father approaching, the sound of my mother’s heels clicking softly following. I pulled Claudia off the couch, my hand still in hers, and together we moved over to Nikolai. Once again I wasn’t ashamed to have Nikolai in my corner. I’d take any ally I could get.

The sitting room doors burst open and I felt my father’s fit of anger before I even saw him. His cheeks were colored beet red, his dark eyes narrowed on my husband. My mother stepped in behind him, turned to close the door, and then moved off to the side where she could clasp her hands behind her back and stay silent like a good little Italian wife my father had shaped.

For so long I hated this life for her, loathed how she’d been beaten and brainwashed, molded into the woman she was today. I’d love her regardless. I was still a little girl who wanted her mother to brush her hair and tell her everything was okay, but I saw things for how they were and how they’d never change.

I could have overlooked, could have ignored when she looked the other way when our father took his anger out on me or Gio. But what I would not stand for, what I would not ever be complacent in, was how she could let him do the same thing to Claudia after seeing how much it had hurt us.

She should’ve been my younger sister's champion. She should’ve protected her. She just should’ve been our mother.

I felt like I was watching a volcano about to erupt as I stared at my father. He all but had steam coming out of his ears.

“You come to my home, insult my wife, and demand things of me?”

I had a feeling this had nothing to do with how Nikolai had spoken to my mother, or how he wanted my father to join us in the sitting room. Maybe there were things going on in the background between the Bratva in the Cosa Nostra, things I’d never be privy to.

Things I didn’t want to know about.

There was definitely something going on between them. That was the only explanation for how my father was reacting right now. Or maybe it had nothing to do with any of that. Maybe there was something else. Surely it couldn’t be because of the Edoardo situation.

“You forget who you’re talking to, Bianchi.” Nikolai didn’t move, didn’t raise his voice. He was a pillar of calm and collected as he stared down my father.

And when Marco took a step forward I didn’t even sense the slightest tenseness in Nikolai.