Rough Exile

Chapter Twenty-Four

Bythetimewe got back to the rest of the group, they were sitting around the ridiculously long dinner table. It now smelled like a distillery. The loud talk died down as soon as we walked in.

No one looked angry, but they all watched Ilya and Bron with wary eyes.

Bron sat at the head of the table in the spot Vas usually occupied. It was a statement that raised no objections. Ilya helped me into the seat next to Bron, then stood between and behind us, like a bodyguard. He’d left the axe back in our room, but when he’d gotten dressed, he’d strapped his sheathed hunting knife to his belt.

“I know it’s getting late, but I thought we should discuss this as a family before going to bed,” Bron said.

A few of the older ones nodded.

“Since none of you called the police, I’m assuming you won’t?”

There was a general agreement to that.

“I take it our father wasn’t well liked in the family?”

The brothers and their wives stared at him, not answering, although Dmitry snorted.

“We only want to know if you plan to cut off our allowances,” Kirill admitted.

His wife, a petite brunette, leaned closer to him. “And what you expect to receive from us in return.”

I cleared my throat. “So you acknowledge that either Bron or Ilya, or both, are heads of the family now?”

Yuri stood. “Ilya can’t be head of the family. He’s nothing to us.”

What the fuck?

“What?” Bron demanded.

Several people at the table looked at Bron, incredulous.

“You have two eyes—look at him,” Kirill said, gesturing at Ilya as though we might not have seen him before. “Everyone knows Ilya’s mother was having an affair with her bodyguard. Vas had been in Portugal for six months when she got pregnant with Ilya. None of us were to speak of it, but we all knew.”

“Vas wasn’t my father?” Ilya looked more terrifying than when he’d been covered in blood.

“No,” Alexander confirmed. “Vas didn’t want anyone to know. He claimed you as his own and then quietly got rid of your mother and her guard. They were stupid to think Vas wouldn’t take revenge.”

Ilya isn’t Bron’s brother.

Neither of them reacted. I had to fight down a sob of relief. I got to my feet with all the dignity I could muster and left the room.

There was so much emotion trapped in my throat, it felt clogged. I swallowed, and then swallowed again, trying to calm down and willing the tears away. Ilya came out, too, and walked past me, putting his hands on his hips and looking steadfastly at the ceiling. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him, but I knew if I did, the tears he was trying to hold back would come. It wasn’t the time.

“I’m so sorry about your parents.”

He turned back to me and pressed his lips together. “I wish I could say I missed my mother, but I barely remember her.” He brushed a lock of hair behind my ear.

Bron came around the corner a moment later. His lips were trembling just enough for me to notice. He caught Ilya by the cheeks and kissed him hard on the mouth, then on the forehead before letting him go. He kissed me, too, then turned and wordlessly went back into the dining room.

“None of you will challenge me being head of this family?” I heard Bron demand.

Both Ilya and I moved back into the room, not about to leave him to deal with these people alone. I took my seat again, but Bron and Ilya stood to either side of Vas’s chair.

Alexander held up his hands. “There’s a reason none of us challenged his decision when he named you as his successor. None of us want it. We just don’t want our incomes to vanish.”

“Good.”

“So, it’s business as usual then?” Alexander asked. “Oleg and Dmitry will clean up the mess and get rid of the body.”

“Vas didn’t have people for that?” Ilya asked.

“No. We take care of most things in-house. We were all raised to fill certain roles. I do the accounting.”

Bron grunted. “It’s not going to be business as usual. As far as I’m concerned, Vas’s business died with him. My plan is to liquidate his assets and divide them equally between us. If any of you want to keep things running, you can do it with your own portion of the money.”

The silence that fell around the table seemed stunned rather than angry at the idea. They all stared at Bron.

Kirill got to his feet and opened his mouth, then closed it, gestured, then opened it again. “So…you’re saying that as the new head of this family, you’re choosing to set us free?”

Alexander shook himself like a dog who’d come in from a downpour. “It may take some time to liquidate everything.”

“I could go to music school,” Dmitry said under his breath.