“His Russian nickname,” he replied. “Natalia’s is Natasha, mine is Kostya. It is used to show affection and intimacy.”
“I see.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “She’s grown into quite the woman. When is she taking Moscow?”
“Soon,” Konstantin replied. “She’s been...hesitant.”
That surprised me. “Natalia? Hesitant? That isn’t something I would usually associate with her. Is she being hesitant or patient?”
“It remains to be seen.”
I cut him a look. “We need to revisit what we were talking about earlier.”
“I think I’d much rather prefer to revisit what we were doing earlier.” His eyes gleamed in the light of the foyer.
A flush rose up my cheeks at his meaning. I could still feel him inside me, the press of him against my inner flesh. We’d had to untangle from each other like Christmas lights, and from the disgusted look Artyom threw our way, he had known exactly what had been happening beneath the blanket.
I wasn’t embarrassed. Everyone knew that him and Roksana had done worse.
“You know that’s not what I’m referring to.”
Konstantin slipped his hands into his pockets. “Why are you so dead set on this, Elena? I have made how I feel clear.”
“I’ve made how I feel clear too,” I sniped. “I’m the only with any semblance of a plan, Kon. It’s been three years and not a single one of you has gotten close to her.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched. The argument was grating on him. “She is active now, Elena. She will fuck up and we’ll be there to catch it. Eventually, we will defeat her.”
“How long, Kon? Another three years? Should I leave and come back with a six-year-old?”
He sent me a dark look. “There is no way I’m letting you risk your life.”
“I have the best plan and you know it. You hate it but you know it.” I tapped a finger to my temple. “Who else do you think weighed the pros and cons, the problems and solutions? I have answers to questions you haven’t even asked.”
“It is not your intelligence I doubt, Elena.”
“Clearly it is,” I snapped. “You let Roman help you against Tatiana. Put us up against each other in a spelling bee and see who wins.”
“And if I put you up against each other in a fight?” Kon inquired. “Then who would win?”
“Tatiana prefers brain over brawl.”
His laughter danced off the marble and plaster. “Power is not given to you at the end of a quiz, Elena. This is not a world that values the intellect, but one that values violence. If anyone tells you different, they’re lying.” He added, “I have deep respect for your genius, Elena. You know I do. But you’re smart enough to know the world orbits the sun coated in the blood of innocents.”
I didn’t back down. Kon was right–this was not a world that valued intelligence, especially smart women. I had known that my entire life.
But this world had been shaped by men.
Tatiana was no man.
If you wanted to beat a woman, you had to fight like a woman.
I had lots of experience, more than any Vory of the Tarkhanov Bratva. I had been fighting like a woman since my first breath.
“I’ll beat her, Konstantin. I’ll keep us safe.”
“And if you don’t?” he asked. “If she wins? What will you have me tell our son when he asks why his mother has not returned?”
Leaving Nikolai...It hadn’t truly crossed my mind. Separating from my baby was like peeling the skin off my bones. But to keep him safe? I would make a bonfire of my skeleton.
Like he heard his name, Nikolai came bumbling back into the foyer. Konstantin and I stopped our conversation, not risking our son overhearing anything.
“Mama, Mama, look!” Nikolai laughed as he bounded over. He held out his palm, revealing a dead cockroach in the center of it.
“No!” I smacked it out of his palm. “We do not pick up dead animals.”
“Why ever not?” Natalia came floating out of the dining room. Evva held her hand but had no bug of her own.
Nikolai looked at the fallen cockroach, crestfallen. I heaved him up onto my hip, almost tipping over with how big he was getting.
“I don’t want him getting sick, Natalia.”
“Cockroaches are actually very clean,” she told me. “It is a myth that they are disgusting.”
“I don’t think it is.” This came from Danika as she entered the room. She stopped beside Natalia and threw her a charming smile, showing it was all in good fun. “They look gross.”
Nikolai showed his cousin his empty palm. “Uh oh.”
“Uh oh, indeed, Kolya.”
I took him into the kitchen to help him wash his hands. God forbid he put them into his mouth with the remnants of a dead cockroach left on them. Konstantin remained in the foyer, speaking in a low voice to his niece.
Niko was upset with me for getting rid of his ‘new friend’ and made a show of wriggling in my arms until he was using me as a lever to lean as far away as possible.
Any other bug would’ve been completely fine. Preferably alive, but I could make exceptions. All bugs except cockroaches.
I sat him down on the bench and washed his hands with soap. He put up a fight until I coaxed him with bubbles. Eventually, he obeyed even if he did try to eat some of the bubbles.
I sighed and turned off the tap, toweling his hands dry. “What are we going to do, my wild boy?”
Nikolai smiled at me. “Wash my hands.”
Some part of me crumbled beneath his innocence. Nikolai had no knowledge of Tatiana or her wickedness. He didn’t know his father and I were fighting over his future, and the future of his family. In Niko’s world, his hands needed to be cleaned and they had been. Simple and efficient.
“We’re done. You’re free.” I kissed him on the cheek, breathing in his baby scent. “I meant about everything else.”
He held up his hands. “I dunno.”
“You don’t know, hmm?” I tickled his belly and he leaned back, giggling. “I was relying on you to have the answers, baby.”
“Dunno!” he repeated.
“Yeah,” I laughed but sobered as I said, “I dunno, either.”
When we came back out to the foyer, Evva was hiding behind Konstantin’s legs. He had a comforting hand over her head.
The reason Evva was hiding was because Natalia had a golden yellow scorpion in her palm. Its tail curled upward, the claw catching the light.
My son went toward it immediately.
I grabbed his shoulder but couldn’t help my own curious self-asking, “What type of scorpion is that?”
Natalia was happy to answer my questions. “A deathstalker. But I call her Lada.”
“I’m not going to ask how you brought that into the country.”
She smiled. “Let me worry about my business, Auntie Lena. Do you want to hold Lada, Kolya?”
He started forward but it was Konstantin who dragged him back. “My three-year old is not holding a scorpion.”
Nikolai’s jaw dropped. “Why not?” he whined.
“Yeah, Kostya, why not?” Natalia repeated.
He sent his niece a warning look–the harshest I had ever seen him with her. Natalia fell silent but her saccharine smile told me she hadn’t given up.