38. Andrey
38
ANDREY
"Stop!"
Viktor freezes where he stands. All the sound drains out of the room, but his fist is still curled in Mila's hair.
To her credit, Mila doesn't look scared. She's pissed .
Her cheek is red from where he must've slapped her. Judging from the scratch marks scored into Viktor's cheeks, she gave back as good as she got.
"Let her go," I snarl.
"This is a private matter between husband and wife, brother. This is for me to?—"
"You have three seconds to release her or I will cut your hand off at the wrist." My deathly quiet warning has the intended effect; he drops his hand at once.
Mila scrambles to her feet and glares at Viktor with an expression that gives new meaning to the phrase, If looks could kill.
I look back and forth between the glowering couple. "What happened?"
"I'll tell you what happened!" Viktor seethes. "I walked into our bedroom and?—"
"I was talking to Mila," I interrupt.
Viktor flushes scarlet and his hands ball into fists once more. His knuckles are split and bloody.
Mila takes a deep breath. "Viktor walked into my bedroom?—"
" Our bedroom!" Viktor inserts.
"I had no idea you considered it ‘ ours .' Especially given the number of whores you've entertained there."
"I don't need to pay for sex! Just because you have no interest in fucking me anymore doesn't mean?—"
"Enough," I snap. They both fall silent until I nod at Mila to continue.
"He walked in on me and—" She drops her gaze to her feet. "On me and Leonty."
Viktor's eyes are trained on me, watching, waiting for my reaction. I keep my expression carefully masked as I process that.
Do I wish Mila had chosen someone other than my cousin to have an affair with? Obviously.
Am I going to intervene? Not a fucking chance.
"Well?" Viktor demands when I don't say anything. "What do you have to say to that? She was fucking our cousin in my fucking bed!"
I glare at my sniveling brother. "Let's get one thing straight right now: this is my house. Therefore, it's my fucking bed."
Viktor's eyes bulge wide with outrage. "Did you not hear me? She was fucking Leonty!"
"Unlike you, brother, I'm not slow. I heard her the first time. Speaking of…" I glance towards Mila. "Where is Leonty?"
" He—" She inclines her head in Viktor's direction. "—knocked him out! He clubbed Leonty on the back of the head while he was checking on me."
"You attacked a man while his back was turned?" I ask in disgust.
"He attacked me first!"
"Because you slapped me!" Mila cries.
Viktor's face is red and mottled. "You fucking deserved it, you treacherous bitch!"
"She has done nothing more than you deserve," I interject, causing them both to go silent again.
Viktor gawks at me. "You're taking her side?"
"You've been conducting your own affairs out in the open since your marriage. Why shouldn't Mila do the same?"
"Because I won't allow it!" He sounds like a child. I half-expect him to stamp his foot.
"Maybe you didn't." It's only with some effort that I keep the smirk off my face. "But I did."
The color drains from Viktor's cheeks. His mouth opens and closes, but he can't find the words.
I turn to Mila. "Go check on Leonty."
She scurries out of the room without looking back.
Viktor shakes his head when she's gone. "What do you mean, ‘you did'?"
"I gave Mila my permission to have her own affairs."
"You… You what?" His fists tremble at his sides. "You had no right!"
I take a step forward and Viktor stumbles back into the sofa. "I have every right. Do I need to remind you who I am? The crown I wear?"
He gulps, and I wonder for a moment if Viktor is smart enough not to run his mouth in the face of my wrath.
But I'm overestimating him once again. "You are my brother."
"A title I grow more and more ashamed of every day."
"You'd let her make a cuckold of me?"
"It won't be the worst thing people say about you."
"I have a reputation?—"
"You have a reputation as a drunk, a liar, a bully, a slacker. It will surprise no one that your wife is distracting herself with other, more worthy men."
Viktor scowls and straightens up again, though the inches of height between us have never been more glaring. "I will not let this stand. You might be happy to make me a laughingstock among the underworld, but I will not tolerate it."
"Do your worst, Viktor." I smile. "But if you lay one hand on Mila's head, you will answer to me."
"Is she fucking you, too?" he mutters.
If I hadn't just spent some of my pent-up energy with Natalia, I might've knocked him across the room for that. I've flayed men alive for saying far less. As it is, I pretend not to have heard him. "The same goes for Leonty. If I find you've so much as whispered an insult in his direction, there will be consequences."
He sags. "Why protect him?"
"Because, like Mila, he's more valuable to me than you are."
"He's nothing more than a vor ," Viktor hisses. "You have plenty more where he came from."
"He's a vor with a critical mission. I won't trust just anyone to protect the mother of my child."
It's only when Viktor's jaw drops that I realize he didn't even know.
Idiot that he is, he's paid no attention to the chaos of the last month. I hid nothing—he's just too stupid to have seen the signs of change coming.
"Fuck." His eyes dart to the window, through which a sliver of the pool house can be seen. "When did this happen?"
"Probably while you were drunk and balls-deep in a woman who wasn't your wife."
Before Viktor can respond, Shura sticks his head in the room. "Everything under control here?"
Viktor storms off, brushing into Shura as he leaves.
"Make sure someone keeps an eye on Viktor," I order in a weary rasp. "He's angry; it makes him even dumber than usual."
"I've got you covered," Shura says. "And if you're looking for Leonty, he's in the medical room upstairs. They're getting him checked out as we speak."
I make my way there, intent on seeing just how much damage my cowardly brother managed to inflict on our cousin. But before I push the door all the way open, I hear Mila's voice.
"… already bruising." I shift forward and can see she's next to his bed, her fingers tracing along the contours of Leonty's bruised forehead and swollen jaw.
"I'll be fine. The bruises are nothing." He touches her red cheek with the tips of his fingers. "It's this bruise I'm worried about. I should have killed him."
"He's not worth it."
He drops his head, regret pooling in the corners of his mouth. "Was this? Worth it, I mean?"
"If you're asking me if you are worth the chaos my marriage is currently in, then yes," she snaps. "Yes, it most certainly is."
"I will walk away if that's what?—"
"It's not what I want," she insists. "And fuck you for even suggesting it, Leonty. You are the only thing I want. Viktor's just gonna have to deal with that."
"And what about everyone else?" Leonty presses. "What about your father? What if it gets out?—"
"Then it gets out." Mila grabs his face and rests her forehead against his. "And we endure the consequences."
Leonty sighs, but there's no mistaking the proud smile hidden behind his bruises. He leans in to kiss her.
I pull the door closed the rest of the way and walk back downstairs, my head so crowded that it's almost painful.
What I just witnessed wasn't a man and a woman entangled in a complicated affair, but a star-crossed couple who are genuinely in love. The same thing is threatening to bloom between myself and Natalia… if only I let it.
But can I? Should I?
When I stand to lose so much more?