He was met with stony silence. That might have cowed him in the past, but Sascha wasn’t going to be intimidated this time. He straightened in his chair, wiping at his wet cheeks. “I’m staying in Maine, Ivan. And I’m keeping that house. I’ll take one of our legitimate businesses to run, working remotely. My salary will reflect my current allowance. If I run it all into the ground, we can reassess. You may visit when—or if, I suppose—you can find it in yourself to be a human and not a mobster.”
Ivan tapped his finger against the desk, lips twitching into a small smile. “Any other demands?”
“Yes, actually. I need the address for the Carusos’…offices? Headquarters? Evil lair? Whatever you want to call it. You won’t be taking that deal with them.”
“There’s a meeting scheduled,” Ivan told him immediately. “Tomorrow night. The main higher-ups of the family will be there.”
Kai was right, Sascha realized. He almost laughed. “You planned this, didn’t you? For me to bring Kai and fix it for you.”
Ivan kept tapping his finger. “Maybe I’ve grown tired of cleaning up our family’s messes all on my own.”
“Yourmesses,” Sascha corrected.
Ivan shrugged. “Alexei started it.”
“Alexei just wanted out,” Sascha told him for the hundredth time. “That’s all he ever wanted. To have his own life.”
Ivan’s gaze grew distant. “Some of us don’t have that luxury.”
Sascha wasn’t sure if Ivan meant their mother or himself. But Ivan would have to figure that one out on his own. Sascha didn’t have it in him to dig into Ivan’s trauma for him. He was just…tired. And unbearably sad. For his mother. For his brothers. For himself. He wanted to get to his apartment and regroup. To be held by someone bigger and stronger until he didn’t feel so fragile anymore.
“I need the Book now, Ivan,” he said wearily.
Ivan bent his head, unlocking the top drawer of his desk. He removed the Book from it, pushing it toward Sascha across the desk. “You’ll return it to me when you’re done.”
“So you can summon more demons?” Sascha asked.
“A human may only participate in one bargain. So that one tells me,” Ivan said, tilting his head toward the inner office door.
“Then why do you want it back?”
“Call it security.”
He was still paranoid, then. Still thought Alexei would summon one of his own, to have one more monster than Ivan at his disposal.
Because it was what Ivan would have done in his place.
“Whatever,” Sascha sighed, not caring one way or another anymore. It didn’t matter if Ivan was lying. Let him summon a thousand demons, if it made him feel better. Sascha just wanted to be…away. “I’ll bring it back.”
19
Kai
Kai stood at the door, not precisely eavesdropping but listening for tone. Should even a harsh word be spoken between Sascha and his brother, he’d be there. He didn’t trust Ivan with Sascha, not fully.
He didn’t trust anyone in that cursed family with his soon-to-be mate.
The damned incubus—seemingly not at all concerned with the goings-on in the larger office—sauntered over to the window, looking down at the busy street below. “It’s changed an awful lot, hasn’t it? The human realm.”
Kai glared at his back, not in the mood for niceties. “What are you doing here?”
The incubus turned, a false expression of innocence on his face. “Why, Kai. A bargain, same as you.”
Kai scoffed. “And what possible use could a mobster have for an incubus?”
Nix’s specialty was, as he would put it, desire. Kai called it lust, plain and simple. There were a myriad of ways he couldbe used—igniting passion between those who lacked it; creating intricate, realistic fantasies brought to life for his summoners; or, occasionally, serving as the object of desire himself.
None of which seemed particularly helpful for a power-hungry mobster.
