“But…why? Why would he do that?” If Sascha was hurt by one of his guardians being the reason he’d gotten stabbed, he didn’t show it. Confusion seemed to be his main emotion.
Ivan shrugged a shoulder, the movement jerky. “I don’t know why.”
“Is he dead?”
“Not yet.” Ivan grimaced. If fucking only. “Jace has eyes on him for the moment. Sergei put out a hit on me, but its failure seems to have left him scrambling.”
Sascha nodded thoughtfully. He toyed at the handle of his mug. “Why are you telling me this, anyway? You’ve always liked keeping me in the dark.”
“We could use a show of strength,” Ivan said shortly, his eyes darting to Sascha’s demon.
Sascha straightened. “You want Kai.”
“Yes.”
Sascha and Kai shared a look. “We said no more Mafia stuff,” Sascha said with a heavy sigh, slumping slightly. “But let me think it over.”
“It could be a step toward legitimacy,” Ivan found himself saying, thinking of his conversation with Nix the night before. “A step away from the less savory aspects of the business.”
Sascha met his gaze. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,” he said, a surprising amount of steel in his tone.
“This whole plan was Nix’s idea?” Kai asked in his low rumble, speaking for the first time since the conversation had begun.
“Yes. He’s been…useful to me,” Ivan admitted. “He reads people well. He can help figure out those who are truly loyal and those that will need to be removed.”
“He does read people well,” Kai agreed. Then, abruptly, “He likes the human realm.”
“I know.”
“He was desperate to return to it,” Kai continued, his gaze locked onto Ivan’s now. “Desperate enough to take an unfavorable contract.”
Ivan’s fists clenched again. He didn’t like to think of the contract as unfavorable so much as…flexible. “So it seems,” he said coolly.
“So desperate to stay in the human realm he’ll even put up with the likes of you.”
“Again,” Ivan said through clenched teeth. “So it seems.”
“I’d be careful if I were you. If he brings up talk of a bond…just know it’s nothing personal.” Kai’s blue eyes started to take on a subtle glow. “Desperate desires lead to desperate acts.”
Sascha turned in his seat, wide-eyed. “Kai!”
Kai scowled guiltily, reminding Ivan of a toddler caught misbehaving, the glow in his eyes subsiding. “I’m only saying.”
What the fuckwashe saying? Ivan let anger over the demon’s unwelcome meddling push aside the unexpected pang Kai’scomments had wrought. It was stupid of him, that he hadn’t considered Nix was putting up with him just to stay. It was only…Nix seemed to delight so in tormenting him.
But maybe Nix delighted equally in tormenting all humans.
Maybe Ivan was nothing special to a demon like that.
“He’s just being protective is all.” Sascha laid a hand on Ivan’s clenched fist, like Ivan needed comforting.
Ivan shook off his unease, leaning into the familiar anger instead. He drew his hand back. “Protective of his demon kin. Protective of you too.” He narrowed his eyes. “Tell me, Sascha, why would your demon need to protect you from me?”
For all their brutal upbringing, Ivan had never once harmed Sascha. No matter Sascha’s forgetfulness, or flightiness, or sass. Ivan had never laid a finger on him.
Old Sascha—the one from before the stabbing, before Maine, before Kai—would have taken the hint from Ivan’s words and said something silly or inane. But this new Sascha met Ivan’s gaze squarely. “Because youhavehurt me in the past, intentional or not.” He sipped his coffee, clearly not expecting a response to that, and they sat in silence for a moment.
Ivan could let it be. He always had before, when Sascha acted up about their dynamic. When he brought up Ivan’s supposed failures as a brother.
