There was no way I’d let Sergei get close to Katya, so I had Mrs. Price set up a conference room in the hotel. I arrived fifteen minutes early to find my brother and his security detail already in place.

“I’ve got extra men on the doors. Tony will stand guard outside. Since there are two of us, Sergei can bring in a man if he wants to even the numbers.”

It didn’t matter that Alex was the one who desperately wanted out of the business; he still acted like the Godfather when it came to our safety.

“What do you know about him?” I knew Alex would have someone dig up everything they could.

“He’s thirty-five. Never been married. Hates the Irish. Moved up in rank quickly because of his vicious nature. If he can’t talk you out of what he wants, he’ll kill you to get it. Word on the street is, he wants the territory. Did Katya tell you anything?”

I thought about the hours I held her last night. The tears she spilled over her lost family. How Yuri had played with her life as if it held no more importance than a poker chip.

“She said the same. That he might look like he had a conscience but to not let that influence me. He was after everything and would do what it took to get it.”

“So basically he would have married her. Killed Yuri, got her pregnant and then she would have disappeared.”

Hearing it all lined out as if it was the directions to a recipe for success made the bile rise in my throat.

“He will never get his hands on her. Never stick his dick inside her. She’s mine.”

“Got it.” He walked to the table and took a seat. “I guess Dad’s message of if it floats, flies or fucks, then rent it didn’t resonate with either of us.”

“Why rent when it can own you?” I laughed because even though my sentence was said in jest, it was true. One time being inside of Katya had me hooked. One night sleeping with her in my arms had me reeled in for life. That woman owned me. I’d be smart not to let her catch on.

The door swung open, and two men walked inside. I recognized them both from Capone’s and the funeral. I turned to my brother. “Let me introduce you to Sergei.”

“I assume since there are two of you, it’s okay for me to have Timur present.” He looked at the man who was as big as a mountain.

“Of course. This is a friendly meeting.” I walked over to the table by the wall. “Shall we table our weapons?”

The men looked at each other and followed me. I took my Glock from my waistband and set it on the table. Alex did the same. We were leaving ourselves vulnerable as a show of good faith. If things turned south, the reality was, Sergei might get a shot off but Tony and Sam and the others would finish them off. No one would leave here alive if a shot was fired.

Timur took a gun from his belt, one from his ankle, brass knuckles from his pocket and a knife from his sock. Alex and I looked on in surprise. Sergei pulled out a few surprises as well. He had two guns. One tucked into his belt and another strapped to a holster inside his shirt.

“Did you come prepared for a war?” I asked.

Sergei laughed, “No, if I thought it was war, I would have armed myself better.”

I led the men to the table in the center of the room.

“I invited you here so we could negotiate.”

“Did you sleep with my future wife last night?” His voice was tinged with humor.

“Yes, I did, but she will never be your wife. You don’t want her, but I do.”

Sergei lifted his shoulders. “I do want her, but not in the way you do. We could come to an arrangement. She will marry me and sleep with you.”

Heat of agitation boiled in my veins. “You want her to bear you a child. I will not have you raise my son. Katya deserves more than to be whored out by Yuri or you.”

“You love my fiancée?” He smiled that damn arrogant smile that said I’d given him the power.

“Love has nothing to do with it. Katya is not property to be traded. She’s a human being and a good woman.”

Timur and Sergei looked at each other, and they both laughed. “It is sad she was born a girl. Her choices don’t matter. You should know that. In our world, she’s a commodity. She’s Yuri’s daughter and born to be wed and bred.”

It took all my self-control not to fist up and throw a punch. “What if I said she’s not Yuri’s daughter?”

Sergei’s eyes grew wide. “Of course she is. Why would he raise someone else’s bastard?”

“Revenge.” Alex said. “As it turns out, Katya is not Yuri’s daughter. He told her as much yesterday after the funeral. He gave her her mother’s journal, which proved Katya belonged to another man. Then he told her how he callously killed her mother by throwing her off the balcony. Katya was almost eight. It’s not like he could make her disappear when people would have asked questions. He couldn’t kill her, because that would have been suspicious, so he raised her as his and planned to use her to get our holdings.”

Alex told him of the plot to take out the Wildes one at a time.

I stepped in and added a spin on the truth. I reached into my pocket and grabbed the printout of Yuri’s financials. In yellow highlighter, I had circled what I knew to be a hit on me. If I were lucky, Sergei wouldn’t be privy to that information.

“This here is the payment for a hit on you.”

Timur turned red in the face. Sergei fisted his hands and pounded on the table. “How do you know?”

“Are you asking how I got this information, or how do I know it’s a hit?”

He frowned. “I’m asking both.”

I smiled. “I’m a hacker. It’s what started all this shit to begin with.” Katya was right in one sense. The day I found her money trail was the day it all began for us, but it wasn’t her fault. It was Yuri’s. He started this the day he killed Katya’s mother.

I filled Sergei in on the history. Of course, I left out the parts about Katya stealing Yuri’s money. There was no reason to implicate her.

“Katya has these skills too?”

I laughed. “No, she can probably open a door remotely or maybe get inside your computer to rifle around. I’d say she could even bypass an alarm system, but hack into a bank? No.” She didn’t have the same set of skills I had. Hell, I’d hacked into the IRS once and erased all the tax information for my favorite teacher while also requesting an audit on the asshole who tried to give me a C in chemistry.

Sergei and Timur exchanged words in Russian. “None of this matters.”

Those were his words, but the way Timur’s eyes turned black meant it mattered plenty.

“It matters because if he kills you, then everything you’re after is gone. You are after everything, right?”

I gave him an I’ve-got-your-number look. “I will have everything.”

I cleared my throat. “Everything but Katya. She’s off the table. Hell, she may not even be in the will.” I hadn’t considered that, but I imagine there was no way Yuri would leave anything to a daughter who didn’t share his gene pool. “He’s not going to leave her anything, so she’s worthless to you.” I took the printouts that sat in front of Sergei, folded them and stuck them in my pocket.

He gave me a serial killer smile. “That’s where you’re wrong. She’s worth everything to you, so that gives her value. What will you give up for her?”

Here it was. This is where the rubber met the road. “What do you want?” I figured if I could make him walk away for cash, I’d be lucky.

“That’s simple. I want everything.”

Alex pushed back and stood. Timur postured himself by pressing his palms to the table. He was in ready to go into fight mode.

“He wants what Yuri wanted. He wants the casino,” Alex said.

“No deal,” I replied. “It’s not for sale or trade.”

Sergei laughed. “But Katya is, or so it would seem.”

I hated that she’d become a commodity. That somehow she could be bartered and traded like a possession.

“What do you want?”

“If I can’t have the casino, then I expect you to hand over my fiancée.”

“You don’t love her, you don’t care about her. Just let her go. I’ll help you get what you want. I can use my skills to get you places you could only imagine.”

“No!” my brother yelled. “We are out of the business.”

Sergei looked between us. “Looks like that’s changed. You owe me, and you owe my family. You’ve stolen my fiancée, and you killed my cousin. Those are enormous debts that must be paid.” He rose and walked to the table to get his weapons. Timur followed suit. “I’ll be in touch.”

They walked out of the room.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Alex yelled. “You played right into his hand, and now he has you by the gonads.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Everyone has something to hide, Sergei does too. I have to find the skeleton in his closet. He’s got to have a weak spot as well.”

“You better find it fast because we have less than three weeks before the shit goes down. Sergei intends to claim everything. You can see it in his eyes. He’ll stop at nothing until he has it all.”

Alex was right. Sergei had soulless eyes. We walked back to the table and grabbed our weapons. Alex headed home to Faye while I took the elevator up to my apartment.

“Stay there,” Stella said as I walked inside. She rushed to the dining room, the lights dimmed, and the flicker of candlelight danced on the walls.

The air was filled with the scent of garlic and cheese and something sweet like flowers.

“Okay, you can come in,” Stella waved me into the formal dining room that was set for two. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “She made dinner with my help. Make sure you praise her. I get the feeling she doesn’t hear good things often.” She walked out of the dining room, and I heard the front door click shut.

In front of me was a bottle of cabernet airing. I filled the two wine glasses and waited. Her soft footsteps sounded behind me.

“I’m so glad you’re safe. I was worried about you.” She moved to my side and placed a platter of spaghetti and meatballs on the table, but that’s not what I noticed most. She was dressed in red. Her hair was done. Her makeup was on. Those damn lips looked kissable. This wasn’t the Katya normally filled with anxious energy. She didn't look like a deer in the headlights, ready to bolt. She looked at peace.