Satin Princess(37)

Lev is looking out at the panorama, but Yulian is hunched in a chair staring at his feet. I walk in and they both turn to me.

“How was the flight?” I ask before either one of them can speak.

Lev is the first to answer. “Fine. The stewardess was a pleasant distraction.”

On another day, I might have made some salacious comment. But I’m not in the mood today. “Did you enjoy the jet I paid for, Yulian?”

Annoyance flashes across his face. “Let’s get right to it, then. Please remind me that you’re the all-powerful brother and I’m just the screw-up.”

“Took the words right out of my mouth, sobrat.”

He sighs. “It was a mistake, okay? I know that. I fucking know that.”

“You mistook a random woman’s corpse for Marina’s?” I press. “Pretty massive mistake, don’t you think, brother?”

“I told you before, her face was completely obliterated.”

“And?” I ask in a bored voice.

“And the body looked like hers! I mean, fuck—it had Marina’s clothes, Marina’s jewelry. You saw the signet ring she wore all the time. She never took that thing off. I gave it to you myself.”

“Almost as if Marina gave it to the corpse when she dressed it up.”

“Okay!” Yulian says, sounding frustrated with himself as well as me. “It feels obvious now. She clearly fucked up the corpse’s face to hide the fact that it wasn’t her.”

“You burned the body,” I growl.

“Yes, I burned the damn body. I was trying to protect you!” he says, raising his voice. “I knew that her death would be pinned on you. Bad marriage, dead wife, the husband is the first person people look at. I knew that Rodion would want to see her body if I didn’t dispose of it properly before he found out. So yeah, I made an executive decision and I burned the body. You’d spent the last few years of your life in hell because of that woman. I wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible.”

“Is that the real story?”

He exhales in frustration. “Why else would I have done it?”

I raise my eyebrows. “You tell me.”

“Anton—”

“Just say it, Yulian. It’s obvious to all of us. It clearly wasn’t suicide and you knew that because of the state of the body. So just fucking say it. It’s right there.”

“Then why do I have to fucking say it?” he asks angrily.

“Because I want to know that you understand exactly how and when you fucked up.”

He looks towards Lev helplessly. But I see the exact moment he admits defeat. I see the fight leave his eyes.

“Fine. I burned the body because I thought you killed her.”

“Even after I told you I didn’t?”

His jaw tightens and I know that I’m pushing him too hard. He never liked that, even as a child. Even when it was our father pushing him.

And he worshiped the man.

“I didn’t believe you.”

I nod. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“What the hell do you expect from me, Anton?” he blurts. “You hated her! Things between you two got so violent, so fast. You fantasized about killing her all the time. So when she turned up dead right after that huge fight when she crashed your meeting… what the fuck was I supposed to think?”

“She sent the note,” I point out. “The one that said to meet her at the hotel. Did you think I had something to do with that, too?”

He looks lost for words for a moment. “Well…”

“Jesus.”

Yulian slumps forward. “I thought you wanted to make it look like a suicide so that you’d have an alibi to tell Rodion.”

“Why wouldn’t I tell you or Lev my plans?” I ask.

He glances at Lev, almost as though he’s asking for help. But Lev is too smart to get in the middle of this.

And honestly, Yulian should know better than to expect or ask for help. But if I’ve learned anything in the last twenty-four hours, it’s that my brother is not the caliber of Bratva man I once thought he was.

“I don’t know what to say, Anton,” he says quietly. But I can still hear the hint of defiance in his tone. He still feels that his lack of faith in me is justified.

“I am your brother,” I remind him. “As well as your don.”

“You don’t need to remind me.”

“Apparently, I do. Because my word was not good enough for you that day, and now, it’s cost us. Cost me.”

“What was I supposed to think?” he asks again, somewhat pleadingly.

“You were supposed to believe me,” I hiss. “You were supposed to trust me.”

He sighs. “I know. Fuck me, I know.”

“If you hadn’t acted without thinking, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” I say. “And Marina wouldn’t have come within a hair’s breadth of killing Jessa and my baby.”

“How is Jessa?” Lev cuts in.

Yulian looks at him gratefully. The change of topic couldn’t have come soon enough for him. Not that we’re remotely done with it.

“She’s resting,” I tell them. “She’s weak and paranoid. But who can blame her?”