Page 64 of Vicious Knight
“Watch your tone, boy.” He points his steak knife at me. “This is the second time in a matter of days that I’ve had to give you the same warning.”
“I don’t give a fuck how many times you have to give it. That’s nothing to do with me. How dare you call Aiden Sabioni my fucking equal?” And this is where Caspian and I differ. Caspian would never speak to his father like this even if he weren't his father. He has that respect for authority that I don’t have.
“He will be whatever I say he is. And you will either accept it or suffer my wrath.” Aleksander keeps his gaze trained on me. “If I want Aiden to work in a senior position at the company it would be unreasonable to expect him to do so without doing the things we’ve done at Raventhorn.”
“So if I fail to secure my position in the company, you’ll have a ready-made replacement for me,” I fill in, deciding not to beat around the bush. I’m sick of pussyfooting around shit.
“We all have to have a backup plan, don’t we?”
Caspian glances at me, then back at his father. “This is absolute bullshit, you know that. The position is Thorne’s. You can’t rob him of that. Aiden shouldn’t even be in the picture.”
Aleksander takes another sip of his wine and stares at Caspian. “The position is Thorne’s if he does what I tell him to do.”
“If Uncle Nicholai were around?—”
“Caspian, don’t,” I interrupt him and shake my head. It’s hard to hear my father’s name at the best of times, but it’s significantly more difficult tonight. Not because of this, but because of the new shit with Ivy. “It’s okay… It’s fucking okay. The situation is what it is.”
Aleksander smiles at my remark. “Exactly. It is what it is, and that is whatever I say it is. When last I checked, I was still your leader.”
Caspian closes his hand into a fist but doesn’t say anything more. Good.
It’s best he’s silent because we have nothing. Speaking without ammunition is like waving around a gun full of blanks. It achieves fuck all.
The news about Aiden is his second hit. What will be the third? Or the fourth? Or the fifth?
“My sources tell me you’ve taken an interest in the Yegorov girl.” Aleksander shifts the subject and my stomach tightens. He’s talking about Ivy. I’ve always known that he has his minions watching me, so I shouldn’t be surprised to hear about his sources.
“Like you, I take an interest in many girls.” I clench my jaw to mask my internal turmoil but this fucker knows me. He knows I’ve taken a genuine interest in Ivy or he wouldn’t be mentioning her.
“You know the girl I mean.”
“What about her?”
“Fuck her out of your system and get rid of her. I will never allow you to be with someone like that. She is Levgen’s stepchild and not of Knight descent. Try to remember that. If it were up to me, people like that would never be allowed to have any claim in the Knights. They wouldn’t even be allowed at Raventhorn.”
If only he knew whose daughter she is. The hatred in his eyes tells me he’d kill her with a song in his heart. He’d do it to punish her father. And me, too.
I’m not even sure what Ivy Yegorov is to me yet, but obsession must have its claws deep inside my soul because here I sit, still keeping her secret.
“You will not entertain anything serious with this girl and embarrass me,” Aleksander continues in that patronizing tone I loathe. “And you will not ruin your chances with the potential brides I have lined up for you. Is that understood?”
“Loud and clear.” Motherfucking asshole.
He shifts his gaze away from me and dismisses any further discussion by tucking into his food.
Conflict returns to haunt me.
I always know what to do but for the first time it seems that I might be way in over my head.
“What was that about with the Yegorov girl?” Caspian asks when we’re seated in his car.
Thank God and all the hosts of Valhalla that we’re heading back to campus. One more second of being in Aleksander’s presence and I would have torn my skin off.
“Nothing.” My voice is low and lethargic, as if my soul is being drained of energy.
Caspian starts up the car and drives onto the road, then he glances back at me.
“He wasn’t acting like it was nothing.”