Page 84 of Cashmere Ruin
How do I fix it if I don’t know where it’s broken?
“Motya—”
WhereIbroke it?
“Maybe we should adjourn?—”
“No. Enough.”
I snap back to the present to the screech of a chair against the floor.That’s right. I was in a meeting.
“Ivan,” I say coldly.
Ivan’s face is set, a mask of barely-concealed fury. “You’ve been neglecting your duties for far too long, Matvey.”
I grit my teeth. “Have I now?”
“Yes. You’re absent, distracted, and your priorities clearly lie elsewhere. I won’t stand for it anymore.”
All around the table, people start murmuring. Myvory—and Vlad’s, too. All finally turned against me. Just like everyone warned me would happen.
“Matvey Groza…” Ivan rumbles. “In the name of the code of honor, I challenge you to a duel.”
27
MATVEY
I keep my composure. I don’t even rise from my chair, just gaze into Ivan’s eyes with a calm I don’t feel. “Name your prize.”
“Control of the Groza Bratva.”
More whispering. Hushed, frantic. “Sit down, Ivan.”
“No!” he barks. “I won’t.”
I clench my fist on the table. “Sit down now and I’ll forget you spoke. I won’t ask again.”
“Are you saying you refuse the duel?”
It’s like the room explodes: suddenly, no one is whispering anymore. It’s so loud, it feels like being at the center of a beehive.
Did you hear that?
Thepakhan’s refusing?—
Does that mean…?
I slam both palms on the table and stand. “Don’t mistake my mercy for weakness. You are my oldestvor. You served mygrandfather before me. That is the only reason I’m extending you this courtesy right now. So do yourself a favor and back off.”
It’s taking all my self-control to keep my anger in check. Of all the people I’d expect to be on my side—of all the people I’d expect to be loyal?—
I never thought I’d have to watch my back from Ivan.
The others? Of fucking course. Those hungry jackals are waiting for nothing but a sign of weakness from me to seize my share of the spoils. If they could strip me of everything I’ve built in the past two decades, they wouldn’t hesitate a goddamn second. From them, I’m always expecting a knife in the back.
But not from Ivan. Not from the man who stood next to my grandfather through every step of the first Groza Bratva, from the rise to the fall to the oblivion that followed. The oblivion thatIthen dragged us out of.
If he’d only come to me in private, we could’ve solved this without invoking the old laws. Hell, I might have even looped him in on the mole hunt. It would have been a risk, but a calculated one.