Page 51 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 1

“Well, let’s be clear about something, Marcelle,” I said.“I am not going to give you any money, and if you want to know the truth, I haven’t even been paid yet.”

“You’re lying,” she hissed.“We all got paid in cash the same night.”

“Well, I guess the rules don’t apply to the Korolevs because I haven’t gotten paid yet,” I argued.“So, if that’s something else that you want to ask Stephanie or Kasimir about, be my guest.”

“You owe me,” she said, ignoring my dare again.“After everything that I’ve done for you, you owe me.”

I cocked my head at her, my lunch completely forgotten.“I didn’t realize that your friendship came with a running tab.If I’d known that, I would have never accepted any of your offers of help.”

“Don’t you dare accuse me of being a bad friend,” she spat.“I’m not the one being a stingy bitch and hoarding hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“Money thatIearned by spending the night with Kasimir,” I fired back, even though the words sounded sordid on my lips.The words made me sound like the whore that I kept insisting that I wasn’t.

Using her beauty as a weapon, she said, “Well, maybe I’ll just find myself randomly bumping into Kasimir somewhere, and we’ll just see how much money he’s willing to part with for someone who actually knows what she’s doing.”

Now, while I was very aware that she was just being catty, her words had hit their mark.Though Kasimir had spent the past couple of days saying very pretty things about commitment, was it even possible for men like Kasimir to be faithful?I mean, while I wasn’t an expert on the subject, the movies always showed criminals surrounded by nothing but willing women, so how naïve was I to not have considered that until now?

It was also bothersome that I cared.I was not supposed to care what Kasimir did.I wasn’t supposed to be entertaining our relationship as some kind of twisted love story.Kasimir was bored and using me as entertainment, nothing more.

“Have at it, Marcelle,” I told her, the words tightening my gut.“Your jealousy isn’t my problem.”

Yeah, right.

Chapter 25

Kasimir~

It was Sunday afternoon, and while I wasn’t a fan of jumping when my father commanded it, he was no longer willing to wait to speak with Zoya.The only good thing was that my father had been gracious enough to remember that I’d been working all night, and he was also aware of Zoya’s work schedule, so he had called the meeting for later in the day, giving us both the chance to get some sleep.

Though she’d been expecting it, when I had sent Zoya a text this morning, informing her that my father had wanted to meet with her, instead of texting me back, she had called me for clarification, and after breaking the news to her, I’d told her that I’d be picking her up at around one or so.

The drive to our house had also surprised her.Instead of taking her to our condo, I’d driven her to our house in Bakers Hills, a gated community that only housed high-ranking bratva members.I also lived on Martin Street, only one acre away from where my brother and his wife lived.Yeah, Viktor had a condo in town just like I did, but Aurora preferred the country to being in the middle of Korolev territory, so they stayed in Bakers Hills for the most part.Of course, being as calculating as she was, Aurora still had her condo in Marchetti territory, and she checked in with her family often.

Once we’d gotten to the house, I’d given Zoya a full tour of the entire place, even asking her opinion on how she felt about the décor.I wanted her to feel comfortable here, considering that this was going to be one of her new homes.

However, now that my father had arrived, we were all gathered in my library, knowing that my father would lose his shit if we’d met in my office.Until Zoya had my ring on her finger or my baby in her womb, she wouldn’t be privy to any bratva business, not that she’d be after the fact.Though Zoya knew the basics of who we were and what we did, I was going to do my best to shield her from the darker parts of the life that I lived.Again, she wasn’t Aurora, and truth be told, I didn’t want her to be.