Page 60 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 1

Chapter 29

Kasimir~

While I didn’t answer to my sister-in-law, it wasn’t often that she summoned me, and when she had insisted that it was business, I’d found myself curious since she did her best to stay out of anything that had to do with the bratva.

So, with Viktor off doing whatever it was that my father needed him to do, Aurora greeted me at the door, and though still beautiful, there were faint shadows underneath her eyes, and I was sure that they were driving my brother crazy.

“You need to get more rest,” I said as I walked into the house, then bent down to give her a kiss on her cheek.

“Say that around Viktor, and I will gut you where you stand,” she threatened, making me grin.

“Then get some more sleep, and everything will be fine,” I retorted.

Aurora just rolled her eyes as she motioned me to follow her to her office, which I gladly did.While she shouldn’t be working on anything at all, she had summoned me for a reason, and whether she liked it or not, I was going to mention the circles under her eyes to my brother.If she wasn’t going to take care of herself on her own, then it was up to the rest of us to make sure that she did.

Once we got to her office, she sat down behind her desk, and when she let out a quiet sigh, I couldn’t stop myself.“I’m telling on you.”

“I never expected you not to,” she drawled out.

“Well, just so we’re clear,” I grinned.

Ignoring that, she said, “When I asked you how the auction went, you failed to mention how Zoya Orlova ended up as an option when all the girls had been vetted weeks before.Why is that?”

“It slipped my mind?”I posed, still grinning.

Aurora arched a brow.“You are aware that I know how to shoot a gun, right?”

Fairly certain that she wasn’t going to shoot me, I asked, “Is this the part where you tell me that Zoya is too good for me?”

She quickly waved that concern away.“Your love life is none of my business, Kasimir.As long as my word is still being honored and no harm is coming to her, I don’t care if you guys go on to get married and have a million little Korolevs.”

“I was thinking more like four, but only because I can’t see a million being a possibility,” I quipped.

“Kasimir, focus,” she drawled out.“I want to know how Zoya was able to take Montana Hughes’ place.”

Knowing that the auction was something that Aurora felt very particular about, I finally answered her.“According to Zoya, one of the girls convinced her to take Montana’s spot once it was apparent that Montana wasn’t going to be able to make it.Zoya and Montana looked enough alike for Zoya to have been able to use her ID.”

“Who’s the friend?”

“She wouldn’t tell me because she didn’t want to get the friend in trouble, but after doing some digging of my own, I narrowed it down to Marcelle Jensen,” I told her.“She works with Zoya at Ruby’s, and since all Zoya does is work, I can’t see where she’d become friends with any of the other girls.”

Aurora leaned back in her seat, and I could see her brain working as her eyes darted around the room, probably trying to squash her homicidal tendencies.Not for nothing, she was pretty vicious when she wasn’t being plagued by hormones, so I could only imagine how hard it was for her to control her trigger finger right now.

“Well, despite you finding your future bride in this situation and all, I can’t let this slide,” she finally said.“I’ll need to question Zoya and find out if it really was Marcelle Jensen who helped get her into the auction.I will not have this endeavor compromised for any reason.”