“Oh, don’t side-eye me,” he says to me, bringing his knees to his chest as he relaxes. “I’ve spent enough time on babysitting duty.”
“You realize Abe was watching you,” Ren says, and for good reason.
Boris hasn’t looked at Ian once, but that’s not to say he won’t. He’s talked to his daughters occasionally, but his focus remains on being by Lev’s side, who keeps frowning at his wife, a mixture of worry and confusion on his face.
Lennie closes the book she’s been pretending to read, shifting her body so she can look at Ian better.
“How is your brother?” she asks in that shy voice she reverts to when speaking to newer people.
Ian’s head swings up. “My brother? Ciaran?”
She nods.
He makes a funny face. Not quite annoyed, but also resigned to the fact that everyone will always bring up his younger brother.
This time I don’t blame his curiosity.
“How do you know Ciaran?” Ian asks Lennie.
She frowns, the movement rippling the scar on her cheek. “Did he not tell you about him and A?—”
The phone in the study rings. Every head snaps toward the room, where the double doors are wide open. Evening has fallen, so a few lamps emit soft yellow light.
Isolde is the first to stand, like she senses that this is finally the phone call we’ve been waiting for.
Yelena lets it ring, half in the shadows of the dim study. Lev stands beside her.
Her sons creep in behind Isolde, jockeying for space, while everyone else gathers.
The phone rings in the otherwise hushed air. I’m afraidshe’ll leave it too long, and the call will end when a frail hand places the phone on speaker.
There’s a beat of silence.
A man’s voice fills the room, sending a crackle through the Russian men. They are still not happy an opponent has stayed off their radar for so long.
“Yelena Sokolova.”
Isolde cocks her head to the side, interested, but otherwise unbothered by the voice. Yelena’s sons, however, frown.
And I don’t blame them. The longer the Spider talks, the more apparent it is that he’s a misogynistic asshole.
“My family had wondered when you would come calling. We’d thought for sure you would be asking for our help getting rid of that squirrel piece of shit your father wanted you to marry. How is he? Still in love with his first wife, I hear?”
I can’t place the accent.
“Emma,” the Spider says, tsking under his breath. “So unfair to be the second wife. Especially when the first wife is a squirter.”
Boris grabs Lev’s shoulder, keeping him in place.
“It surprised us when you never called. We’d have happily killed your husband for you.”
“As if I’d let you take that opportunity away from me,” Yelena states dryly, unamused but not furious. Just bored. She’s expected this.
The Spider laughs anyway. “You’d have every reason to. It’s hard to live with a person who covets a ghost. When his cock was inside you, I wonder how many times he imagined Emma.”
Boris’s fingers dig deeper into Lev’s shoulders, stopping him from throttling the phone.
“I heard she loved to moan, much different from the frigid bitch I know. A tattoo across her thigh.”