“You’ll give me a week.” He folded his arms. And prayed, prayed with every grain of faith left in him, that a week would be enough. “You’ve already ruined all I’ve built here. You’ll let me get this in a way that won’t have me kicked out of the country before I can put another plan in order. Am I clear?”

Though he sneered, Evgeni’s shoulders had that line of capitulation to them. “Still the tyrant, determined to have your own way.”

“Me?” Fury pounded, so consuming and quick he couldn’t stop it. “You think this was my way, any of it? You think this is what I wanted to do with my life? They killed her, Zhenya!” The they echoed in his head, more than in the room. The implications, white hot, scalded his heart. He staggered back. “No. Tell me it wasn’t you. Tell me you didn’t kill Alyona.”

“I didn’t!” His eyes flashed the truth of that. “I wouldn’t. You have to know that. She was a sister to me.”

And Zivon a brother—in blood, not just in affection. Yet he would do this to him. His hands shook. “I don’t know what I know anymore. Not about you.”

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Neither speaking. Neither moving. Then Evgeni shook his head. “We will never agree. But we are still brothers. I still want you to be happy. You just have to promise to lead a quiet life somewhere, away from the military and politics. Is that so bad?”

If it meant leaving England? Leaving Lily? It was the worst thing possible. But his brother might not know about her. And if he didn’t yet, he must preserve that ignorance at any cost.

Evgeni sighed and moved toward the door. “A week, brother. I will send you a note with instructions on where to meet me—and don’t try anything clever. Please, just do this the easy way. You know I would never hurt you, but Nadya . . . I am not so certain she wouldn’t.”

And yet Zhenya seemed to love her. He bit his tongue against any retort, held his silence until his brother had drawn even with him. Then, quietly, he said, “I was only trying to save you.”

Evgeni paused with his hand on the latch. “Believe it or not, Zivon, that’s what I’m trying to do too. Please let me. I don’t want to see any harm come to you.”

And then he was gone. Again. The brother he’d risked everything to save, the brother who had been his enemy all this time, the brother he’d mourned as dead.