“Or what?” He laughed. “You’re going to kill me? Is that the message you want to send out to the rest of the family? Fall in line, or I’ll take you down even if you share my blood?” He shot the questions at her like bullets from a machine gun. “They’ll join together and take pleasure in cutting you into small pieces.”

“The rest of the family doesn’t seem to be a problem, Sacha. Only you think you have the right to rise above your rank.” She pressed the gun harder against his head and waited. “I need your answer before we leave here.”

“Whatever you want, Nicola. You want me to do your grunt work, I’ll do it.” His answer was quick, and his smile suddenly widened.

“Just like that?” She hated herself for asking but the words came out before she could censor herself.

“You’re Yury’s daughter, and I’m not. It’s that simple.” He lifted his head as if daring her to pull the trigger. “Is that all you needed to hear? All I did was try to keep the family together and on top. You can’t lay blame for having pride in who we are.”

“Get out of my sight,” she said, lowering the gun. In her bones she knew it was a mistake, but he was right about one thing. They were family. He didn’t even glance at his dead guards as he went skittering from the room like the bottom dweller he was.

“You let him go?” Nina asked, sounding incredulous. “There’s no way he gave in that quick.”

“You think I don’t know this?” she said through gritted teeth. “He’ll stab me in the back the first chance he gets, but then the rest of the family will know what a snake he is and won’t blame me for killing him when he strikes first.”

“So this is the excuse you need to solve your insurrection problem?” Svetlana asked. “Very smart.”

Nina stared at Svetlana contemplatively, like she didn’t appreciate the ass-kissing, but it might be good for her to see there was some competition to stay at her side. Not that it would ever be Svetlana, but it was good that it might be a possibility.

“What’s next?” Svetlana asked.

Nina put her gun back in the holster and slid her hands into her pockets. It was obvious there wasn’t going to be anything else coming out of her mouth. Nicola didn’t really have time for hurt feelings or petty jealousies.