SWNOVELS Sinful Hearts: Chapter 8
I exhale as Gabriel closes the door, trying to compartmentalize the various things flying around my brain: the dinner with Howard later, the impending meeting with the co-King of one of the most dangerous and powerful Bratva families in the world…oh, and the lingering memories of screwing Hades.
Which is exactly when the door swings open with barely a knock, and Gavan himself billows in like a black cloud.
At twenty-four, Gavan Tsarenko is even younger than I am. Tall and built, the man looks every inch the Bratva king that he is: black hair, steely gunmetal gray eyes, heavily tattooed. Even in his impeccable, tailored suits, the lines of ink creep out of his cuffs and snake across the backs of his hands, as well as up his neck to his jaw.
I stand and keep a neutral, professional smile pasted on my face as he enters. But inside, I can feel my blood chilling just a little bit. He’s not known to be ill-tempered or prone to random acts of violence or anything. In fact, by reputation, he’s as cold and calculating as a machine. But it doesn’t stop me from biting back a shiver as his dark energy flows into the room like black ink spilling across paper.
And then all the effort I’m putting into maintaining a calm appearance vanishes when Leo walks in behind him, followed by the consummately-creepy Pascha.
My father just glares at me, half a snarl on his lips. Pascha shuts my office door and very deliberately leans against it while mentally undressing me.
Puke.
“Ms. Guin,” Gavan purrs quietly. “I don’t believe we’ve ever officially been introduced.”
He crosses the room with the air of a man who owns every single one he enters. He shakes my hand firmly across the desk, then clears his throat. “May I sit?”
“Of course, please.”
Gavan undoes his jacket button and settles his muscled frame into one of the two chairs facing my desk. When I remain standing, he arches a brow.
“Will you be joining me?”
I lean against the credenza behind my desk. “I’m fine here.”
His lips curl at the corners. Angry? Amused? I can’t quite say.
“Let’s skip the part where we pretend we don’t understand all the convoluted histories and relationships in this room,” he begins. “It’s a waste of time and we’re both busy people. As I understand it, your father—”
“I don’t consider him my father,” I murmur icily.
Leo and Pascha glare daggers at me. Gavan just inclines his head gracefully. “Yes. Well, Leo, then, wished to aid my organization in an important business acquisition, by offering your hand in marriage to Serj Mirzoyan’s son, Melik. Do I have that correct so far?”
I nod stiffly.
“However, I gather there have been certain…actions taken on your part recently that have rendered this deal no longer acceptable, as Melik exclusively wanted an…” he clears his throat. “Inexperienced bride. Is that also correct?”
“Apparently so.”
“And is this true? I mean that you—”
“I’m not going to discuss my body, my personal choices, or my sex life with you or your men, Mr. Tsarenko.”
Gavan shakes his head. “You misunderstand. That isn’t why I’m here, Ms. Guin.”
“Then why are you here?” I mutter in a tone that I fully realize is approaching dangerous considering the man I’m using it on. “Because I know it’s not about ‘meeting the other lawyers in our firm who will be handling your legal needs’, as you told my boss.”
He smirks. “Perceptive.”
“Thank you.”
Gavan clears his throat. “I don’t honestly give a shit who you choose to sleep with, Ms. Guin. And while I can appreciate my captain’s zealousness,” he turns to arch a brow at a glowering Leo, “in trying to secure this deal for me through whatever means he saw fit, no one’s forcing anyone to marry anyone else.”
I turn to sneer at Leo. He looks like he’s got a lot to say. But he just glances at Gavan before leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest and remains silent, glaring at me.
“Now, as I understand it, the Drakos family is also interested in doing business with Serj Mirzoyan?”
I raise one brow, dipping my chin and keeping pointedly silent. Gavan grins.
“Right, of course. Attorney client privilege and all that. Even so…” He leans back in the chair, drumming his fingers on the arm rest as his gray eyes stab into mine. “Some deals, like Mr. Mirzoyan’s, are too important to leave up to whichever way the wind might blow at a negotiating table.”
“Then I suggest you retain great counsel and bring a large check to that negotiating table, Mr. Tsarenko. I’m afraid I can’t divulge any information about other clients I may or may not be representing.”
“Watch your fucking tone, daughter,” Leo spits venomously.
Gavan holds up a hand, his eyes still locked on mine.
“Brass tacks, Ms. Guin. What would it take for you to divulge information on these hypothetical clients of yours?”
I blink, stunned at his brazenness.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Tsarenko—”
“Gavan is fine.”
“Mr. Tsarenko,” I say again. “Are you implying that you’d like to bribe me into breaking my attorney client privilege in order to give you sensitive information about a business rival of yours?”
“Oh, I’m not implying anything, Ms. Guin,” he smiles. “I’m flat out asking you.”
I bristle, shaking my head. “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. And I’m not comfortable with the tenor of this conversation.”
Gavan says nothing. His eyes don’t leave mine.
I swallow. “I think it would be best if you left now.”
His brow arches, and the corners of his lips curl slightly.
“You’re sure? Because once an offer of a gift in return for information goes away, it generally doesn’t come back.”
“Mr. Tsarenko, I am flat out telling you I will not be taking money in exchange for breaking my professional code of ethics, not to mention the law.”
Gavan takes a deep breath. He doesn’t make a single move to stand. His fingers drum the arm rest over and over, jacking my anxiety through the roof until it feels like I’m going to explode.
“Mr. Tsarenko—”
He sighs. “I suppose we’ll have to go with the threat, instead.”
I go cold as something frosty glints in his steely eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“If you don’t want to accept the carrot, Ms. Guin,” he says in his deep, growly tone, “then we’ll have no choice but to use the stick.”
A shiver ripples down my spine. “Mr. Tsarenko, all due respect. But for professional and legal reasons, given that I am not your attorney, I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Leo finally snaps, surging from the wall and slamming his knuckles on the front edge of my desk and leaning menacingly across it. “Do what he’s fucking telling you to do, or so fucking help me God, there’ll be another Guin sister—one who presumably hasn’t whored herself out yet—offered to Melik to secure this deal.”
I go livid.
“You come anywhere fucking near her—!”
“Leo.”
There’s nothing sharp or loud in Gavan’s voice. And yet it holds a power that money can’t buy, and instantly chills the room. He turns to glare at my father.
“That won’t be happening.”
“Gavan, I can sell Serj and Melik on—”
“You are not offering up a fifteen-fucking-year-old-girl as marriage bait,” Gavan snarls, his voice suddenly shockingly vicious and cold. “And frankly the fact that I even have to say that out loud to you is concerning. The sister is off the goddamn table, in any capacity. Is that clear?”
Leo scowls.
“Is that fucking clear, Leo.”
My father shoots me a venomous look before he turns to Gavan. “Yeah, boss. Clear.”
Gavan lets his gaze rest on Leo for another few seconds before he pulls his eyes back to me. I’m wondering if I’m supposed to thank him or not, when he answers the unasked question.
“Don’t.”
I frown. “Don’t—?”
“Thank me. Your sister might be off the playing field, but I still expect to get what I want, Ms. Guin.”
“Look, Mr. Tsarenko—”
“You’ve gone to great lengths to hide your connection to your father, Elsa. Taking your mother’s maiden name, distancing yourself and your sister from him. Working your way through school by yourself.”
I glare at him. He just shrugs.
“And I can respect that. But I can—and will—have zero problem with exposing all of those secrets you so very much want to keep hidden, if it will get me what I want.”
It takes me a few seconds to realize the gravity of what he’s just said. And when it does hit me, I go white and stiff.
“I—”
“You’re one of this firm’s fastest-rising stars, if not the fastest. A non-equity partner at twenty-six, and already on the path to equity partnership? That’s very impressive.”
Dread pools in my stomach.
“I wonder,” Gavan sighs, absently turning to look out the windows past me, drumming his fingers on the armrest of his chair, “I wonder how they’d feel if they knew who your father was?”
My legs shake and threaten to buckle. My face pales. Leo and Pascha both smirk. Gavan’s face remains eerily neutral.
Slowly, I take a breath, trying to calm my racing pulse before I speak.
“Is that a threat, Mr. Tsarenko?”
He doesn’t answer. He simply smiles, stands, and walks back toward the door. When he reaches it, he turns, pushing his fingers through his dark hair as his gunmetal eyes land on me.
“I will get what I want, Ms. Guin. Take that how you will.”
He nods, turns, and strides out the door. Leo sneers at me, and without a word, follows his boss out. Pascha lingers one more second, his eyes sliding over me one last time as he licks his lips thoughtfully. Then he slithers out too.
What the fuck. It’s nine-thirty a.m., and I’m officially being blackmailed by the Bratva to spy on the Greek Mafia.
How’s your morning going?