Ruthless Vow (Vegas Vicious #2)

23. Leo

23

Leo

The sounds of conversation and the clinking of glasses fill the air, melding with the music pumping from the speakers. The volume is just right, loud enough to set the mood, quiet enough that people can still easily carry on a conversation.

My phone buzzes and I check the text. It’s from Dante. I read it, unsurprised, then tuck my phone away.

Nikolai and I move to a quiet corner at the edge of the terrace.

He studies me, his blue eyes bright and intense. Then he looks away. I follow his gaze to my sister. She looks radiant tonight. Her dark brown hair falls is smooth and sleek. Her chin, delicate and a little pointed, is tipped up as she looks at her fiancé, listening to something he says, her pale blue eyes fixed on him. She wears a shimmering silver and white gown, her arm intertwined with Roberto’s.

My eyes narrow as I take in the sight of them. Of him . Sabina wants to marry him and I have no idea why. I tried to keep an open mind, give him the benefit of the doubt. He’d visited our home last Christmas, before Papa was killed. He’d been rude to the waitstaff when we went out for dinner, dismissed Sabina’s opinions as if his own mattered more, tried to insinuate himself in every conversation, and acted like a sulking toddler when he lost to Luca at pickleball. Any one of those things would have earned my dislike. Put them together and dislike slid down the hill into disdain.

“So…Sabina and that boy…” Nikolai says with his trademark cocky indifference.

I can’t argue that description. Roberto seems like a child. A petulant, arrogant, entitled child. Interesting when he comes from a very average background with little to recommend him. He has no special talent, not music or art or sports. His grades in college were mediocre. He participated in no extracurricular activities. If a bowl of unseasoned boiled potatoes were a person, it would be Roberto Costa.

“Interesting thing about that boy,” Nikolai says. “He’s speaking to Sabina, but his eyes aren’t on her. They’re constantly moving, checking out his surroundings, looking at all the people around him. I don’t claim to be an expert on love, but that doesn’t look like love to me.” He pauses. “Shaking his hand was like holding a dead fish. His posture is appalling. His shoes are scuffed. Has he no pride? No elegance?”

“You seem to be taking an inordinate interest in my sister’s fiancé,” I say.

“My uncle Vlasta had a word for men like that.” His tone is derisive. “ Shval .”

“Shval?”

“It means scum,” Nikolai says.

“A strong accusation,” I say. “He’s young. Only a year older than Sabina.”

“His youth doesn’t excuse his actions,” Nikolai says. “He can’t protect her. He’s weak. He doesn’t value her. He doesn’t love her.”

I’ve seen the way Damian and Alina look at each other. I saw the way my mother looked at my father, and the way he looked at her, even after years of marriage and five kids. Sabina does not look at Roberto that way. Her face doesn’t light up. Her smile isn’t full and free. Her expression holds no softness. She doesn’t lean into him as if wanting to be as close to him as possible. She offers no personal touch of affection. Her arm rests in his the way it would rest in a stranger’s.

And Roberto… he barely looks at Sabina at all.

As to Nikolai’s assertion that he’s weak, unfortunately, I agree.

“He asked her to marry him and she accepted,” I say. “Sabina is her own woman. She makes her own choices.” I pause. “She says he spoke to my father at Christmas, asked for and was given his blessing.”

“Your father told you that?” Nikolai asks, his tone doubtful.

“No. Sabina said that Roberto told her he asked Papa and that Papa gave his blessing. That he only waited for the right time to ask her.”

“Sabina said that Roberto told her…” Nikolai echoes, and I hear the incredulity in his tone. It matches the doubt already seeded in my thoughts. It seems impossible that my father would have agreed to an engagement but said nothing to me or Damian or Dante or Cass. Said nothing even to Sabina directly. Only gave his blessing to Roberto.

I can’t help but wonder why Roberto decided the right time only came after my father was dead.

“I have some information that might interest you,” Nikolai says after a long moment.

“And the cost?” I ask.

“Consider it repayment for including me in our very enjoyable outing the other night.”

“My pleasure,” I say.

“Several more men from Chicago have arrived in Vegas. And a woman who is their associate. Bianca Moretti.”

My gaze flicks to his face. Bianca is in Las Vegas. I already know, thanks to Dante’s text, but I find it interesting that Nikolai chose to share.

“What can I do for you, Nikolai?”

“Do for me?” His dark brows shoot up, his face the perfect expression of innocence and confusion.

“You want something.”

“In fact, there is a proposition I’d like to present to you.”

“At my sister’s engagement party? I already told you, this is not a night for business. It is a social event.”

“There is always an opportunity for business. In fact, it was your father who told me that many years ago.”

I can hear my father saying those words. I nod. “A valid point. Go on.”

“I want an alliance between our families,” Nicolas said, his gaze briefly flicking to Sabina, who is laughing with one of our distant cousins, a girl her own age.

“What sort of alliance?”

“The marriage sort.”

“Marriage,” I say. I am rarely surprised. But Nikolai has succeeded in surprising me. “And who would marry whom?”

“I would marry Sabina,” Nikolai says, his tone flat.

I stare at him for a moment, studying his expression, and I realize that despite his usual mask of cocky indifference, there is something else…a flicker of something genuine, something raw. As if he is nervous, as if my answer matters a great deal. Is it vulnerability?

No. That can’t be right.

“Sabina should be with a man, not a boy,” he says. “She should be with someone who can match her strength. Someone who can withstand her fire and her temper. Someone—”

“You seem to have a large number of opinions about my sister, a woman you barely know,” I say.

He shrugs. “She deserves better than what’s standing next to her.”

The problem is, I agree with him.

Roberto has no value to the family. He has no people, no allies, no standing. If Sabina truly loved him, I would have no issue with any of that. But Nikolai isn’t wrong. Sabina doesn’t look at Roberto as if the sun rises and sets with him, as if he is her joy, her everything, she doesn’t look at him the way Nicole looks at me—

What the fuck am I thinking?

The silence between us stretches, thick and tense as we study each other.

This proposal could just be Nikolai angling for power. But I think not.

“Sabina’s made her choice,” I say. “She’s engaged.”

Nikolai laughs, a low, humorless sound. “Engagements can be broken. You know that.”

“This engagement will not be broken by you, or me, or anyone other than Sabina. If she wants out, she’s out. Otherwise, this marriage is a go,” I say, my voice like ice, my eyes locked on his.

He studies me for a long moment, and then he smiles, a slow, deliberate smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Of course,” he says. “I believe I have monopolized your time long enough, Leonardo. Enjoy your party.” He offers a polite bow.

I watch him as he leaves.

Nikolai Ivanov wants my sister. At least, he wants the alliance that marrying my sister would bring. An unexpected and possibly dangerous turn of events, because Sabina definitely does not want him .

My gaze scans the crowd until I catch sight of Nicole. She stands to one side looking out at the fountains. Then, as if sensing my regard, she turns toward me, my wolf in designer clothing.

And she looks at me as though I am her moon and stars.

She is beautiful, alluring, strong. Mine. I want to fuck her, right here, right now.