Chapter 62: You don’t want to do this

Sienna forced a smile, a polite nod, and did not take his hand. Instead, both of hers wrapped tighter around Viktor’s arm, anchoring there like he was the only solid thing in a room full of people she didn’t trust.

Viktor noticed. Of course, he noticed, he noticed everything that had to do with how she touched him lately. He found it almost endearing, the way she gripped him like a woman holding onto a railing in a storm, and he allowed himself a small, soft smile that he didn’t bother hiding from Lion.

Let him think whatever he wants, Viktor thought. Let him think it’s love. It’s useful either way.

"Come upstairs," Lion said, already turning, gesturing loosely toward the staircase behind him. "Downstairs is for the boys. I’ve got something better for us, some fine wine. And your lovely wife, of course. Let’s discuss something truly valuable."

Viktor nodded once, already moving.

Sienna didn’t like this. Didn’t like the suite, didn’t like the wine, didn’t like the particular emphasis Lion had put on the word valuable, like it meant something other than what it pretended to.

But the choice in front of her was simple enough stay downstairs alone in a room full of strangers with no clear exits, or follow the devil she at least half-understood into a quieter room.

Following him won, but only barely.

Lion led them into a quiet suite upstairs, the noise of the party fading to a dull throb behind a closed door.

He produced a bottle of wine with the reverence of a man handling something sacred, turning it in the light, talking at length about its vintage, about the number of people, he said with a small laugh, who’d died just to get this particular bottle into his hands. That’s how valuable a single drop was.

He poured Viktor a glass first, then turned the bottle toward Sienna in offering.

She shook her head.

Some valuable wine, she thought, watching the dark liquid catch the light. Probably tastes like blood money, because apparently that’s exactly what it is.

"Okay," Lion said, unbothered, already pouring a glass for himself instead.

"Let’s talk business," Lion said, pulling a file from the corner table and setting it down between them with the satisfaction of a man unveiling something he was sure would impress. "Northbridge. The world’s largest drug route is all yours. Full control. Just give me a nice percentage."

"I don’t sell drugs to schoolyards," Viktor said, taking a slow sip of his wine, unbothered.

Sienna glanced at him sideways, filing the line away. Even here, even in a room like this, he draws a line somewhere.

Lion laughed, low and easy, shaking his head. "Still the beast in a white shirt." He spread his hands like he’d expected nothing less.

"Fine. Then let’s talk about something else. A new shipment of military-grade, untraceable serials, enough firepower to arm three city blocks. The buyers are private contractors with deep pockets and no questions. Ready to ship to Philadelphia within the week."

He took another sip, eyes steady on Viktor, watching for a reaction the way a man watches a roulette wheel he’s already bet against.

Sienna felt the air in the room change before anyone said another word. A tightening, a held breath, the particular silence that comes right before something breaks.

Viktor set his glass down without a sound. "I thought I told you before," he said, his gaze level on Lion now. "I don’t deal in weapons that end up pointed at people who never agreed to be part of this."

For the first time since they’d walked in, Lion’s smile faltered just slightly, just enough.

He’s a mafia king, Sienna thought, watching the line of Viktor’s jaw, the stillness in his shoulders. But he’s not entirely a bad man. At least he has principles.

"You idiot," Lion roared, the smile gone entirely now, replaced by something uglier as he stood and leveled a gun at Viktor’s chest. Four men stepped into the room behind him, weapons already raised, the quiet suite suddenly very small and very dangerous.

"You don’t want to do this," Viktor said, his voice even despite the barrel pointed at him. "I don’t want to be the one who kills both father and son."

His eyes shifted to Sienna, quick, deliberate, a silent command. Get behind me.

She understood. She started to rise slowly from her chair, every instinct screaming to move carefully, to not give anyone a reason to pull a trigger early.

She didn’t even make it a full step.

Lion’s hand closed around her arm before she could pull away, yanking her back against him, the gun no longer aimed at Viktor at all.

It was aimed at her.

"Sign the damn papers," Lion said, the gun pressed close enough that Sienna could feel the cold of it against her skin, "and tell me where you took my shipment, the one you seized last night."

"You don’t want to do this," Viktor said, his voice maddeningly calm, like he was discussing the weather instead of watching a gun hover an inch from the woman he’d dragged into all of this. "Just let her go, and we can talk calmly. I’ll sign."

But Sienna saw it before he did, the half-second where Lion’s attention split, where the gun drifted from her head as he turned slightly to gesture at Viktor, certain enough of his own control that he forgot to keep it absolute.

She didn’t think. She bit down, hard, on the hand wrapped around her neck.

"Get down. Now," Viktor said, already moving.

Everything after that happened too fast for her to properly track. Lion’s grip loosened in startled pain, she dropped, and somewhere above her, the room exploded into gunfire, sharp, deafening, over before her mind had caught up to what was happening. Viktor’s shot found Lion first, clean and final.

His men went down in the seconds after, the sound of it overlapping until she couldn’t tell whose gun had fired what.

Sienna stayed on the floor, knees pulled in, hands pressed hard over her ears, the ringing in them louder than anything else in the world.