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“You have information?”
“I have whispers,” he says. “Rumblings.”
“I’m not interested in rumors. I’m not paying you to keep me up to date on gossip.”
“It’s not gossip. It’s just that a lot of people still don’t even believe Akim is dead. They aren’t talking about succession because they’re waiting for him to come back.”
“They can keep fucking waiting. He’s gone.” I arch a brow, silently asking Isay to confirm.
He nods. “He’s gone. I cleaned up the mess. There’s nothing left.”
Good riddance.
Isay leans in closer. “The word is that now that he’s gone, Akim’s younger brother is picking up the mantle.”
“Pavel?” I frown. “He’s not old enough for that. He can’t be older than?—”
“Just turned eighteen. Last month. He’s an adult.”
“He’s a fucking child.”
The last time I saw him, he was eleven. Maybe younger. It was back when our fathers were pretending to play nice with one another. When the idea of an alliance between our families wasn’t absurdly out of the question.
Pavel had a round, chubby face and a bag of candy in his sticky fingers. He isn’t ready to be a pakhan.
“You were only twenty-one when you took over,” Isay reminds me.
As if I need reminding.
I shake my head. “It’s different. I didn’t have a choice.”
“Neither does Pavel. If it’s not him, then the Bratva goes to his uncle. He’d lose his claim on leadership forever. He may be barely an adult, but that has to be important to him.”
I sigh. “Okay. So, what? He’s keeping the seat warm until he’s ready to actually step up?”
Isay grimaces. “He’s doing more than that. The intel I gathered says he’s bringing together the men they have left and recruiting more. He’s building an army, Yakov… to take you down.”
It’s not funny, but I laugh. I slam my fist on the table and cackle.
Because it is always fucking something. Someone. The world’s worst game of Whack-a-Mole.
“I knew it. This is never going to end. The Gustev Bratva isn’t going to stop until I eradicate every last one of them. When are they going to take a fucking hint? Now, I have to wipe out a child army?”
“Pavel is young, but we should take the threat seriously.”
I nod. “Don’t worry. I do. I was eighteen once, too.”
And I would have done anything and faced anyone to avenge my family.
If anything, Pavel is even more dangerous than Akim. He has all of the power and none of the experience to know how to wield it.
There’s no telling what he’ll do.
I’m on my way to Luna and Mariya’s room, still thinking about Pavel and how to squash this latest threat, when I realize the hallway is empty.
There is no one standing guard outside their room.
The moment the three people closest to me in the world were all inside this hospital, I fucking locked it down. I stationed men outside of Nik’s room in the ICU, more men in front of Luna and Mariya’s room, and had eyes watching every entrance or exit to the entire hospital twenty-four-fucking-seven.
