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It’s no coincidence that they’ve disappeared together.
I look over at Valentina and take in the freckles dotted across her cheeks and the way her hair curls behind her ears. I’ve never noticed little details like that about a woman before, usually preferring when there’s mascara smeared down their cheeks and a lusty haze in their eye.
I’ve never had to notice the little details before, when all women looked and acted the same.
Boring. Each and every one. Begging me for love and cars and cock. An endless cycle, repeating round and round and round.
Valentina doesn’t beg for anything. She doesn’t ask me for diamond jewelry or quick, hard fucks in the middle of the night.
She doesn’t ask me for anything.
My chest aches as she drops her gaze to her lap.
Well, she’s asked for one thing.
A sigh passes my lips. Andrei will kill me for what I’m about to say, and he’ll have every right to it. I’ve been ordered not to say anything. A pakhan’s order. Not a friend’s. Not a brother’s.
My pakhan.
His word is law.
Valentina doesn’t realize it, but she’s asking me for more than just answers—she’s asking for my life.
Instead of telling Valentina outright that we suspect her grandmother is more than likely a traitorous, manipulative piece of shit, I choose a safer route.
“What do you know about your grandmother’s side of the family?”
Valentina’s gaze stays in her lap as she plays with my fingers, likely not realizing what she’s doing. Her eyes are unfocused as she pieces through information on the Dolohovs.
It’s likely not much.
“She married my grandfather pretty young... It was arranged.” Valentina’s face scrunches as she digs deeper. “I know they’re originally from Russia. But I don’t think they’re very prominent or rich or anything. That’s why my grandmother moved here and married a Baranova, I think. My mother mentioned it to me once.”
Ah, so Maeve tried to teach Valentina something, after all.
“You’re right, the Dolohovs aren’t very well known, but that’s intentional. They keep a low profile.”
“I thought all mafia families tried to stay under the radar.”
I smile. “Not all of them.”
The Baranovas are actually well-known as a crime family, but their foothold goes so far back that there are few brave enough to challenge them. It’s what made Tolkotsky so intimidating and what keeps Andrei in power as the current pakhan.
In reality, though, there hasn’t been a male with Baranova blood since Valentina’s grandfather was in charge. Katya married into the family, as did Tolkotsky, as will Andrei.
The women should really be the ones in charge, if we’re talking about blood rights, but the men like to pretend they’re the ones everyone is loyal to.
But we all know that if a civil war broke out here in the city, half the populace would flock to Valentina’s side over Andrei’s because she’s the one with Baranova blood running through her veins.
Valentina has always been the most important piece for maintaining power over the Bratva. She’s its queen. The queen can move anywhere on the chessboard, and the pawns will all step aside to make room for her. The king is limited to moving one small step at a time. His path is blocked until someone screams checkmate and takes him out.
But the queen is the one really paving the way for her king’s victory. Sometimes, she’s even the one who finally takes out the enemy’s king.
She’s the most powerful, and most important, piece on the board.
The picture of Valentina passed out in Liam’s apartment flashes in my mind. Scrawled handwriting on the back left to taunt us...or...
What if he realizes just how important Valentina is to this city’s Bratva?
