“No,” I answer without pause for consideration. “Nikolai is entering my turf unannounced and uninvited. It’ll do him best to remember he has no right to retaliate.”
Stealing his chance to reply, I enter the open door on the back patio before making my way to the basement. It only takes me raking my eyes over the gunless and dickless men huddled in the basement once to discover who the leader of their operation is. He’s the only one with bloody wrists from fighting the zip-ties circling them.
While pacing his way, I remove my knife from its pouch on my belt. The dark-haired man doesn’t cower when I crouch in front of him with my knife braced in front of me. He’s too stunned by me cutting off his restraints to talk. “If you’re smart, you’ll keep those murderous thoughts inside of your head and come with me.”
He rolls his wrists before balling his hands into fists. “If I’m not?”
My vicious smirk should tell him everything he needs to know, but just in case, I slice my thumb across my throat.
Certain he has the picture, I house my knife, then spin away from him. He could stab me in the back with the fire stoke balancing on the far side wall, but I’m not worried.
Only a fool goes straight for the jugular of the King.
A true rival takes down the prongs holding up his reign.
While Nikolai’s goon follows me up a set of rickety stairs, Smith advises Nikolai’s fleet of vehicles have left a private airstrip on the outskirts of Hopeton. He should arrive within the next couple of minutes, giving me plenty of time to commence my ruse.
After taking a seat in the den housing enough cots for a dozen men, I gesture for Nikolai’s man to do the same in the seat across from me. Suspicion makes itself known on his face when my suggestion comes without the removal of any guns of the three men flanking me.
He thought I brought him here to kill him. In reality, I’m testing his value. If he survives Nikolai walking in on us seemingly having a private conversation, I’ll know he is more valuable than a standard foot soldier. If he’s clutching his bludgeoned throat at my feet within seconds of Nikolai’s arrival, I can cross him off Nikolai’s top ten.
The rankings of Nikolai’s men are worthless to most crews, but to me, it’s hard to put a price on it. Knowing someone’s priorities far exceeds knowing the digits in their bank accounts, because the sooner you learn where someone stands in someone’s life, the sooner you know their weaknesses.
“Cigar?” I make sure the pricy watch Roxanne gifted me at Christmas is seen while offering the goon a cigar that costs more than most men make a year. Since I have time to kill, I may as well work out where his loyalties lie.
Dark hair falls into the man’s even darker eyes when he shakes his head. “You should enjoy it. You won’t when Nikolai arrives.”
His reply humors me, but not as much as the panic that crosses his face when a familiar Russian accent sounds from down the hall. “Is Dimitri aware of my arrival?”
“Nu-uh,” I say to the goon seated across from me when his lips twitch to rat me out. “If you so much as breathe heavier, the little red dot on your chest will make a fucking mess.”
Usually, I’d kill him just for ruminating over the idea of ratting me out.
Alas, I’ve changed since I became a father.
I also don’t want to subject Justine’s family to more gore than I already have. They had to piece their daughter back together after my father ordered for her to be mauled by a dog trained to kill. They don’t need more carnage.
I don’t know whether to be amused or frustrated when the clamping of the goon’s mouth has me hearing Landon’s reply. Landon is one of Justine’s older brothers. He acts regal, but his exterior is nowhere near as shiny as his brother who spent the last five years in lock up. “But I’m certain he’s aware of Maddox’s impending release. His crew’s presence in Hopeton has doubled the past month.”
It didn’t double because Maddox has finally stopped taking it up the ass like I did four years ago. It tripled because my family linage is going gangbusters. I can now say my last name without tasting dirt, and soon it will have the honor Roxanne, Fien, and Matteo deserve it to have.
After scrubbing my jaw to loosen its tightness, I say, “For a man who flies all over the world, your geographical knowledge is shit.”
As Nikolai’s eyes snap to mine, his hand slips into the back pocket of his jeans. Unlike me, who favors guns over knifes, Nikolai is never without his trusty knife. It killed his father, gave him his throne, and awarded him his queen. His favoritism is understandable.
I love carnage. For years, it kept the blood pumping through my veins as black as my son’s hair. Now, the cravings are nowhere near as severe. That doesn’t mean I won’t sit back and watch the occasional massacre occur, though.
Nikolai isn’t reaching for his knife solely because I’m in his presence. He spotted Collin standing at my side, and a craving for a bloodbath is seen all over his face.
I’m not the only one noticing it. Clover was a nanosecond from lighting Nikolai’s chest up with the scope of his M4. The only reason he didn’t is because I signaled for him not to. If Nikolai wants to take out the trash, I’m more than happy to let him.
Disappointment balls my hands when Nikolai doesn’t sentence Collin to anything but a murderous glare. I want to say it’s because he’s weak and pathetic, but I gave up lying around about the same time I took prostitutes off my agenda. Nikolai is holding back because he doesn’t want to force Justine to see the vile side of our life any more than I wish I could have kept her off my father’s radar. I made mistakes back then, many of them, and only now do I have the chance to make them right.
“Wait for me outside.”
My back molars smash together when Collin acts as if I didn’t speak. He wrongly believes the Petretti blood in his veins will save him from my wrath. I’m not close to reaching the same conclusion, but before I can show him exactly what happens when you ignore my direct order, Nikolai’s goon commences his punishment on my behalf.
He twists Collin’s arm around his back before he distorts his neck in a way that isn’t close to normal. When he marches him to the door, Clover strays his eyes my way. He’s forever on alert. A simple scratch of my nose would see every man in this room taken down in under five seconds, and if the tick in his jaw is anything to go by, Collin would be the first punk-ass on his list.
