After taking in a bloody tooth halfway down the hall, smirking when I realize it belongs to Collin, I return my focus to Nikolai. “He’s lucky I don’t pay him for his looks.”
Nikolai tries to ignore the humor in my tone. You can be assured if the mafia kingpin thing doesn’t work out for him, he’ll never be an actor because his acting skills are shit. “Then what are you paying him for? It can’t be his smarts.”
While murmuring about the mess my father left me to clean, I shadow Nikolai’s walk into the den. He isn’t happy I’m here, and the feeling is mutual.
After sitting in the chair his goon just vacated, Nikolai motions from me to sit across from him. I smirk at his gall. It’s the least I can do since my hands are itching to creep for my gun. This isnothis turf, so he doesn’t run the show around here.
The smoke from his recently lit cigarette bellows between us when Nikolai says, “You shouldn’t be here without an invitation.”
I shift on my feet to ensure he can see my face before replying, “I could say the same for you, Nikolai. You don’t belong here anymore than I do.”
I don’t just mean in Hopeton. I mean the throne he’s been sitting on the past year. Both our reigns were founded by lies and shady handlings. Only mine is moving out of the shrouds our father cloaked it in.
My thoughts are pulled back to the present when Nikolai discloses, “Justine is with child.Mychild.”
Images of Justine don’t roll through my head during his confession. All I can see are the tears in Roxanne’s eyes when she demanded for Dr. Klein to scan lower on her abdomen, and the fury that engulfed me when I noticed the boot-size bruise on her hip. It reminds me of how I failed her. How I let my enemies hurt her in a way I swore they never would.
It also has me torn on leaving right now to ensure she never faces that same injustice again and warning Nikolai he should keep quiet about his news. I understand he’s proud of his accomplishment, I get he wants to shout his victory from the rooftops, but he could face more than a takeover bid if his enemies discover Justine is carrying the future heir of the Russian cartel.
We were raised by cruel, heartless pricks, but our enemies don’t know this since they forever peer at us from below. They stupidly believe we were raised with golden spoons in our mouths, and respect by the bucketloads, so they don’t just want us to pay for their inaccurate beliefs, they want us dead for them.
The only way they can do that is by killing the women we love.
I’ll never let that happen to Roxanne. I’d kill every person in this godforsaken kingdom before I’d ever let anything happen to her.
As much as this kills me to admit, I believe Nikolai would do the same for Justine.
Mistaking the determination on my face for anarchy, Nikolai asks, “Why are you here?”
I thrust his cockiness back a few notches by replying, “I’m here to issue a warning.”
“A warning for what?” His tone reveals his mood is teetering. If it’s anything close to the turmoil in my gut, he too will require more than a bloodbath to settle his unease. He’ll need the heated cunt of his woman.
I owe this man nothing. He has disrespected me more than I haveeverdisrespected him, but Roxanne’s words before I left this morning are still ringing in my ears. It wasn’t by choice, and I’d give anything to change it, but this man is my brother, and I have the DNA evidence to prove it.
With that in mind, I say, “The men Landon mentioned in Hopeton are not my crew. They’re a sanction hoping to get a foothold in my area without my approval.” When wit flares through Nikolai’s eyes, I douse it before it’s half lit. “They’re Russian.”
“Russian?” His voice is as firm as my fists are clenched, but since he doesn’t know me, he once again mistakes where my anger stems from. “Why the fuck would I be interested in a two-bit operation with a main focus on sex trafficking? Despite what your daddy told you, there’s no money in the prostitution conglomerate.”
I take his jab like a man—for the most part. “Rumors are that you’re getting soft. That your focus has shifted away from the game.”
“Soft?” He all but growls his one word. “The only thing about to get soft is your cock when I cut it off and feed it to you.” He lowers his eyes to the gun strapped to my right ankle. “That piece youthinkI’m unaware of wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for me.” He waits for the anger on his face to reach boiling point before adding, “The guns your crew carry when shipping whores between states are marked with my brand. Even the coke your men sniff off their breasts between shipments was purchased from me.”
Nikolai stares straight at me, pissed I don’t attempt to deny his claims.
Why would I? Guns, whores, and drugs areallour businesses are about. If you’re not trading in it, you may as well be dead.
Humor raises my lips into my infamous half-smirk when Nikolai snarls, “Disrespect me one more time with claims I’m not runningmyorganization toyourspecifications, and we’ll soon discover who’s soft.” He nudges his head to the door his goon marched Collin out of only minutes ago. “This is your final chance to leave before you discover how hard it is to wipe your ass with your non-dominant hand.”
What did I tell you? He’s a fucking hothead I should be glad to see the back of, but regretfully, I value the opinion of my wife more than worrying about if our exchange will see me as weak.
I demand respect from my men.
I earn it from my wife.
“I came here as a mark of respect…” My words trail off when our conversation is interrupted by the last person I anticipated seeing. Justine is making her way down the stairs, her sturdy footing buckling when she spots my watch. She looks better than the last time I saw her. She’s well rested, healthy, and the scars on her shoulders are nowhere near as noticeable since they’re sheltered by her long red glossy locks.
Just returning her stare for half a second reminds me of why I left my family under Rocco’s watch this morning. I have to make this right. Not just for my family, but for Nikolai’s as well.
