“I think the Irish have that covered.” I rub my jaw. “Victoria comported herself well.”
“Oh, she did, did she? She’s not a complete waste of oxygen?—”
He gasps as I jump up and slam him into the wall. I grab him by the hair and knock his head into Harrington’s, who groans in pain but doesn’t awaken.
“You fucker!” Misha punches me in the gut to push me off him.
“I told you not to talk shit about her. I put up with your Z-list girlfriend. The least you can do is put up with mine.”
He pulls his arm back to smash into my face.“Don’t you call her that!”
The two of us fall to the floor in a blur of punches and kicks.
I break his nose, he almost sprains my wrist, and I definitely get him in the balls.
By the end, both of us are gulping down air and a lack of resolution remains.
It isn’t the first time there’s been such discord between us, but about the women in our lives? It’s new territory.
And I don’t like it.
“Asshole, you know I’d need surgery if I broke it again.”
Ah, yes, the deviated septum.
I’d say I had forgotten, but that’d be a lie.
“Ever heard of negative reinforcement?”
“Fucking hate you sometimes,” he fumes, gingerly prodding his nose.
“The feeling’s mutual.”
“And, can I just say that I hate your elocution teacher too. You sound like you sucked off a member of the royal family then got hit on the head and woke up in America. And that’s when we’re speaking in Russian!
“We’ll always be street rats, Maxim. Always. Why you bother trying to become legitimate is beyond me.”
I rub my jaw, not because the truth hurts, but because he got a good hit in.
“She makes you reach too far for the stars. You’re so caught up on what she used to be that you forget what YOU arenow.So what, she’s a Bratva princess. The Bratva’s dead in New York. We rule it now.”
“The Bratva’s going nowhere. You know that as well as I do. We can take over as many cities as we want, we can turn men away from their rhetoric, the US can be our stronghold, but it’s still a global concern.”
“And you think she’ll be your bridge?”
“I don’t know.”
“She’s the princess and you’re the frog.”
“You need to stop watching Disney movies, man. It’s emasculating.”
“Fuck you.”
“Gladly. Have you seen me?”
He growls then curls upward, cautiously pressing his nose from side to side. “Is he dead?”
“No. Panic attack. Think he stirred when you headbutted him then passed out again.”
