Fucking around and relying onanyvice wouldn’t be in the cards for me.
Turning to glower at her, I let my scowl be the answer she should heed.
Her expression fell instantly, morphing from sultry seduction tooh, fuckregret.
She backed up, knocking into Nikolai. He didn’t snarl at her. With a slow smile of appreciation, he lifted his hand as if to beckon her to sit on his lap.
“Get lost,” I ordered.
She didn’t wait. At this moment, I wasn’ttheboss, but that didn’t mean that I lacked weight or power. Each of us who reported directly to my father—my brothers and two cousins—were feared throughout the city in our own rights.
Cringing and retreating faster, she nodded and scurried away.
“Hell. If you didn’t want to hit that, I would have.” Nikolai watched her go.
Lev huffed, incredulous. “How can you think about?—”
“Healwaysthinks about chasing an easy piece of ass,” Alexei drawled, glancing at me.
“Life’s short, man.” Nikolai shrugged. Then, perhaps belatedly realizing how crude those specific words were as we awaitedthe news about how short our father’s life would be, he winced. “Fuck. You’re all depressing me.”
I didn’t have time for that, either. If we didn’t get out of here now, we’d be late to meet with the doctor.
To get the verdict.
I winced at my shitty attitude and stood. “Come on. Let’s go and see what the doctor has to say.”
We alreadyknewwhat he’d explain to us. Simply put, my father was dying. It was just a matter of when, or if, he’d regain any of his ability to act as a leader at all.
Alexei got into a car with me while Lev, Viktor, and Nikolai took another. As I sank into the leather cushion, I rubbed my brow and let out a heavy breath.
“You’re acting like you’re already in charge.”
Used to bickering with him more than my brothers, I swiveled my head to narrow my eyes at him.
“Breathing all dramatic like that…”
I stared him down.
He rolled his eyes and turned to look out the side window. “Fuck. I don’t know what else to say.”
“Is that some twisted admission that you’re stressed as fuck, too?”
“Of course.” He grimaced as he adjusted the knot of his tie. “Losing Uncle Dmitri isn’t something any of us counted on dealing with this soon.”
You can say that again.My father had done us all a damn disservice, hiding the fact that he’d had cancer and didn’t want the treatments for it all this time.
“And it’ll be a rough transition.”
“Foryou.”
He turned to scowl at me now, giving up his moody stare on the scenery that blurred by. “It’ll be rough for all of us. For the family. With him weak like this and not in power, who knows how many other fuckers are going to prey on us.”
I shook my head, firm in that resolve at least. Taking the throne wasn’t what I anticipated doing now, but there had never been any doubt at all that as the eldest son of the current Pakhan, I’d be the one to take over. “Anyone who thinks they can prey on us is asking for a death sentence.”
“I’m just saying?—”
“I know what you’re fucking saying. With the loss of a leader, a new one must come in. There’s no question about that, though. I’m next. It's as simple as that.” Even if my uncle, Alexei’s father, had lived after assassinating our grandparents, he wouldn’t have been able to assume the role as much as a lowly driver. It wasn’t fair that Uncle Gregori had gotten off so easily—dying in the same fight that he’d started to usurp power.
