Regardless of her feelings about her father, I had to make her realize what would happen now.
“No one can steal from our Bratva and get away with it,” I stated, watching her coldly.
She nodded. “That’s… that makes sense.”
Does it?
Maksim and I shared a look, always quick to check if we were on the same page with a decision.
“You need to confront the reality that your father’s actions have consequences,” I told her.
She didn’t nod as quickly as this time, but she lowered her gaze with something like defeat. Like agreement. “I… I know. Justlike he had to face the consequences of letting a mistake happen before. You came there to, to, to punish him, and he avoided that by offering me to you.”
“He is out of options, Elena. There is no loophole or bargaining counteroffer this time.”
She bit her lip and faced me.
“He must pay for what he’s done,” I stated coldly as I stood. “I will personally show him what happens when someone tries to steal from my family, when someone plans to two-time me and fuck with our accounts.”
She exhaled a shaky breath and nodded. “I… I understand.”
Is she scared because she thinks she’s included in this decision?
That I’m going to kill her?
Or is she upset and wanting to spare his life because she’s too good to wish anyone harm?
I gave Nikolai and Viktor a long look until I was confident that they understood what I expected.
Viktor nodded. Nikolai did too before glancing at her sitting there, her head hanging low with her chin almost touching her chest.
They’d stay with her until I was back.
Until I was back from executing her father.
Everyone in this room knew that was what I’d meant.
I would kill him myself, both out of anger that he’d fucked with my family and becauseIhad to make an example out of him again.
“How about we go down to your office, Elena?” Viktor said.
“And we’ll keep looking into the, uh, damage in the accounts,” Nikolai said
I left with Maksim and Alexei, fully aware that my two youngest brothers were trying to preoccupy her.
An hour later, though, as I stood in the desert where my men had brought John Morovov after capturing him at the airport, I dared him to hold back on an answer.
He begged.
Bartered.
Pleaded.
He tried to play with my loyalties, reminding me that he’d given me his only daughter and that connected us now.
Then he argued.
Negotiated—horribly.
