Yuri snarked a chuckle and stifled his laugh.
Dominic looked back and forth at them and sneered.“My business partner is in your custody.I demand that you release her.”
“And just who is your business partner?”Yuri wanted to know.He needed him to say her name.
“I think you know who she is,” Dominic said.
“Da, I think we do.”Sergi sneered.“Tell me something, do you always do business with women like her?She has several fingers in some very iffy pies.And by the way, you might want to know we’ve taken everything in her warehouses into custody as well.But not to worry, we have them all locked in safety but I’m afraid you won’t get them back.They belong to us now.”
Dominic narrowed his eyes at him as he snapped, “You can’t do that.”
Sergi smiled smugly.“Oh, but I’m afraid that we can.We found her first and she isn’t going anywhere.She owes the Bratva for her crimes and she’ll go before the High Council to be judged by them, not by us.”
Dominic shook his head.“You can’t do that.She isn’t a Russian citizen.They can’t judge her.”
“We can,” Sergi insisted.“Her crimes were committed against us as well as others.Did you know she’s also partnered with Aaron Killian?She’s paying him for protection.I have to wonder why a man like him is supposed to protect her from others.Would that other party happen to be you?”
Dominic’s eyes went blank and he had a set to his jaw that he didn’t have before.
Sergi could almost see the rage building inside Dominic and he had to smile.His game was working.He nodded slightly as he explained it, “She owes the Bratva for running a scam on the entire city of New Orleans while pretending that we were doing it.She literally blackmailed the entire city and she portrayed us as the ones perpetrating it.No one makes a fool of the Bratva, no one.”He growled.
Dominic shook his head.“So you will drag her in front of the High Council in her freakin’ wheelchair?”
Sergi shook his head.“No, we will drag her on herfreakin’ feetin front of the Council.She doesn’t need that chair.”
Dominic frowned.“She can’t walk...what are you talking about?”
Sergi snickered.“Oh, she can walk alright.The chair was a compelling device she used to undercut her enemies and partners like you.Make you feel like she wasn’t a real threat.Just for show, you see?But when she arrived here, we noticed something odd.”
“And that was?”Dominic asked.
“Her shoes.”Sergi nodded at him.
‘What about them?”Dominic snapped.
“The bottoms...the soles were somewhat dirty and well worn.So ask yourself why that would be if she cannot walk in those shoes.”
“Then we taped her pacing in her cell,” Yuri added.
Dominic snarled as he looked angry as hell.“That bitch can walk?Are you fucking kidding me?I’ve never seen her stand, let alone pace.”
Yuri brought out his phone, found the short video and then he turned his screen to Dominic.
Dominic took it and watched the video.His fingers tightened on the cell as he watched her pace back and forth.He placed the phone back on the table and his jaw clenched again.“That fucking bitch, she’s been lying this whole time.”
Sergi raised his brows.“Yes and I think there’s a whole lot more than this that she’s been lying about.Like to put it rather mildly.Every word she utters is more than likely...a lie.”
Dominic sat back in his chair and stared at Sergi.“So you said she was blackmailing the city, how much money did she get her hands on while using your name?”
“In the last ten years?”Sergi shrugged.“A fairly good amount I assume.In the millions perhaps.We haven’t actually totaled the numbers up yet.”
Dominic looked a bit stunned.“Ten years?Are you fucking kidding me?”Snorting, he asked, “She’s been scamming you guys that long?”
Sergi shrugged.“She wasn’t scamming us at all.Just milking every other faction in the city.She was using their own secrets against them while claiming it was the Bratva blackmailing them.We had nothing to do with it at all.”
“You need to release her to me.I’ll make sure she pays for her impudence.”Dominic growled.
Sergi leaned back in his chair.“I don’t think so.I’m not releasing her to anyone.She is going to stand before the Council.”
