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LUKA
“What the hell are you doing here, Luka?” Dima stalks out the front door of his house. His eyes blaze with anger. He wedges himself between me and Natasha. “We already have enough drivers.”
“We need to talk.”
“I don’t have time to deal with any of your bullshit. There are people waiting for us.”
“They may not be the only people.”
My eyes involuntarily drift over to Natasha, whose expression screams panic and desperation.
Dima grits his teeth, his fists clenched at his sides. “Fine. Natasha, wait in the car. We’ll be back.”
“Don’t order her around. She’s not your fucking puppet,” I growl.
“Don’t tell me what to do on my property.” Dima’s expression takes on a murderous glow and he waves a hand behind him. “You see this, Luka? I earned it all because I demand respect from the people who work for me. What the hell do you have? A little shit shack off the beaten path, buried in overgrown weeds?”
A snide laugh escapes my lips.
Shit shack that I paid five-million dollars for.
He’s such an egotistical asshole.
“If you need a bunch of expensive things to make you feel like a bigger man, great. I don’t.” I turn to Natasha and nod toward the house. “You can wait for us inside. You shouldn’t be out here by yourself. We won’t be long.”
“Okay.” She hurries past us without another look at Dima…only a longing one reserved for me.
My vision is a haze of red…a fierce mix of anger and now lust after seeing Natasha’s body draped in that gown. I don’t know how the hell Dima was able to coerce her into getting dressed, or how I’m going to tear my eyes away from her tonight but fuck, she’s a goddess of seduction and sin.
“Let’s go.” I stalk around to the side of the house where I know Dima has a private veranda, and he follows after a long minute.
As much as I want to lash out at him in front of his goons and drill him into the ground to show them what a pathetic piece of shit he is, he’s going to be boss, and I have to think about the safety of my family.
Nobody can know about any dissension between us. A broken family is always open to attack, and I can’t have that blood on my hands.
I have too much already.
And before I leave Miami, I want Dima to know he didn’t win. He may get the girl, but he didn’t beat me.
When I reach the veranda and I know we’re out of earshot of his guys, I twist around to face him, grab him by the lapels of his tuxedo jacket, and slam him against the stone wall behind him.
“You motherfucking snake. What the hell is your angle? You sent those guys to my place to kill me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dima sputters when I slam him against the wall again.
Hard.
“Bullshit. Ilya — your fucking messenger — showed up with a bunch of dresses, and a few minutes after he left, he was jumped outside by a bunch of guys who invaded my goddamn place. But you already know all of that.”
“Why else would you suddenly take Natasha away from me? You wanted me out of the picture, so you stuck her with me to make it seem like her father organized some kind of a revenge mission to rescue her, killing me in the process.” I grit my teeth, fisting his lapels tighter. “But your plan backfired. You didn’t count on me winning the battle.”
“I could destroy you blindfolded, Luka.” Dima shoves his hands against my chest to push me away since my fists are wrinkling his precious façade of the rich and successful bratva underboss. “But why should I bother when I know you’ll just do it yourself anyway?”
“Because you’re threatened by me. You always have been. It’s why you let me go down in flames that night with Resnov. You want me out of your way because even though you’re up Dad’s ass right now, you know that things can change very quickly. My loyalty is to the family. Yours is to you, and don’t think Dad doesn’t know it.”
“Dad also knows what a crazy bastard you are, and how you’ve opened us up to a whole world of crap because you couldn’t stay away from our enemies.”
“I did what I needed to do to protect everyone.”
