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“I offered to meet tonight, but you refused. I’ve been in town for two days and this is the earliest you could see me.”
I could have seen Leonid any time in the last two days; I simply didn’t want to. Even tonight, I have nothing going on. But the thought of being with him in his sweaty strip club late at night was unsettling enough that I wanted to avoid it at all costs.
“You should be lucky I could see you at all.”
“Of course. I always feel lucky to share your company, Kirill.” If he’s being sarcastic, he’s doing a good job of hiding it. He leans back in his seat. “Actually, it’s rare that I do get to see you. Every time I’ve tried to set up a meeting in the last few years, you’ve canceled. Why else do you think I chose such a colorful location?”
“I’m not sure. Searching for your next mistress, if I had to guess.”
Leonid smiles, but it’s sharp. “My hands are quite full with Pearl at the moment.”
The Pearl in question is sitting a few booths away from us, smiling with one of the dancers.
“She seems comfortable here,” I observe.
Leonid looks back at her fondly before he turns back to me. “More comfortable than you. I thought you’d like this kind of thing.”
“I don’t need to pay women to get what I want from them.”
“Of course not!” he says. “But it is fun to sample from the offerings, isn’t it? Pearl understands. She’s choosing a dancer for the two of us right now.”
The dancer who was leaning over Pearl’s booth is now sitting next to her. Pearl is twirling a strand of the woman’s dyed red hair between her fingers. Apparently, Leonid’s mistress isn’t exclusively interested in wrinkled old men. Go fucking figure.
“Then let’s get to the point so you can go have your fun,” I snap.
Leonid holds up his hands in surrender. “I’ll make this short and sweet. I want to throw a party soon. It will be somewhere in the city, location undecided at this point.”
“I don’t give a damn what your social calendar looks like.”
He chuckles humorlessly. “You might care about this event since you are invited. As is Sasha Lenin.”
I arch a brow. “Sounds to me like you’re planning a funeral then.”
“Goodness, no! I don’t want there to be any violence,” he says. “No animosity, no ambushes. I think the three of us need to come to an… an understanding. It would benefit us all to—”
“It would benefityou,” I correct. “If it didn’t, you wouldn’t give a shit.”
“Neither of us do anything that we don’t benefit from, my friend. But if you think this doesn’t benefit you, you’re not thinking clearly. Sasha is more powerful than you may think. He could become a roadblock for you if you don’t make peace.”
“Then I’ll kill him.” I shrug. “Simple.”
“And bring the wrath of the Lenin Bratva down on yourself?”
“I think I can handle their wrath,” I snort.
“Sure. But not without significant loss,” Leonid says. “The simple fact is, making peace with Sasha will save you time and resources. Considering the nature of your disagreement to begin with, it seems needless to let that come between the two of you all these years later.”
Of course it seems “needless” to Leonid. Why worry about Sasha disrespecting Rayne when I can go and find another maid to fuck? Leonid probably doesn’t understand why I didn’t let Sasha have Rayne that night. Plenty more where she came from, right?
Even the thought makes me grind my teeth.
I have to commend Sasha on his excellent taste in women. But when he grabbed Rayne at that party, he sealed his fate as Enemy Number One in my eyes.
There is no coming back from that.
I lean forward, hands folded on the table in front of me. “Sasha came into my home and disrespected me and my staff.”
“I’m not sure you’re being entirely objective here, Kirill.”
