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What a joke. If my bookkeeping instructor could see me now.
“This club,” Dimitri finally says, spraying his rank saliva, “wouldn’t exist without the largesse ofmy father. Your family would still be pushing shitty black-market vodka like they were when they got off the fucking boat. You’d be nobodies just like you were when your father first came from Russia.” He scoffs, inches from their faces, with no concern for consequences. After all, he’s outnumbered, his posse nowhere in sight.
Vadik widens his stance and pulls himself to full height. He’s already taller than Dimitri, but this is what animals do when they fight. Make themselves as large as possible.
Dimitri remains unfazed. At least on the outside.
“Get the fuck out,” Vadik says quietly and evenly, in the same tone as if he were asking if it might rain tomorrow.
Dimitri’s mouth twitches, but that’s the only part of him that moves. “Vadik, need I remind you that the truce between our families is fragile at best? You, my friend, need to be on your best behavior. Because I can take you down. I can take away everything you have and leave you with less than nothing. Like your family was before the time my father took pity on yours. He had to teach your father everything before he was finally able to stand on his own two feet. He had towipe your father’s fucking ass.”
Dimitri delivers a masterful smirk, one that could easily be wiped off his face, along with his gross teeth, with one big Alekseev hand. And yet he doesn’t look worried.
Who has the power here? It’s impossible to tell.
Maybe that’s the reason for the conflict.
I take a couple steps back and then another for good measure. While I want to witness what’s going on, I have a feeling it’s going to get violent. And I do not plan to get stuck in the middle of flying fists.
Still, my heart is pounding.
For once, I wish Dominika would happen by.
Vadik bares his teeth when he speaks. “Dimitri, our debt to your family has been repaid many times over. It is long-erased. We owe you nothing except maybe a swift kick in the ass for showing up here and making trouble. You need to accept that times are different now, and that you, to put it simply, are no longer relevant, if you ever were. Further, you know there is no truce between our families. There never will be. You’re only allowed in here as a member who spends a lot of money.”
“And we’re happy to take your money, Dimitri,” Niko adds. “Just because thePakhanhas forbidden us to declare war on you, doesn’t mean we’re friends. There is no peace between us. There never will be.”
Vadik nods slowly. “The absence of war does not indicate a truce.”
The guys might not call this face-off a war, but it sure seems like one to me. Dimitri, perhaps defeated in this latest battle, turns on his heel and leaves, heading straight for the elevator, alone, defeated, and muttering under his breath.
He says nothing more, doesn’t look back, just presses the elevator button and gets inside when the doors open.
After they close, I take a deep breath. I know this isn’t the end of whatever these guys have going on, their protracted grievances, but for the moment, things go back to calm and quiet.
“So, anybody hungry?” Vadik asks with a smile when my growling stomach gives me away.
I played it safe as a fly on the wall during the brothers’ exchange with Dimitri. But I am a fly no more as they turn their focus to me, smiling, leading the way to lunch.
“Glad he’s gone,” I say once we’re in the dining room, taking my chances on bringing up a sore subject.
I need to find out where I stand with all that’s happening. Gather whatever information I can.
Find the guys’ Achilles heel, so to speak.
If they think I’m just going to sit around and see what comes my way, they are completely insane.
But until I find a way to save myself, I’ll plow through the crap they throw my way with a pleasant little smile. That way, when I do make my move, they’ll be caught completely unaware.
At least, that’s what I’m banking on.
* * *
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Vadik
“Look who it is,” my brother says, rising from the dining table to pull out Charleigh’s chair. “I understand you’ve built quite the fan club.”
