AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He thinks all of these witnesses will keep him safe. He’s positive I won’t try to execute him in front of men who were once loyal to him.
He shouldn’t be so sure.
I’m certainly not.
“Now, Timofey,” he chides softly. “Why would you say something like that?”
I turn to my men, meeting the eyes of each and every one of them. “I’m saying it because it’s the truth. As your don, you can trust me.”
“I was their don once, too. It was a position I inherited from my father,” he says proudly. “Then I handed the mantle—willingly—to you. And this is how you repay me?”
I see the trap immediately.
Sergey handed the reins of leadership to me. If I call him a liar now, it will cast doubt on his choice in me as don. I’ll become just another bad move in his long list of offenses.
Not to mention I don’t have the blood connection he boasts.
But if I don’t declare him a liar, then I cast doubt on my own story.
Either way, I’m watering the seeds of doubt Sergey has sown in my men. But silence is not an option.
“You have always been adept at playing this game, Sergey. You know how to manipulate the world to your liking. The trouble, though, is that you never could quite tame me. Not in the way you hoped. Isn’t that right?”
He arches a brow. “Are you admitting to being a poor choice to succeed me?”
“I’m admitting to being my own man,” I say. “I will always do what is right for the Bratva, even at my own expense. Unlike you, I’ll tell these men that Rodion was your flesh and blood. Yourson. By all measures, he should have been don over me. But you stole that from him when you refused to acknowledge your connection. You betrayed your own blood. Then you handed his birthright to me. Now, blood or not, I will protect this responsibility with everything I have left. I will honor Rodion and protect this Bratva from you and anyone who seeks to move against it.”
I choose my words carefully. I have to play into the heart of the Bratva, the brotherhood and loyalty at its very core, if I’m going to get out of this alive.
Sergey laughs. “What a moving speech. If only it were true.”
“If only I’d killed you when I had the chance,” I growl.
A few of the older men shift closer to Sergey. They’ve followed him since they were young. They’ve known him longer than I’ve been alive. I can tell they are prepared to protect him.
His lies have already taken root.
I’m prepared to stand here until I’ve won the Bratva to my side. But then my phone rings.
I see Akim’s name, and I know it’s important. He knows where I am and what I’m doing. He wouldn’t be calling now if it wasn’t.
I turn and answer. “What?”
“See?” Sergey addresses the men behind me. “He is distracted.”
“She’s gone,” Akim gasps into the phone.
My mind is split in half, partially listening to Sergey’s sermon to my men, partially hearing Akim. “Who is gone?” I ask, only half understanding.
“Piper! Piper is gone.”
I blink and turn my back fully to Sergey. “What? No. No, I left her in my office.”
“And it’s empty now,” he insists. “I was waiting outside like you said, but there was no movement inside. I just entered the code and went in to check on her, but she’s gone, man. Piper is gone.”
“Well, son?” Sergey calls out, breaking through my panicked thoughts. “What will it be? What is so important now?”
For all I know, Sergey arranged this. For all I know, Piper is missing because of him.
