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I nod slowly. He looks almost mournful, sitting so still.
I linger, but not for long. A silly voice in the back of my brain hopes that if I’m slow to get going, maybe Dimitri will ask me to stay.
He doesn’t.
With nothing left to stop me, I turn on my heels and leave.
Chapter 29
Dimitri
THREE MONTHS LATER
“You’re telling menobodyhas eyes on this guy?” I hiss into my phone. “How is that fucking possible?”
I’ve turned every single rock, tree, and building in Moscow over searching for the elusive Edvard Levitsky. Even though we know what he looks like and have a general sense of his history, nobody’s managed to bring him in. I’ve even placed a bounty for his capture, but I’m still—unfortunately—shit out of luck.
“What are the chances he’s even in the city anymore?” Mikhail asks me. It sounds like he’s driving somewhere. Probably another meeting with one of the other Bratva heads.
“He’s in the city,” I reply adamantly. “We’ve been taking hits all around the city. Not just us, but the Rachmans and the Stokayevskis and the Alekovs—just to name a few. Buildings going up in flames, out-of-the-blue police raids, mobsters being murdered left, right and center. He’sgotto be holed up somewhere close by. How else could he be keeping an eye on everything? At the rate Levitksy’s going, we’ll all be wiped out within the year.”
My brother grumbles something that sounds like an agreement, though I can’t be entirely sure. I hate to say it, but we’redrowning. We all are. Levitsky is far more resourceful than we first anticipated. I can see the pattern as clear as day. He’s going after the little guys first, the smaller Bratvas with next to no pull or influence. Slowly but surely, he’s working his way up the ranks, climbing the ladder until he gets to the bigger gangs near the top.
If I weren’t already busy wanting the man dead, I’d honestly be impressed with his strategy. Starting small ensures that whatever territory and manpower he’s managed to take over will be brought into his fold, strengthening his bank accounts and ever-growing army. If Mikhail and I don’t figure something out soon, we’ll find ourselves facing off with a goliath instead of just one old man.
Levitsky is a virus spreading uncontrollably. If we don’t kill him and his lackeys off soon, we’ll eventually succumb to his sheer might.
“Are you on your way?” Mikhail asks me.
“I am. Roughly fifteen minutes out.”
“Be careful. If the reports we received are accurate—”
“I know, I know. I’ll be walking into a bloodbath.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Yep,” I mumble bitterly before hanging up the call.
I’m more than a little aware of the way Boris keeps glancing at me in the reflection of the rearview mirror. “Are yousurewe shouldn’t send someone else to investigate, sir?” he asks me, his voice just barely audible over the car’s rumbling engine.
He’s nervous. On edge. We all are. But I don’t have time to assuage his fears. I’ve got a mess on my hands that’s growing more troublesome with every passing second. One of our money laundering operations took a hit the night before. From what I can gather, we lost nearly fifteen of our men despite the fact they were heavily armed and on high alert. How Levitsky managed to get the drop on them is beyond me. That’s why I’m headed there to find out for myself.
I glare at him. “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
I don’t feel bad about my short fuse. Everyone knows I’ve been…irritableas of late. Everyone knows the reason, too, but nobody dares address it. I deserve a gold fucking star for all the work I’ve done not to think about her. She’s an invisible wound, one everyone within my household knows not to poke or prod.
But despite my insistence of not saying her name, of pushing memories of her from my mind, my thoughts always circle back to thenight she left. Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to take it all back, to do things differently. The more I think about it, the more pissed off at myself I become. It’s a never-ending cycle that sours my mood and causing the men under my command to tiptoe around me.
I’m in love with you, Dimitri.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and ignore the mounting pressure building behind my eyes.
Thankfully, we arrive at our location before I have the chance to spiral. I don’t have time for a pity party. The last thing I need is to be hung up on a woman I haven’t seen or spoken to in almost three agonizing months. I’m in the middle of a Bratva war, for fuck’s sake. I need to get my priorities straight and kick my ass into high gear. There’s too much at stake.
On the outside, the business front looks like any other restaurant. The operation itself is tucked away in the basement, but all it takes is a single step through the door to witness all the carnage. The dead lie everywhere. A couple of waiters, a few customers, but mostly Antonov men.GoodAntonov men, their cold and lifeless eyes still open in shock and horror.
Other men are here, too, easily identifiable by their snake and dagger throat tattoos. These are the ones I was hoping to get my hands on. Unfortunately, it looks like our boys gave as good as they got. From what I can see, there are no survivors to be found.
