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Chapter 1 - Yuri
“What did you just say?” I looked across the restaurant table at my brother Ivan.
I could see why he wanted this meeting in public and not in his office. Less chance I’d make a scene, but right now that chance was definitely above zero.
I was stunned at what he was asking, though I knew it was really a command and not a request. And I was pissed off at the look of irritation on his face, now that he knew I wasn’t going to fold so easily.
My three older brothers were mafia lords, with our eldest, Ivan, ruling most of southern Florida, parts of Moscow and now, Boston, with an iron fist. Aleksei and Nikolai were his right hand men, juggling our family’s criminal activities while also running a few honest businesses on the side.
Me? I did the accounting and did just fine while keeping my nose mostly clean. They were often surprised by how well staying out of crime paid, but even though I worked my magic every year to keep them off the government’s radar, they still refused to understand how much people were willing to fork over to me to keep their money from going to taxes. They really refused to understand how much juggling I did to keep them on the right side of the law. Or at least keep them from getting noticed when they were on the wrong side of it. Which was most of the time.
Yes, I was getting pretty heated when Ivan rolled his eyes at me, knowing full well I heard what he said. Still, I wanted him to repeat it. I wanted him to say out loud how he thought I didn’t do enough for the family. Let him question my loyalty. Then he could see how well he judged my lack of wanting to make a scene in a public place when I punched him right in his smug face.
They didn’t seem to get how narrow the line I walked for them was, how every time I joined them in one of their skirmishes, I risked everything. Not just the completely (mostly) legal law firm I’d built up over the years, not just my reputation as a sterling citizen despite the Morozov last name, but all the relationships with law enforcement and local government that benefits them. I could just as easily spend my free time at art functions instead of Mayor’s fundraisers, but I did that to keep their asses out of jail, not to mention all the insider information I could glean. Sure, getting in a fight now and then was exhilarating and I didn’t mind stepping in when I was needed, but what he was asking now wasn’t merely standing in for a few hours with a mean look on my face and a gun in my hand. This was a step too far. Way too far. I raised a brow at him, waiting for him to expound on his insane decree.
And Ivan still had the nerve to look at me like I wasn’t a team player. My fist was ready in my lap, but the peacemaker in me made me give him one more chance to take it all back.
“Tell me again what you just said. Explain it like I’m five.”
He rolled his eyes some more and took a sip of his beer, as if we were out for a normal lunch and he hadn’t pulled the rug out from under my life. A life I liked very much exactly the way it was.
“You need to get married, Yuri.” The steel was there, under the slightly cajoling tone.
I continued to pretend I had a choice. “Sure,” I agreed, sipping my own beer. Normally the craft brew would go down well on such a hot Miami day, but it tasted like old ashtrays the way Ivan had my stomach so churned up with anger. “Eventually I definitely need to get married. As soon as I find the right woman.”
He shook his head. “The Rossis up in Boston are making noises. Causing more trouble than we expected.”
“That sounds like an Aleksei problem,” I answered, forcing a smile at our server who dropped off our Cuban sandwiches at the table. I couldn’t make myself take a bite even though I wanted to play along with the ruse that everything was fine. “I thought Theresa’s mother could handle them. Wasn’t that part of their wedding deal?”
My other brother Aleksei had married into a problematic family who had dealings up north, and unfortunately brought a minor war with them when they joined us. His new wife’s mother promised she could squash it, and it would never affect our business down here. But apparently she was wrong, and I didn’t get why I needed to pay for it.
“It’s a Morozov problem,” Ivan said coldly, then sighed. “I seem to remember you making quite the case for Theresa and Aleksei being able to be together not so long ago. You were all about family then.”
He was right. I had fought for us to stick together against a common foe in order for Aleksei to be happy. This was different.
“If you can honestly say I’m not about family—” I started, my fist ready to fly, but he held up his hand to stop me.
“Don’t start acting childish,” he said dismissively.
God damn it. Yes, I was the youngest of four, a mere child when Ivan came into power here after our father died. But I’m thirty years old and run a successful law firm. No, I wasn’t at every fight, nor did I partake in every plan that rakes in the millions I kept clean for them, but I did my part. I was always there when they needed me.
“I don’t like that you’re insinuating I’m not loyal,” I said.
“Are you loyal?” he asked, his steely eyes cutting through me.
“Fuck you,” I hissed.
He ignored that and took out his phone. A second later my own phone pinged. An email from him with several attachments. He kept staring at me until I opened them. Pictures. Of the kinds of things that my brothers do on a daily basis and that I try to steer clear of. Bodies, mangled, barely recognizable. But I still recognized them. The guys we sent up to Boston to keep an eye on the Rossi family, our newest enemy.
“Damn it,” I said, clicking away the grisly evidence of our mistake in underestimating them. Those men knew what they were getting into when they chose to serve our family, but that didn’t make it any easier to see.
Ivan nodded. “You won’t remember Artur Orlov, but he’s an old associate of Father’s. He already has a few people up in Boston, but he wants to come to Miami.”
Of course he did. As young as I was when we left Moscow, I still remembered the bitterly cold, eternal winters. “So, let him come,” I said. “There’s plenty he can do.”
Ivan laughed but without any trace of humor. “You know as well as I do that it’s not that easy. We need to be sure he won’t turn on us for a better deal. We can only do that if he’s joined to us. Inextricably, through his own blood.”
“Let me guess. He has a daughter.”
