AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My.Wife.
It didn’t even happen on the streets or in an insignificant place. They dared to take her from an event held by Sergei in his own house. They have balls, I’ll give them that, but I’ll enjoy every second of cutting them.
I send a few more guards to investigate Sergei’s house in case anyone knows about the incident. After I received the phone call from Lia, my men and I were careful enough not to alert the others. Any security hazard in the presence of the other crime families would reflect badly on the brotherhood and Sergei. I didn’t want to give him one more reason to dig into me or force me to throw Lia out. He’d probably think I staged the whole fucking kidnapping and sacrificed Yan to make myself look innocent about the Italians’ fiasco.
That’s something his fucker-in-law, Kyle, would do, not me. Rai’s husband wouldn’t hesitate to put himself in danger as long as he gets to move ahead. I’m not like that. I would never sacrifice my people or put Lia in danger for my own benefit.
Sergei doesn’t have many cameras in the parking lot, so I need my men to tell me if anything was caught on footage, and then I’ll worry about it.
After I make sure all my men are where they should be, I head to Yan’s room in the guest house.
I take a second to suck in a breath. As much as the fucker has been getting on my nerves, I don’t like entertaining the idea of Yan’s death. Kolya always used to joke that he’s like our kid with how much we’ve doted on him, and he is, in a way. Seeing him shot was equivalent to seeing Jeremy choke a few months ago.
After a moment, I push the door open. Kolya’s sitting on a chair beside Yan’s bed and clutching a wet towel. His eyes are bloodshot but alert. He most definitely didn’t sleep a wink last night because he has a weakness for the reckless bastard lying on the bed.
My second-in-command tries to stand up, but I motion at him to stay and ask in Russian, “How is he?”
“The fever went down,” Kolya answers in the same language. “But he hasn’t woken up yet.”
“He will.”
“I know.” He hesitates. “Did you find out anything?”
“The other men say they hadn’t received the order to move to the car yet, so they witnessed nothing of what happened.”
“Yan probably wanted to get Mrs. Volkov to the car first.”
“Yes.” I stare at Yan’s bandaged chest, finger tapping against my thigh. “Remember when Kyle got shot pretending to protect Sergei, when he was the one behind the attack?”
Kolya frowns, probably not knowing where I’m going with this, but nods.
My attention remains on Yan as I speak. “Do you know why he did it?”
“To get in Sergei’s good graces.”
“Which was basically his camouflage. His cover-up. He took a non-fatal bullet as a form of sacrifice.”
Kolya’s eyes widen, finally getting my point. “You can’t mean…you’re not accusing Yan of the same, are you?”
My tapping halts as Yan’s eyes twitch. “Hmm. Who knows?”
“With all due respect, sir, Yan has served you since he was a toddler. He’s not some unnamed assassin like Kyle, who’s trying to get in anyone’s good graces. He took two bullets for your wife!”
“Watch your tone, Kolya.”
He purses his lips, but he doesn’t apologize. After a moment, he swallows. “All I’m saying is that Yan wouldn’t do that to you.”
“You’re saying that because you’ve known him his entire life. You find it hard to suspect him because of your bond.”
“Apparently, you have no problem with that. Congratulations.”
“I said to watch your tone, and no, Kolya, I have no problem distrusting people.”
“So what now? Are you going to kill him?”
“I’m not that cruel. I wouldn’t kill him without questioning him first.”
I can tell by Kolya’s expression that he’s enraged, disappointed, and probably wants to punch me in the face. We might have been brought up together, but he knows me to be cold and calculative toward other people, not my own. So the fact that I’m directing those traits inward, at Yan, is pissing him off like nothing before.
