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“Everything is settled. Mostly.” I power down my computer and lean back in my chair. “But there’s always more to do.”
“Later,” Yasha says sternly. “Right now, we celebrate. The Sokolovs agreed to the terms you sent them. We split profits from gunrunning, one of our least profitable sectors, and otherwise, they are going to fuck off. Mikhail wasn’t wrong: we threw shit on the ground and they licked it right up. That is a major win deserving of a few weeks away from your computer, at least.”
“It’s not finished yet. There still hasn’t been any word from Alexander.”
Cora hasn’t said it, but I know she’s worried about how her stepfather is going to react to the fallout of everything. So far: silence. He could be gathering his forces for retaliation as far as we know. I wouldn’t put it past him. The man is desperate. Cora was his only real asset, so without her, he’ll have to succeed based on his own merits.
Which means he doesn’t stand a fucking chance.
Yasha waves away my concern. “Alexander is a nobody. Konstantin told me he’d relay the details of the arrangement to him, including your ‘marriage’ to Cora. Beyond that, he doesn’t matter. His only power was in working with the Sokolovs, but now, the Sokolovs work for us.”
I waver. “They don’t work for us; they worknearus. We aren’t partners and we have to be ready for them to find a better deal somewhere else and betray us.”
“I am ready for that. I’m looking forward to it, actually.” Yasha grins. “I want another crack at those assholes. Let’s give them what they deserve.”
“If it wasn’t for Cora, they’d already be dead. But I can’t risk having the Sokolov army out for blood. They’d come for Cora and she has been through enough. I don’t want a war.”
Yasha lets out a long, low whistle. “She really has changed you.” At the sharp look I toss him, he holds up his hands. “In a good way, man. You’ve always been a strong leader. Better than your dad ever was. For a while there, I was worried you’d burn yourself out fighting every slight against the Bratva. Now, you know what’s really important. The men trust your leadership.”
It’s rare to catch Yasha in a serious conversation, but he isn’t smirking or tossing out a secret wink between sentences. He means it.
That means something to me.
“I think we’re both made better by the women in our lives,” I say.
Yasha starts to nod and then catches himself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m free as a bird. No woman in sight.”
“Right. Then I guess I won’t remind you to tell your woman that you and I have plans tonight. It’s our first rendezvous with the Sokolov lieutenants. A gun shipment is coming into the harbor.”
“Oh. Shit,” he groans, digging his phone out of his pocket. “I forgot. Luckily, I have no one to text and cancel plans with. I definitely won’t tell her to come hang out with Cora tonight so she’s here when I get back to the mansion.”
This is the Yasha I’m used to. Even him keeping things on the down-low is him sharing all of his thoughts, feelings, and plans.
“Good thing, because Cora is busy tonight and can’t hang out with anyone.”
Yasha’s face falls. “Really? You’re letting her out of the house?”
“Fuck no. Not yet. But she and Marcus are meeting up here for dinner.”
“Wow. That’s a big deal for her.” He finishes his text to “Definitely Not Jorden” and pockets his phone. “Is she nervous?”
“She said she wasn’t, which is a lie. But she’ll be fine.”
Yasha stands up and saunters towards the door. “I’m sure she will. She has a lot of practice with this.”
“Practice spending time with her dad for the first time in ten years?”
“No. Practice dealing with emotionally-closed off men who are desperate to get to know her.”
Yasha barely darts out of the door frame fast enough to dodge the pen I chuck at his face.
* * *
The warehouse on the harbor has been in Pushkin control for decades Once upon a time, it was used as a front for illegal poker games and clandestine drug dens.
Now, it’s a storage facility on the harbor filled with construction equipment—and, for just a few hours once a month, weapons.
A unit of my men scour the property for any sign of betrayal. They scan the building and the surrounding warehouses searching for the slightest hint that Konstantin Sokolov is planning to push back against our arrangement.
