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“Then why isn’t he here then? Too good for us?” Lev scowled, his fists clenching as his body tensed. He needed to calm down before one of the jumpy guards mistook his actions as threatening and started a shootout. Thankfully the glance from me was enough of a sign for him to ease back, for now.
“He would if he could. Unfortunately, he has fallen ill and has been in a coma for quite a while now though. But, before he slipped into his state, he was talking to me about making a truce with the Volkov Bratva, knowing how important peace is to avoid unnecessary bloodshed between our families.” Again, another precise answer which sounded a little too smooth.
Some people were good at communication and negotiations, like Stepan, but something about Lady Qing and how she spoke kept my nerves on edge. It wasn’t something I could call her out on though, it was just what I picked up without any solid evidence to what she could be hiding. Baseless accusations are an easy way to get a bullet through the head. Even if she lied through her fake smile almost too perfectly, any amateur would easily fall for it if they couldn’t pick up the nuances. Lady Qing was good, I’ll give her that, but I’m no amateur at this game.
“And a part of that truce included offering his daughter as a bargaining chip? Some father he is then.” Lev scoffed once more, this time with disgust.
“Consider it a gesture of good faith on our end. You have something precious of ours, we would never dare to wrong you.” The sickly smile on her face made me want to call off this meet and deal. A smile of a snake as it remained coiled, ready to strike when we least expect it.
I was torn. My gut screamed at me to not trust this woman or anything that came out of her mouth, but a truce between us would benefit everyone. “Give me a moment to speak to my brothers.” Their input was important to me. Even if I was the head and my say was final, I wanted to hear their thoughts on everything.
“What do you guys think?” I switched to my native language—Russian—to prevent the possibility of the other side getting anything from this talk.
“I say we light them up and just take it by force.” Okay, maybe I should include everyone but Lev because he was always going to choose the most violent route.
My gaze filtered over to Stepan, the unofficial advisor of the family. “I don’t trust this lady, but a truce is a truce. They aren’t some small mafia, they can be formidable against us if we are to go to war. I say we take the truce with extreme caution.” Stepan inputted with a soft sigh. “Very extreme caution.” At least I wasn’t the only one wary of this woman.
Then, my head tilted a little towards Arseny. Even though he was the youngest, he was wise and thoughtful beyond his years. “As much as I don’t like it either, I agree with Stepan. It might be a ploy to tear us apart from the inside using the girl, but a truce, even if it is short lived, is better than none. We can always plan in the meanwhile too.” Arseny tossed his penny of a thought into the pot.
I had a good hunch as to what the last brother was going to say, so I looked at him knowingly. “You already know I hate senseless slaughter. I say we take the truce and play our cards right later.” Alexei sighed with a soft shrug of his shoulders.
“You guys are no fun.” Lev spat with a scowl as he crossed his arms, clearly unhappy about being outnumbered.
Nodding softly, I turned back towards Lady Qing who remained on the other side of the table with a somewhat twisted smirk on her face. “We will go through with the truce.” Why did the words weigh so heavily on me? As if I just signed my death certificate.
“Perfect.” Lady Qing cheered a little too chirpily as she clapped her hands and shouted something in her native tongue.
All our attention turned towards a pile of crates when we heard footsteps along with the sound of something dragging.
Sucking in a deep breath, I struggled for a second to keep myself composed when I saw the limp body of the woman they were dragging out. Those beautiful raven locks and soft face couldn’t be mistaken, nor the undeniable fire that burned within me at the sight of the angel before me. My eyes raked her nearly naked body, clad only in a pair of white lace panties and a matching bra. I could clearly see her delicate body now, those subtle curves that flared out with her hips, and her toned legs and stomach. She was more than I had imagined in my fantasies of her. But this was no time to get horny for the hot nurse though, this was the worst time.
“Is this a joke?” Lev seethed, his hand twitching, probably itching to grab his gun from its holster.
Scowling, I breathed deeply through my nose to suppress my rising anger. “What is the meaning of this?” I asked in a harsh voice, glaring at Lady Qing.
“This is—”
Before she could finish, chaos broke out. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Angel spring to life, grabbing a knife off the belt of one of the men holding her and using it to stab him in the back of his knee before stealing his gun from the waistband of his pants and shooting the other person next to her in the leg, crippling him as well.
The other men charged at her, but I watched with amused and amazed eyes as she fought back, her body dodging and striking back with precision to effectively knock back her attackers before rendering them useless with a well-placed shot into their knees. She was tiny, but one hell of a fighter and shooter.
I could hear Lady Qing shout—what I assume—were, orders at her men who were trying to gang up on Angel who made a run for the exit at the other end of the warehouse.
I watched as a man grabbed her from behind while she tried to make her escape, only to have his face meet the back of her head in a headbutt followed by an all-familiar cracking noise. His hold loosened enough for Angel to snag his knife from him and give him a stab in the leg, making him release her completely. Then, she directed her focus to a man a few feet away and hurled the knife, piercing it into his midsection before resuming her attempt to escape. However, her progress was halted by a gunshot near her feet.
“I’ll volunteer as a sacrifice for the greater good.” Lev spoke in awe, not taking his eyes off Angel.
Gritting my teeth, I shoved the bubbling anger that clawed at my chest. How dare they drag her out like some piece of property like that? If that’s how they presented her then I didn’t want to imagine the treatment. Then the fact they had their disgusting hands on her earlier.
They dared to lay their hands and eyes on what is mine.
