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He shook his head, interrupting me. “She is playing you, Viktor. She set up acting the damsel in distress today to make herself look innocent to you.”
“I don’t know that yet. And I won’t act on a maybe.”
“Jesus. I’m going to have to get the other lieutenants together and talk this over with them. You’re clearly compromised, Viktor. You’ve got hard evidence she’s in with the enemy and you’re still defending her, that fucking whore.Suka blyat!”
My breathing hitched. I had never wanted to punch him more in my life. I raised my hand instinctively, but then I stopped. Hearing the disrespectful language he was using about my woman was like a knife through my heart. But Boris was loyal, any threat to me was a threat to him too. Was I just shooting the messenger? Boris had done a lot of odd things lately, but this… I couldn’t ignore the evidence simply because I was losing trust in my right-hand man. What he showed me was irrefutable, if possibly not the entire story.
I picked up my mug, considered it for a moment, and then placed it back down with a heavy thud untouched.
“I will look further into this.”
“Viktor! Are you serious—”
I stood up abruptly, and he stopped.
“I will look further into this,” I repeated, “and in the meanwhile, I will be cutting off all contact with her until I’m satisfied with what I find.”
He huffed and rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s something, at least,” he snorted, disgust on his face as he stood. “But don’t think I’m kidding when I say the men are going to seriously question your suitability to lead if you don’t deal with this shit decisively.”
I held back my anger just a little longer. “Boris?”
“Yes,boss?”
I did not like the sarcasm in his voice.
“Do not contact me in any way. Do not talk to me. Do not call me. Do not show your face around me.”
The sneer on his lips deepened, but he pressed them together and didn’t speak.
“If I walk into the room, you walk out. If you must tell me something, you find a messenger to deliver the information. Your disrespect offends me. Your lack of trust in my ability, your lack of control, emotional and alcohol induced, offends me. You’re slipping. You will make yourself scarce until I tell you otherwise. Do I make myself clear?”
His face flickered with a multitude of angry emotions, but he didn’t speak.
He simply turned his back on me and walked out.
***
It took a few hours to verify Boris’s research on Olivia. Every image of her with Luis or his sister added to the burden of tension, disbelief, and anger that weighed me down. Boris seemed to think I should shoot her, the mother of my child. I wasn’t going to do that. But at the same time, I couldn’t dismiss all of this as a coincidence either.
My computer guy had managed to hack Olivia’s social media accounts, as I looked at her private messages with Anna, I noticed that nothing ever came up about Luis or what he did. Either they were being very discreet, or neither one knew about Luis’s criminal connections.
Was that even possible?
No. Not with the war on. Maybe she knew both of us before there was trouble between us, but that didn’t keep Luis from using her against me now.
There was only one thing to be done about this until I figured out how to handle it long term. I had to break off contact with Olivia for now. I hated the whole idea of it, but I hated the idea that she might be pressed into watching me, or deceiving me, or both, even more. I couldn’t afford to look weak or a fool in front of my men. Boris was already threatening to call a meeting on me and try to get me voted out, temporarily or permanently.
He had seemed so angry. Like I had committed some unforgivable sin by becoming involved with the mother of my child. Old school Bratva may have foresworn family, but that was not the way now. But whatever his feelings were, and whatever his reasons for them, I wasn’t going to put up with Boris challenging me. Especially not with all his recent screw-ups.
I finished my research and poured myself a double Scotch before even trying to pick up the phone. I needed to do this calmly, without accusations or reproach. I didn’t want to hurt her any more than I had to.
I had already drained the tumbler, chewed up all the ice and swallowed it, and started scrolling my phone pointlessly by the time I finally managed to push myself into making the call. The whole time, there was an ache in my chest that I didn’t want to think about.
Olivia answered after one ring. “Hi!” she said, sounding bright, cheerful, and totally oblivious to what was coming. My stomach knotted with guilt, but I set my jaw and plowed on.
“Hello, Olivia. We need to talk, and I’m afraid I don’t have time or ability to do so in person right now.” I paused, hearing the falter in her breath.
“Oh?”
