Timur lifted his hand and ran the pad of his thumb over his bottom lip before sucking on his teeth. He held his hands out, palms up. “Fair enough.” He let his hands drop to the armrests of his chair. “Not what I planned, or ideal, but I can accept your decision… for now.”
I bared my teeth and came a step closer. “There is no ‘for now’ in this scenario. She wants nothing to do with you so that’s it. Final. The end of that story is fucking over with. You’ll stay away from her if you want to stay breathing.”
Timur smirked but was smart enough to keep his fucking mouth shut.
The truth was, even if she’d wanted to form a relationship with him, I wouldn’t have allowed it. She would have hated me for controlling that aspect of her life, but no fucking way would I let her have anything to do with this piece of shit.
He may have acted like he was on the better end of organized crime, which was laughable at best because there were no good men. But Timur was just as much a piece of shit as the rest of them.
Timur opened his mouth, but before he could speak an alarm went off on his phone. He pulled out his cell from his inner suit jacket pocket and glanced at the screen. He pulled his brows down low a second before they lifted to his hairline and he looked back at me.
“This is your doing?”
It was my turn to incline my head.
“What’s going on?” Ana’s voice was soft.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Just chess pieces being moved.”
Timur slowly rose when the sound of someone entering the house sounded. He moved around the desk when heavy footsteps came closer. I shifted my body so I was once again in front of Anastasia and reached behind to wrap my arm around her waist.
We all faced the entrance to the office, and a second later the two men I’d asked to come over stepped through the entrance, cocky smirks already on their faces when they spotted us.
“Well, fuck, the tension in here is so uncomfortable that if I was a masochist I’d have a hard-on right now.” Dmitry moved a step forward, grinning from ear to ear. “But I’m a sadist through and through.”
Nikolai, his younger brother, stayed back, his hands tucked in the pockets of his leather jacket and his expression showing he’d rather be anywhere but here.
A long moment of silence stretched out and Timur looked over at me. “Seriously? Calling the Petrov brothers in?”
“Let’s get this over with,” Nikolai said and came closer. “I have a pretty wife at home who’s waiting for me to fuck her on the new mattress we just got.”
Anastasia made a strangled noise in the back of her throat.
“You want me to get this started, or have you already told him how things are going to go?” Dmitry said to me, then glanced at Timur to give him a slow smile. “You stink of that new car smell.”
Timur made an angry noise but knew pissing off the Pakhans of Desolation, New York, wouldn’t win him any points. The brothers had a lot of fucking connections, not just with the higher-ups in Moscow, but also because Nikolai’s new wife was tied to the Cosa Nostra.
“I’m pulling out of the underground shit,” I said, getting this over with. Timur turned to face me, and I felt Dmitry and Nikolai watching me as well. “I’m done with it. And I’ve called Dmitry and Nikolai in because they’ve got another fighter lined up to take my place.”
Timur’s jaw clenched as he stared at me. He’d grown a set of balls since putting on a designer suit.
“I have a beast ready to bathe in blood for the Bratva. And he actually wants to do this shit, not be kidnapped and brainwashed by pieces of shit that like hurting kids.” Dmitry stepped so close to Timur they were only a foot apart. “I’ve already spoken to Moscow, told them this is the better option. My guy is young, ready to make money for them, and let out the volatile rage he has bottled up.”
“You spoke to Moscow about this already, without bringing it up to me or the local levels?” Timur worded it carefully and kept his tone even. Safe.
Dmitry shrugged and smiled.
“We don’t need permission from you, a newbie Pakhan on a control trip, who doesn’t even know if he has shit in one hand or power in the other.” Nikolai stepped beside his brother and chuckled at Timur. “Soldier to leader… quite the promotion.” He grinned like a shark. “We run Desolation, motherfucker, and have connections you couldn’t even comprehend. We have Moscow on our side, so—” Nikolai reached out and adjusted Timur’s tie aggressively, “—here’s what you’re going to do. You’re gonna look at Ruin, thank him for his time and service to the good cause, and then give us your gratitude for lining shit up and making your life easier.”