Chapter Five
My brother sat across from me expressionless. Alex was sitting next to me stiff as a board. All three of us were waiting for someone to speak.
“Look,” I started. “I didn’t go to the club with the expectation of making a hit.” I winced as I pressed the ice pack Sasha had given me to my head. The rag wasn’t as bloody as the last one had been, which told me that the bleeding in the back of my skull was slowing down.
A small mercy considering that I had no plans to go to the hospital. I didn’t have a good explanation for my head wound.
Dom said nothing. But his fists were balled on the top of the table, belaying his anger. I was sure that if I were anyone else, I would have a bullet between my eyes. Luckily, I knew my brother wouldn’t kill me. No matter how much he wanted to.
“Did you follow him to the alleyway?” Dom asked after a beat.
I bit my tongue. He knew I had. I wasn’t a liar. When Alex dragged me out of the alleyway and into a car, he’d immediately called Dom. He’d had to tell my brother the truth. We needed a cleaner to take care of the body.
“He was one of Katarina’s men. I couldn’t just let him go.”
Dom’s fists tightened. This time I knew it was because he was thinking about Katarina. His mother-in-law was in prison for trying to kill him and kidnapping his wife. The only reason that she was still alive was because Sasha didn’t want her dead.
“Katarina Petrov has no say on the Bratva,” Dom said.
“We don’t know that.” It seemed that Dom needed a reminder that we had no idea what was happening with the Bratva. Sasha was no longer family. The new Pakhan had made it clear that she was a Blanchi now. “The Bratva is a mystery. We have no clue what the hell they are doing, and if we continue to bury our heads in the sand—”
“Enough!” Dom yelled. He slammed his hands down on the desk and stood up quickly. “You acted without thinking, and now, we’ve got a fucking mess on our hands.”
I gripped the arms of the chair hard enough to crack the wood. I hated when Dom tried to correct me.
“You aren’t exactly the most rational person in the room,” I spit back. “I remember you wanting to murder every member of the Bratva after Sasha was shot.”
My brother looked like he wanted to murder me, and I derived a sick but of satisfaction from that fact.
“That was different.”
I snorted. “It was different because it was you calling the shots. You almost got us all killed several months ago, but you don’t see the two of us reminding you of that.”
I looked over at Alex who groaned and brought his hand to his forehead He didn’t want to be a part of this, and I knew that he was cursing his decision to go out with me.
“Leave us.” Dom turned to Alex who looked relieved to get a reprieve.
Dom and I stared at one another waiting for Alex to leave the room. We had an unspoken agreement that we wouldn’t fight in front of any members of the family. Dom taking over at such a young age ruffled a couple of feathers, so I agreed to always support him.
The moment the door clicked shut we were ready to cuss each other out.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Dom asked. “You just beat a murder charge.”
“I was thinking that we can’t just let Katarina’s people run around town. You made the choice not to get rid of that bitch in prison, and you're naïve if you think she doesn’t have any influence.”
Dom walked over to his bar cart and poured himself a drink. “You know why I didn’t put a hit out on Katarina.”
I snorted. “Cause you’re pussy whipped.”
Dom turned, and I knew he would lob the glass at my head if he could. “Don’t talk about my wife that way.”
“I’m not talking about Sasha. This is on you. You’re Don, and you should be the one making the hard decisions. Instead, you are sitting around waiting for the Bratva to make a move when we should be going after each and every one of them.”
Dom’s unwillingness to move against the Bratva was a point of contention between the two of us. I wanted to wipe every single one of them out, but Dom hadn’t given the order. Sasha didn’t want to start a war, but I was sure that it was on the horizon.
“So you wanted to start a war?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “I was going to turn the bastard over to the Bratva. Seems they are cleaning house. He pulled a fucking gun on me, so I had no choice but to defend myself.”