My half-brother sat at the bar with a cigarette hanging carelessly from his lips. His eyes narrowed as he twisted and took in a couple on the couch. The woman was astride the man, moving rapidly. Niko smirked as his eyes roved hungrily over the girl’s nakedness before he turned back to the bar and fixed me with a knowing look.
Our eyes met in the mirror. It was always unsettling to be in the same room as Niko. He and I were close back when I’d clung to the belief that I could one day be Kirill Lewis again if I managed to escape Viktor or convince him he didn’t need me. Niko had been a little unhinged, even then, but nothing like he was now. While the terrible things Viktor had forced us through had ripped my soul and created a darkness inside me that could never be illuminated, it had simply sent Nikolai mad.
“Brother, good to see you,” Niko said, approaching me slowly. I turned to greet him, embracing him with one arm, the other on the knife in my belt. “No need for that, Kirill. It’s not very welcoming.”
Christ, I wished I could gut him and let him bleed out on the floor, but Viktor had forbidden it. Viktor Chernov was still the boss, and there was no mercy for the man who went against his wishes, family or not.
“Likewise. I had no idea that you were coming. Last I heard, you were in Moscow,” I said, sitting down again at the bar.
The bartender immediately approached and poured Niko a few fingers of whiskey, our finest.
“Leave the bottle,” he barked at the young guy as he went to leave.
I nodded my permission, and we were alone again.
Niko tossed back his first drink like it was a shot and poured another.“It’s too fucking cold there, and the women are no fun. Nothing shocks them.” He chuckled darkly.
I could only imagine what a man like Nikolai found shocking. My stomach turned. I sipped my whiskey.
“So, now I’m back, tell me where you need me.”
I paused for a moment. I’d expected this conversation, but that didn’t make it any easier to navigate. Lately, my whole life was made up of conversations on a razor’s edge, with violence on one side and money on the other. Luckily, I had balanced on that edge and only fallen into profitable ventures, but it was a constant trial. It never stopped. Handling Niko was more complicated.
“What does Viktor think?” I asked after a moment.
Niko’s mouth pulled up to the side. His mother was Georgian and had passed on her dark good looks. His skin was tan all year round, and he had her unusual gray eyes. He was a man who pulled women’s gazes wherever he went and knew it—a perfect, roguish mask for the monster beneath. I was nowhere near as deceptive looking. Taller and broader than my brother and father, I looked like the killer I was. I was still pale as fuck, dark-haired, brooding, and dangerous-looking. That was fine with me. I didn’t need to trick anyone into giving me what I wanted. I simply took.
“What makes you think he has any idea I’m back?”
“Because Viktor knows everything, doesn’t he?” I mused.
My brother narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Of course he does.” Niko took another long slug of whiskey. “He was thinking about the business with that hedge fund manager, the one interested in investing in human capital.”
Fuck. Of course, he would. The one fucking deal I wasn’t interested in pursuing. People were messy. Trafficking was messy. It was dangerous, with huge margins for error, and it wasn’t the kind of risk I enjoyed taking. It wasn’t a good investment in staffing or resources. Keeping the goods alive and mostly unharmed was a pain in the ass. I’d rather sell drugs and guns any day.
Viktor had zeroed in on the trafficking potential as a future revenue stream. He was short-sighted, with interest only in immediate gains. As my father’s obedient little killer lapdog, Nikolai wanted to score points by agreeing with the old man and taking it over. I’d let him if I weren’t sure my psycho brother would manage to get the operation up and running. It wasn’t something I wanted for the future of the Chernov bratva, an organization I would be head of, even if I had to kill the man beside me to achieve it. Niko might be mad, depraved, and creepy as fuck, but he was an intelligent man. That was half the reason he was so utterly terrifying.
“I don’t like the guy. I don’t trust him.”
“Let me check him out, and then we’ll go from there,” Niko said.
I could tell by his tone that this was a plan already out of my control. Viktor had given Nikolai a task, and there was nothing I could do about it.
“I heard congratulations are in order,” he continued.
Tension spiked in my spine. Had Nikolai found out about Mallory? Fuck, I could no longer wait to make contact when someone like Nikolai might swoop in and hurt her before my plan whirred into motion.
“Why would that be?” I asked, forcing a bored tone into my words.
It didn’t pay to sound nervous around the men of my world. A jaded, nihilistic mask was a person’s most valuable weapon, and I employed mine constantly.
Nikolai turned to me and filled my glass. His eyes had a look I knew well. A bright spark of excitement that had never, ever spelled good news. He grinned, savoring the moment before he told me what was sure to be something big.
“I heard you’re getting married.”
6
MOLLY