4. Lev
Chapter 4
Lev
I brush construction dust off a long empty counter and dump out a bag of expensive Rolex watches.
It’s six in the morning, and nobody else is here yet. Technically, nobody needs to be here for another week at least. Fed Jewelers burned to the ground over a month ago, but now it’s rising from the ashes, all thanks to the time and money I dumped back into this place.
The front looks good. Better than it did before the fire, honestly. The display cases are mostly empty, and I take my time setting them up. Each watch gets nestled on a little pillow and lovingly lined up facing the customers.
I grew up in this place. This store was my whole life as a kid. My father started it when he was a young man, and he grew it into a pillar of the diamond industry in this part of Philadelphia. Before it all burned down, millions of dollars flowed through this storefront every week.
Now we’re back. It feels good. It feels fucking right.
It’ll never be the same—but this time, it’ll be mine.
I hear the back door open. Alexander appears, looking out at me, shaking his head with disbelief. “I can’t believe you’re here earlier than me.”
“You’re lazy. Are you surprised?” I throw him a big grin. It’s like putting on a pair of pants in the morning. No, it’s like slipping on my mask.
The smile says, look at me, I’m happy and harmless .
Alex knows me better than that. We practically grew up together. He was my older brother’s best friend, back before Stepan died in a gunfight with a rival crime syndicate. After Step’s death, Alex and I got close.
Right up to the point where Alex married my sister, Natalya.
It’s fucking complicated.
But at least he’s a good husband. I can respect him for that. And once my sister gives birth, he’ll be a damn good father.
All because he cares . He cares so fucking much it drives him crazy. It turns him into an annoying perfectionist, and it nearly got him killed once already. But at least he cares.
That’s more than I can say about myself.
“Honestly, I thought you’d take some time off.” Alex slides a coffee over to me. I accept it with a nod and take a sip. “Given your situation.”
“I’m getting married. I’m not about to succumb to venereal disease.”
Alex’s eyebrows raise. “You sure about that? The disease, not the marriage.”
“Fuck off.” Little does he know, I’ve been totally celibate, with the exception of one incredible night.
“I’m just saying, you can take a break. You still haven’t even met your future wife yet.”
“Don’t even know her name.”
“That fucking kills me. Aren’t you curious?”
I shrug lightly. “Adriano said she’s pretty and loyal. That’s all I need to know.”
“Adriano doesn’t exactly have your best interests at heart, you know.”
“He fucking better.” The son of the Don of the Marino Famiglia’s the one who worked with me to set up this arranged marriage. It’s how our two families come together: Russian and Italian working in perfect harmony to import drugs through Canada and to make everyone rich.
But that deal is predicated on me getting hitched to one of his cousins.
My sister, Natalya, was supposed to be the one marrying an Italian, except she ran off, got knocked up, and said the vows with Alex instead. So now I’m taking her place as the sacrificial lamb.
That’s what I do for this family. Step died, and I took his place as heir. Nat fucked up, and I took her place at the marriage altar.
I hold this place together. That’s why it’s all going to be mine, sooner rather than later.
Sometimes I don’t even know why I want it.
A rotten family with a rotten business bleeding rotten blood all over this city.
Only that’s me: rotten deep down to the core.
“Look, take it from me as a married man?—”
“Married to my sister, so be careful about what you’re going to say.”
Alex laughs and shakes his head. “I just mean, you can either go into this and make your life hard, or you can go into it and make it easy. You know what I’m saying?”
“Not remotely.” I finish the display of Rolexes and step back to admire the display. “How’s this look?”
“I’m saying, have an open mind. You can struggle against your situation and act like a dick to the girl, or you can do your best to get along.”
“Are these things straight?” I frown and reach back in to adjust a few.
“You really don’t give a shit about this wedding,” he says with a sigh.
“We’re still talking about that?” I give him another cocky grin. “I’m just messing around. I know what you’re saying, alright? I plan on taking it seriously. Adriano’s going to introduce us in a couple of days, and this weekend we’ll say the words and get it all over with. Then I’ll go back to living my life.”
“I don’t know if it’s that simple. I mean, she’s going to move in with you, right?”
“If she wants to.”
Alex rubs his face with both hands. “You haven’t thought about this at all.”
“That’s logistics. I’ve been busy worrying about this.” I gesture at the nearly finished shop. “My time’s been better spent here.”
Alex doesn’t seem convinced, but that bastard thinks he knows everything about relationships now that he’s living in blissful matrimony with my fucking sister. The guy should be more careful considering he knocked her up before putting a ring on her finger, but that’s an old argument and I’m putting it behind me.
He finally gives up trying to lecture me about the right way to be a husband, and we get to work. I have a lot of thoughts about my friend Alex, but at least he’s one of the hardest-working men I’ve ever met, and he’s got a solid mind too. By the time our two employees, Dasha and Katerina, show up, the place is starting to look like a store again.
The girls take over putting the front together while Alex and I deal with back-of-the-shop issues, which are mostly fake Rolexes, fake Patek Philippes, and fake Omegas, and how to unload them.
We deal in legit stock for the most part, but we’re a criminal organization. I’m not even remotely above fleecing some unsuspecting rich assholes and selling the rest wholesale to even less scrupulous dealers all over the country.
Work keeps me occupied. It settles my mind and focuses me. Despite the smiles, laughter, and charm, it’s hard to keep the bad thoughts at bay. I’ve been sated for a while, ever since that night with my little fencer, but even that nearly went sideways.
I still remember the way she jammed her lipstick tube into that drunk asshole’s throat. When she ran off, the guy started after her, and for a second, the dark thoughts nearly won. I had my knife out and on him, edge tight against the tip of his collarbone in the soft flesh right there, hidden from the onlookers between our bodies. And the voice in my head screamed for blood, screamed for his pain. It wanted him to hurt .
I cut him slowly, and his eyes went wide in horror?—
And the only thing that stopped me was knowing I wouldn’t catch up with her in time if I kept going.
Follow that girl and I’ll kill you .
The fear in his eyes felt so fucking good.
Almost as good as what I did with her later on.
“You want to grab some lunch with me and Nat?” Alex asks me a few hours later, and I turn him down. He heads out, leaving me alone in the back.
Despite knowing better, I go over to the small personal safe I keep tucked under my desk and unlock it. Inside are diamonds, cash, a loaded gun, and a small pink vibrator.
My trophy from that night.
I raise it to my lips and lick it. I smell it, breathing in the dregs of her scent.
She’s fading from it. I don’t know how to keep my little fencer close, but this is the best I can do.
In a few days, I’ll be married, and that girl won’t matter anymore.
But I can’t get her out of my head. I’m obsessed in a way I haven’t been in a long time. It should scare me—the last time I got like this ended with blood on my hands—but for some reason, it has the opposite effect.
Even though I’m getting hitched, at least I can still feel something.
That night proved I still have emotions in my cold, black heart.
They’re quiet and dormant, but still there.
Now I’ll have to resign myself to a life of mediocrity with a woman I don’t care about, with only this small pink vibrator as a reminder of what life could have been like if only things were different.