33. Nikolai
NIKOLAI
L uca stands behind his desk and pours two glasses of whiskey, then he hands me one.
I frown, not at all accepting this fake peace offering. Even as he takes a sip from his own, I’m not willing to test if the glass has been laced with something.
“Were you enjoying the fights tonight?” he asks, displeasure tainting the question.
Luca is a beast of a man, coming in around six foot four. Which is why I find it somewhat amusing that his wife seemingly has a collar around his neck. But I suppose someone like Luca would need a woman with a strong backbone, who isn’t afraid to stand up to him.
“It was lacking.”
Luca considers me for a moment. “Because you can do better? ”
“I wouldn’t have let any man walk out alive. Your champion is strong, but I’ve seen better.”
Luca smiles then, and it’s anything but friendly. “I suppose you and I are cut from the same cloth, Udav . More blood is usually spilled than there was tonight. However, considering the guests, I refrained from calling for any death penalties.”
It goes without saying that he meant the women.
“I didn’t take you as one to pull punches.”
“No, but my wife is close with Sienna Falcone, as you know. Which is what brings us here.”
Weighted silence fills the room, the tension pressing against us.
I want to be back with Sienna. I don’t trust this separation or that they won’t take her.
My only saving grace is the threat of the necklace around her throat.
I knew by following Luca, I could be walking into my own execution, and I won’t go down without a fight.
In fact, the potential of it excites me.
“The Wolf wants to introduce exotic beasts into my fights. Not only here but in Italy as well. Men want what they can’t obtain or see elsewhere, and violence is a good source for profit.”
I wonder why he’s telling me this. I really don’t care what The Wolf wants, and he’s already told me his demands himself. Not that I expected anything original from the man. But it’s Mikhail’s motivations that aren’t yet clear to me.
Luca continues, as if this is a basic business transaction.
“The Lion had drawn attention to New York after attempting to run his business within my city. He was removed, and I’ve dug up every inch he touched and killed any man who was loyal to him.
From what I hear, The Wolf was far from loyal, and it’s awfully ambitious of him to try to take a position that was never rooted here in the first place.
” I can sense he’s trying to gauge my part in all this as well.
Men like Luca don’t offer whiskey in fine glasses to someone who kidnapped someone close to them.
And they certainly don’t pretend like they’re considering negotiations afterward.
I’m running out of time, I know that. As the opportunist I am, I take advantage of my situation before walking myself to the gallows.
“With all due respect, I really don’t care for the finer details of your business dealings. However, I do want to meet with Dmitri Volkov. Was he not the one who killed The Lion? The Lion was deemed one of the most ruthless bratva leaders, and yet his outcast son was able to defeat him.”
Luca stares into the amber liquid in his glass. “Why the obsession with Dmitri Volkov?”
“Why are you protecting him?” I question.
“It’s nothing personal. I’m not a fan of the asshole either.
However, our women seem to have a loyalty to one another that surpasses even that of my men to me.
” He doesn’t seem at all impressed by the fact.
But I’ve witnessed it myself, tonight. The only one who isn’t here is Elanee Volkov, Dmitri’s wife, the very same woman The Lion used as bait to draw Dmitri out.
I know Elanee. In fact, she was one of The Lion’s favorite toys until he found something better to torment. That was the kind of monster he was.
Those who were tracking Dmitri’s movements on my behalf suddenly disappeared weeks ago, right around the time I suspect the Armanis caught on to Sienna’s disappearance. No matter, they were The Wolf’s men anyway, but I haven’t been able to catch a trace of him since.
“You said you don’t care about The Lion’s death. So, why Dmitri? Is it a challenge in strength you’re seeking?”
“It’s personal.”
“Because he’s your half-brother?” My mood immediately grows darker.
Only a select few know that information.
“Ah. You thought you covered your tracks. It took me a while to find proof, so you did well in your attempt to hide it. Unfortunately for you, I’ve refined my resources and have a very adept man who can find me everything. ”
I straighten my shoulders. There’s no point in denying it now.
“Family reunions are unpredictable,” he says, placing his drink down.
“He’s not family, and neither was The Lion. My reasons are of no importance to you. You bring him to me, and in exchange, I’ll help you lure The Wolf out. ”
Luca gives me an unfriendly smile as he walks around the wooden desk and comes to stop in front of me. Our mutual distaste for one another is evident in the way that our hands curl into fists, as if we’re both holding back from this turning into a bloodbath.
Because there’s no one here to stop us.
“I don’t take orders from you,” Luca says venomously. “The Wolf has sent you on a suicide mission. You realize that, don’t you?” He looks me up and down.
“I assure you I’m exactly where I want to be. Bring me Dmitri Volkov, and I might be of more assistance to you. Until then, I’ll slit your throat in your sleep if you try to pry Sienna Falcone from me.”
A dangerous half smile touches his lips, a look of death in his gaze.
“Does your boss know about your little captured obsession?”
“Does your wife know you’d so easily gamble her friend’s life away? Took you long enough to track me down, didn’t it? If it were anyone but me who’d taken her, I wonder how much harm would’ve come to her. You’re not fit enough to protect her.”
We grab one another by the collar as he hisses, “Yet she comes to me unharmed. You’ve let yourself be compromised like a fool. The Wolf will kill her when he finds out.”
I grin wickedly at him. “Don’t worry about The Wolf.
I’ll deal with him personally.” Because the truth is, I know The Wolf wants both of The Lion’s sons dead.
He just thinks he’s clever in using me to profit from it, and assumes we’ll take one another out in the process.
“What I relish most is a man who thinks he’s the smartest in the room, but he always ends up exposing his neck just a fraction, noticed only by someone who’s just a bit smarter. ”
Luca’s eyes darken, and there’s a primitive recognition there.
I’ve been around enough heads of powerful families, studying them carefully, to know who is being blindly led, who only care for their ego and cock, and which ones I might’ve respected in another life.
Luca Armani is one of the latter. He’s careful and calculating but will also deal with things head-on himself.
And even now, as both of us are certain in our control of the situation, we’re not entirely sure how the other might dismantle our plans. And I respect that.
“There’s nothing more pathetic than a man who has no loyalty and whores himself out. So tell me, Udav , are your services for sale?”
“Careful, Diablo, or I might get what I want after all.”
“And what’s that?”
“The head of a monster,” I say quietly near his ear.
The tension finally snaps, and he swings first. I let him, tasting the immediate bloom of blood on my lip, and I savor it as he lunges for me.
“Boss?” The door bursts open behind me, and Luca shoves me through it and into the hallway.
He aims a fist at my ribs, but I’m quick to block him and then force him back as I slip behind his back and wrap my arms around his neck.
He twists out of the maneuver, and I give him credit for being able to get out of my hold. Very few can.
I raise my fists as guns are aimed at my head, but Luca snarls at his men, “Stay out of it!” His eyes are frantic, and my blood buzzes with pure pleasure.
He is the same as me, that beast beneath the surface barely hidden by a mask. Dare I say, he’s enjoying this as much as I am.
We go blow for blow before he pulls out a gun. I knock it out of the way as he squeezes the trigger, the bullet lodging in the ceiling and dropping debris around us. I pull out one of my blades, and strike low for his belly, but he jumps back, keeping his intestines intact.
I wipe at my lip, my hand coming away bloody, and I smile.
“Stop it!” Sienna’s voice carries down the narrow hallway, and everything in my being prickles to awareness as I sidestep Luca, then slam him against the wall, putting myself between him and her, blocking his view of her. “You’re both bleeding!”
“Luca!” Arabella yells, and my head whips up to find the hounds and her friends encircling us. The click of a gun draws my attention back to Luca.
“Don’t look at my wife,” he growls, and I better position myself to protect Sienna, but she wrestles to get in front of me.
“No! No fucking shooting!” Sienna screams.
“Luca,” Arabella repeats, more sternly than before. But it’s as good as white noise as we glare down one another in the narrow hallway. It would be so easy for them to kill me here, to take Sienna and be done with it.
“The necklace was a bluff,” Dante announces over my shoulder, and I know with certainty that they’ll shoot me dead and take her.
I know I’m the best person to protect her, but if they kill me in the name of keeping her safe, then I can respect them for it.
As long as something comes between her and The Wolf now that he’s undoubtedly set his sights on her.
“You’ve become sloppy, Udav ,” Luca says, but my eyebrows dip in confusion when he pockets his gun.
“Your cheek would say otherwise.” I bare my teeth in a feral grin, and he brings his fingers up to his cheek where a cut bleeds. He seems mildly impressed.
“I’ll bring you Dmitri Volkov … if you bring me The Wolf’s head.
I suspect you know how to do that. Tell him I’m open to his negotiations since he stupidly believes that.
Tell him everything you’ve seen here tonight, and have him here within the week.
Surely, you know how to take out the head of a family. ”
I don’t let my surprise show on my face.
Considering I was willing to die to get here, I find myself more shocked to discover I have something I want to live for.
Luca has clearly read the situation for what it is: that I’ll die for Sienna.
That he’ll give me what I want in exchange for the head of The Wolf.
I do doubt, however, he’ll bring Dmitri to me unprotected.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to all this effort to keep him away from me in the first place.
I struggle to imagine what my half-brother might be like in person, and whether I’ll be inclined to kill him.
Not because I care that he killed our father, but because he got out.
I’m curious about the person who shares the same blood as that ruthless man to see how the seed of a monster sprouts when it isn’t nurtured by that same monster.
But it now feels less important to meet him as I focus on what my purpose has become—protecting Sienna.
But if I can take my chance to meet him only once, I will.
“That is your role as the messenger, is it not?” Luca quips. The hound behind him lowers his gun. “Draw out The Wolf and make him bleed. Do we have an agreement?”
I glance down at Sienna, who looks like she’s stopped breathing. She stares up at me, terrified, and my gaze softens. For her, I would do anything, which makes me more the fool.
She’s become my weakness, but also my purpose.
“Yes,” I reply grudgingly. I have no loyalties to anyone but her.
Sienna takes a deep breath, and it’s as if it’s filled my own lungs. My decision is final. I will be her shield, even though I was the asshole who brought her into this mess in the first place. Yet I wouldn’t change any of it because it led me to her.
Sienna tugs on my hand. “We’re getting out of here while everyone cools their heads.” She’s mad, and I find it strange how she’s half my weight but easily drags me through the group of people. The men move out of her way without question, as if she’s the one to be feared.
“Oh and, Udav ? My wife wants visitation rights to ensure her friend’s safety. I’m assuming my courtesy will allow such hospitality,” Luca calls out.
Fucking asshole. Now he’s using this situation to make him look good in front of his wife.
“An udav through and through,” I hear him say to the hound closest to him, and I can’t help but wish we would have been able to fully unleash on each other. Because I think a fight with the famed Diablo would very much be worth dying for.
But as I look at the furious woman in front of me as she leads me through the crowded club, I don’t know if I’ll live to test that theory.