Chapter 28
Cigar smoke clings to the air, thick and suffocating as we enter the room.
Vartan sits at the head of the long table, his head back as he blows a cloud of smoke into the air. His son, Levon, is beside him, a hard expression fixed on his face as his gaze meets mine.
Vas shuts the door behind us, the sound snapping Vartan’s attention to us. A grin crosses his lips, but there’s no joy there. Only the sneer of an old man clinging to what little power he thinks he holds.
All of this fucking mess because he wants to stretch his grip outside of his reach.
Wanting more than he deserves, more than he could protect even if he were to gain the territory Tony promises.
Even if I were to look the other way, let the Armenians move their weapons through my city, it would only be a short time before another group came to take it from them.
They need my protection. And it will cost them.
“Lev Yakovlev.” Vartan taps his cigar against the edge of the thick crystal ashtray before him, leaving it there while he stands to greet us.
I grip his outstretched hand firmly. He tries to match my strength, but he doesn’t come close. “Vartan.”
“Come, sit. What do you want to drink?” He waves his hand at the bar situated in the corner of the room.
The Magnolia Manor, a small American restaurant on the outskirts of the city, has given us one of their private rooms for our meeting. One of each of our men stands outside the door, while our highest-ranking men are inside with us.
“This will be a quick meeting,” I say, taking a seat at the table. Vas sits beside me and two more of my men stand behind us. Vartan has the same set up on his side.
“What do you want?”
“You’ve been trying to move into my city, moving your shit through my streets and using my distribution channels,” I say firmly.
“I heard you came into possession of one of my weapons. I can understand why you’d think such things. But you know how clumsy stupid men can be, leaving their guns around where they shouldn’t be.”
My jaw clicks. Lying only makes me want his tongue on a platter.
“I also heard your woman was arrested while in possession of one of my weapons. Did she give you this information, that I’m trying to take over your territory?” He wiggles his fingers in the air, a piss poor attempt at air quotes.
Putting a bullet in his fucking head would ease my temper, but it would start an entirely new war. And there’s already enough of that going around.
“The DeAngelos promised you a foothold in my territory if you joined with them against us; is that right?” I keep my voice low, cutting through the room like a knife.
Vartan doesn’t answer, but the flicker in his eyes confirms it.
“They promised you port access, trucks, routes. Promised you’d make millions moving your weapons through my city with their blessing. They needed your help to get rid of us Russians.”
“You speak like you know things,” Vartan says, leaning back in his chair.
I open my phone to the information Vas transferred over.
“I know lots of things, Vartan.” I slide my finger across the screen, showing the photographs, documents, emails, text messages all spill out in front of him. “Like you’re being double crossed.”
Heat flashes in his eyes, but he tries to cover it with a sigh. “You’re talking out of your ass.”
“Look for yourself.” I lean over the table, sliding photographs out of the way until I find the one I want. “Tony meeting with Milo Brankovich.”
I push the photograph toward him.
His brows raise as he picks it up.
“All their promises, but they didn’t tell you they were making the same guarantees to Milo.”
Vartan picks up the photograph, examining it closely. “How do I know you didn’t create this photo?”
“Does it matter?” I roll my shoulders back.
“I don’t give a fuck who you do business with, so long as it stays out of my backyard.
” “Let me perfectly clear here, Vartan. You bring arms through my territory without my permission, and I will choke your supply chain until you beg me to end it. Not one bullet, not one clip will make it through any port in this country without my say. I’ll bury your profits six feet under.
” I lower my gaze to line up with his. “And if there’s any sort of retaliation from you, I’ll put you there next. ”
The room falls silent. Vartan’s eyes flick from the photo to where my hand presses against the other papers.
From the corner behind him one of his men mutters something in Armenian. It’s nothing, a complaint about what a waste of time this is. I let it pass.
“You want me to ask for permission?” His lips thin.
“Without my backing, you’ll never move anything in any part of this country.” I crumple a piece of paper in my fist. “And my reach goes overseas, too. You’ll be locked out of ports all over the world.”
“Because I do business with the DeAngelo family?”
“What business do you have with them? You don’t move flesh, you move guns,” I remind him.
He scrapes his top teeth across his bottom lip.
“And now they’re giving what little power they were going to give you to Milo. And they will push you out of the States, not just this city.”
“What do you want?” He tilts his head back, his jaw tight.
“You’ve been trying to broker territory on the east coast, is that right?” Alexander steps forward. “A deal can be made for certain items to be moved through our ports and with our protection. For a fee, of course.”
“And what is this fee?” Levon questions.
“Do you think you have any leverage here?”
“All of this because of a fucking woman.” Vartan scoffs.
“What did you say?” I ground out.
“Tony explained that his brother is at war with the Bratva over a woman. She stole from him—”
“The war between the Volkovs and Marco is his own doing. He put his hands where they didn’t belong.
He went after Alexander’s wife. And he didn’t stop there.
” I lower my chin, leveling him with a hard stare.
“You’d be smart to stay away from whatever bullshit the DeAngelos are trying to sell you.
If you want to make money here, you’ll take this deal I’m offering. ”
“Understood.” Vartan nods. “A misunderstanding, then, on my part.”
“And what of your woman? How does she play into this?” Levon pushes. “Those brothers of hers, they’ll need to be dealt with.”
He pulls out a photograph of their meeting Tony and Milo and jams his finger into it.
“They will be dealt with, my way,” I say matter of factly. “And you’ll leave Maxine out of this.”
The soldier in the corner mutters something again. This time it’s not nothing.
“Maxine? I saw her once, nice ass, round and juicy. Perfect for bouncing on my cock. Fucking American bitch.”
I jerk away from the table. I’m on him in a blink of an eye; my hand wrapped around his throat and have him pushed against the wall.
“You don’t get to say her fucking name.” I move my hand to his head, fisting the short hairs there and dragging him to the table.
In one motion I smack his face into it with bone snapping force; blood splatters across the wood tabletop.
“You don’t ever say her fucking name. Not unless you want me to cut your fucking tongue out and feed it to you. Understood?” I say calmly. Inside I’m raging that this fucker dared to even think about Maxine.
I should have his brains scrambled.
His head bobs and he covers his nose with his hands. When I release him, I bring my knee up to his stomach before dropping him to the ground.
“Jesus.” Vas sighs behind me.
The room falls quiet again, other than the groans of the soldier still curled up on the floor trying to get his breath back.
“I don’t believe my men realized you spoke Armenian,” Vartan says, looking down at his fallen soldier. “Either way, he should have better manners.”
“If we back away from the Italians, they’ll only team up with Milo. You haven’t solved anything by putting us in a chokehold.” Levon stands up from his chair.
“You’ll have our backing. If Tony makes a deal with Milo, they’ll be going up against the Volkovs, me, and the Petrosyans. They won’t have a chance,” I assure him.
“How do we know you won’t double cross us the same way? Pull in Milo?” Levon continues. He has more sense than his father—a bit less myopic of how the future can be shaped.
“You don’t.” I square off with him. “Other than my word.”
Levon looks down at his father, and then at their soldier still bleeding on the floor. “We need assurances. When we pull out of our deal with Tony, there may be blowback.”
I nod. “Especially if he’s using you to overthrow his brother. What do you need from us?”
“If there is retaliation, you and the Volkovs will stand with us.”
“Of course. If we are to be in business together, it doesn’t do me any good to have you all dead.” It won’t take more than a phone call to get Alexander to agree. With this deal, we’ll be hurting the DeAngelos, and at the moment, that’s his favorite thing.
“All right.” Levon nudges his father, who also gets to his feet.
“Then we have a deal. We can discuss the numbers later.” Vartan puts out his hand, and I take it.
“Good. And you agree, the twins are not to be touched.”
“Those boys betrayed us. I can’t allow that to go unchecked.” Levon’s jaw tightens.
“It won’t. We can discuss their future when we go over the numbers. Until then, they stay alive and unharmed.”
Vartan exchanges a look with his son. “Agreed.”
It’s going to cost me in this deal. But if I have to give up a few more percentage points in profit to keep Maxine from having to mourn her dead brothers, then it will be a loss worth taking.
“Now.” Vartan claps his hands together. “I have information for you about Tony and the Volkov girl.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sit. I’ll explain.”