Chapter 27 Ivan
IVAN
Walking away from Raisa and Lev was the last thing I wanted to do right now. I’d done it once before and I swore to never abandon them again. Actually, I hadn’t known Lev existed when I broke it off with Raisa that summer years ago.
I was committed to being there for them.
Just not right now.
They would be here, waiting for me, so it wasn’t like this was a grand farewell. I would handle business and come back to them. It was different, and it helped to keep that perspective. Yet, it pained me deep in my heart to have to leave now.
Raisa was strong. She was no wallflower or dainty little weakling. She’d raised Lev to be a strong, brave boy, too.
She’d never admit that she wanted me close so I could comfort her, but I saw the vulnerability lurking in her eyes.
I wished more than anything that I could be the loving man she wanted me to be.
In the aftermath of what happened at Lev’s schooling location, though, what she really needed from me was the ruthless killer. The enraged father. The furious lover.
I would stop at nothing to eliminate any threat to them, and that was the only way I could put one foot in front of the other and walk away from them.
Going straight to Luka’s study, I braced myself for the questions. I didn’t want to relay information right now. I wanted to act. Raisa no doubt wanted me to explain what the hell happened too, but even that would be a delay.
I had a hunger to inflict pain. An urgency to fight and kill.
Fortunately, it looked like I wouldn’t have to stall for my uncle. One of the Dubinin guards who’d come to the scene and rushed up to the roof videoed it all with a body cam. I didn’t have to explain anything. The Boss knew.
“What in the fucking hell?” he growled as I entered, just finishing watching the video, the frame frozen on when I killed the man. “Another goddamn mole?”
He slammed his hand to his desk as he sat.
Fury emanated from him in waves. “First, that piece of shit who called himself Gabriella’s father.
Then that fucking maid who almost got her killed.
Now a mole trying to interfere like this?
” He cursed some more. “I’ve had it with liars and assholes who try to ruin this family. ”
The concept of someone within the family acting against our interests would always incite my uncle.
It pissed me off, too. Loyalty was critical.
But I was also relieved that the man I shot on the roof didn’t mention Konstantin himself.
That it was someone in the Dubinin side who thought to take or hurt Lev.
Luka’s acceptance of Raisa was sketchy, and I didn’t want him to have any more reasons to look at her with a speck of suspicion.
“And here I was convinced motherfucking Konstantin Petrov must have risen from the dead to pull this bullshit.” He shook his head.
Again, it was a minuscule comfort, but I had thought the same thing.
“I’ve got a good idea where to start looking,” the guard said. “Up near Brooklyn.” He nodded. “There are some old-fashioned holdouts over there who are always ready to complain about what it was like when Konstantin had power.”
Luka groaned, letting his head fall back. “That dumbass never should’ve had power to begin with.”
An alliance of Bratva ruling parties was a tenuous thing.
But Luka tried to abide by the mandates and codes of conduct the best he could.
Families faded from power or shifted over time.
With some, generational interest waned and other stronger names picked up turf and assets.
While we were at the top of the predatory cycle of life, we wouldn’t do well to call every other Bratva organization in existence our enemies.
Konstantin Petrov had veered too far from the concept of being a friend, though.
He was a rival within the loose confederation of us all.
“I can take you there,” the guard told me, then Emil, almost as if guessing we’d team up. “A whole bunch of old-school loyalists.”
I nodded, glad that Emil did the same. We were both ready to move on it.
“And this time,” Luka said as we moved to the door, “find out if that idiot is still alive.” He held up a finger. “Find out before you kill them all.”
Emil and I exited with the guard. He detailed the specific area he thought the mole might be coming from, but on the ride there, he expressed how disappointed he was that we had to deal with liars at all.
“After all that business with Gabriella and Miguel Lopez…” He shook his head. “What’s the matter with people?”
A lot. A lot was wrong with those who coveted power unintended for them.
We reached the neighborhood the guard had referenced, and we were in luck to be able to find as many Dubinin men or associated acquaintances as we could.
A poker night was being held in the back room of a gambling hall.
It made it much easier for me to pick through some of the men while Emil questioned others.
No matter who we spoke to, it was evident that the guard had summarized the attitude of this group.
They were old-school loyalists. Many of them cringed and made faces when I mentioned Raisa Petrov.
As far as gathering intel went, it wasn’t entirely productive. But our saving grace was when a server beckoned us to step aside.
“You’re looking for Mateo,” she whispered, smiling as though she was flirting with us, not speaking seriously.
“I heard y’all. If you’re looking for the man who’s got the biggest beef with a Petrov interfering with the Family, he’s got the biggest mouth and the biggest chip on his shoulder. ” She winked at Emil and nodded at me.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” Emil drawled, tucking cash beneath the edge of her bra cup.
I rolled my eyes. He never stopped, the playboy no matter what.
“Want me to handle this?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I just want this over with.”
He raised his gun and fired it. “Bring me Mateo.” One more shot was fired at the ceiling. “Now.”
A few men looked at each other. Cigars hung from open mouths. Others blinked with indecision. Then as a gnarly-looking older man shot to his feet to run out the back door, I aimed at the back of his knee and fired.
Down he went.
Another man tried to get him up, hurrying him toward the door.
I glanced at the guard and gave him a knowing look. He didn’t wait, going with Emil to secure the fucker we needed to talk to.
I helped myself to a drink while Emil and the guard removed the pair. They’d hold them in the other room out back for me to question. And kill. “Anyone else?” I asked loudly. The din of the gambling rooms stayed low with zero replies until I exited.
It seemed that I was late to the game. Perhaps Emil took it to heart when I said I wanted this over with.
By the time I reached them, he was already beating them.
Both of the older men sat in chairs. No rope was needed to secure them.
One look in their eyes proved that they knew they would be dead before the night was over.
“Go on,” Emil said, sneering as he flexed and closed his fist over and over. “All yours.”
“They admitted to it?”
He nodded, not taking his eyes off them for a second.
“That was fast.”
“We will always be swift to clear out every liar in the family,” he said, more to them than as a reply to me.
I crossed my arms, glaring at the men who were responsible for scaring my son and woman. They deserved the cruelest death to ever try to bother them, much less harm or kidnap.
“Is Konstantin alive?” I asked impatiently. I was eager to end their lives and go home to Raisa and Lev. But we all needed this information first.
“So what if he is?” the first asked.
The other man laughed once. “He should be, so he could rule better than Luka is. Marrying outside the family like that…”
I gestured for the guard and Emil to beat them again.
When they were barely hanging on with labored breaths, I tried once more. Luka expected an answer, and I’d get him the best one I could. “Is Konstantin Petrov alive?”
They could only wheeze and gasp for air.
“Did he order you to do this?”
Nothing. One lifted his swollen and bloodied face only to sneer. Crimson lined his teeth as he snarled, “Fuck you.”
“No.” I grabbed his hair and wrenched his head back. Jamming my gun into his mouth and chipping his bloodstained teeth, I leaned down until all he could see was my furious face. Until all he could do was taste the metal on the barrel of my gun. “Fuck you, and enjoy rotting in hell, motherfucker.”
I blew his brains out, releasing him with a jerk.
Moving onto the other man, I shot into both of his thighs. Then his arms. He would be a rag doll, unable to move if he didn’t bleed out first. His screams splintered through the air, and the tang of blood annoyed me.
“This is the only message I will give you.” I grabbed his hair and forced him to face me. One eye was swollen shut, but I knew he was listening past the sobs from the gunshot wounds I’d given him.
“Touch my son and die.”
I aimed my gun at his dick and fired again, relishing the mournful, pathetic cries.
Pivoting in place, I sighed and let the relief of delivering justice comfort me. Before moving away from the men, the pathetic moles, I faced the hidden camera in the corner of the room.
“Touch my son and die,” I repeated.
If Konstantin was alive and had tasked these two men to turn against the Dubinin Family like this, he’d hear me loud and well. And if he was alive but not directly tied to this madness, he could heed this message anyway. He wouldn’t win. Anyone acting in his memory wouldn’t win.
Raisa and Lev had been threatened once before, and that was one time too many.
Knowing that video would spread among the men within no time, I wiped off my gun then set it back in its holster.
Emil and I left, heading home. The further we went, leaving those liars back there—dead or dying—I was glad to have left a message just like that.
Touch my son and die.
Touch my woman and die.
It was a combination of vows I’d never forget and never forsake.
Raisa and Lev would always be safe with me looking out for them.