46. Dmitri
46
DMITRI
I received a text message from Archer twenty minutes ago advising she’d left the restaurant with one of The Lion’s men.
My teeth grind together, my knuckles turning white as I finalize the last of my emails and cancel the last two meetings I have for the evening as I sit behind my office desk. I don’t usually leave early, but today will be an exception because I received another message from my informant only an hour ago.
The Lion is here.
That was the last I heard from him. I rub my hands over one another, the electrifying buzz and need for a violent release profound. I have Archer, watching over her and I only got off the phone with Luca thirty minutes ago.
It was time to put everything into motion. We’d baited The Lion by playing around with his men and ambitions. Now, it was time to act.
I’m about to call Elanee, but a second message comes in, and my blood runs cold.
The job is done.
My assistant, Chris, loudly proclaims on the other side of my office door. “You can’t come in here—”
The door bursts open, and my skin runs tight over my muscles the moment my gaze lands on the brute of a man who casually slings his arm over my assistant’s shoulder. My father’s grin splits through a thick black beard the moment he sees me, those brown, almost black eyes locked on me. “But I only need a moment of his time.” He pretends to massage his shoulders. “Such a fragile boy. So easy to break.”
The threat prominently clear and the only clipped reservation to my last nerve.
I’d seen photos over the years, but they don’t do justice to the cruelty that elucidates from those brown eyes. The jagged scar at his throat, however, is a new edition. One I have every intention of carving open again. “Hello, boy,” he says as he shoves Chris away. My assistant remains in the room duty-bound despite his apparent fear as he looks between us.
“Leave,” I grit out because I don’t want any witnesses to observe what is about to happen. We both slowly watch him walk out as I try to conceal my rage. It’s as if I’m having an out-of-body experience as my gaze narrows on the man who has taken so much from me, and I’m doing everything I can to not lunge at him.
The moment the door clicks shut behind Chris, The Lion raises his finger in warning. “Before you do anything rash, I’d like to advise that my men stand at every door of your incredibly impressive ten-story building. And I’m assuming that you don’t want a mass shooting for your granddaddy’s pride and joy company now, do you?”
We have hundreds of employees who work from the main office. My jaw locks. All these years, I’d imagined what it would be like to stand across from him. But all I’m guided by is the living, breathing creature built on pure hatred and rage.
My mouth goes dry as he sits across from me casually, filling the chair as he adjusts his black suit jacket comfortably. My informant advised me The Lion was in town, but why the fuck hadn’t he updated me as to his whereabouts? He throws his polished shoes on the desk and looks around. “I’m surprised you’re able to get off at all sitting in a box like this every day,” he says in his thick Russian accent. “No better than a dog in a cage. I’m disappointed.”
He begins to stroke his beard, and I can only stare. It’s the only thing I can do to restrain myself from being responsible for hundreds of people’s lives, and even then, I contemplate if it’s worth it.
“Are you stupid and mute, boy?” he asks dryly.
I feel the curve of my mouth kick up into a lethal smile. Finally, he is fucking here. Within reaching distance. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”
He matches my predatory smile. “I bet you have. You’ve certainly spent years trying to get my attention, at the very least. More or less a pain in my ass. But no more than a buzzing fly.”
“You took everything from me.” My voice isn’t my own.
“That’s kind of what I do.” He shrugs. “But didn’t you like the toy I returned to you?” There’s a humorous edge to his tone.
My tethering control snaps, and I shoot out from my chair, grasping onto the responsibility of everyone’s lives. Was I willing to trade theirs for Elanee? In a heartbeat. He lets out a monstrous laugh, and it infuriates me even more, knowing I so easily fall for his goading. “As broken as she may be. It’s good to see you have the same taste as me, boy.”
“I’m nothing like you.”
His expression twists mockingly. “I know you want to believe that, boy, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. But this…” He waves his hand around the office. “Disgusts me. I had hopes for you. But instead, you turned into a bit of a wet blanket. Maybe that’s why Elanee never wanted you from the start.”
My jaw grinds, and I think only of her right now to restrain myself. How devastated she would be when she found out others had lost their lives because I couldn’t keep my composure. “Leave her out of all of this. You wanted me, didn’t you?”
He chokes on a laugh. “Oh, my poor boy, you seem confused about two things. Firstly, I couldn’t give a shit as to what you do with your life. And secondly, you make the assumption that she never came to me willingly .” My blood boils, and my palms prickle from the way my fingers dig into them. Lies. Manipulation. He’s trying to get into my head and set us against one another. Because that is what he does, and it’s only because of my love for her that I’m barely able to restrain myself now as my vision narrows in and out and that catastrophic haze of red begins. Blood. I need to see blood.
His face elates. “Now, that’s the expression I like to see. Murderous. Almost scary if you had claws and a descent bite on you.”
“You seem to yap a lot,” I grit out. “What do you want?” I ask. Not that I care, he’s finally come to me after all this time. Surely, he wants something. Or maybe he’s pissed about our recent movement against his activities. I might not be able to kill him now, but I certainly will the next time I see him.
I want to kill him.
He deserves this.
I deserve this.
My knuckles grow white as I continue to swing back and forth with the responsibility of hundreds of lives. And I don’t care about them as much as I do my mother or grandfather finding out about the reason behind it.
“Ah, but aren’t you a little curious about my relationship with her since you’re trying so hard to save her from the big bad wolf?” His smile splits, patronizing and half-crazed. “Did she tell you she moved to Russia for me? Or as to how I pumped into her so many times trying to give you a little brother? I guess to your benefit that the bitch is sterile.”
I can’t see or think clearly. Rage is a living thing. As I leap across the room he’s smiling. As he pushes out of his chair and knees me in the ribs. It knocks the breath out of my lungs, but my body moves of its own accord.
He’s laughing now. The crazed and deranged enjoyment a wild storm fills the room. He’s surprisingly fast for someone so big. My body is sluggish, even from this morning, but I ignore it. I have to take this man’s life as he stands before me now.
“Had I raised you myself, you’d be stronger,” he sneers, and suddenly our positions are flipped. He twists my arm, and I feel it pop out of my shoulder joint. I grunt in pain as he whispers next to my ear. “Your first lesson would’ve been that bones are meant to be broken. Second, if you really want to kill a man, you find his weakness and destroy him from the inside out.”
He releases me, and I pop my shoulder back into place, evaluating him again as I stand. “I’ll let you try once, boy. But if you lunge again, I will shoot down every person here. You’ve pissed me off today.”
“Good to see we share the same sentiment,” I say with an arrogant smile that usually pisses people off. And it works swimmingly as he sneers.
“I want nothing from you. I simply wanted to look at the boy who shot from my balls and has done everything in his power to cost me hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s as underwhelming as I expected it to be.”
My antagonizing smile kicks up further. “Seems like you struggle to keep your business in order. Looks like I’m not the only incompetent asshole in the room.” I go to step forward, ready for the fight, but the left side of my body is so sluggish it’s frozen into place.
I don’t let my indifference show.
Fuck.
It’s only getting worse and at a time like this?
His phone buzzes, and he pulls the phone out of his pocket. He raises his finger at me, purposefully patronizing me in my own office. But his expression drops. “What do you mean she’s been kidnapped?”
My eyebrows furrow, and he looks at me as he hangs up. Numb-tingling dances along my left side, and I do everything I can not to show the obvious vulnerability. Even if I wanted to act right now, I’m barely able to move.
“Looks like our father-son time is over. I came to warn you if you try to interfere with my business while I’m here, I’ll come for you, boy. You. Your mother and your little fucking dancer.”
“Stay the fuck away from them and return Elanee to me,” I grit. I kick up a smug smile. “Sounds like I’ve been more of a problem than you let on if you have to personally warn me. Failing at your duties, perhaps?”
The Lion mirrors my patronizing smile, unaware of my internal struggle. The warehouse Luca only just ambushed was filled with guns. This means The Lion specifically would’ve been placed in charge to start this business venture. I wonder how bad it might look when he returns empty-handed. Not that he’ll be returning at all.
“By the way, tell your mother I said hello. I’ve very much missed her all these years,” The Lion sneers.
My right fist curls. I want him dead. I want to see his blood spray the room. I want to cut out his lips for even speaking my mother’s name. But what can I do in this state? “She’s never thought of you once.”
I’m fucking useless in this state.
He chuckles. “I know for a fact she’s thought of me every day.” The Lion sneers as he lets himself out, and when he opens the door, he turns to me and says, “I’ll see you around, boy.” And closes the door just as I’m able to take a numb-feeling step forward.
It won’t be long until he discovers the Italian mafia has torched both of his establishments, drawing The Lion’s attention to them. Meanwhile, I’m barely fucking functioning in my office. I rip things from my desk and smash them against the wall as I desperately search for my phone.
When I find it, I call Elanee’s burner phone.
It rings and rings and rings.