Chapter 20 #2
“No, my father is very succinct. I think he covered it all.” I shrugged.
“If you make my cousin happy, I see nothing to gain from making redundant threats. I don’t like to waste my time.
” A few beats passed before I added with a slight smirk.
“Plus, my father’s plans would probably become irrelevant if it ever came down to it.
He’s operating on the assumption that if you hurt her, he’d get to you before she would. ”
Priest barked out a laugh and slapped me on the back.
“Of that I have no doubt.” He chuckled a bit more as we approached our fathers, who were already starting to lay out the framework for our newfound alliance.
Indigo sat back on the row above the biker prez and pakhan, a smug smile of satisfaction on her face at helping to orchestrate the collaboration.
Soon, the Callahans and the Iron Raiders will be nothing but a memory, and my family will have avenged the death of Tatiana and the abuse of her daughter. Soon.
Priest
Whether or not you liked the arrogant Russian prick, it was impossible not to admire Mikhail Petrov.
The man had a reputation for being utterly ruthless and calculating, which was enough to gain him more than a measure of respect in circles like ours.
At first, I’d assumed that his protectiveness of Indigo was purely for show, a testament to his own vanity.
Any insult or harm done to her would be answered in kind because to hurt one of his family members would be seen as disrespect for his position and authority, not necessarily because he loved Indigo.
How could he? He barely knew her and had only spent one evening with her.
However, after seeing the passion in his eyes when he told me he’d crucify me if I ever lifted a finger against his niece again, I admit that I may have been wrong about Mikhail.
I’d seen those eyes before, every day in the mirror.
They were the eyes of a brother, who knew without a shadow of a doubt that he failed to protect his sister, and was desperate not to let the same mistake happen again.
That was when I’d finally begun to come to terms with our newfound alliance with the bratva.
The fact that they’d gotten out of the skin trade, cut ties with The Consortium, and seemed to have a sincere desire to get to know Indigo as a family were logical reasons to agree to work with the Russians, but I’d still been on the fence, personally.
Mikhail threatening to literally crucify me if I hurt his niece tipped the scales for me, satisfying some personal need I felt to understand that they were in this just as deep as we were.
If all the other reasons existed, but the Petrovs didn’t give a shit about Indigo, I’d refuse their help with the Iron Raiders and the Callahans.
I needed to know if their pakhan was still in possession of his soul.
Now, after a few moments of terse conversation and threats, I was reassured to know that Mikhail Petrov wasn’t as morally misaligned with the Crows as I had initially thought.
He still had his soul, and it was crying out in grief for vengeance and blood drawn in retribution.
The same drum beat in my heart for two years, the Russian mobster had been suffering through its rhythm for over two decades.
Together, with their nationwide connections and our ally clubs…
Roark Callahan wasn’t going to know what fucking hit him.
Before we came to Savage Delights to outline an official alliance with the Petrov bratva, my father had called another Scold.
The other chapter presidents had reviewed the data compiled by Clover and debated the merits of allying with an organization like the bratva.
There was a lot of back and forth, especially between Hyde and Omen, but in the end, given the overwhelming evidence she’d dug up, the other presidents agreed to the alliance.
If you’d told me before Indigo burst into our lives that our regional MC would soon be allied with the king of the Russian mob in the US, I’d have laughed my ass off.
I wasn’t sure what this would mean for our club in the long term, but that was a problem for another day.
The Iron Raiders and the Callahans had to be dealt with immediately and permanently.
My father and Mikhail spoke at length, while Riordan and I kept one eye and ear on their machinations, the others firmly fixed on Indigo as she harassed our men into signing up for her inter-criminal organization softball league.
So far, she only had one volunteer (Riordan had signed Ivan up for the Bratva Bros team with a smirk on his face), but she was having a great time needling my brothers and Riordan’s guards to join.
I suppressed the urge to sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, where a headache was threatening to form, knowing full well that I was going to have to sign up to play softball with a bunch of surly bikers and stoic Russians.
To a man, we were either worried about hurting her feelings, or afraid of pissing her off in case her notoriously vicious family were more than willing to spill blood over recreational sports.
Granted, none of us would ever admit that out loud.
Let’s face it. Some of us really did need a hobby, and a little exercise never hurt anyone.
Plus, I’d get to throw a ball at Ivan’s smug fucking face, and no one would be able to say a thing.