30. Maksim
Maksim
I step into the office at the club and close the door, drowning out the music.
I pour two fingers of vodka and sit in the dark for a few seconds. It’s late, but I know Sergei stays up late. We’re all creatures of the night. It’s part of the business.
It was one of those nights that I’m glad I had extra security. We had a few troublemakers earlier. I can’t say they were connected to the Albanians, but everything feels connected. I’m paranoid. I’ve been playing this game long enough. I need to end it for good.
I hate to admit it, but I don’t know how to do that.
I dial Sergei.
“Maksim.” His voice is alert despite the hour. He’s always ready. Our father was the same way.
“Did I wake you?”
“I’m on duty with the babies. Sofia’s asleep.” There’s a sound of something soft in the background as one of the twins fusses. “What is it?”
“I need to talk.”
He exhales. “Hold on.”
I hear him moving, and a door closing. He’s stepping away from his family to take my call in private.
“Go ahead,” he says.
I lean back in my chair and stare at the ceiling. I know what I need to say. I know what he’s going to ask.
“The Albanians,” I start.
“I know about the Albanians. And the girl.”
“Her name is Lila, and she’s my wife.”
He sighs. “You’ve made a mess.”
“I know. I need you to understand everything before you tell me what you think. Not the version Nikolai gave you. Mine.”
“Then give it to me.”
He’s pissed that I didn’t call him earlier. We both know I should have. I didn’t want to rely on my big brother to save my ass.
I tell him everything. About her father’s debt. Arlind’s claim on her. I tell him about the women leaving my houses, the suppliers pulling back, and the slow, methodical squeeze Arlind has put on my operation.
When I finish, it’s silent. I can hear him breathing, but I check to make sure we’re still connected.
“You married her because you thought that would make this problem go away.”
“I did.”
“Before you knew her, her background or her history.”
I hear all the things he isn’t saying. I know Nikolai has talked with Sergei. He told me to do it, but I was too proud.
“Sergei, I married her. I paid someone to make sure there weren’t any hurt feelings.”
“I’m guessing burning their shit down might have hurt some feelings.”
“He started it.”
He snorts. I couldn’t resist. Humor is my default. I know what Sergei will say. He’s pissed. He’s been pissed. Putting off calling him only made him more pissed.
He exhales slowly. “I have my own situation right now. The Rossi family is testing boundaries again. New generation thinks they can renegotiate terms his grandfather set twenty years ago. I’ve been managing that for six weeks.”
“I’m not asking you to drop that.”
“I know you’re not.” Another pause. “I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to answer me honestly. Not the way you answer Nikolai when you want him to stop talking. Honestly. And no fucking jokes.”
I wait.
“Is she worth it?” he asks. “This woman. Is she worth what she’s costing you? What she might cost me?”
It’s the same question Cinder asked. And I have the same answer.
“Yes. She’s worth all of it.”
“You’re certain,” he says.
“I’ve never been more certain of anything.
And I know what that sounds like. I know I’ve known her less than two months.
I know the timing is insane, and the circumstances are worse.
I know she’s nineteen, and I’m thirty-six, and she came to me with nothing and nowhere to go.
I know all of it, Sergei. And you’re sitting there in your house with your wife and kids, and I know it didn’t start out the way a typical relationship does.
So don’t lecture me about moving too fast.”
“You know a lot of things, but I’m not hearing you say you love her. Because you can be infatuated with someone and not have it last.”
“I would burn Miami to the ground before I let them have her.”
“I know what that feels like,” he says quietly.
He did things for Sofia that nearly cost him everything. There were months where I genuinely didn’t know if my brother would survive the choices he made for that woman. I watched him take on enemies with twice his firepower because someone threatened what was his.
He won.
He always wins. That’s the thing about Sergei. He wins, and then he builds something permanent on top of the wreckage.
That’s why I’m calling him now. Maybe I should have done this earlier, but what’s done is done.
“I understand.” He pauses. “It doesn’t mean you haven’t made a fucking mess.”
“I know.”
“You’ve dragged the Sokolov name into a conflict that should have been handled quietly.”
“I thought I was handling it quietly. That’s why I paid them. They could have just let it fucking go.”
“Or you could have.”
“That wasn’t an option.”
“There are ways to handle things,” he says.
“I let it get personal, and personal makes you stupid.” It’s a phrase our father said a million times.
He raised us to be cold-blooded, emotionless soldiers.
It worked for a long time. It was still working for Nikolai, but Sergei and I had fallen.
“I’m not apologizing for protecting her. I’ll admit things got messy.”
“Messy. That’s generous.”
“I’m aware.”
“Here’s what I’m going to tell you,” Sergei says. “And I want you to listen carefully because I’m only going to say it once.”
“I’m listening.”
“You created this. The war, the exposure. The risk. All of it. You made the moves that got you here, and you are going to be the one who resolves it. I’m not going to send men to clean up your personal business. That’s not what Miami is for.”
He says it like the city itself is the assignment. Like he put me here. I know I’m a tool for the bratva, but Miami is mine.
“I know,” I say.
“What I will do is make sure you have access to resources if this escalates beyond the local level. If they bring in outside support and this becomes something larger, you call me. Immediately. Not after. Not when it’s burning. Before.”
“Understood.”
“Maksim? Get this handled. Not for me or the bratva. For her. For you and your future. You deserve someone to love you, and she sounds like she might have the courage to stand by your crazy ass.”
I almost smile.
I hadn’t expected that from him. Sergei doesn’t speak that way about people he hasn’t met.
At least, he didn’t. His wife softened him just enough to make him palatable. He still has hard edges, but there’s more to the ice-cold pakhan.
“She wants to be a veterinarian,” I say.
“Then make sure she becomes one.” His tone is more conversational now. Softer. “That’s your job now. Not just keeping her alive. Getting her to the life she should have had. That’s what you owe her for dragging her into yours.”
“I’ll handle Arlind,” I say.
“You’d better. We’ll be on standby. Think before you light another fucking match.”
“Lighter.”
“Excuse me?”
“I used a lighter.”
He curses, calling me several names, but none of them have any teeth.
“She sounds like a woman worth starting a war over,” he says, and I swear I hear approval in his voice. I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten that from him. I’m the fuck-up. The playboy. The partier. And my big brother finally approves of what I’m doing. “Don’t waste it.”
He hangs up.
I take a deep breath. It’s not a resolution, but I have his backing. I have his army. And if the worst happens, I know he’ll take care of Lila. That’s what that phone call was about. I need my family to take care of my wife if I can’t kill her enemies.