Chapter 9 - Nico
“You are taking this too personally.”
I lifted my gaze from the wreckage in front of me and stared at Fyodor.
“Am I?”
“Yes.” The answer came without hesitation.
Around us, men moved through what remained of one of our distribution facilities.
The smell of smoke still lingered in the air despite the fire having been extinguished hours ago.
Broken glass covered the concrete floor.
Several walls had been blown apart. The damage was extensive enough to be expensive and annoying, but not catastrophic.
Some of our men had gone down, but most of them only had grazes or treatable wounds.
Which meant whoever had done this knew exactly what they were doing. Not a declaration of war. Just a warning message. I crouched beside a section of damaged steel and ran my fingers over the black scorch marks.
“Whoever did this had access to our schedules,” I said.
Kliment nodded. “They knew exactly when the facility would be operating at minimal capacity.”
“Which narrows the list.”
“Not enough.”
No. Unfortunately not.
For the last year, things had been unusually peaceful.
The alliance network we had built made most people think twice before acting against us.
Between our own strength and the families connected to us, attacking the Romanovs usually ended badly for everyone involved.
The Romanovs had managed to form good relationships with the Chernykhs, the Aslanovs and even the Dubows all of it in turn led us to the alliance network of the Maslovs as well.
Yet somebody had decided the risk was worth it. I straightened slowly. Workers continued documenting damage around us while security teams swept through every corner of the building.
Jarek lit a cigarette. “It could be Adrian Petrov.”
“No.” The answer left my mouth immediately.
Jarek raised an eyebrow. “You sound certain.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian Petrov lacks imagination. He wouldn’t go so far.”
Fyodor laughed. “Fair.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets and stared at the destroyed wall.
Adrian Petrov was ambitious and arrogant, but he was a weak man, and there was not a single subtle bone in his body.
Absolutely not. If Adrian wanted to send a message, he would have shown up himself surrounded by enough men to compensate for his lack of personality. This wasn’t his style.
“Manny Stavros?” Fyodor asked.
That made me look up. “No.”
Kliment studied me carefully. “You dismissed that one rather quickly.”
“Because Manny Stavros is a minor player.”
“Minor players make stupid decisions all the time,” Jarek shrugged.
“Not this stupid.”
My voice came out colder than intended, and silence followed. Not because they disagreed but because they knew exactly why I was reacting this way. A few days ago, I might have hidden it better but now I couldn’t be bothered.
“Nico look,” Kliment began speaking, his arms crossed over his chest, “Things around us are peaceful right now. The only situation we are facing that could result in something or the other of this nature and magnitude is the Vera situation.”
I already knew this had been coming. I wouldn’t deny that I hadn’t thought about it myself because I had, but I still didn’t want to believe it.
It was inevitable that Manny and Adrian would go around looking for her, but I was sure they would not be able to reach me.
After all, Vera hadn’t told her father about our relationship, and there was no way Adrian could find anything out.
I exhaled slowly. “Her father doesn’t know who I am.”
“Everyone knows who you are.”
“No,” I corrected. “Everyone knows the Romanovs. That’s different.”
Fyodor tilted his head. “You really think she never mentioned you in front of him?”
The question irritated me more than it should have. “Vera didn’t discuss her personal life with Manny. They have never been close.”
“You know that how?”
“Because I know her.”
The moment the words left my mouth, silence fell. Fuck. I rubbed a hand across my face.
Jarek smirked. “You still sound like you’re in love with her.”
I turned toward him. “Would you like me to break your jaw?”
“See?” he said to the others. “Definitely still in love.”
Fyodor laughed, and Kliment pinched the bridge of his nose. I considered murdering all three of them. The temptation was real.
Eventually, Kliment sighed. “Enough.”
Immediately, everyone fell silent. That was the thing about my eldest brother. He never needed to raise his voice. He simply decided conversations were over.
“What matters,” Kliment continued, “is whether this situation creates vulnerabilities.”
His eyes settled on me. “How long are you planning to keep her there?”
I stared at him because I knew that was the real question. Not who attacked us. Not who was responsible for this mess. It was Vera. Always Vera. I looked away first, my gaze falling on the ruined facility. Toward the smoke. Toward literally anything else.
“I don’t know.”
That answer surprised all of us, including me, but Kliment’s expression didn’t change.
“What’s the end goal here, Nico? I am sure you must have planned something before you kidnapped her in broad daylight?”
The honest answer was that I had no fucking idea anymore. At first, the goal had been to make her suffer and hurt her. I wanted to make her understand exactly what she had done to me. Then she arrived, and everything became complicated because hatred was easy from a distance.
Up close? Not so much.
“I’ll figure it out,” I said finally.
Kliment didn’t seem convinced. Neither did I.
“We’ll handle this first,” he said, motioning towards the attacked warehouse. “Then we’ll revisit the other situation.”
The other situation. As if Vera was a logistical problem. I almost laughed, but instead, I nodded.
“Fine.”
The discussion moved on as we got to work immediately.
Security footage was rounded up and possible suspects marked.
Fyodor immediately began looking into financial trails and supply routes to figure out if it could have been a client.
These were the kind of conversations I usually excelled at, but today I found myself distracted. My thoughts kept drifting home.
To Vera.
To the look on her face that morning. To the way she’d called Adrian’s name. To the fury that had followed when she discovered my surveillance records. To the fact that she wasn’t scared of me anymore. She was angry. And somehow that was infinitely worse.
By the time I returned home, it was nearly midnight, and I was exhausted and annoyed.
It had been a long day, and I was covered in smoke.
All I needed was silence and sleep but the moment I stepped through the front door, I knew I wasn’t getting it.
Voices drifted from the living room. Female voices.
Plural. I stopped and frowned, wondering if Ilana might still be there, but then I remembered.
Shit.
The revenge.
Right after the morning episode, I’d arranged for tonight’s little performance.
I had invited two women for dinner and drinks, which was enough to make Vera miserable.
At the time, it had seemed like a brilliant idea.
Now I wanted nothing more than to go to bed.
Unfortunately, it was too late for that since the women were already here, and if I knew Vera at all, she would be pissed.
I entered the living room and immediately spotted the problem.
Vera.
She sat in an armchair near the window, her arms crossed and jaw clenched. Her eyes were blazing. Jesus Christ. She looked furious. One of the women noticed me first and immediately puckered up.
“Nico!”
She stood at once, and the other followed, both of them smiling at me.
They were scantily dressed, and anyone who saw them would know exactly why they were here.
Despite that, my attention remained fixed on Vera.
Her gaze locked onto mine, and the room seemed to disappear. For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then one of the women slipped an arm around mine. “Long day?”
“Very.”
My eyes never left Vera, and the first crack appeared immediately.
Her jaw tightened. Good. A dark part of me enjoyed that, even though I wanted to send these two girls on their way.
Completely ignoring Vera, I moved toward the sofa and sat down, and the women settled beside me instantly. One on each side.
Touching. Laughing. Trying.
Meanwhile, Vera looked like she wanted to commit murder, and I almost respected it.
Several painful minutes passed while one woman continued to play with my tie.
The other rested a hand against my chest, but I couldn’t have been less interested.
My attention remained entirely focused on Vera as if the two women beside me were not even present.
Apparently, the women noticed that.
Eventually, one of them followed my gaze, and then the other as an awkward realization spread across both faces.
“You know,” the brunette said carefully.
“Yes?”
“I don’t think we’re actually needed here.”
I blinked, and the blonde laughed softly.
“Not unless we’re supposed to watch whatever this is.”
Her gaze bounced between Vera and me. Smart girl. Vera’s eyes narrowed even though she stayed silent, and the brunette removed her hand from my arm.
“We should probably go.”
“Probably.”
I nodded once. “Good idea.”
I didn’t have it in me to try and stop them just for appearances’ sake.
I had made my point in front of Vera, and I was too tired to do much else anyway.
The women stared, clearly offended. Understandably so.
Perhaps they had thought I was going to stop them from leaving, but I hadn’t even looked at either of them once. Not really.
The blonde stood first.
“Well,” she said dryly. “That was humiliating.”
“Sorry.”
“No, you’re not,” the brunette replied.
“No. I am not.”
She laughed without humor in it, and the brunette shook her head. “You’re an asshole, Romanov.”
“So I have been told.”