Chapter 43.5 Dimitri
I was tired. Fucking hell, I was tired.
Rei had been crying nonstop since he found out Marco collapsed and all I could do was hold him because I couldn’t take the pain away. That was the worst part. Rei was my baby. My entire fucking world. He didn’t deserve even one tear on that beautiful face of his.
And then, as if the universe decided I hadn’t suffered enough for one night, Alexei had turned into a mass murderer.
Listen. I have no issue if my cousin wants to kill the entire country for all I care. Blood is blood. Family is family. If Rei were the one lying on that table with a heart that refused to beat on its own, I would have done worse. I’m more impulsive than Alexei after all.
But the motherfucker went around shooting people in the head in full view of cameras. He walked through the city and left a trail so bright every organization in the underworld could see it.
Now I was forced to sit in an emergency meeting with the “hags,” as Ilya called them.
My grandfather sat at the head. He had held the Morozov seat for me since my father died, waiting for the day I was ready to take it. I liked him but I knew this night would test every ounce of that loyalty.
One of the older men, a thin, liver-spotted bastard from the Smirnov family, cleared his throat. “Dimitri. Good of you to finally join us. We were discussing the… situation with your cousin.”
I leaned back in the chair, legs spread, hands loose on the armrests. “Discussing. Is that what we’re calling it?”
Another voice, gravelly, from further down the table.
“One hundred and forty-seven civilians, Dimitri. In a single night. Do you understand the attention this brings? The police are already circling. Every family at this table has spent decades keeping our business in the shadows, and your cousin just painted a fucking target on all of us.”
I tilted my head. “My cousin needed a heart. He took steps to get one.”
A woman - rare at these tables, but the Petrova matriarch had always been vicious - let out a laugh. “Steps? He went on a slaughter.”
“This crosses a line none of us can ignore. The vote has already begun. Some are calling for exile. Others for death.”
I felt the words like ice water down my spine.
They wanted Alexei dead.
I looked around the table slowly, making eye contact with every single one of them. “Say that again.”
“Alexei has drawn too much heat. If the authorities dig deep enough, they will find connections to all of us. Either he is removed from permanently… or he is removed from this world.” A murmur of agreement rippled around the table.
One of the hags leaned forward. “It’s unreasonable, what he did. If a man wants to kill, he does it quietly. Not in the middle of the street with cameras rolling. He has endangered every alliance we have. I vote for elimination.”
Another nodded. “Agreed. Exile is too soft. He will come back. Better to end it cleanly.”
A third. “The Morozovs have always been volatile, but this is madness.”
I had grown up with him. Fought beside him. Buried people with him. He was colder than me, but when he loved, he loved like a fucking natural disaster. And right now that disaster had a name, and that name was Marco, and Alexei would burn the world before he let him die.
I understood.
God, I understood so well.
When the voices finally quieted, waiting for my response, I smiled.
It wasn’t a nice smile.
“You want to kill my cousin. Is that the proposal I’m hearing?”
One of the bastards shifted. “It is not personal, Dimitri. It is the right thing to do.”
I laughed. “Business. Funny words coming from men who have ordered the deaths of children to protect their territories. Funny words coming from men who have sold women and buried evidence under concrete. Suddenly you grow consciences when the blood is inconvenient?”
“Watch your tone.”
“No.” I stood up slowly. The chair scraped against the floor. Every eye followed me. “You watch yours. Alexei is family. And as long as I breathe, no one at this table - no one - puts a finger on him.”
The Petrova woman arched a brow. “You are not yet head of the family, boy. Your grandfather still holds the seat. The vote continues.”
I looked at my grandfather. “Is that true?” I asked. “Are you going to let them vote my cousin into a grave?”
“The attention is dangerous, Dimitri. You know this. Alexei has always been difficult to control. If we do not act, others will. And they will not be as… merciful.”
Merciful.
I almost laughed again.
Listen, I really didn’t want to kill my grandfather.
I had a real connection to him, but the thing with him is that he cared for me because I was my mother’s son.
He hated my father and all of his family.
Alexei has no blood relations to my mother or anyone from my grandfather’s side of the family, so I know he doesn’t care about him.
“I will bury them next to the one hundred and forty-seven. And if any of you—” I pointed slowly around the table—“vote for his death tonight, I will consider it a declaration of war against the Morozov name.”
One of the older men scoffed. “Threats from a child who has not even claimed his inheritance.”
I moved before anyone could react.
My hand closed around the back of his neck and slammed his face into the polished wood hard enough to crack something. Blood spread across the grain. I leaned down close to his ear. “Call me a child again. I dare you.”
I released him. He slumped back, clutching his nose, blood pouring between his fingers.
I straightened my cuffs. “Alexei stays,” I said clearly.
“He stays under my protection. If the cameras become a problem, we buy the footage. If the police become a problem, we buy the police. If other families become a problem…” I smiled again.
“We remind them why the Morozovs have never needed to ask permission.”
My grandfather watched me for a long moment. Something like pride, or maybe fear, flickered behind his eyes.
“This is reckless.”
“This is family,” I corrected. “Something some of you seem to have forgotten how to value.”
I looked at each of them in turn. Making sure they saw the promise in my eyes.
“The vote is over. And if any of you move against him in the dark, I will not bother with meetings or votes. I will simply end your bloodlines. Thoroughly. The way you claim to prefer.”
I turned to my grandfather.
“I’m taking the seat,” I said. “Effective tonight. You’ve held it long enough. Thank you for keeping it warm.”