Marked By the Devil (The Volkov Bratva #4)

1. Viktor

VIKTOR

Ifollowed my brothers, ready to roll my eyes at their yakking on and on.

If they weren’t talking about their wives, they were discussing how hard it was to choose a name for a baby.

And if they weren’t stuck on those topics, they were comparing who had it worse between sleeping in bed with a pregnant woman who could never get comfortable, thus tossing and turning all night long, and a recently pregnant woman who was frantic to master the fine art of breastfeeding and having a “good” latch.

Not a mediocre one. It had to be a good one.

We headed through the slight crowd near the club, moving as one.

All three of us, Adrik, Maksim, and I were like royalty on the Strip.

As the sons of Dmitri Volkov, the Pakhan of the biggest empire in this region of the country, we were princes.

Leaders. The elite. Suited up, looking ready to kill, and not giving away a hint of what secrets we kept, we filed into formation as we approached the entrance to our club where we’d be meeting a few other crime family leaders who’d called to gather and talk about the dynamics that were changing in the Las Vegas territory.

The neon lights cut against the darkness overhead.

Blurs of colors came from the Sphere in the distance.

Noises surrounded us, from the horns as cars honked on the congested streets, the din of pedestrians and solicitors on the sidewalk, the booming sounds of vendors as they enticed people to blow their money on cheap thrills, to the blasting music wafting out from bars and restaurants.

It was chaos.

Sin City at its finest.

Yet, here we were, passing the time with talks about nipples. Not the kind like the showgirls would flash in this gritty city. But latex or silicone. Flat or nubbed.

“If Luka doesn’t learn to sleep for more than ten minutes, he has to use a pacifier,” Adrik said of his one-month-old son.

Maksim glanced at him as we neared the door. “Flat-nippled pacifiers? Because Carina read that they can hinder—”

I let my head drop back as I groaned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I drawled behind them. “Do you hear yourselves?”

Adrik turned to flip me off, typical older-brother style. “Wait until it’s your turn for fatherhood. You’ll be saying the same shit that—”

To his left, a showgirl holding up an advertisement fell back against the wall, half her cheek blown off.

Where her makeup-caked flesh had been a second ago, a yawning open hole of bloody gore and bones was revealed instead.

She cried out, spraying blood, but she dropped back to the wall, dead.

Her sign advertising for a club thudded to her feet.

It happened so instantly, but I didn’t need even that long to react. Instinct kicked in. Danger was right around the corner—or perched up high at a window for a sniper to aim again.

The angle was what had me moving. Whoever shot her had done so from above and had been aiming at us.

“Get down!” I lunged forward, pressing Adrik low. He crouched over as I shielded him.

If he’d been one foot ahead, he would have been shot. His brains would have been blown out. His blood would be staining the wall and pavement. It was that close of an attempt on his life.

“Move, move!” Maksim reacted with me. Both of us were here to support and back up Adrik, since he was the eldest and now serving as the interim Pakhan until our father passed away and he’d assume the throne.

Backup was one thing.

Shielding our brother with our bodies was another. We weren’t alone, though, and as commotion took over the scene with passersby noticing the blown apart half of the dead woman’s face, we flanked Adrik.

Bratva security swarmed around us. The men formed a protection block so no one could reach him. Or us. All of us could be targets, but Adrik was the main one any enemy would want to eliminate.

“Get him out of here,” I ordered.

We all needed to get out of here. With the increasing pressure that the law was putting on us recently, we didn’t need to deal with the bullshit of being caught near violence in the city.

Not when a civilian was getting her head blown off out in the open.

Not when other crime bosses and shady entrepreneurs were about to meet us inside.

Repositioning Adrik was the critical goal, and with the number of Bratva men here to protect and serve us, almost like the Secret Service, we could.

Armed and looking out for more signs of trouble, we all scanned the area. I shot my gaze up high to the windows of the nearest buildings, alert for a sniper. I turned and checked for anyone in the lobby of the building we were about to enter.

There were too many distractions. Lights. Sounds. Movements.

But I narrowed my eyes on the balcony area where we were supposed to have met the other leaders.

Someone was running, dashing along the fire escape toward the back of the building.

Got you.

I didn’t follow Maksim and the guards who covered Adrik. They moved swiftly as a mass, a gathered force going toward the cars. But I kept my face forward, looking up near the balcony level. We had enough guards around us. We always did. They didn’t need me to join them.

Hand on my gun under my jacket, I jogged ahead, breaking away from them.

“Viktor!”

I ignored Maksim’s shout, ready to pursue whoever had the balls—or lacked the brains—to actually try to take out Adrik. My leader. Our brother.

I would be damned if they got away.

Running toward the building while they left, I stayed alert and let the adrenaline coursing through me charge me. I sprinted ahead, uncaring whether anyone tried to stop me from darting into the authorized-only parking area.

Behind me, the sounds of the street faded. The party noise. The revelry and vendors shouting and hawking for prey. Only the sound of my footsteps slamming on the pavement echoed back here.

Down one alley, then the next, I trailed the person who’d fled the rear of the balcony space when that shot went off.

I panted, letting my lungs fill rapidly as I caught my breath.

I swallowed thickly, forcing my throat to clear with the anxiety.

I shot my gaze from side to side, tracking the one trying to flee the scene.

Dumpsters stood against walls. Smoke and exhaust curled up from sewer pipes.

Lights flickered out along the narrow, unpolished roadway between the big buildings that loomed over me.

Where the fuck did you go?

I slowed down, sticking closer to the walls as I continued on. I’d been relying on sound and the changes in shadows to know which way to go. But as I carefully placed my feet one after the other, listening and straining to detect another person back here, I worried that I might have lost them.

There.

Someone ran down a sidewalk to get around construction equipment left out to spend the night unused. Stacks of barrels made up columns, but I spotted someone using them as shelter.

Got you.

Shadows were sharper back here, making it all seem so black and white. So still. Everything in grayscale. Only that hint of red could stand out as the person tried to flee.

You can run.

But I’m not going to let you go.

Gritting my teeth as I settled in to stalk whoever had to be connected to that assassination attempt on my brother, I used the least amount of movements to get my phone out.

It had been buzzing in my pocket, but I had to lock in on my target before I could check it.

Volleying my gaze between the person up ahead trying to pick their way through the construction equipment left back here from the touristy side of the buildings, I looked at what was coming in.

Maksim: Estate is under lockdown. Effective immediately.

He’d sent that to the group thread that my three brothers and two cousins were in, the top of the organization.

Maksim: Adrik is unharmed.

Maksim: Viktor, help is on the way.

Help?

That was overkill.

No one else was out here but me and the person trying to escape. I wasn’t making my presence known, but with the sheer power of my attention locked on them, they had to know someone was pursuing them.

Stalking them.

Hunting them down.

Whoever they were, they were alone. No others were out here. Not a single person was tracking me as I sought out the idiot who had fled the scene.

So long as I stayed on their trail and kept following them through this dirty side of the city, I could handle this.

I will find you, you piece of shit.

And I will make you regret ever being a part of trying to hurt him, of having a role in this assassination attempt.

Rage coated my soul at the mere thought of my brother being killed.

Our father was already currently dying from a stroke that happened in conjunction with a cancer diagnosis we hadn’t known about.

My mother died when I was young. My grandparents had been killed when my uncle Gregori planted a bomb in an attempt to take the throne.

And now he’s back, bringing the force of his fucking shadow network to threaten us all.

The idea of Adrik being killed wasn’t something I needed on my radar.

We led dangerous lives. Enemies were aplenty. But we had protection. A whole legion of soldiers and guards kept our empire safe.

And right now, I would do my part in hunting down this person who thought they could take a shot at my brother.

Furious but patient, I pulled out my gun at the sound of sirens in the distance. As I continued stalking the person up ahead, waiting for a good sight on them, I dismissed the ruckus of what sounded like a domestic dispute up on a balcony near some shitty housing units.

You’re not getting away, you goddamn—

Stepping under a streetlight, the woman came more into view for just a second.

Woman?

I was no stranger to strong women.

Carina had been a fierce Cartel member before she married Maksim.

Elena had a quiet strength often shown behind the screen, an asset to her husband, Adrik.

Mila was a warrior of a drug runner who’d only just married my cousin Lev.

Realizing that this lone woman I hunted down had the guts to try to take out my brother…

I narrowed my eyes, annoyed.

You won’t get away from me, Red.

Her auburn hair was what I’d noticed, and I would stay on her until I could get a handful of it and yank her back to face me, to answer to me why she dared to be a part of that sniper aiming at him.

Maksim: I will send backup to your location.

I’d forgotten to reply, too tense in this game of cat and mouse.

Viktor: Don’t bother.

Maksim: Did he get away? We’ll send out a crew to scan the area.

Viktor: SHE did not get away. I’m on her tail now.

I glowered in the direction of where she was rushing, still desperate to hide and escape.

Viktor: I think I can handle chasing one woman.

And when I caught her, she would learn the very grave and lethal lesson of what it meant to ever mess with me or one of my brothers.

I’m going to get you, Red.

I quickened my step and let my anger push me faster as she tried and failed to lose me in the alley.

You’ll never get away.