4. Andrei
Andrei
I ’ve spent most of the past week chasing shadows that are leading me nowhere.
No matter who I ask or where I look, it’s like there’s nothing to find.
Not any evidence pointing me toward Pavel, and not anything that implicates anyone else, either.
I haven’t gotten more than a couple hours’ sleep at a time, and if one more thing gets added to my plate, I’m going to fucking snap.
Which is why I’m pouring myself a shot of vodka at noon, ignoring my phone as it rings on my desk. If it’s Maksim, I’ll gladly deal with the consequences later. If it’s anyone else, I don’t give a fuck.
The crisp, smooth drink is exactly what I need.
I lean back in my seat, taking a deep breath when my phone stops ringing. It rings again almost immediately.
“Fuck.” I drag a hand down my face and check who it is, declining the call when I see Daniil’s name. Whatever bullshit he wants to pile on can wait until tomorrow .
I don’t even close my eyes before the stupid thing starts ringing again.
“Da?” I answer with a snarl. “What’s so important that you won’t let me have a moment of peace?”
“I need you for a meeting tonight,” he rushes out, sounding almost panicked.
“You need me, huh? Well, too bad I don’t give a shit.”
I’m already pulling my phone away, intent on hanging up when he blurts, “I’m meeting with Semyon.” I pause, hesitating for a moment before I press the phone back to my ear. “If I meet him alone, odds are at least one of us isn’t going to walk out of that room. I need a mediator.”
“A babysitter, you mean.”
Daniil and Semyon get along about as well as oil and water, but their paths don’t cross often enough for me to worry about it. I respected lawyer shouldn’t take notice of a mere foot soldier, and a soldier shouldn’t have any need for an attorney unless he’s in trouble.
Lucky for us all, Semyon—who I have the unfortunate designation of calling my brother—has always had a lucky habit of wiggling his way out of situations before he needs to worry about it.
“You two have no reason to be in a room together. Whatever he’s done, just ignore him. It’ll go away soon enough.”
“I’d love to, but he’s crossed a line I can’t ignore.” Daniil sighs. He sounds frustrated, and it piques my curiosity. Semyon has largely been quiet for the past few months, but when he does cause a mess, I’m typically one of the first to know about it.
“What’d he fuck up this time? ”
“Apparently he’s been running his mouth again.”
“That’s nothing new. Why do you care?”
Semyon’s the type of person who thinks more highly of himself than anyone else ever will. He’ll talk a big game, cause a mess, and he won’t care when I’m left cleaning it all up afterward. If it weren’t for me, he would have ended up in prison ages ago.
There’s a beat of silence. Long enough that I have to check to make sure the call hasn’t dropped.
“He was talking about Blair. And from what I was told, it sounds like he was planning on taking her out.”
My heart stutters in my chest as my blood burns to a boil.
“He can’t. Even Maksim wouldn’t let someone kill your wife.” I’m trying to reassure myself just as much as I am him. He might be erratic and unreliable, but even Maksim knows that when you start killing your men’s families, they don’t stay loyal for long.
It’s part of the reason I didn’t fight Daniil when I found out he was planning to propose. At least their marriage gave Blair some sort of protection when Maksim decided that she was a liability.
In his eyes, once a rat, always a rat. It doesn’t matter to him if Blair was only acting as an informant because I strong-armed her into it.
Maksim doesn’t give a shit if she was giving us information about the cops’ plans, or that she was only ever helping me clean up Pavel’s sloppy mistakes.
He’ll always view her as a risk to his entire operation, one who will turn around and tell law enforcement everything she’s learned over the years whenever she wants to .
“Well, he made it sound like he was given a thumbs up from someone higher up the food chain.”
“That’d be a slippery fucking slope. Who the hell told you that?”
“Does it matter who?” he snaps. “I can’t let him talk like that, man, and he agreed to a proper sit-down.” He sounds desperate, almost pleading. My jaw aches from how hard I’m grinding my teeth.
Semyon’s bark has almost always been worse than his bite. He’s always been the type of person who’ll do anything if he thinks it’ll give him a leg up in this life, but doesn’t have the smarts to be trusted with anything serious. Still, I can’t help but ask myself if this is different.
Maksim wouldn’t give Semyon the okay for any assassination, much less for someone associated with the Bratva, but Pavel? He’s short-sighted enough that he wouldn’t wait for permission. Especially if he thinks it would impress his father.
I don’t know if killing Blair would be enough for that, but Maksim wouldn’t lift a finger to stop it. If Semyon’s serious, then the only recourse would be to meet him face-to-face and either talk him down or end his ambitions in a more permanent manner.
Daniil can talk his way out of a paper bag with most people, but my shit-for-brains little brother? He’s too stubborn to listen to anything that anyone has to say. He’ll probably just go into the meeting with guns blazing because he thinks that’s what’ll get him ahead.
“Please, Andrei. I need you there.” I’ve known Daniil most of my life, and I don’t remember the last time I heard him say please . “You’re the only one who has a chance of talking him out of this bullshit.”
I don’t believe that.
Semyon’s only become more untamed the closer he’s gotten to Pavel. I can’t stand to be around him for more than a few minutes at a time, and I don’t even remember the last time we talked about something that wasn’t related to the Bratva.
But I’m not willing to risk betting that he’s just running his mouth, either.
The thought that something could happen to Blair is almost enough to paralyze me, and if something did happen and I didn’t do anything to stop it, I’d never forgive myself.
“Fine. But try to keep a level head when we’re there, alright? I can’t manage two hot heads at the same time.”
“Yeah, no problem,” he mutters. “Just remain calm around the guy threatening to kill the mother of my son. Should be easy.”
I should have expected that.
I stare morosely at the bottle of vodka for a moment before I twist the cap back on. So much for a calm afternoon.
“When and where?”
“Come to my place around eight. I’ll drive. You won’t have to worry about my damn mouth, yeah?”
I grunt. I’m sure Blair’s worked herself into a frenzy over this.
Knowing that she’s going to be at home with Niko, worried sick until Daniil gets back doesn’t sit right with me. “Do I need to get someone to watch your place while we’re gone?”
“No.” His answer is decisive. “Blair doesn’t know about any of this. Let’s keep it that way, yeah? ”
I scoff. For a man who claims to know his wife, he doesn’t know anything about her. “I know you like to pretend that she’s an idiot, but if you’re this worked up, then she’ll know something’s up.”
She might not know exactly what, but she’ll know there’s something to worry about. She’s done a pretty good job of putting on her blinders and feigning ignorance, but she’s too smart for the box he wants her to fit into.
Watching her try is infuriating.
For a moment, I let myself wonder if the only reason they’re together is to keep her safe, if maybe Blair’s miserable in her relationship and hates all the shit she has to deal with.
Maksim won’t do anything as long as their vows work as a gag order. He thinks she’s a risk, but as long as she can’t be compelled to testify against Daniil, he’ll hold his tongue.
Maybe she doesn’t want their marriage. Maybe she feels like she needs it.
Then I remember the way she smiled at him the last time I saw her and shake my head.
She didn’t look miserable. She looked like a woman who was in love with her husband, not one who was desperate to escape her relationship at the first opportunity.
“That doesn’t mean she needs to know about the specifics, Andrei. Besides, she’ll be home with Niko. No one’s going to mess with her when he’s around.”
Sure, no one’s going to mess with Niko, but he’s only three.
He can’t tie his own shoes, much less defend his mother.
If someone really wanted to do something to her, they’d only have to pick him up and take him away to eliminate any threat to him.
And depending on who’s going after her, they’d probably do it just to see her worry about him.
She’s nuts about that kid. If she thought someone was going to hurt him, she’d give up anything to protect him.
Even her life.
Part of me wants to argue with him. Insist that he stop being an idiot and get someone to protect her, but what’s the point? Tonight’s already set up to be a shit show. I don’t need to make things worse by picking another fight.
“Whatever, man. Just try not to kill my brother.”
“No promises.”
He hangs up without another word.
God-damn it.
I grab the vodka bottle, half planning on throwing it across the room. How the hell is Daniil able to simultaneously show so much concern and be so blasé about Blair’s safety?
Is he just showing concern because he knows that I’d fucking kill him otherwise, or is he actually worried? It’s not like Daniil has a long, storied history of putting Blair’s needs before his own.
Before I can talk myself out of it, I call Alexei. He’s an asshole, but he’s resourceful and owes me a favor. Or six.
“Kak?” he grunts. There’s muffled music in the background, and I hazard a guess that he’s already at one of his clubs and setting up for the night. I wait for a moment, then hear a slamming door and the music fades away entirely.
“Any chance I can steal Lev for the night?” His cousin typically lingers around him, doing whatever he needs. Whenever I need something from Alexei, it’s Lev he makes poke through and delete hours of surveillance footage or give me a hand in cleaning up bloody messes.
“Maybe,” he hums. “Depends on what you need him for. I was counting on him for some additional security tonight, so it’ll cost you.”
Of course it will. Alexei doesn’t like to trade in cash, but the favors that he calls in can be fucking expensive. That’s why I like to make sure that he always owes me more than I owe him.
He needs inconvenient bodies to disappear from one of his clubs? He calls me. He needs to have people removed with more subtlety than his typical security can handle? I can do that.
But my favors are just as costly.
“I need him to watch a place tonight. Just watch and stop anyone who shouldn’t be there from getting inside.”
“You want him to house-sit?”
“No. I just need to make sure a couple people are safe. He doesn’t need to talk to them, and if he can make sure they don’t see him, even better.”
I might not agree with the finer details of it, but Daniil was right that Blair doesn’t need to know the exact details of what’s going on. If there’s a way to keep her from worrying about someone coming to kill her, then I need to find a way to make that happen.
He lets out a heavy sigh before he relents. “Fine, but we’re even after this, alright?”
“No. But this can count for two. It’ll get you closer.”
“Fine. Text me the address and time, and he’ll be there.” He blows out a frustrated breath, and I put the vodka away with regret. “I don’t suppose you’re free to help out at Virgo tonight, are you?”
“Something interesting happening?”
Nearly all of Alexei’s businesses are aboveboard and totally legit. The only exception is Virgo, an unlicensed strip club that manages to stay open almost entirely because of bribes. It’s nothing but a front for the Bratva’s money laundering.
It reeks of cheap booze, attracts the kind of clientele that know how to mind their own business, and employs the kind of dancers that will put up with a lot as long as they’re getting paid under the table.
It’s also the kind of place that’s perfect if you’re meeting with someone and know it’ll probably end in bloodshed. Alexei doesn’t care whenever it needs to be closed for cleaning, and we can keep messy negotiations out of the legitimate clubs.
It’s a win-win.
But when there’re meetings, it’s always smart to have a couple guys on hand to make sure everyone there knows exactly what did and did not happen inside the back rooms.
“Krutikov has some sort of business and requested the room.”
I freeze, free hand flexing to keep myself from forming a fist. “Tell me you don’t mean Daniil Krutikov.” I would beg him if I thought it would make a difference.
“Is there a different one?” He sounds genuinely confused, but it bounces off me as I grow numb to everything but my rage.
No wonder Daniil didn’t want to tell me where the meeting is. He’s already planned on it ending with someone needing to see Doc, and if I’d known, I would have worked harder to put a stop to it.
I’m going to kill him.