Chapter Three
Dragna
Mikhail is currently driving us through the city while beside me is Lev, half asleep, a mess and grumbling about how I ‘pulled him away from the love of his life’ this morning.
I don’t have time for his hangover and him playing yet another girl today.
I got a good nights sleep last night after I got home and managed to wake up feeling refreshed and no longer worrying about Nero.
The no longer worrying about Nero part is partially due to the fact I got a call from the Don this morning asking to meet with me and apologising on behalf of his Capo’s idiot son.
His words, not mine, although I can’t argue with him.
“I still don’t understand why you had to drag me away from Alina this morning for a meeting that’s not even taking place until tomorrow D.” He asks scrubbing his hands down his face looking less than impressed.
“Because moy brat, you’re my Sovetnik and I don’t give a fuck that you’re family Lev, you’re not getting out of this just because you’re hungover.
I gave you the role of my advisor because even though you’re young, I know I can trust you with the importance of it, so don’t fucking let me down.
We’re going to check the place out. We need to know our exits and have a plan in place incase they try and screw us over.
” I look directly at him so he understands that we aren’t fucking around anymore.
My grandfather Dimitri stepped down as Pakhan a year ago and moved back to Russia, choosing me to take over and giving me freedom to choose who I wanted as my close inner circle here in New York.
It only felt right to have Lev as my Sovetnik, not just because he’s my cousin who is more like my little brother, but because he is as ruthless as me, he has always proved himself to be beyond his years and I know he can fill the role better than anyone else could.
“Alright, okay. My heads in the game, but honestly Dragna, I think I’m in love.” He says staring out the window like a fucking love sick puppy as I roll my eyes at him.
“She has a friend you know, hot too.” He continues.
“I think her friend is the reason I ended up in her apartment last night. She was blackout gone D, she had me genuinely worried so I offered up Ivan to get them home safe. Next thing I’m carrying her friend to the car and she asks if I wanna come back to her place. It was a no brainer.”
I think about what he’s just said and feel a sense of dread in my gut.
“What do you mean you were worried about her friend? We see people getting drunk beyond limits every night the club is open. What makes her any different?” I ask and he looks at me from the corner of his eyes.
I can see him thinking about how to word his next sentence and when the words come out of his mouth the sense of dread rises.
“I think someone spiked the girls drink.” I close my eyes and take a long inhale through my nose before exhaling slowly through my mouth at his words.
If there’s one thing I hate in this world it's slimy mother fuckers who prey on innocent women. But to also do it in our club under our noses makes me see fucking red. I take another deep breath before opening my eyes and turning to Lev.
“We’ll check the cameras when we get back to the club. Did you see her this morning to know if she’s okay?” I ask and for some reason he smirks that stupid fucking one sided smirk at me that means he’s usually up to no good.
“Yeah I saw her this morning. Pretty little thing in her shorts and cropped t-shirt.” He winks at me and I have to force myself from rolling my eyes.
“She caught me slipping out as I was on the call that so rudely interrupted my morning with Alina.” He throws me a dirty look that shows he’s still not impressed.
“She was confused as fuck seeing me, but she didn’t seem to be bothered like she knew what happened or that someone had slipped her something.
That’s only if they did. For all I know she could just be a wild party girl.
” He shrugs pulling his phone out and starts typing a text as I think about what our plan of action is if someone was in our club drugging up innocent girls.
“We keep this between us, we’ll check the cameras later. For now let’s just focus on surveilling this meeting point before tomorrow.” I say as Lev continues to look at his phone.
“Yes brat.” He replies in a grumble.
———————————————————
We get to the spot in town where the Italian's have just opened up their new restaurant and we take watch from down the street.
We survey the place for an hour and all we see is the usual food supplier vans pulling up, all the men we know from their side walk in and out of the place casually carrying boxes labelled with food and ingredients.
Everything seems to be as it should. It doesn’t feel like a set up, it doesn’t feel like they are preparing to fuck us over when we go for this meeting tomorrow, so why the hell can’t I shake this feeling that’s come back again that something is going to go wrong.
Lev is watching cautiously too but with nothing seeming out of the ordinary I look from the restaurant to Mikhail about to tell him to drive off when Lev speaks.
“There’s the little podonok.” My eyes snap from Mikhail’s in the rearview mirror to the front of the restaurant to see Nero rounding his car.
He’s got his sunglasses on, one hand in the pocket of his tailored suit, the other aiming his car keys over his shoulder. He presses a button and the lights flash on his over the top Mercedes to show he’s locked it.
He walks past the rest of the Italians and straight through the doors of the restaurant without even a second glance around him.
Most of the other men watch him with disdain which puts me at ease that he hasn’t got them on board with some scheme to take us out tomorrow night.
It doesn’t put my mind or that gut feeling that’s come back at rest however.
“Do you have the same feeling I have that he’s going to be a snarky bitch at tomorrow’s meeting?” Lev asks while I remain quiet, rubbing my jaw with my hand, trying to calculate in my head.
“I do, and I don’t like it.” I reply with my eyes locked on the front doors of the restaurant.
“I love it when you get like this moy brat, it means I finally have a worthy opponent.” Lev says as he huffs out a laugh and breaks his concentration from the Italians to look at me.
From the corner of my eye I glance at him and he’s far more alert than when I first picked him up this morning, cracking his knuckles and itching for a release.
It’s been weeks since his last fight and I do feel bad about calling him and interrupting his morning so I give in.
“Fine.” I say before telling Mikhail to take us to the club.
Just as we pull away from the curb, we both look out the window and see Nero walking back out towards his car.
He slows his strides and turns to face us fully as he notices our BMW.
He stops abruptly before bringing his hand up to give us a two finger salute, even though he can’t see us through the blacked out windows he know’s it’s us, and he has the biggest fucking grin on his face like he knows something we don’t.
He laughs as he continues his arrogant walk making me hate the fucker even more.
Mikhail takes the next left at the end of the road and we all sit silently before I finally speak.
“I really hope you’re ready for this beating Lev.”
————————————————————
“Aw c’mon boss go easy on the guy.” I hear one of my men shout. They all stand around various parts of the cage where Lev and I have went three, five minute rounds of brutal fighting so far, neither of us giving in to the other.
We stand apart from each other, sweat and blood dripping on the cage’s canvas from us both.
The underground fighting cage and spectator area we have under the club is as humid as you can imagine with the the amount of adrenaline, testosterone and body heat rising from not just Lev and I, but everyone who’s locked in on watching us, all waiting to see if they bet on the right Krylov family member.
Lev’s not an easy opponent which is why he’s our best and most popular fighter. The guy is hungover and probably only had an hour of sleep and can still take me on.
I’m six foot six and two hundred and fifty pounds. I have the extra muscle and a couple inches height and reach on him, but he’s just an animal. It’s like he was bred to be locked in a cage and come out victorious every time.
“Alright Lev, let's call it.” I wipe the sweat from my forehead with the back of my wrapped hands. As much as he is usually a beast, I’ve roughed him up big time today and I need him top of his game for tomorrow’s meeting.
“Nah Dragna, you can’t just call it quits.” He spits blood from his mouth onto the cage floor and beckons me to come forward to him with his bloodied hands.
“Come on, I know you’re fucked off about Nero, let’s keep going.
” He’s right. I am fucked off about that sneaky little rat, but I feel a good bit better after going fifteen minutes non-stop with him and we also need to check the cameras to see if he’s right about this girls from last night and someone possibly drugging girls in our club.
“Leave it moy brat, we need to check the cameras.” That brings him out of the bloodthirsty gaze he had on me.
“Fuck, that’s right.” He says as he shakes his head and slaps himself a few times on the face to bring himself fully back to reality.
It’s fascinating watching his brain switch from fight mode to remembering he’s an actual human again.
That’s why he’s so scary to most people. The fact girls don’t run in the other direction from him is beyond me, but then again he is the pretty boy who can turn on the charm as quickly as he can turn deadly, so maybe that’s why they flock to him.
We exit the cage and skip changing out of our shorts back into our suits and instead head straight for my office.
“If you’re right about this I want you and your choice of two of our men to hunt down whoever it was. I want them brought back to me alive though.” I tell him as we climb the stairs to the main club floor.
The club has two patron floors, the main one with a dance floor and DJ booth, then the upstairs balcony with private booths and a view of what’s going on below.
Our underground fighting scene is unknown of unless you’re in the underworld and have been vetted and invited by us. None of our normal patrons know it exists below them, or know that the floor above the balcony is our private lounge where we conduct business deals.
For being a cover and a way to launder money, we put a lot into this place to make it the most popular club in the whole city, as well as a few surrounding cities.
People travel for weekend trips to come here, especially when we have world famous DJs playing certain nights.
The perfect place to cover for our fighting and arms business.
We supply everyone within a one hundred mile radius with weapons.
When I took over for Dimitri, contracts were sealed and negotiations were locked in place so no matter what crime family you came from, all arms deals are done through us.
All weapons are supplied by us and only us, which is why Nero is so adamant about the deal he came to negotiate.
The Italians want to use their new restaurant as a front like we use our club.
They want in on the arms deals knowing how profitable it will be.
I offered that they could keep thirty five percent of earnings and the rest they pay to us for allowing them to trade arms in our territory.
It's a fair fucking deal in my eyes considering they currently can’t trade any arms and are making zero profit, but they don’t see it that way, or at least Nero doesn’t.
“I love playing with my food before I eat it anyways D, you know that.” Lev says as he smiles that sadistic smile of his before I let him run off and hunt.
Like I said before, he’s as ruthless as I am and loves this life.
Any opportunity he gets to rough up, maim or kill someone who deserves it, he jumps at it.
We make our way up to the balcony and up the stairs to the lounge floor, both still brimming with adrenaline and also with anticipation over what the cameras are going to show us.
“What about Alina and her friend if we do find out she was spiked? I want to see her again. I was going to invite her back to the club and give them a booth.” Lev says in a way where I know he is asking for my permission.
“That’s fine, don’t mention any of this to them if she hasn’t asked you any questions or mentioned if her friend has been ill.
Just play dumb. If the girl is alright there’s no need to alarm them both and giving them a booth means you can keep an eye on them all night yourself if they do come back.
” We make our way into my office and I hit the button to start up the computer for the camera feed from last night.
“You should join us you know. Have a night to enjoy yourself for once. I know you love the business but it's still important to kick back once in a while.” Lev says as he starts watching back footage from last night.
“I’ll leave all that to you krasavchik.” I say with humour in my tone.
“Although I don’t know what your girls going to think of your face after I’ve beaten it to a pulp today.” I continue laughing as Lev is staring intently at the screens ignoring what I’m saying.
“Dragna.” He says in a tone he only uses when his brain is fully switched into business and kill mode.
“At tomorrow's meeting, Nero’s leaving in a fucking body bag.” He adds as I lean down to watch the screen and witness what Lev’s just watched, which is Nero fucking Conti dancing with a blonde girl who I presume is Alina from how Lev described her, and one of his men talking to a girl with long dark hair at the bar before three other girls come up to her.
As she turns to them, feeling sick to my fucking stomach and with anger rolling through my bones, I watch as the scumbag Italian slips a powder in her drink.