Chapter 8
Dmitri
When the vor v zakone call you before the Council, the men who don’t travel unless blood is on the table, you know you’re in deep shit.
I step out of the SUV as my driver drops me off in front of one of the office buildings in the city, the unrelenting Vegas sun beating down on me as I cross the sidewalk.
There’s nothing else for me to do. Not with the Council waiting for me.
I thought that I would be able to handle this mess myself, but it looks like the other Bratva families don’t have the same faith in me. I should’ve known that rumors would spread like wildfire about what happened.
This won’t be a pleasant meeting.
I walk through the lobby, passing by businessmen and women as they go on about their day, completely oblivious to the hell that I’m about to endure. I take the elevator up to the top floor, the sound of my pulse thundering in my head as I get closer.
It feels like I’ve been caught in a nightmare, but I can’t wake up. It doesn’t matter how many times I pinch myself or try to break free. This is my fate.
I step out of the elevator and walk to the conference room. I can already hear low murmuring inside, and I have to fight the urge to walk away and not look back. They won’t shoot me in a conference room.
Outside it? Anything is possible.
The Council members always behave with the utmost respect and decorum while in public. It’s in the shadows of the night, when you’re alone in an alley, where you better watch your back.
After taking a deep breath, I head into the room, my eyes falling on the long conference table full of members. The heads of various Bratva families spread across the country. Those holding the most power and influence make up the Council.
I nod once and take a seat like I’m not walking into a sentencing.
The Bratva aren’t afraid to punish their own if someone goes against the Council. No one wants to be on their collective shit list.
A boss has to receive a unanimous vote from the others to even sit at the table.
Together, they’re stronger than any Pakhan, which is why they’re the ones who get to choose who leads the Bratva families’ territories with a majority vote.
As far as I know, nobody has met that requirement yet for Vegas.
And I doubt I’m here today because the vote finally went my way.
“Why am I here?” I ask, getting this circus started. It’s just one crisis after another lately.
“You’ll listen first, Dmitri,” Pavel Muratov tells me from across the table in a stern voice, absently spinning his family’s crest ring around his finger.
I tighten my hand into a fist as it rests on my thigh under the table. I don’t say a word or even nod.
“Victor,” Pavel says as he motions to a dark-haired, bearded man to my right.
Victor Kardashev moves his eyes to mine, ice filling them.
“We hear you’ve been a busy man, Ivanov.
Ty vel sebya kak idiot. Not only did you blow up an important alliance with the Suyunovs, but you also allowed an Irish spy to infiltrate your business and your life.
I can only imagine how your family must feel about your actions as of late. ”
That’s not a question that he actually intends for me to answer. I expect a lot of shaming and chastising at this meeting. Being called an idiot is just the start.
“You stopped putting the Bratva first,” Victor says. “And now we’re bleeding for it. Before more are injured or killed in the battles that you have started, you must clean up your besporyadok before it becomes a war.”
I clench my teeth, biting back comments that I know will only make things worse.
“We’ve talked things over, and we have decided on two courses of action for you to take,” Victor continues as he sits up more and joins his hands together on the conference table. “First,” he says, “you will marry Annika Suyunov.”
My mouth opens. No sound comes out, just heat and nausea.
Valentin Novitsky holds up his hand to keep me quiet so that Victor can finish.
“The alliance will benefit the Bratva’s expansion in Vegas, so you will see it through. You’ll marry her, and you will have children who will be raised as loyal members, as future vors,” Victor tells me with finality like he’s a parent establishing rules for his children.
More soldiers for the Bratva. That’s what they want from me. Not my skill or my leadership qualities.
“You shouldn’t have called off the marriage in the first place. It was disrespectful. The fact that you did so without consulting your own family is even more alarming,” Pavel says with a look of disappointment on his face.
They don’t understand my motives because they weren’t in my shoes. If they envisioned being married to Annika and having to deal with her pushover father for the rest of their lives, they would see why I called things off for my own sanity.
They definitely don’t need to know that the woman who is now my prisoner was also one of the reasons for tossing out the marriage arrangement.
“Second,” Victor says as he straightens up. “You will kill the spy.”
Cold seeps through me. “Cara?”
Victor nods. “Given her relationship with the Irish and the intel that she’s possibly smuggled to her father, she’s a grave threat to the Bratva. You need to dispose of her and leave her body where everyone can understand the message.”
Tension wraps around my chest and squeezes, leaving me breathless. Cara has stabbed me in the back, yet I can’t bring myself to do it.
I’ve already done something worse.
I let her matter to me.
Cara may have made me weak, but I held her in my arms and let her into my heart like a fool. Killing her now would be like killing a piece of myself. And after all the damage that I’ve endured throughout all these years, how many more of those do I have?
“And do it quickly. We can’t risk her escaping and running home to Daddy,” Valentin comments, disgust filling his voice.
According to Cara, that’s the last place she wants to go, but I can’t bring myself to fully believe her yet.
“Can I speak now?” I ask them, itching to advocate for myself before they dismiss me.
“Do you understand the undertakings that have been asked of you?” Victor replies.
I nod once. “Yes, I heard you loud and clear, but both of those things are far more complicated than you realize. There’s no way that Artur Suyunov is going to strike another deal with the Ivanovs. That bridge was burned to ashes.”
“Don’t worry about Artur. We need his connections here in the city as much as he needs ours for a place at our table. I’m sure he’ll come along. It’s a beneficial arrangement for him and his daughter as well.”
His daughter. The heiress who would hold a grudge against me for canceling things in the first place and make my life a living hell.
“And for the shpion, the spy, I intend to keep her alive for now to use her against her father. We could put pressure on him, hold his daughter over his head and demand a ceasefire, compensation, and names,” I tell them.
“You could make things worse by antagonizing him. We don’t know what sensitive information she’s fed to her father,” one of the other men says.
“It wouldn’t be any worse than him finding out that we killed her,” I reply, fighting off the frustration that wants to seep into my voice.
“You will kill her,” Victor says. “Soon. No more mistakes, or you will be replaced.”
My eyes grow wide. “Replaced?” I repeat, and the room tilts.
“If you can’t do what needs to be done to support and protect your family, you do not need to lead them,” Victor tells me firmly. “Not only will your name come off the Pakhan list, but your seat will go to someone who can follow orders.”
If I’m replaced, I’ll have nothing. I could be exiled. If enough people vote against me, I could be killed to ensure that I don’t spill any family secrets, and that I don’t become a threat out on my own.
I’ll be nothing.
Nichego.
An empty pit fills my stomach as their voices blur. All I hear is: marry her and kill her.
They won’t change their decision. They want a marriage and a death, and both of those things will destroy me.
I leave the conference room and head back home in silence. There are dozens of emotions brewing inside of me that are intensifying with each minute that passes.
When I get to my place, I storm inside, going straight to the guest bedroom as my emotions start to boil over.
Cara shrinks against the headboard like she can disappear into it when I burst into the room with my rage and my pain and my hopelessness radiating off me.
“You ruined me,” I say, and it comes out raw. Her eyes widen as I swipe an accent sculpture off the dresser, making it clatter against the floor. “You’ve ruined everything! My life is a fucking mess!”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not! You did this! Yebat!” The word tastes like poison. “You pushed me into decisions I can’t take back!” I bite out as I stalk closer to the bed as she tries to shrink back away from me. “You manipulated me and tricked me, and I was a fool to let you get close to me.”
“I did what I was forced to do!” Cara insists. “If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t do any of it! Regardless of the consequences!”
Something stirs in my chest as I gaze at her, but my anger quickly takes back over. “The Council called me in today.” I laugh once with no humor in it. “They want me to marry Annika. And they want me to kill you.”
Her face pales. “Are you…are you going to do it?” Her voice fractures.
I scoff at her. “Do you not know how the Council works? I can’t ignore their demands! Not unless I want to be exiled or killed!”
“They’d kill you?” Cara asks as she shakes her head. “No. You’re too valuable to them.”
I bark out another cold laugh before kneeling on the bottom of the bed, making her tense up even more. “Not anymore. Now, I’m a liability,” I grit out. “Because I let you in.”
Cara’s breathing quickens as I crawl toward her. “I couldn’t help my feelings either, Dmitri. I withheld information from my father. I protected you when I could!”
“Protected me?” I scowl as I move over her, pinning her body down to the mattress, rage shaking in my hands. “You set me up!”
Cara winces as I grip her hair tightly and angle her head back to force her to look up at me.
“You’re going to get what you deserve one way or another. Just like I am,” I tell her in a threatening tone. “And if your father truly hates you like you claim, then you’re shit out of luck.”
“All I had was you,” Cara whispers as tears pool in her eyes.
Hearing those words and seeing the tears in her eyes hits me like a knife to my gut. My anger wavers, and I have to force myself off her before I make more stupid decisions.
Maybe I should just kill her. She’s my damn kryptonite so what’s the point in sparing her and jeopardizing my life when she’s the one at fault?
Why should I still care about her?
I leave the room, hearing her soft cries from down the hallway. Pain radiates through me as I head to the couch to lay down, feeling torturously alone in this situation.
There’s no clean way out now.
Only blood.