Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Kazimir
“He tried to start a war between the two families,” Vasily, Svet’s brother, hissed.
“And we already diluted the threat.”
“I’ll speak to you when I’m in the mood to address a foreign body.”
Nico was on his feet in a flash, fists clenched and eyes ablaze. “What did you just say to me?”
Vasily’s lips curled into a scornful smirk. “What did you hear?”
“We’re not going to get through this by calling names,” Svet cut through, eyeing her twin brother. “Like Nico said, the threat has been neutralized and the shipments were retrieved with minimal intervention. To doubt him would be to doubt the Pakhan.”
A semblance of calm settled over the men with Nico lowering into his seat and Vasily swallowing his words.
He was a big man, easily the biggest in the room, but I could see why his father favoured his sister over him.
Svet was calm, calculated and knew exactly where and how to aim. She charmed with her looks and cut with the precision of a Japanese chef.
It was the reason she was the only woman in the room.
“We don’t mean to disrespect anyone,” an older man I assumed to be her uncle because of the characteristic family nose spoke. “But it was a very tense situation. We missed an unnecessary bloodbath by a narrow breadth. It is reasonable to be apprehensive.”
“Apprehension is reasonable,” Nico replied before sliding his eyes to Vasily. “What is not reasonable is resorting to cheap theatrics to communicate your emotions.”
“Is he dead?” The man asked.
“Decapitated and burnt.” Lev, my right-hand man and brigadir, answered.
“And his son?”
“He would not be bothering us.”
“So we still have a loose end,” the man concluded.
“With the way his father was cut down, it would be very foolish of him to rear his head.”
“Or it could be his motive for revenge,” Vasily spoke in a softer tone.
“Or we could focus on the task at hand and deal with his son if and when he decides to show his face,” Svet said again, frustration evident on her face.
In her father’s absence, the inherent flaw in the family was even more pronounced. I could see both why they were my family's most formidable enemies and why they were not capable of taking the throne for themselves because of the same trait. Impatience.
They had a bloodthirst that clouded judgement, greed that surpassed reasoning and a fundamental need to attack and think later.
In the Bratva, you needed to be as skilled, technical and wise as you were strong.
The smart ones knew to outsource decision making when they noted a flaw, and prideful ones like Svet’s father tried to convince themselves they were formidable till the only thing standing between them and a blade was pressure.
I could understand why it drives her nuts to maintain the peace and why she only trusts herself to make negotiations and vital decisions.
Regardless, I loved to watch her struggle.
“When the attack happened, I went to see the Pakhan immediately,” she continued. “And when I told him we were not aware of it,” her eyes softened as they got to me. “He believed without hesitation. So if he says it’s been taken care of, then that’s it. Can we move on to the next thing?”
“Not too quickly, darling,” I finally spoke, causing all eyes to snap to me.
I barely spoke at these things. Five minutes into anything and I knew where I stood and what I intended to do. The rest were usually semantics, but there were things I never looked past.
“Vasily.” My eyes settled on the bulky man across the table. “I believe we all know to insult the Sovetnik is to undermine and insult the authority of the Pakhan. And I don’t take kindly to people undermining mine.” My voice hardened. “Apologize.”
The room fell into a silence that stretched on a delicate tension.
Vasily’s face reddened, his nostrils flaring while his chest rose and fell in heavy puffs of air.
Svet leaned back, watching her brother with interest while the hands of the men disappeared under the table.
The silence was a ticking bomb hanging on the delicate decisions of the firstborn son of the other family.
Another five seconds passed before Vasily withdrew his gaze from mine and finally looked in Nico’s direction.
“Sovetnik.” He nodded.
I could hear the relief in Svet’s relaxed shoulders as the tension in the room slowly dissolved.
I was a bit disappointed, though. I expected a little fight from the human terminator, but I guess this wasn’t my lucky day.
Nico didn’t bother responding as the meeting drifted to other topics which involved onboarding, purchasing, contract reviews and staying out of each other's way, while I struggled between paying attention to numbers being mentioned and the woman on my screen.
She had stopped pacing around the jet and was currently curled up on the couch. There was a bowl of fruit and a glass of champagne next to her as she focused on whatever was displayed on her laptop screen.
When her eyes softened a little and the corners of her lips curved, I switched to another camera, trying to catch a glimpse of her screen and failed.
Her smile had turned into a full-blown grin, progressing to light chuckles.
Something tightened in my chest, pulling taut on the muscles of my ribs. I turned off the screen, exhaling and lifting my eyes to find Svet watching me.
“…as we already know, honour is a code we stand by.” Svet’s uncle was saying when I tuned back in.
“Holding a meeting far from home and on neutral ground is a testament to how much the event fractured the delicate trust. So I’ll suggest we hasten the bonding of the two families.
That way, there’ll be no more sides, just one big family. ”
His words settled with a tasteless flavour, eliciting no reaction from me.
I tuned out again, choosing to focus on the one thing that could pull millions of emotions from me by the simple act of sweeping her hair to the side and revealing her delicate neck, before moving to rub it with her head thrown back, eyes closed and lips slightly parted.
My cock stirred to life as I watched her undo the first two buttons of her shirt and kick off her shoes to reveal her hose-covered toes.
I’d been punched straight in the gut when she arrived in a fitted pencil skirt and shirt, but when my eyes trailed down to her legs covered in sheer stockings, my lungs emptied of air.
I wanted to follow the flimsy piece of clothing to the origin and find out if they were attached to a garter belt or if—God save me—I’d have to rip them open to reveal her ass.
As if her body responded to my will, she shifted, raising her knees and granting me a view of tulle disappearing into her skirt.
I stifled a groan, feeling my pants tighten.
Thirty minutes. Thirty fucking minutes and I would be out of this damned place and exactly where I wanted to be.
Who knows, I might just have to get Nikolai and Lev a different plane to get back.
I was finally forced—albeit with much reluctance—to tear my gaze from the screen for the final parts of the meeting.
Vasily and some of the men in his family would escort me to the port in Russia to investigate the situation.
The meeting concluded on mutually beneficial ground and I was ready to bolt, but the devil had a different plan.
“Hot date?” Svet fell into step with me.
“Green is not a good look on you.”
She let out a low laugh. “I prefer curious.”
“Good thing I don’t have to answer to you.”
“Matter of fact.” She abruptly stopped. “You sort of have to.”
I regarded her for a moment, doing the math of what it would cost to discard her for getting in my way and deciding she wasn’t worth half the price.
“What do you want to know?”
Her tentative smile returned. “The woman you left the gala with.”
“Genevieve. She’s my personal assistant.”
Her perfectly arched brows rose. “You’re on a first-name basis with your assistant? By the way, I thought you hated those?”
I held my fingers from curling into fists. Svet was a snake and the last thing I needed to give her was an emotion to work with.
“Do you have anything of actual importance you wanted to discuss?” I replied in a bored tone.
She studied me for a moment before asking. “Are you fucking her?”
Although I’d seen the question coming, it still caught me off guard.
The room was almost empty, save for the staff who came to clear the space, but I still looked around.
Svet and I had an understanding, and not once had she questioned my conduct.
Scratch that, she knew I hate being questioned.
Regardless, two could play this game. She came looking for something.
“What does it matter to you?” I replied with the same tone.
“You never bring your whores close.”
Whore. The word lodged in my chest like a blunt bullet.
“She is not my whore.”
“But you’re fucking her.”
I turned to her, eyeing her exposed cleavage and short skirt. “Would you rather I fucked you?”
Her breath hitched, a sharp inhale betraying her fake mask of calm.
“We have an agreement, Svet, and we both know what this is. I keep to my end and you keep to yours.”
“You still haven’t answered the question.”
I turned to her, bending till my lips were a few inches shy of her ear. “She has a tight pussy.” I straightened to find her face the perfect picture of calm. “Don’t ever question me again.”
I walked off without another word, but her words followed me out. “I don’t like to be embarrassed, Kazimir.”
When I finally returned to the jet, there was a fuming Genevieve waiting for me.
What was it with women and baring their teeth at me today?
“What was the meaning of that?”
“Good afternoon to you too, Genevieve. Did you enjoy your afternoon?”
Her eyes flashed, her face immediately turning the colour of a tomato. “You don’t get to change the topic.”
I lowered myself into the sofa, tugging my tie loose. “I was only observing the courtesy you loudly ignored.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
“Because you’re my assistant, Genevieve.”
“Would you stop saying my name like that?”
“Like what?”
I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to get more red, but at this rate, if she reddened any further she would burst into flames.
“You left me here.” She pointed to the floor of the jet. “You brought your assistant to a work meeting and had them locked in the jet while you attended the meeting.”
I reached for the bottle the waiter laid out for me, taking a long-needed sip. I knew there was a reason I never bothered with keeping women around.
“No one kept you in the jet, Genevieve.” I intentionally said her name to watch that delicious flash pass through her eyes. “You were very free to move around and explore the city. I left a car for that purpose.”
“If I wanted to explore a city, I would go on a vacation.”
“Then consider this a free trip.”
“Are you drunk?”
A soft chuckle alerted me to Nikolai’s presence.
Unlike Lev who sat stone-faced, Nikolai’s face was buried behind a magazine I was sure he was not reading.
“You said this meeting was supposed to improve my skills, then you leave first with the excuse of making a detour and claiming the car would return to me, and I was left here for four hours.”
Her chest was heaving and she was barely making an attempt to hide her contempt.
Nikolai had also given up on pretending to be reading and was now watching the exchange with complete amazement.
“I take my job very seriously,” Genevieve continued. “And when I’m given a position, I expect the respect that comes with it and a chance to do my job.”
“You’re here, you did your job,” I replied coolly.
“My job is not to follow you around and be tucked away when it is convenient. I am not your backpack.”
“You’d make one hell of a backpack, though,” Nikolai interjected, earning him a glare from me.
I returned my attention to Genevieve who was still fuming in front of me. “You’ve made your point, Miss Sinclair. I’ll be sure to involve you in further meetings.”
“Thank you,” she replied stiffly before marching to the sofa she’d been lounging on while I tried my best to keep my eyes from her legs.
“She’s feisty,” Nikolai commented when she was out of earshot. “Wouldn’t have thought the shy receptionist had it in her to stand up to her boss.”
“Change the position, change the girl.” Lev eventually spoke. “People tend to unravel with power.”
“And access," Nico chipped in.
Something warm curled in my chest as I listened to them argue about Genevieve, the revelation of her true colours, and my lack of reaction to her outburst.
Under different circumstances, I would’ve laid their suspicions to rest with facts. I hated to discuss women, but in this case, I enjoyed the satisfaction that came from knowing I knew her in a way others didn’t.
While they saw a shy, sweet girl turning into a feisty woman as a result of a new office, I knew the fire had always been there.
I knew the same woman had moaned my name in the conference room and walked out like nothing happened, and she had kissed me in the elevator way before I knew her first name and didn’t give a fuck if I would fire her.
Genevieve was a lot of things, but spineless was hardly one of them, and I loved knowing that, in some sick way, I was the one who brought out the fire in her.
When I glanced in her direction, she was already staring.
Her face was still flushed from the residual outburst, but her eyes burned with a different flame.
My lips tilted in recognition, and she tore her eyes away with speed.