Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“I’ll take him,” Sava said, and smiled at the younger man. “You’re a pain in the ass, kid, and I see rehab very soon in your future.”
“It never works.”
“That’s because you gotta put in the effort to really change,” the older man stressed to him.
As Sava and Vanya went out, Stas stuck his head in the room, glanced around, and found me. “Adrian’s got Nara, so we’re good to go. I don’t wanna be here when the police show up to bust Petrov for killing his own guys and leaving them next to the barbecue.”
One of the men behind Burian gasped. “Oh shit.”
“Plus, Sava left traces of blood all over the kitchen.”
“That’s so gross,” Lev grumbled.
Stas nodded. “Oh, you have no idea. It’s a mess in there and nobody’s in there, so they haven’t noticed. Gonna be hard to explain.”
Lev gave an exaggerated nod. “No doubt.”
“So I’m gonna carry Alexei down the freight elevator,” Stas continued. “I already talked to a couple of guys, and we’re covered.”
“You got someone coming to get him?”
“Yeah, the place over on Montrose, they’re sending people now,” he said, ducking out of the room.
“Holy fuck,” rasped the guy who had been getting head when we walked in.
I was always thorough, as were the men who worked for me. Normally, when we visited people, we went with latex gloves and booties on our shoes, but this, a big sex and drug party, the forensics would be a mess. Good luck finding any trace of us, me and my men, in the sea of DNA in the suite.
“I’m bored now,” Lev muttered, going for the door. “This was not what I was expecting.” Halfway there he stopped and looked at me. “Do you know how many guns I have on me at the moment? I could’ve killed all these assholes ’cause as far as I can tell, none of them are strapped, but now, with you and your fuckin’ phone”—he shook his head, irritated—“it’s a waste of my goddamn night.” He walked to the door and hurled it open before disappearing, leaving me alone in the room with twelve men.
“So.” I sighed, looking Burian in the eye. “You stay away from my family, I’ll stay away from yours. You show no one your video, mine stays secret as well. Do we have a deal?”
It seemed like Burian was in shock.
“And I know you and your guys were behind the robberies last month at a couple of our clubs and that you tried to bullshit and blackmail some of our distributors. I’m telling you now—find some other family to harass, or the next time I see you will go much differently.”
Burian tried to hold my gaze but ended up unable to, glancing away quickly. I knew why, had been told by a lot of people: my eyes looked dead. They held no mirth, no spark, no warmth. I had, my uncle Leonid always told me, the eyes of a shark, ready to deal out death without any hesitancy or sentiment. I had no qualms about taking life, and there was no missing that fact. My uncle, of course, loved that about me. My mother had always said it wasn’t true.
Burian shuddered involuntarily.
“You should get rid of the bodies,” I cautioned him. “I mean, I’m covered”—I showed him, wiggling my fingers inside my leather gloves—“but you fuckers have your prints everywhere in here.”
Lots of noise then, guys yelling at Burian.
“And again, I don’t want to see you, and I don’t want to hear that anyone else has either.”
I turned my back on him and walked out, giving him easy access. If he wanted, he could have shot me or come at me with a knife, but I knew he wouldn’t, too much of a coward. The fact that I reached the doorway, went through, and closed it behind me without incident let me know that I had put Burian Petrov right where I wanted him—far away from my family.
TWO
An hour later, I sat beside Vanya in the waiting area of the New Life Drug and Rehabilitation Center on Lakeshore Drive. I was filling out admittance forms for him and his plus-one. It was understood that some of the people checking into suites at the very expensive, very private, upscale facility would not be doing so alone. It was also understood that no one outside of the staff and the person paying would ever know who was a patient there and who was there to protect said patient.
I sent Nara with Lev to Vanya’s apartment so she could pack a bag for her brother. It gave her something constructive to do instead of crying. Stas and Adrian went with them and were given the tedious task of searching the tiny one-bedroom flat from top to bottom for any drugs or drug paraphernalia. No old mirrors with coke residue on them would be allowed to remain, nothing hidden inside the toilet lid or stuffed in the back of the freezer or behind the drawers in the desk. If it was there, between the two of them, they’d find it. I even wanted the pot gone, which bummed Lev out. He said he’d keep any marijuana for his private use, but when I pointed out that it could be laced with anything—this was Vanya we were talking about, after all—Lev agreed that Stas should flush anything he found. Better to err on the side of caution.