Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“Are you okay?” she asks. “Please tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” I answer. “I can’t talk very long though.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just…” My voice cracks, and I can barely speak. I’m going to break. Any second now. I’m going to break completely. And it isn’t fair to Mack. I can’t let her hear me cry. The best thing I can do for her is to let her believe I’m okay. The way she always wanted me to be. “I just wanted you to know that I’m okay. And that you shouldn’t worry about me anymore.”
“What do you mean don’t worry about you?” she demands.
“I’m safe,” I repeat. “And I’m not coming home.”
“Talia…”
“I have to go, Mack,” I tell her. “I just wanted to say congratulations on your wedding. And that I love you, and I miss you so much. But I’m okay now, and I have you to thank for that.”
It’s the last sentence I can manage to get out before my resolve breaks and I disconnect the line.
26
Alexei
“Arman has sent word on the shipments,” Viktor informs me. “You will need to inform him soon.”
“Of course.” I nod my assent, but Viktor doubts my assurances.
It is one thing to doubt me, but to do it in front of the Vory is something new. Viktor has only ever shown me respect. But right now he is giving Sergei precisely what he wants. A reason to doubt me. To prove that I am not worthy of my title. Of my rank.
“This could very well get ugly,” Viktor adds. “He may not wish to part with the girl.”
“It is too late.” I shrug. “It is done. She is my wife. He has no claim on her now. And he will be compensated accordingly. The choice is his. He can have his money and his life, or nothing at all.”
“And what of our shipments?” Sergei asks.
“There are plenty of other suppliers.”
“Not with his arsenal,” he scoffs. “You full well know this.”
“So then we take over his supply. Run his operation ourselves. It would not be the first time we have done so.”
“What you are speaking of means going to war, Lyoshenka,” Viktor replies.
“So we go to war then.”
All of their eyes are on me. My father’s disapproving gaze. And even after all of these years, it burns me. He still has the power to make me feel inadequate in his presence. Which is precisely what he wants. He wants me to doubt myself. To waver in front of these men and prove I am worthless.
But my resolve is steadfast on this matter. And that will not change.
“Going to war is an easy solution for you.” Sergei doesn’t attempt to hide his disdain for me. “When you have the brothers doing all of the dirty work for you.”
I meet his gaze and hold it. “I am a Vor, too. You seem to forget.”
His lips sneer and Nikolai steps up to place a hand on his shoulder before he says something he will regret. That will incriminate him and allow all of the others to know his dirty secret. That he is the father of a son who will never live up to Nikolai’s standard. That he is the father of me.
“And I will be the first through the door,” I add. “Should it come to a war.”
Viktor steps beside me and places a hand on my shoulder, showing his support for me without speaking a word. It grates on Sergei, and his eyes linger on the connection for far too long.
That his defective son should rank higher than him in his own organization is something he will never accept. While he remains a captain- an Avtoritet- his rank will never go any higher. I am invaluable to Viktor. It should not come as a surprise to him. He set the bar for me when he cast me and my mother onto the street. When he set the course of her fate, he also set mine.
I was always destined to prove my worth. To serve as the constant reminder of what he did. Of how he had been wrong about me. And it gives me enormous pleasure to see that ugly twisted sneer on his face every time he looks my way.
“I do not believe that it will come down to that,” Viktor states. “Arman knows better than to try to take on the Reds. There is only one reason a man would ever surround himself with so many weapons.”
I meet my father’s gaze and nod my agreement. “Because he is a little bitch.”
His reply is filled with equal venom.
“I hope you are certain.” He slaps Nikolai on the back and beams at him proudly. “Because I would not send my only son into battle for you, let alone your worthless whore wife.”
What happens next is a complete loss of my self-control. I am used to the insults he directs towards me. But Talia is another matter altogether.