Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
“I’ve got the same feeling,” Gedeon told Meiling. “What’s more, Slayer’s warning me to be very careful.” Again, that made little sense.
He knew Gorya Amurov—at least he knew of him. He’d met him a couple of times, which wasn’t the same as knowing him. He’d been around the Amurov family, all members of the bratva and lethal as hell. Gorya seemed the most easygoing of all the cousins. He seemed relaxed in the tensest of situations and played the role of the peacemaker, although now that Gedeon thought about it, Gorya faded into the background quite easily—much in the way Meiling did. He was soft-spoken, but his cousins always seemed to listen to him.
“You know, Lotus, now that I really think about it, the information we have on the Amurov family here in the States was pieced together and difficult to get. Not so much the ones in Russia. That was easy enough. But there isn’t much on Gorya at all. He isn’t in the news. There’s no speculation on him. No one talks about him. It’s almost as if he doesn’t exist.”
Meiling nodded her agreement. “That bothered me. His cousins run territories and are considered very brutal if crossed. There have been assassination attempts on Fyodor and his wife, Evangeline. Mitya was horribly wounded throwing himself in front of his cousin and Evangeline. There are hits taken out on all of them, but there never seems to be anything written up on Gorya. Not here, and not even in Russia.”
Gedeon took his time processing that information. Meiling was good at research. His man, Rene Guidry, was equally good. Between the two of them, they should have found all kinds of data on Gorya, yet nothing of significance had turned up. Drake’s people had done research as well, and he was renowned for his ability to ferret out secrets on shifters. He was close to the Amurovs, knew them quite well, but when it came to Gorya, he had very little to contribute other than that he was a good man.
“We know the Amurov family comes from the absolute worst lairs in the Primorye region of Russia,” Meiling said. “Four brothers—Patva, Lazar, Rolan and Filipp Amurov—were pakhans in the bratva and ruled those lairs. Each held his own territory and ruled it with an iron fist. They demanded loyalty to the bratva, and by that, I mean not to their own families. They demanded that once the men serving under them were given sons, they were to show their loyalty to the bratva by murdering their wives. Their leopards were never allowed a true mate. They deliberately turned not only their leopards into killers but also the other males in their lair.”
Gedeon knew all about the cruelty those kinds of pakhans were capable of. His family had been murdered by one. He didn’t want to think of the suffering his mother had undergone at the hands of the leader of the lair he’d belonged to. He shut down that memory and turned his attention to the problem at hand. Those four men, the pakhans of those territories in Russia, were the fathers of the Amurov cousins residing in the United States.
Gedeon liked and respected Fyodor, Mitya, Sevastyan and Timur Amurov. They were tough, lethal men, but he’d found them to be fair, and they’d always kept their word. They’d been raised in brutal conditions. That had been easy enough to discover. He also knew that Fyodor had saved his brother and cousins by destroying the entire lair. The cousins were tight and loyal to one another.
What of Gorya Amurov? He was always with them.
“You’ve been around the Amurovs far more than I have,” Meiling said. “Are you certain Gorya is really related to them?”
Gedeon brought up every encounter he’d had with the man. Gorya didn’t have the obvious bulk his cousins had. He was leaner, but there was no mistaking the muscles rippling beneath his skin. He moved with the fluid stealth of a leopard. Gedeon just hadn’t paid enough attention to him, not with his cousins around. They were lethal, dangerous men, every single one. Gorya, in comparison, had seemed gentle and considerate. He thought before he spoke. He soothed explosive situations and then seemed to fade into the background.
Could Meiling have the answer? Was Gorya not really an Amurov? Gedeon frowned as he stood in the shadows outside the building where they would be meeting with Gorya Amurov. They had come very early, as they always did. It was how they stayed alive. They trusted no one.
Drake Donovan had chosen the location. It wasn’t in territory where Gorya was pakhan. That was a little-known town on the edge of the swamp between New Orleans and San Antonio, hidden from the eyes of law enforcement. There was a straight shot to the Gulf of Mexico by boat.