Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53693 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53693 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
He eyes me carefully, likely trying to assess if I’m good for my word. He should have learned by now. After all, our branches have been fighting for a long time, but mine always comes out victorious.
It started years ago, before I was born. After Dimitri took my father in, my father decided he needed to make his own name in this country. With the blessing of the Bratva, he began a small real estate business, though that was just a front for money laundering and arms trading.
Dimitri got jealous of my father’s success, though, claiming Papa owed him because he was the one who hosted him in this country. Dimitri claimed Papa would be nothing without him. Whether that was true or not, my father didn’t take kindly to threats.
He wouldn’t hurt Dimitri out of respect for Dimitri’s hospitality, but he did recruit all of Dimitri’s men over from his branch. My father paid better and treated them fairly. He always joked that the key to loyalty was a good medical plan.
Any time Dimitri got out of line, my father would undermine him by stealing more of his men, until our branch was three times the size of Dimitri’s. And the loyalty toward my father ran deep. No one could ever pull the same stunt on him. His men would die for him.
That loyalty ran so deeply that even now it courses through the heart of the Sidorov Syndicate. Many of my men have only been in the organization since my regime began, but there are a few holdovers from the old days. They remember how poorly Dimitri treated them and how kind my father was, even to his death.
They also know that I wasn’t handed my title. I had to work my way up and prove myself to the elders. I’ve doubled the financial gains of the syndicate, implementing new ways for our branch to make money. I’ve taken my father’s dream and run with it, creating an organization of men who are both very loyal and very well compensated.
My father did die regretting his fight with Dimitri, though. He couldn’t see what is so obvious to me. Dimitri is a small man who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He’ll never respect his men or his friends half as much as he expects to be respected. Dimitri wants to be seen, to be elevated to a position of power, and he doesn’t care who he has to step on to get there.
Even if that person is his own daughter.
My father told me to be kind to Dimitri. He told me to be patient and wait for the right opportunity to propose a truce between our branches. But it’s hard to be kind to a man who doesn’t know the meaning of the word. He demands that men bow to him, but he’s done nothing to earn it.
Dimitri would fall on his face if he tried to rise up against me, and he knows it. He won’t make a move against me, especially since we’re in my neighborhood. That was his arrogance. He thought because he could afford a wedding on the upper east side, he should have one. But now he’s in my territory, and I can have the church surrounded in a matter of minutes.
The other branches present will not get involved in what is essentially a family feud. No one is going to take up for him, not even his would-be in-laws. No, Dimitri is alone and unprotected. There is nothing he can do to me.
“Our branches should have never been at war,” I tell him. “This is a good thing.”
He curses under his breath but grits his teeth, knowing his hands are tied. He’ll release his daughter to me because he has to, but also because it’s the best thing for her. This charade of a wedding should have never happened.
“Fine,” he conceded. “Katrina is yours, but on your head be it.”
He waves me away and turns back to the crowd still milling about in the lobby. I hear him yell to the crowd to go home. The wedding is off.
He also says a few choice words about his daughter that make me want to hit the man. How he could disparage this beautiful woman is beyond me. His pride will be his downfall one day. He doesn’t deserve the blessing of a family he’s been given. He’s a nasty son of a bitch.
CHAPTER SIX
Kat
I fume as the man pulls on my arm, drawing me to his side. My head is spinning at this turn of events. I’d long suspected my father had ties to the mafia, but hearing Ivan confirm it feels like a crushing blow. Was this wedding about marrying me off to the highest bidder? I’d always felt like some kind of pawn in his game, but now I feel physically sick.