Without warning, not even from his leopard, the doors to the conference room swung open—and there were three of them; two were double doors—and Gorya andhissecurity waltzed right in as if they owned the place. Braum cursed under his breath. His own security should have notified him, but there wasn’t the slightest warning. Hedidn’t allow his shock to show on his face as he assessed the situation.
The security team included Gorya’s cousin Timur. He hadn’t personally met Timur Amurov, but the man’s reputation preceded him. He was a big man who didn’t try to hide the killer in him. Wide shoulders. Thick, roped muscles rippling down his back, arms and chest if he moved at all. His face bore scars, and the lines were carved deep all the way to his strong jaw.
He shifted his gaze to Gorya. He could see why so many underestimated Gorya Amurov if they saw him next to his cousin. He was built differently. Leaner, although if one looked, muscle ran densely beneath his skin. He was extremely handsome, where Timur had scars on his face and looked rough as hell. Gorya seemed charming and very young by comparison, although they were reputed to be close in age. Timur looked the part of a mobster while Gorya did not.
Braum looked beyond all that charm. Gorya was Amurov. There was no doubt in his mind. He was ruthless and cunning, and judging from the reports of his leopard’s ability, he was lightning fast. Everyone else might underestimate him, but Braum wasn’t going to make that mistake.
“Gorya, welcome,” he greeted, making as if to rise from his chair.
Gorya waved him to his seat. “A meeting without yourpakhan, Braum?”
“I like to clarify things before I bring them to you. It’s much better to have all the books in order and know details so you don’t have to be bothered with them,” Braum replied smoothly. It was a lie and yet not quite one.
“Four o’clock in the morning seems a little early and smacks of something altogether different.” Gorya looked around the table. “Not all the heads of the businesses are here. Why is that, I wonder?”
Braum noted that Gorya’s security force had spread out around the table behind the chairs, covering the room. It bothered him that none of his security had entered. He had to assume they were incapacitated—or dead. His leopard hadn’t responded to him when twice he had reached for him. There were dozens of shadows in the room, and he was certain Gorya had more of his security force hidden within them. How the man was blocking him from speaking to his leopard, he couldn’t imagine, but he needed the animal to confirm it.
“I already know where they stand, Gorya, and can give you that information.” That much was the truth. If the presentpakhanwas capable of reading lies, he couldn’t be caught in that lie. Hopefully Gorya would be confused and believe all he was saying. He willed those at the table to stay silent and let him handle everything.
“I see you have company. Albert Krylov. It has been years.”
Krylov nodded but made no move to greet Gorya properly, clearly determined to get the upper hand. “It has. I hear you recently found your mate.” There was a slight edge of contempt in his voice. “Dare I say congratulations?”
Braum winced at the disrespect. That wasn’t the way to handle Gorya Amurov. He wouldn’t have been shocked if Timur stepped forward and backhanded the man.
Gorya lifted an eyebrow. “You needn’t bother, not when you don’t mean it. What you might do is tell Braum and the others the story of what happened so many years ago when Patva sent one of his trusted teams to his whorehouse. You weren’t there, but you heard the story. I was there, the only survivor.”
Krylov lifted an eyebrow. “You mean when you were forever after branded the coward? Why would you want me to relate such a story of theirpakhan? The shame of just that story would be too much for them to want tofollow you, but the aftermath and what you became would be too much for them to endure if they knew.”
Krylov was clearly taunting Gorya deliberately, as if he could blackmail the man into silence—into leaving.
Gorya didn’t look in the least upset. In fact, his expression didn’t change at all. “I think Braum will understand why it’s important to hear that particular story. He’ll find it very entertaining and pertinent. So please, tell all of it, every detail.”
“If you insist,” Krylov said.
He proceeded to explain in detail how the men had gone to the whorehouse to use the women.
“And children,” Gorya added quietly. “Don’t leave out the part of grown men using children for sex.”
Braum flicked his gaze to Gorya’s hard features. There was no change in expression. No change in that soft tone whatsoever, but a chill went down his spine. For the first time, instead of the thrill he got from facing a brilliant opponent, he had the impression of a dangerous predator looming over him. Not just dangerous. Far more than that.
Children. Was that Gorya’s trigger? Was that why he was here at four o’clock in the morning? Braum desperately wanted to text his son and ask where he was. A dark premonition crept in. They’d taken Leo’s daughter. Did Gorya consider fifteen to be a child?
Albert Krylov didn’t seem to notice that Gorya was a predator. He had a fixed idea of who the man was and refused to entertain any other version.
Even as Krylov told the story, Braum kept his gaze fixed on Gorya’s features, studying him carefully. He was aware of the others in the room, the security spread out, but they had faded into the background. Gorya was the one who mattered. He was lethal, at the top of the food chain. Braum had carefully avoided Gedeon, knowing his reputation and sensing the man would see more than Braum could afford for him to see. Gorya had hidden thepredator under a charming facade, easily bought. His reputation had been the weak link in the Amurov family, one he had clearly cultivated over the years.
Krylov’s tone turned almost gleeful as he described the massacre found by Patva and his men in the whorehouse. The dead soldiers. The dead guards. No women or children. No tracks other than a few leading inland away from the harbor. Only Gorya had survived with a few injuries, his body hidden among the dead.
Patva had beaten him thoroughly in front of the others and branded him a coward. They determined a rivalpakhanhad declared war by stealing the whores they had contracted to sell. Gorya never so much as blinked when Krylov, his voice filled with disgust and contempt, told those at the table how Gorya was punished with torture and rape since the whores were gone and the men would need a body to use until the next shipment came in.
There was silence following the story. No one so much as scraped a chair or moved. Braum’s heart nearly ceased beating. Krylov wasn’t nearly as intelligent as Braum had thought. Another terrible mistake on his part.I’m sorry, Celine.
“How long did it take you to kill them all, Gorya?” Braum forced his gaze to meet those flat, dead eyes. Pure frost. Ghost eyes.
“It was a standard team of his men, plus the guards. Once I started killing, they all had to go down. I had seconds, so less than a minute or so.” Gorya made it sound casual. Easy.
Krylov bristled. “That’s impossible. He was a kid. A scrawny teenager. A coward. I lived there,knewhim. A grown man couldn’t have done that alone. Those killed were trained soldiers.”
