ANTON
By the time the sun’s up, word of the death of Emil Andreev has traveled through my Bratva and probably to the Amur Bratva as well. They started all this. Killing a Pakhan is an offense worse than just about anything else, so they had to expect me to come for Emil. Maksim’s vengeance was due and it was on me to make sure it got paid in full.
The meeting with my brigadiers has just ended. I’ve given everyone their marching orders. Anyone from the Amur Bratva will be wiped out on sight. I want the businesses raided and burned to the ground. I want bands of them broken up and murdered. I want blood of the highest caliber. I’ll see them all dead before this is over.
There’s just one thing sticking in my mind. Natalya. She wasn’t supposed to be there. The implications of her telling anyone what she saw…
I’m in as much danger from the law as any of the Amur. It’s going to come back on her one way or the other.
I don’t know if anyone on Nikolai’s side knows about her. At least not yet. If they do, she’ll be in greater danger from them than she ever would be from me. They’ll torture her just to find out if she knows anything about my movements… Especially if the Feds don’t end up knocking at my door. They’ll come to the conclusion that she’s protecting me, and that’s death sentence enough.
I’m still sitting at my chair in the meeting room, contemplating what I need to do about it. Natalya being out there and unprotected is going to be a distraction. Yet, what can I do? She is not really mine to protect in the first place. Her father belongs to a different Bratva. It’s on him to step up.
“Anton?”
I look up to see Mikki standing by the door, a question on his face.
“Everything all right?”
I don’t say anything, but I don’t need to. He was there when it all happened. He knows what’s troubling me.
He walks all the way into the room, closing the door behind him. “I’m only going to say this once, Anton, because I know you know this and I think that you just need to be reminded. That girl is not your problem.”
“I know.”
He nods, then, “It is also a gross overstep to even consider reaching out to her. It’s on Petrov to offer protection for his own. You know that.”
I rub my beard contemplatively.What was she even doing out that late at night, walking by herself at three in the morningmiles away from Petrov’s house?It’s been bothering me all day. Maybe it’s because of how we met. Bratva men who have to raise daughters tend to keep a tight leash on them. Well… sometimes. Sometimes, the women with the wildest pasts grew up in the Bratva life.
Still, she would know better than to be in a public place like the Firebird. And yet, there’s something about Natalya that doesn’t strike me as the rebellious type. Maybe it was her inexperience or just the innocent light in her eyes when she saw me last night. There’s nothing about her that tells me that she’s trouble… well, other than who her father is.
“What if he doesn’t?” I ask Mikki. “That is possible, right? He could deny her protection.”
Mikki sighs and clasps his hands together. “That is also not your problem. Now is not the time to get distracted, Anton. You know that.”
“Yeah.” I look down at my watch. It’s just after nine in the morning. “She saw me, though,” I say aloud. “That should be addressed.”
He cocks his head. “Her father is Bratva. I would think she would know better than to snitch.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know what her relationship is with her father. She was out walking the streets at three in the morning miles from her father’s house. For all I know?—”
“You’re fishing.”
I sigh. I am fishing. Maybe. “Mikki, she’s still a witness to what happened. She knows I killed Emil Andreev. That’s not something I should leave up to chance.”
“Okay,” he says. “What are you proposing to do about that? Do you want me to take care of it?”
I don’t really want to have to say it out loud. Mikki is the most loyal of all of my men, but even he can cast judgment when I push him too far. “No,” I say, “but you’re right. It is a distraction for me to have to worry about her, what she might do or say to the wrong person. I don’t think she’ll intentionally rat us out, but she has friends. All it would take is a single person who knows someone else and the next thing I’ll know, the Feds are at my door.” Or more likely, one of the Nikolai’s people will be clued in.
He raises a skeptical eyebrow. “You have always been very good at rationalizing foolish actions, Brother. I don’t like where this is going.”
“Protecting a witness to our crime is definitelynotfoolish. It’s shrewd.”
“Only if that witness is unaffiliated. Her father is Pakhan of the Kurgan Bratva and, again, it’s on him to protect his own daughter. Which I have no doubt he will do. It’s shameful not to step up for your own children and he knows that. His men will look down on him for it, maybe lose respect for him. He’ll do the right thing, Anton.”
He’s right. Of course he’s right. I should let this go, let Vladimir carry out his job as Pakhan for his own Bratva.
“Also,” Mikki continues, “you should consider what may happen if you butt in and Natalya’s father sees your intrusion as an excuse to side with the Amur in our little war. The Kurgans are a weaker Bratva with a better relationship with Nikolai than we ever had. You step in and try to protect that girl and we couldend up making an enemy while fighting another. This is a bad, bad move, Anton.”
