She winked at me.
I rolled my eyes. “I mean it.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
I shook my head but smiled anyway. “Where is he?”
“Probably behind the screens in the security room, watching us.”
I ordered a whiskey on the rocks and found a camera eye to which I lifted my glass. A minute later, a man I hadn’t met before showed up. “The boss will see you. This way.”
Lana and I rose, but the man shook his head. “The girl stays.”
I grabbed her hand and pushed past him, but he materialized in front of me and blocked my way.
Turning my back to the civilians, I whispered at his ear, “I’m leaving this place with her. Feel me?”
“You’ll leave in a bag.”
“Cops will swarm this motherfucker, and Mikhail knows it. Don’t be the idiot who provokes me. The girl goes where I go.”
Lana tugged at my shirt. “I’ll sit with Ivana.”
Before I could say anything, she walked away and climbed into the chair next to my cousin, who sipped coffee, scanning the people in the room. Okay, my nerves would survive our separation. I would survive it and would not kill everyone. That settled, I nodded at the Russian.
The man led me thorough the back of the VIP room’s hallway, where we shouldered past the people waiting outside for the bathroom to reach the door on the right at the end of the hall. The man remained standing by it while I entered without knocking and closed the door behind me.
Mikhail sat behind a worn-out brown desk he’d had ever since I’d known him, which was about twenty-five years. Dim light illuminated his still figure. I couldn’t see his hands. Not good. Not good at all.
I approached anyway and sat across from him, my palms on my thighs, fingers spread and ready. To see my hands, he’d have to lean in, showing me his face. I couldn’t read a man in the shadow other than getting the sense of menace that came with how he’d greeted me, but that wasn’t much of a surprise at all. I’d banged his niece and hadn’t asked for permission.
For a while, we sat in silence, but I knew he’d speak first since I was the more patient of the two of us.
“You sent my man to the hospital,” he said.
“He touched what was mine.”
Mikhail leaned in, showing me his scarred face. Seven years ago, his brother had turned and sent men after him. Mikhail survived and hid in one of my safe houses while he reshuffled his ranks. To make it look like he’d not done the deed, I agreed to send Ludi after his brother. To say Mikhail and I had a history was an understatement.
“She is not yours,” he said.
“She is now.”
Lips pinched, he gritted his teeth. I saw the moment he couldn’t suppress his anger anymore, and we stood at the same time, pulling out our pieces aimed at each other’s heads. Who would fire first? Who would be faster?
“You should’ve come to me first.”
“I didn’t know she was your niece.”
“You should’ve known!” he shouted.
In the movies, I’d heard lines like “take it easy,” but if I said that, he’d shoot me for sure, and frankly, when I was pissed, if he said to me to take it easy, I’d have shot him.
“Are you mad I took her before you could sell her to the Italians, or are you worried about what I’m gonna do with your niece? Because those aren’t the same thing.”
My shoulder twitched, a warning against holding my hand out for too long.
“You can’t say I didn’t warn you, brother,” he said.
