“No fucking way,” I bit out and immediately regretted it. I walked back to the desk, sat down again, gritted my teeth. He sensed how I felt about Lana, and I knew it, and I couldn’t hide it, take it back.
“You like her.” He laughed. “You really fucking like her.”
“Eat me.”
Mikhail stood to grab shooters and poured us whiskey, then pushed the shooter toward me. We didn’t have a deal, so I didn’t drink. He held up his glass while I didn’t touch mine. He dialed and issued a retreat order. We toasted and drank.
“An eye for an eye and we call it even,” he said.
Not having a niece, I frowned.
“I want Ivana.”
If he’d said he wanted orange pompoms and a little dress so he could go cheer for the Chicago Bears, I wouldn’t have beenmore surprised. My shock must’ve showed on my face, because Mikhail continued, “You heard me right.”
I cleared my throat, felt like wetting a rag and slapping his face, because what he asked for was…like adding gasoline to fire. “What do you mean you want Ivana?”
“I want her. Period.”
“To work for you? Because she doesn’t need my approval to close a deal for you or to find you things other people can’t find, though working for you is a big request.”
“I want her in my family.”
This bitch had lost his shit. “Are you crazy?”
“Only about bringing her in.” He shrugged. “I could kidnap her, but I’d rather not have to.”
“Do you even have a money problem?”
“Yes. I think it’s a snitch, and Ivana can help me. She can also help me with…some aspects of the business I don’t want to deal with anymore. Besides having babies inside my family. So she’s good for me all around.”
“Which aspects?”
“The snitch is someone high up in my ranks. Ivana can find him and replace him at the same time.”
“If you put her on your payroll, she would agree, and I wouldn’t interfere. One year. She would work for you for one year.”
“No can do. She has to cross and show loyalty, and she's gonna be most loyal to a dick that fills her.”
“Don’t fucking talk about her like that.”
He snorted. “How do you think I feel about you and my niece?”
“Do you understand what you’re asking for?”
“You are her boss, no?”
“She will kill you in your sleep.” Or out in the open.
Mikhail smiled.
I was dealing with a lunatic here. “You also understand that if you put a baby inside her and she hates you, she will bide her time and that boy is gonna hit you when you least expect it.”
“You think I'll have a boy?”
Groaning, I stood. “I worry about you.” I crossed the room, rolling my shoulders, preparing for what was to come outside.
“Do we have a deal?” he asked.
