I’m forty-three and don’t have enough fingers on both hands to count the men I’ve seen fall because they couldn’t keep their ego in check. Hell, I’ve killed a couple of these men myself. Sometimes on orders from above, and sometimes as a means of survival.
Either way, I’ve pulled the trigger with no remorse.
As I said, business is business.
And now I’m standing at the top of the tree. Well, as close to the top as a man like me can get. I’m a pakhan—a boss, top dog, head of the family. However you want to put it, it all means pretty much the same thing,
I know there are international bosses above me, and senior pakhans who never move close enough to the day to day business to even know their names. But when it comes to a citywide, street level, I’m as senior as it gets.
And, yeah, I still do my own dirty work when the occasion demands it.
In this case, the dead asshole who ate my bullets was a treacherous piece of shit who not only thought he could enter into collusion with the feds, but skim profits from me too.
Either one of those crimes carries a sentence of death.
Both of them together? Forget about it.
Some pakhans don’t like to do their own killings. And I get that. Why risk associating yourself to a capital crime? After all, it’s not like you haven’t got men to do all that for you.
But for me, it’s about honor and showing the organization that you walk the walk as much as you talk the talk. No one messes with my organization, and I’m more than ready to personally make that clear.
And so far, my approach is working too.
In the four years I’ve been pakhan, we’ve had relatively few incidents like this. I’m not saying I’m the perfect leader. Far from it. But I’d say with some confidence that I’ve brought a stability to the family that hadn’t been there for the previous twenty-five years.
I’ve got good men around me. Loyal men. Smart men too. For me, it’s all about building a trusted inner circle that has the right balance of killers, scholars, and businessmen. And as for me? I’m probably a combination of all three.
Although on the streets, they call me The Devil. Or that’s what I’m told. I guess my years of carrying out hit after hit as I worked my way up left an impact on people’s minds. Still, there are probably worse nicknames I could have. And if my reputation makes people think twice about trying to cross me, then I’m not about to start getting all prissy about it.
But devil or not, I can’t hang around here while a dead body lays prone in the corner. It’s time to move.
“All done?” my driver asks, his eyes flashing up to the rearview mirror as I climb into the SUV.
“Just drive,” I reply, shaking my head. “Of course it’s all done.”
“A figure of speech. Call it politeness. Call it…” my driver says, his chirpiness knowing no bounds. But I like him. The fact this his attitude occasionally borders on insolent actually makes a refreshing change from some of the sycophants I’ve become accustomed to. “Anyway. Where are we headed?”
“Café Collage,” I answer. “Across town. Near the arts quarter. You know it?”
“I know the area,” the driver replies. “Business or pleasure?”
“Business,” I answer, taking my phone out of my pocket. “No more questions. I need you to focus on the road. The last thing I need is being pulled over by the police.”
“You’re the boss!”
I shake my head and begin to type…
Viktor: Work done for the day. Research still to complete. Proposal close to being confirmed—expecting a confirmation on site later today.
I put my phone away. The replies can wait. All I need now is to sit back, watch the city draw in closer as we cross the bridge and head toward Café Collage.
Yes, I’ve got things to do.
But before any of that, I need the kind of coffee that’s going to wash away the last thoughts of that low down sonofabitch lying in a pool of his own blood back at the warehouse.
Business will always be business…
I wait in turn at the café. It’s busy. The morning rush looks like it’s coming to a conclusion, but there’s still a sizeable queue. This is my first time here, but I’ve heard good things. It’s not like I’m a coffee snob or anything, but I do have a taste for the good stuff, that’s for sure.
