“Yeah.”
“You know who?”
I shake my head. “Not yet.”
“This shit stinks. Nikolai knows who Marla was, right?”
I nod. “I think he was testing me. Oristesting me. I don’t know. Right now, he’s acting like I was the one who did the kill.”
Teddy crosses his arms and grunts. “Maybe it was somebody else from another gang? Your Bratva isn’t short any enemies.”
“That’s the thing,” I tell him. “Nikolai would know if somebody else had it out for her, and he wouldn’t bother sending me to do the job unless there were a reason it had to be the Kirovs. It’s unlikely that he wouldn’t just wait for nature to take its course.”
He nods slowly. “Vik, I smell a setup here.”
My heart sinks a little. I think I’ve known this all along, and yet I was still hoping that Teddy wouldn’t see it the same way I was.I was really betting that he would tell me that I was crazy for thinking the worse-case scenario. Crazy for really believing that Nikolai had some hand in this dirty business.
But the journal that Tati found… Marla’s death before she can tell anyone what she knew… And Nicki. Dammit, I wish I could remember what happened that night.
“So do I,” I say, committing to the truth of the matter. “But why? I’ve been nothing but loyal to Nikolai, the brotherhood.”
He nods. “You’ve also been fucking his daughter.”
I shoot a look of surprise at him. “How did you know about that?”
“I didn’t,” he said. “But you just confirmed it. Rumors have been flying about you and her for a while now.”
I roll my eyes. Of course. Nikolai did tell me that much. I shouldn’t be surprise that the rumor mill reached the Red Devils by now. Everybody in this world is connected in one great big game of telephone.
My stomach turns, reminding me that I skipped dinner for this. “You hungry?” I ask him as I pull out my phone. “I’m going to order a pizza.”
I do, and it takes about fifteen minutes to get to us. In the meantime, Teddy takes the time to check in with his girl, Luanne. He steps out onto my balcony to call her.
I watch him as he does it, and I wonder about it. He’s been with her since he became club president. They never married, but there was no mistaking their commitment to one another. Everyone knew that Luanne was his girl and respected that.
It makes me wonder what lies ahead for Tati and me. I don’t know what my future realistically looks like with her in it. There hasn’t been time to think about it.
Whatever it looks like, all I do know is that I want her by my side for it.
The pizza arrives and we both sit on the couch and take slices out, eating them as we pick up the discussion again.
“You know something?” Teddy says as he sets his half eaten slice back down in the box. “Of all the guys I ever thought might make the mistake of fucking the boss’s daughter, I never actually thought it’d be you. You’re the poster boy for self-restraint. You practically wrote the book on gangster etiquette. Forbidden pussy’s a surefire way to torch everything, my friend.”
He’s not wrong. I’ve known that better than anyone. At my age, being tempted by some hot little thing who has ties to someone who could turn you into a grease spot isn’t new, but it is something that I thought I left behind in my twenties and teens. I’ve been around this game long enough to know better than to let myself dive into something with Tati.
And yet here I am. And even if there were a way out of it, I don’t know that I would look too hard for the exit if it meant leaving Tati alone.
“Yeah, funny how life happens,” I say. “Be that as it may, however it happened, we’re in this together, her and I. And if I’m in danger because of that, so is Tati.”
“Right. So, what do you want to do?”
I narrow my eyes slightly. Time to talk brass tacks. “You understand how bad things could get for me, right? This is bad. Top-level insubordination shit. If Nikolai comes after me?—”
“I get it. I’ve always gotten it, Vik,” he says. He pauses and looks at the half-eaten pizza thoughtfully before picking up his beer and taking another swig. “We aren’t exactly the kind of men who shy away from death when it comes knocking. And you’re family, Brother. In this life, you don’t fuck with family.”
That’s comforting. More than Teddy knows. Almost anyone else, I could expect a knife in my back somewhere down the line. Teddy being outside of the Bratva is probably my greatest asset.
“We need to find out what Marla knew,” I tell him. “Before she died, she gave me a key to a safety deposit box. I need to get to it.”
