Then he laughs. It’s a brittle sound, an unpleasant one.
“I understand what it is,” he says. “You bought her for fun, had it, and now you’ve—as the kids say—caught feelings.”
“Careful.”
“Or what?” He stands, too, spreading his hands. “You’ll kill me? Here? In your own house? That would be very poor form,friend. The council would most certainly not approve.”
“The council,” I say, “is in twenty-seven days. And when it convenes, we’ll see how much they approve of the way you’ve been using the ceasefire to move in on territories that aren’t yours. I’m sure the rest of the Italians and the Irish won’t be too happy to know what you’ve been up to.”
His expression shifts for a second before the mask slips back into place.
“You think you can march into a Bratva council and use it to unseat me?”
“I don’t think, I know. I might not be Russian, but I know your rules. They are the same as ours.”
“On what grounds?” he asks. “Your accusations that I’m behind some effort to steal your precious territory are baseless. Perhaps you need to consider the possibility that you’re such a weak ruler that the various criminal upstarts in this town see you as an easy target.”
He’s trying to goad me. The truth is that heisbehind the attacks, and the possibility of a deep and bloody war if I were to reprise clearly has him on edge.
“You were behind the Fetisov massacre. You killed an entire family, including women and children. Murdered them in their beds, Kolya. And you thought no one would remember or make you pay for those crimes.”
His jaw clenches. “The Fetisovs were traitors.”
“Rivals. There’s a difference.”
“They would’ve destroyed the Bratva.”
“Wrong. They would’ve challenged you, unseated you. So you had them all killed. And you spent twenty years covering it up. But people remember, Kolya. And at the council, I’ll make sure they remembereverything.”
A beat of silence, then he waves his hand through the air dismissively.
“You have no proof. The Fetisov massacre was an awful business. But many had the motive to perform such a terrible deed. All of your evidence is circumstantial. And besides, there is nothing to find either way. The witnesses are dead and the records are gone. No security footage of the house exists. Whatever happened will remain a mystery, sad though it might be.”
I let his words hang in the air for a long moment.
“We’ll see about that, Kolya. At the council.”
He throws back the last of his vodka.
“I think we’re done here. Well, aside from the matter of your girl. I still want her. And I will have her.”
“You will do no such thing.”
He chuckles. “You can keep her in this house for as long as you like, Gabriel. You can fuck her and pretend she’s something more than a whore you bought at an auction. But the second she steps outside of these walls? She’s mine. You’ll be careless one day. And when that happens, I’ll take her, make sure you never see her again.”
My hands curl into fists.
It would be so easy to kill him. Kolya is weak, soft. I could punch him once, right in the throat, then bury him in the garden where no one would find the body.
But he’s right. Killing him here would start a war that I’m not ready for. Not yet.
I smile.
“You’re dying, Kolya.”
He goes still.
“Something to do with your heart? Or is it your liver? With all the vodka you drink, I’m guessing it’s one or the other. Not much time left for you, I’d wager. And the sharks are already circling. Sasha, Viktor, all the rest of your lieutenants. I bet they’re just waiting for the right moment to strike.”
