But even as my brothers left for the meeting, something inside me told me that it was wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it. They had dealt with the arms supplier before, he was solid. There were no issues with trusting him, or so we thought. My brothers didn’t go in blind either, and took their usual right hand men as backup just in case.
Normal practice, nothing out of the ordinary.
But that nagging doubt in my mind kept building with every minute that my brothers were away from me. It was like I was a youngster again, watching on with envy as they hit the streets and sought about bringing our family back into play in the city’s underworld after a generation where we were nothing more than paupers and has-beens.
So finally I did what I always do.
I moved. And moved fast.
But not fast enough…
When I arrived at the scheduled meeting point, I was met with a bloodbath. All around the abandoned warehouse were SUVs that had been shot up, some of them with the kind of heavy artillery that you would expect to see in a civil war or far flung continent.
I went through the cars, one by one. Body after body lay there, limbs blown off and guts spilled across the seats. It was fucking grim, the kind of bloodshed you’d see in an R Rated action film from back in the day.
Trust me, I’ve seen enough blood spilled to last me a lifetime. Nothing should shock me. But this was a whole other level.
And as I approached my brothers’ SUV, all I could do was hope and pray.
Even though my gut instincts told me that they too had fallen foul to whatever the hell had gone down, I held a slither of hope that they might have escaped unscathed, or at the very least with their lives till intact.
After all, they were the elder Kamedov brothers. They were ruthless, but smart with it. Over fifteen years in the business and approaching two whole decades, they were known for having the street smarts and tactical approach that would rarely, if ever, see them outdone. In fact, it was pretty much accepted across the city’s crime families that no one fucked with the Kamedov clan unless they wanted to be on the end of some seriously fiendish revenge.
But when I put my hand on the SUV’s partially blown apart rear door, Iknew.
I had to clench my jaw as hard as was humanly possible to stop myself from screaming out in agony as I peered inside and saw the sight of my two older brothers, their suits drenched in blood, their eyes blank with death.
Milo and Loren Kamedov… shot to pieces one afternoon like they were nothing but a pair of low down hustlers.
I knew from that moment that my life would never, ever be the same again.
And now here I am, getting ready to drink myself to oblivion yet again. Another night drowning my sorrows as I do everything I can to fuck up my family’s name, and all because I can’t handle the thought that now Milo and Loren are gone it all falls onto me.
Because like it or not, I am the pakhan now.
“Another vodka,” I growl, leaning up against the bar.
I don’t have many friends in the city right now, so coming to a place like this is actually the one wise choice I’ve made in these last couple of months. A Daddy club, it’s about as far as you could get from the bars and illicit clubs that the likes of me would usually hang out in.
And if that means I’m less likely to get shot to pieces here, then I’ll take that.
It’s not even that I’m looking for a boy right now either. I mean, come on, the last fucking thing I need is some high maintenance brat who’s going to being all up in my business and demanding my attention.
Not even the most spankable ass in the world is going to interest me right now.
No, give me vodka, peace, and enough space to drink the pain away once more and I’ll be good.
“Your vodka, sir,” the bartender says to me, a nervous look in his eyes.
“Relax,” I say. “You’re not my type.”
The bartender nervously flashes me a smile and quickly moves across to the far side of the bar where a Daddy and his boy stand together, the pair of them looking way too fucking happy for my liking.
Fuck. What is it with happy couples? They just can’t help but look like the smuggest people in a ten block radius any time they open their mouths.
Still though, that boy I just met a few minutes ago… he seemed different to the other hyperactive brats and self-satisfied couples in here.
He was cute too.
