Page 12 of Bought By Sin

Lev: I’m on my way back from assisting Dean with that handoff.

Reporting like this wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t with Adrik running the Bratva. It hadn’t been required when Uncle Dmitri was the Pakhan, either. It was the simplest introduction, though.

Lev: I purchased a drug runner while I was there. I’m bringing her to my safehouse now.

I set my phone back down in the cup holder, curious how long it would take for them to comment. This didn’t need to be huge news, but it would matter that I’d brought someone into our circle. We recruited soldiers. We hired contractors. Many people and companies and service providers worked for us. But this was different somehow. It wouldn’t be the same as acquiring someone else because I intended to own Mila. To make her…

Mine, somehow.

Viewing her as only a slave seemed like I was taking this situation for granted. There was potential to pursue with her. Someone as strong as she was had to matter as more than just a slave runner.

I glanced in the mirror to find Mila staring out the window, her face unchanged from the almost-scowl she’d worn the whole ride.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up. Unsurprisingly, Adrik was the first to reply.

Adrik: What?

Adrik: Why? A runner? What the hell for?

The last question was the most valid. We had runners. Maksim—and now Carina—supervised the crews that smuggled product and arms and managed the shipping. Buying contracted slaves wasn’t something we ever had to do much because we had such a low turnover of loyal employees.

Maksim: You bought a runner from the handoff that the Garcias had arranged with the Hernandezes? I thought they were just there to get money owed to them.

Adrik: You bought a runner from the Garcias?

Maksim: That makes no sense.

Maksim: The Garcias are our partners again. If we needed any additional runners to report to the Bratva for anything, we wouldn’t need to source them from them.

Our relationship with the Garcia Cartel had shifted a lot over the last few months. Carina came to us, almost like an ambassador, and in the end, she’d stood by us as her brother was taken out after his alliance with Gregori was revealed. The Garcia Cartel and any employment with or from them should have been a thing in the past. We were both comfortable with Jorge as their boss, and as evident from Dean and I showing up as backup today, we were on friendly terms.

Worrying about the Cartel wasn’t something any of us had time for. Not when we had to focus on preparing for who else Gregori could try to use against us.

Lev: No need to worry about this. She’s a contracted slave the Hernandezes were forcing to do runs for the Cartel. I bought her.

Viktor chimed in next with his text.

You bought her as a spy on the Hernandezes?

I thought back to how Mila hadn’t said a damn word about where the other Hernandez runners had taken off to. She hadn’t needed to. We’d found them and they were killed anyway. But even with a gun pressed to her head, she didn’t crack and reveal anything. I highly doubted she’d tell me a single thing about the Hernandezes if I wanted to ask.

Sure, she could be a source of intel. That wasn’t why I’d bought her, though. This heads up didn’t seem like such a wise idea now. Not when they were putting me on the spot to explain why I had brought her home.

Lev: She could be a spy.

I hoped that would be true and open-ended to the point that they wouldn’t press me for more answers. As a contracted worker, she could do a variety of jobs for us.

My phone buzzed again and I realized that Adrik had more questions. He was putting them in a direct and private thread with only me now.

Adrik: You need to give me more details than that.

I glanced up to check if the light had changed yet. It hadn’t, so I replied.

Lev: I know her name. I have the contract but I didn’t look at it yet.

Adrik: And you just bought her? On a whim?

Calling it a whim didn’t sound right. It wasn’t a whim, per se, but it wasn’t my most thought-out decision. He’d think I was nuts if I told him that it just felt right to bring her with me.