Page 23 of Tormented Heir

My destiny?

I glance over at Nataliya and then at the piece of shit who hurt her, and I know I’m about to burn every moral that ever held me in check to the ground.

He’ll wish for the fiery depths of hell when I’m finished with him, and I know once I’ve done this, there will be no turning back.

8

DIMITRI

PRESENT DAY

On days like this, I miss Lizzie. She was an easy lay. A fun hookup and hot with it. Still, she’s been gone a couple of months now, and it’s best for her to be away from her life and starting over in Alabama.

The news I’ve received is a fucking nightmare, and I need to let off steam when I leave my stepfather’s study. We are facing an utter clusterfuck. Christ, I need a drink, or a fuck.

There are other women I can screw, but unlike many seem to believe, I don’t enjoy lots of casual sex. The same way that I don’t drink too much. I don’t smoke. I don’t eat sugar, and I take the skin off chicken.

My body isn’t exactly a temple, but it’s no dump truck either. I don’t put crap in it, and I don’t stick my dick in people indiscriminately. The women I have one-night stands with are rare, maybe every six months or so, and I always glove up.

Lizzie was an exception to the rule because it fucked with her husband so much and cemented my reputation.

Still, it is probably safest for Lizzie that she isn’t here anymore. Things are getting hotter with our enemies by the day.

If she were seen with me any more frequently, she’d be targeted by our enemies. If I take a woman as my own seriously, then I’d have to be all in, so she had my protection. No halfway measures.

I wouldn’t do that to any woman. The beast inside me is a murderous piece of crap and comes out to play far too often these days. I also have my biological father’s genes, which means I’d make a terrible dad if the note is anything to go by, so it seems like marriage and kids just isn’t for me.

Thank fuck right about now because someone is targeting us again, and I think I have a good idea who it is.

After they took my sister, the Greek and Russian gang split and merged into the underbelly of criminal life. Jacob asked me to join his business, and I couldn’t refuse. I’m his enforcer, but I’m more than that. I’m the heir to his throne.

I did my due diligence when I came on board. Particularly with relation to the gang who had attacked us. I kept tabs on them and made sure that they minded their own business, which they did, and things were quiet … for a time.

Then word began to spread about a large group, mixed but with a lot of Greek, Albanian, and Turkish members. They moved into new areas of crime, away from street level dealing and into bigger stuff. It isn’t a surprise. There are always new gangs coming up, but this lot’s DNA is interesting.

Back when Nataliya was taken, Jacob didn’t cut the head off the snake. Sure, I killed every motherfucker directly involved, but Jacob told me not to go after the others.

He wanted to deescalate because he only cared about keeping Nataliya safe. He put out word that the death of the ten who had taken his daughter was the end of it. He increased security, and now my mamma and my sister have twenty-four-seven guards. Three each, always. Armed and highly trained, these men are deadly as fuck.

The compound has five more men running the security, all reporting to me. There are always fifteen guards on patrol on the grounds. We have drones. Guard dogs. Fuck, Jacob would have land mines if he could get away with it.

Still, he created a great defensive capability, but by leaving remnants of the group who took his daughter alive, I always feared that one day, they’d cause us trouble.

It started the same way as before. Shipments being attacked. Issues with raids.

It has culminated in one of our own being targeted again. Another innocent. When our brigadier, Virgil, took out some of their men in a fight over our containers, they retaliated by taking his daughter, Mila.

Once again, one of our females is paying for our crimes. Mila is like a cousin to me. She’s a sweetheart and a shy, polite young woman. I also know she’s a virgin. Her family are old fashioned that way. If these men have her, then she is going to be terrified.

“How do you know this information is legitimate?” I ask my stepfather. It’s so similar to last time. Maybe it’s a ruse?

We’re alone, sitting in his oak-paneled study, which smells of wealth and power.

I’ll always respect Jacob and be thankful to him because he loves my mother truly, and he gave us a home and stability, but in this, in his leniency a few years back, I do believe he fucked up.

“It has come from a very good source. The Greeks in Athens.”

I frown. “The guys who are our sometime competitors? Wouldn’t they have reason to give us false intel? After all, if we were out of the picture, they could run more weapons here.”

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