Page 11 of Miki

Anger filled every pore in my body, and I practically vibrated with restrained fury.

In the end, it didn’t matter how many enemies we had or who had given the order to kill my sister, anyone who threatened the safety of my family would die.

Scraping my hand through my hair, my head ached with the depth of my responsibilities.

I needed a bloody drink!

As soon as I got home, I was going to pour myself a shot of my favourite vodka. Or maybe two!

Forcing myself to focus on the task at hand, I called Marko.

“How are things going?” I asked.

“It’s done,” he said.

Marko had been working on one of our cybercrime operations and had just confirmed we were now a couple of million pounds richer.

“Now I’m off out on my bike.”

“Enjoy,” I told him before hanging up.

He certainly deserved the break, and it was good for him to get out of his bloody office for a while. Even if I envied him his alone time.

God, what I wouldn’t give to escape the confines of Pakhan and head out on my own once in a while.

I blew out a disgruntled breath. Maybe one day.

In the meantime, I consoled myself with the fact that at least the money Marko had syphoned out of an undeserving corporation’s account would help finance the next stage of my plans.

Along with building up our legitimate businesses, we had been increasing our involvement in white collar crime, especially cybercrime. However, we only targeted the largest and most corrupt companies, and never individuals.

Fleecing an old person out of their life savings would not sit well with me; but fleecing millions from a dodgy corporation was entirely up my street, not to mention far more lucrative.

Not that I had a great understanding of that part of our business. That was Marko’s domain. He was a fantastic hacker and ran a team of computer experts who worked on both our legitimate and not-so-legitimate operations. They were a great asset and one I would rely upon more in the future if my plans worked out as I hoped.

The first stage of my plans had been to cut down on the type of drugs we supplied and now we only dealt cocaine and Molly, or Mandy, as it was known here in the UK. The cocaine was brought in from South America via Europe, and we cut it in our lab before distributing it. We made our own Mandy from chemicals that we bought chemicals from China.

Soon I’d be handing that over to Glowacki. Once he’d rebuilt his Brotherhood and had enough men, that was. He’d lost quite a few during our recent attacks, so that had to be addressed first. Once he was back to full capacity, he’d take the drugs lab off our hands and take over our dealers and we’d be out of that side of things.

The next stage was to get rid of our responsibility for the drugs route, and I had begun negotiations about that already.

Those areas of my business were the ones that posed the biggest problem for my Brotherhood and family for two main reasons. First, they were the areas our enemies tried to muscle in on and had been the primary targets for the most recent attacks against us. Second, it was easier to get caught with those types of crimes. So, the sooner we got out of those areas, the better.

The issue was that if they fell into the wrong hands, it would be a disaster not only for my family here and our Russian and American counterparts, but it would also upset the balance of power and cause chaos in the UK. The consequences of any ensuing war would not only affect criminal organisations, but also innocent lives.

Therefore, it was absolutely vital that I chose the right organisations to take over from us. As Pakhan, it was my responsibility.

No bloody wonder I felt so overwhelmed at times. Not that I could show it. I always had to appear in control. Otherwise, I would appear weak, and that would make us an even bigger target than we already were.

My brother Ash was always going on about getting out of these areas sooner rather than later, but he didn’t understand how complicated it was.

In our world, enemies held grudges for a long time and if I wasn’t careful, I could make us vulnerable to revenge attacks. My whole brotherhood could end up wiped out if I made the wrong choices and aligned with the wrong people.

So, we needed people we could trust, who would work well with the other players in the game and also maintain a good relationship with my family and back us up should we need help against any future threats.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and leaned back against the headrest. Exhaustion settled into every part of my being, draining me of energy.

The last few years, especially since Krissa’s murder, had taken their toll on me. Sometimes it felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. I longed for someone that I could share my life with; someone I could talk to, share my burdens with, and help me run things.

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