Page 24 of Miki

Unfortunately, if anything happened, it could only be a temporary liaison. She was obviously a local while I lived in London. I was a Bratva Pakhan with a lot to deal with and she was, well, I did not know what she was, but unfortunately, it didn’t really matter. I had already established that I didn’t have time for a relationship, and if I ever found the time, I would have to be careful who I built one with.

Being the head of a Mafia organisation meant that whomever I became involved with would need to be someone I could not only be happy with, but someone I could trust implicitly. My life, my family’s life and the rest of the Brotherhood would depend upon it.

It was just such a pity that my Little Miss Red, the only woman ever to have stirred my emotions and set my libido on fire, wasn’t someone I could pursue. Disappointment flooded me. That was fucking depressing.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have a brief fling. That thought sent my spirits soaring. My cock jerked in approval, liking the idea as much as me.

“Almost there,” Vlad said, breaking into my daydreams.

As we pulled up to the small country pub where our meeting was taking place, I pushed all thought of Little Miss Red and our next encounter aside. I’d let myself think more about the sexy lass later; in the meantime, I had an important meeting with Jim MacArthur to get through, and I needed to concentrate.

A couple of Jim’s men greeted us at the entrance to the pub and frisked us.

We might be considered friends, but that didn’t mean security would be lax. The MacArthur gang hadn’t got as far as they had and been around as long as they had without being both well-organised and careful. That was the main reason we liked working with them, so I could hardly take exception when they continued to display the level of caution I expected from them.

Once the preliminaries were out of the way, we were escorted inside. The pub was empty except for a man behind the bar, Jim MacArthur, and his two sons, who were sitting at a table in the middle of the room, each with a glass of whiskey in front of them.

Vlad and I shook hands with the men before sitting down.

“Bring us another bottle of the good stuff!” Jim shouted to the barman, and he came over with a bottle of Macallan and poured us each a dram. Vlad shook his head.

“Not for me. I’m driving,” he said.

“What can I get you?” the barman asked.

“Water’s fine,” Vlad replied.

When we all had drinks in front of us, Jim lifted his.

“To friends,” he said, and clanked his glass with mine as we downed the amber coloured nectar inside.

God, that was good! I wasn’t a big whiskey fan, preferring my native vodka, but I did like Macallan with its smooth, sweet taste.

“How are Lisa and the grandkids?” I asked.

Jim’s daughter Lisa had just had twin girls, and he was over the moon about it. They were his first grandkids, and he had a tendency to brag about them whenever we talked. So, I knew that chatting about them would relax him and his boys, and make them even more receptive to our negotiations.

“Bloody beautiful! All three are doing well. I’ll show you their pictures,” Jim said, beaming as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“Now you’ve done it,” Jamie, Jim’s eldest lad said, smirking.

“Yeah, once you get him started on those babies, you’ll never get him to stop,” Drew, his youngest, said, groaning.

“They’re all we ever hear about these days,” Jamie agreed.

“You’d think he had nothing else to talk about,” Drew stated, smirking.

“Shut it!” Jim said, elbowing him.

“Ouch! That hurt!” Drew said, grabbing his stomach in mock pain.

“See, now that he has other babies to coo over, he couldn’t care less about us!” Jamie said in an exaggerated sorrowful tone, his eyes full of mirth.

“You’re thirty! You haven’t been a baby in a long time,” Jim laughed and shook his head.

Their good-natured ribbing brought a smile to my face. They were a close family, just like mine, and that was one reason I felt an affinity with this gang.

“Besides, if you want me to coo over you, get the hell on with finding a wife and making me some more grand weans, and I will be more than happy to coo over them, and you!” he said to Jamie, giving Vlad and I a wink.

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