Page 3 of Hating the Bratva

Alek

I jog down the staircase that has been completely ripped apart by the constructor workers and make my way to the kitchen to start brewing coffee. I need something in my system before my day starts. Although, when you’re in the Bratva, your day never ends. It’s twenty-four hours a day and three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Since I’m next in line to become Pakhan, my days seem even longer. As if on cue, my phone rings. Ivanna. I press the ignore button. She works at one of the clubs that we own downtown. We’ve had a thing going on for a while, but I ended it. She hasn’t gotten over it if she’s still blowing up my phone. I’ve been with a great number of women over the years to keep me occupied, but now it’s time to get serious. It’s only a matter of time before Gavril tells me that my wife has been selected. I’ll act surprised, but everyone knows it’s Delaney. She’s the only eligible woman right now, and I’m on my way to becoming Pakhan as soon as Gavril steps down. I’ll need a wife soon.

My coffee finishes, and I’m only able to take a sip before my phone rings again. This time it’s Mikhail.

“Privyet,” I answer. Mikhail’s supposed to be at the bank this morning making some deposits. My job is security and intelligence. I work directly under Gavril to make sure we keep the peace between other brotherhoods and we stay informed of everything happening in the Bratva, not just in Boston. I also oversee all of the Vory, members of the brotherhood that work as personal bodyguards or provide some kind of protection. I’m in the second-highest ranking position.

“You need to get down to the bank.”

His words are a shock to my system. Nothing good can come from a sentence like that. I set down my coffee and grab my keys off the entryway table. “What’s going on?”

“I came by to drop off the deposit, but we’ve been hit…hard.”

“Fuck! Don’t move. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Shut the whole thing down. No one in or out until I’m there.”

“Alright.”

I hang up and get into my blacked-out Range Rover. I’m glad I got dressed before making my coffee this morning. We’ve never been hit at our bank before. This is bad—real bad—and only one thing pops into my mind: the Miami brotherhood. They’ve been having problems down there with cash flow. Their Pakhan has a gambling problem and, from what I hear, a nose problem as well. He sniffs up half the drugs they need to sell. Why would they risk hitting us? Something isn’t adding up. When I get to the bank, I’m relieved to see that there aren’t any cops, which means the banker we hired has managed to keep this under wraps. I tap on the glass door twice, and Mikhail opens it for me. Unlike me, Mikhail has been awake for a while getting work done, so his green eyes are wide and alert.

“What happened?” I say as I step around his large frame and into the bank. Everything looks normal except the fact that the lobby is empty. I glance up at the clock hanging on the wall it was still only a little before seven.

“Rick came in to open up this morning, and the alarm system was off. He went to the back, and our safety deposit box was open on the counter, empty.”

“Just ours?”

Mikhail nods. “Yes, sir. Looks like they targeted us.”

I walk down the aisle to the back of the bank where Rick’s office is. We choose to keep our money here because Rick plays on both sides of the fence. He runs a legal banking business, but he also legitimizes our money for us. He scrubs our money clean and delivers it back like freshly washed laundry. He’s pacing the length of his office when I walk in. Mikhail stays outside.

“What the hell happened?”

Rick stops his pacing and runs a hand over his face. He’s a tall, lanky man with salt-and-pepper hair and round glasses that he keeps perched on the end of his nose. “I have no idea. Whoever came in here either had the code to the alarm system, or they hacked it.”

“Your managers have the code?” I ask.

Rick nods. “Yeah, but they wouldn’t do this.”

I scoff. “People will do all sorts of things when it comes to money. Pull up the cameras.”

Rick grimaces.

“What now?”

“They were all shut off just before the break-in. The video starts up again right after they must have left.”

I plop down in the chair across from Rick’s desk, and he joins me. “You know how this looks, Rick.”

“I know, but like always, your money is insured. Everything will be replaced.”

If only that was the problem. It’s about more than the money. It’s the fact that someone is targeting us, and our bank is too weak to keep that person out. I won’t admit it to Rick, but we don’t have any other place to keep our money at the moment. Of course, most of our wealth is tied up in nightclubs, restaurants, and real estate, but all the cash is kept right here at Rick’s place of business.

“Let me see the video.”

Rick hits a few buttons on his computer before turning the monitor to me. I watch as all the cameras cut out a little after two a.m. and then come back on just fifteen minutes later with nothing out of place. If you don’t watch the clock carefully, you might not even notice they were out.

“Whoever did this is fast as fuck,” I grumble.

Fifteen minutes to get into the bank and our safety deposit box before getting back out. They’re skilled, that’s for sure.

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