Page 37 of Cashmere Ruin

I watch Ivan bristle at my words.Good.Let him lose his cool, for once. “How dare you?—”

“No, the question is how dareyou.All of you.” I start walking around the table, circling. Right now, I want my men to feel like prey. To remember what it’s like to be at the bottom of the food chain. “Let me make something perfectly clear:Ibrought the Groza Bratva back from the ashes.Igave it new life.Igave it a new purpose.”

“And that purpose is revenge?” Ivan questions.

“The purpose is survival,” I retort. “Unless you’ve forgotten what it was like back in Russia…?” I throw a wide glance around the table. “I know not all of you were there back then. On those grounds alone, I’ll forgive you this time—so long as you never fucking forget again.”

“Butpakhan,” Ipatiy tries to amend weakly, “wearesurviving. More than that, we’re thriving. Surely it’s not worth it to pursue old grudges now?”

“‘Old’?” I bark out a laugh. “Did you all forget I just found my kid two days ago? That thosemudakitried to murder her twice while she was still in the womb?”

“What does that have to do—?” Gora starts, but I cut him off.

“Everything!” I roar. “An attack against my blood is an attack against me. And an attack against me is an attack againstyou.Because, unless you’ve forgotten about this, too, I’m still yourpakhan.”

“So what do we do?” Ipatiy asks, panicked sweat dotting his forehead.

“We go to war.”

This time, the silence is different. Half-terror, half-awe.

“We go to war,” I repeat, loud enough to rally the troops, “and we fucking win.Unless some of you prefer to run?”

No one speaks another word. No one goddamn dares.

“Good. Dismissed.”

As thevoryfile out one after the other, both Ivan and Vlad look back at me with something sharp in their eyes.

“You got them back under control,” Grisha mutters once they’re out.

“For now,” I sigh. “I swear, this is a fucking mutiny in the making.”

“They’re testing the hierarchy.” He shrugs. “Like wolves. Checking if their alpha’s still up to the task.”

“How do they do it?” I lean back in my chair, fucking exhausted. “The wolves?”

“Usually, they kill each other.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

I let the silence fall, but we’re both thinking the same answer to my unspoken question.

“Hope” isn’t good enough.

13

MATVEY

One more thing about beingpakhan: you have to be ready for everything.

It’s a simple matter of survival. The quickest to prepare, adjust, predict—that’s who comes out on top. It’s true in the animal kingdom, and it’s true for us, too.

After all, what’s a man if not simply another kind of beast?

I wasn’t ready to face Carmine, and it almost cost me everything. I wasn’t ready for today’s ambush, and I almost lost control of my Bratva.

But there’s something else I’m unprepared for, and it’s seeing April again.

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