Page 109 of Bratva Knight

“You guys are annoyingly set in your traditions.”

He smiled. “We are. And I agree, it is incredibly annoying. Anyway, despite the fact that my older brother was absolutely clueless, had zero business sense and threw tantrums like a toddler, our father still passed the role of Don to him. But that was in title only.I’vebeen the one doing everything, ensuring our empire didn’t crumble. It was just behind the scenes.” He ran his fingers over the instruments on the tray. “Loyalty is something that is absolutely crucial to The Outfit. Something that holds the foundation of our organisation together. If I made a move against Nero, no one would support me. Not the advisors, not the capos, not the soldiers. No one. So, when he was killed, I celebrated.”

The man who sent chills down my spine hadn’t taken his eyes off me, and it made me nervous. I could see him in the corner of my eye, watching me with a leery gaze. His hair was a dirty blonde colour that looked like it hadn’t been washed in months. In fact,helooked like he hadn’t been washed in months. His skin was dirty. His teeth were yellow. I wanted to throw up just looking at him.

“Although Nero’s death was extremely beneficial for me, I couldn’t let the transgression slide. Honor and the survival of The Outfit demanded I punish those responsible. Otherwise, what’s to stop others from trying to do the same thing?”

He had a fair point. The Bratva would never allow someone who’d killed one of their own to live.

“So you’ve been trying to humiliate Arturo by destroying his business?”

He raised his brows slightly in surprise. “Yes. Humiliation is far more entertaining than outright destruction, wouldn’t you say?”

“Where do the Volkovs come into this then? They weren't responsible for Nero’s death. It was Arturo who killed him.”

“With their aid.” He pointed, head tilting to the side. “Without their interference, I highly doubt La Cosa Nostra would have been able to pull it off. Not only that, but they took our leverage.”

Leverage? Was he talking about Drea?

“It wasyouridea to kidnap the Cartel Queen?”

He winked. “As if my useless brother would ever think of something so cunning. So grand. I dropped enough hints for him to thinkhewas the one who came up with the idea, but it was really me. Turns out, one of the cartel members wanted the little bitch gone, so he sent feelers out to see who would be interested in taking her life. He didn’t plan on us keeping her alive. With her dead, the leadership of the cartel fell to some guy he was seeing, which is why I think he wanted to get rid of her. But I figured, why waste the opportunity to have the Los Zetas under our thumb? With the added numbers, we were ready to annihilate La Cosa Nostra forever. I was the puppet master pulling all of the strings.” The smugness on his face was unbelievable.

“Was it also your idea to kidnap the daughter of thePakhan?”

That smugness vanished in an instant.

I’ll take that as a no.

“Do I seem like a stupid man to you, Tatiana?” If I was being honest, no. He seemed very smart and very capable. Two qualities that absolutely worked against me in that moment “Nero assumed that because the leverage plan had worked on the Los Zetas, it would also work on the Bratva. By the time I learned of his plan, it was too late to stop it. It was already set in motion. There was nothing I could do.” He picked up a knife from the tray, studying it admiringly. “I knew what would happen. Word of the Bratva’s ruthlessness has spread far and wide in our little circle. Especially Dimitri Volkov. The rumours of him being The Bratva Butcher were enough for me to proceed with caution. So, when Nero took her to his little house in the middle of nowhere, I made sure I wasn’t there, sat back and hoped he was killed in the crossfire.”

“So what’s your plan now? You’ve got what you wanted. You’re Don. You’ve humiliated Arturo. What the hell do you want with me?”

He tapped the tip of the knife against my nose. “You will be my salvation.”

I frowned. That didn’t sound like me.

“Like I said, I’ve been watching the Volkovs. Closely. I see how the second oldest looks at you. How he treats you. He loves you.”

I didn’t bother denying it. If what he said was true and he’d been watching the Volkovs, he would have seen everything. Nikolai wasn’t exactly discrete about his feelings for me.

“If he wants you back alive, he will get the Bratva to back off. My confrontation isn’t with them. It’s with Arturo and the Cosa Nostra. I don’t want any more problems with them. What my brother did—his transgressions—died with him. I want a clean slate. I’ll even agree not to harm the daughter, Arturo’s wife. You know, as a show of good faith.”

I tried to hold back my laugh. I really, really did. A man like Franco wouldn’t like someone laughing in his face. But I honestly couldn’t help it. “You signed your death warrant the minute you took me. Nikolai will kill you. He’ll find me, come here and kill you all.”

“Will he now?” His smirk put me on edge. “I’m curious, how do you think he’ll find you without that little tracker in the back of your neck?”

I stiffened. That was the pain I’d felt earlier. He’d cut the tracker out of me. How the fuck did he even know about it? There was no way Nikolai was going to find me without that tracker.Oh, I wassuperfucked.

“Yes, I know all about that,” he continued. “I think it’s pretty much common knowledge now that you Bratva folk have a thing or two for trackers. I mean, where do you think I got the idea to track Arturo’s cars from?”

“He’ll never make a deal with you. Nikolai will kill you for laying a hand on me.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t plan on hurting you.”

Whether he hurt me or not was irrelevant. Nikolai would slaughter him on principle alone. For taking me. That, I was sure of.

He placed the knife back on the tray and straightened the lapels of his jacket. “I’ll wait a few days, let the worry build to the point that he’d do anything to get you back. Then, I’ll let him negotiate for your release. Until then, I hope you’re comfortable. For the foreseeable future, this is your new home.”

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