Page 65 of Bratva Knight

“Talk about thorough,” Aleksandr grunted.

“And the email is the invitation?” I guessed.

“There’s a QR code attached to the email that’s specific to each person. It holds a picture of the recipient, so once it’s scanned, they can verify you’re the invitation holder.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about the process,” Aleksandr said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Explain something to me. You told us that you guys are rivals. That this guy tried tokillyou. So, how is it that you know so much about this whole thing? And were able to receive an invitation to his elusive private island?”

“Because Talon’s trying to show off,” I answered instead.

Mikhail’s brows raised slightly in surprise.

“He needs you out there so he can wave his hands around and say, ‘Look at all my shit. Shit you don’t have’.”

“You reallyarethe smart one, aren’t you?” Mikhail chuckled softly. His eyes flicked to Aleksandr. “No offence.”

“None taken,” my brother shrugged. “He is.”

“Nikolai is right. Talon doesn’t send the invitations to us because hewantsus there. He does it because he has a pathological need to be better than everyone. To be the smartest, richest, most handsome man in the room and have everyone fawn over him and treat him as if he’s royalty. The reason why I know so much about his security protocols is because I’ve tried more than once to circumvent them, to find a way onto his stupid private island so I can torch it to the fucking ground.”

“You keep saying ‘us’,” Aleksandr stated. “Does that mean—”

“Yes,” Mikhail nodded. “Your father received the invitations too.”

Aleksandr and I looked at one another. His eyes told me everything I needed to know. Father hadn’t mentioned anything about this to him either.

“Tell me everything about the games,” Aleksandr demanded.

“That I don’t have much knowledge of, I'm afraid. I can only show you the videos of the fighters and their stats. That’s it. Like I said, I’ve never attended the games, so I only know the basics. There’s twenty-four fighters and they fight to the death. That could be one-on-one, in pairs or in groups. Your father and I decided the first year Talon sent the invitations that we would never go. That we’d never give that fucker the satisfaction of our presence. I didn’t necessarily agree with that decision, though. Talon stepped intomyterritory with the creation of his Til Death Games. Encroached onmybusiness earnings. I wanted to find a way to end it and end it quickly, regardless of whether or not Dimitri agreed. So I’ve been keeping close tabs on it, trying to find the location of his island.”

“Why not just accept the invitation and go, then?”

“Going by myself would be a death sentence. I highly doubt Talon would ever let me leave—alive, anyway. And there would be no way to sneak my men in with me. My best chance is to find the location of the island and plan a strike.”

“Any luck so far?” I asked.

“No. But I do have an idea that could lead to some promising results. What I want to know is, how did Talon get his hands on Dimitri in the first place? Your father isn’t exactly an easy man to get the drop on.” Aleksandr stiffened slightly. His hands clenched into tight fists on the desk, knuckles turning white. I didn’t need to see his face to know what he was feeling. My brother might be hard for others to read, but for me he was as easy to read as a book. The moment he saw that video and understood the significance of it, he would have been riddled with guilt, blaming himself for not taking Dominik’s deal and saving our father.

I laid a hand on his shoulder for support and squeezed lightly. “You know Dominik kidnapped him.”

“Yes,” Mikhail frowned. “Are you telling me he handed him over to Talon?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

“Fuck. I knew he was a dick, but doing that to your own brother?” he shook his head in disbelief. “What a real asshole move.”

“Is there anything else in the email?” I asked, trying to put together some sort of plan in my head. The precautions Mikhail mentioned would make it very difficult to get the location of the island.Ifby some miracle we were able to find it, there was also the problem of security. A man like Talon would have his own private army. An infiltration of that magnitude would require more than what we possessed on our own.

“Just the flight information.”

“Alright,” Aleksandr blew out, cracking his neck. I removed my hand from his shoulder and stepped back. He just needed a moment to get himself under control and now that he had, I had faith he wouldn’t blow up. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do. Nikolai, call Lukyan and get him home for a family meeting.”

I nodded, leaving the room. After shutting the door behind me, I pulled out my phone and dialled Lukyan’s number.

“Ring-a-ding-ding, you’ve got the king,” he answered.

“Where are you?”

“Getting my dick sucked. Why?”

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