Page 93 of Bratva Butcher

“Usually, there’s a transition period when new leadership is underway, but based on what I’ve heard, you don’t need it. I’ll still be here, though, in case you need me or need any advice. But ultimately, you’ll be in charge.”

That got my youngest son’s attention. “Ooo,” Lukyan sang, straightening in his seat. “Does that meanhegets to bossyouaround for once?”

A tiny bit of humor trickled through me. Aleksandr arched an eyebrow, waiting for me to respond. It was a good question, and I could feel the corner of my lips hike up into a smirk.

“I’m nothing if not respectful of the proper chain of command,” was all I said on that matter.Let them infer whatever they want from that.I nodded and leant back in my chair, crossing my ankle over my knee. “The meeting is yours, son.”

Aleksandr straightened, and with no hesitation, dived straight into it. He discussed several key problems going on, and every second I sat there listening, I just grew more and more proud of him.

Turns out, a lot of shit went down while I was gone. My children had been quite busy dealing with Franco—Nero’s brother, the fucker responsible for kidnapping Illayana (the first time). He was in hiding. They’d also tracked down and killed the MC Gangs Dominik had hired to raid our home over two months earlier. While I was happy about that, I was also slightly disappointed. I wanted in on that action.

When we got to the topic of Talon, I said nothing of my plans. Nothing about how, in a few short days, I would be on a plane to London to attend a stupid ball held by a pretentious assholein hopes of getting my hands on the one person I knew who had recent contact with Talon. Luckily, Aleksandr, Drea, Nikolai and Lukyan were far too preoccupied to notice I was hiding anything, the topic quickly switching to that of Lukyan’s stalker.

“What about her?” Lukyan shrugged uncaringly. He didn’t seem to be too worried about the fact that he had someone following his every move.

“Did you know shewas the one who sent the location of the island to Drea? Or that shewas the sniper who saved you in the arena?” Aleksandr asked his brother sternly.

The first one,Ididn’t know. I was curious how Drea, Mikhail, Arturo and Tatiana had found us. But the second one, I had suspected. What happened in the arena was chaotic, but I noticed that, whoever that sniper was, they were only interested in protecting Lukyan. The rest of us might as well have not been there at all.

Lukyan’s eyes widened. “She was? How could you possibly know that?”

Drea answered, “Because I didn’t order anyone up there. Neither did Arturo, Mikhail or my brother.”

Her brother, the new leader of The Los Zetas Cartel—the same cartel that assisted Nero in kidnapping Illayana.

Wow, how things have changed.

“Okay? I don’t get what the big deal is.”Of course he doesn’t.I found it more difficult than I thought it would be to keep my mouth shut. But Aleksandr was in charge, and he would have to handle it. Unless he asked for help, I wouldn’t say a thing. “If what you’re saying is true, it means she saved me, she savedus.”

Aleksandr’s face remained hard, showing he wasn’t fucking around. “The big deal is, the woman is highly-trained, highly-skilled, has managed to sneak in and out of our property completely undetected” —wait, what?—“andwe have no idea who the fuck she is. The big deal is that she is a massive,massivethreat, and the moment she realises she can’t have you will be the moment everything changes.”

For once, Lukyan had no sarcastic retort. He sat there, processing his brother’s words with a frown on his face.

“We need to find her and deal with her.” The intent behind that was clear. “She’s followingyou. That means you’rethe only one who can do it. You do whatever you need to do to find her, and you kill her. Understand?”

The room was silent for a moment. I thought perhaps Lukyan would fight him on it, but eventually, he agreed. “Got it.”

Aleksandr addressed a few more issues; where we sat with inventory, our new clients in New York, the progress of the new soldiers that had been sent over from Russia to help replenish our ranks.

Once he was done, I spoke. “I will be going away for a few weeks. There’s something I have to do—”

“Does this ’something’ have anything to do with a certain feisty redhead?” Lukyan sang, full of cheekiness.

My eyes snapped to him wicked fast, the mere mention of Autumn making that dark, angry beast inside of me—who had just started to go back to sleep—roar to life, scratching at my skin. Anger burnt in my eyes, my jaw clenching, hands closing into tight fists as I glared at my youngest son, who had the propensity to say whatever stupid thing popped into his head.

Lukyan winced, looking away.

Watching Aleksandr step into the role he’d been preparing for his entire life had helped distract me, however briefly, from the crushing thought of Autumn. But suddenly, she was right back there, slinking around in the forefront of my mind like she had every right to be there.

I had half a mind to take Lukyan to the ring and beat his ass for putting her back there—

“Since we’re sharing news, I have something to tell you all,” Nikolai cut in, stopping my train of thought.

Probably a good idea.

“I’m leaving,” he finished.

My gaze whipped to him in shock. Nikolai’s words had surprised everyone so much that we all spoke at the same time, talking over one another.

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