Page 24 of Savage Surrender

Again?Another piece of my heart chipped off and shriveled. Ihatedthat my father was instigating this drug war, that he was a perpetrator and cause of any woman being abused or raped. It was all the more reason for me to kill him, to end him and his plans. It was a small part I could do to help. In the back of my mind, I knew that someone else would step into his place and do the same thing, though.

“What areyoutalking about?” he asked.

It was ironic that the guards could double as spies here. If they could manage that job, why did my father insist on using me here?

“I received a message that attacks were happening near my brother’s building.”

He shrugged, still looking out for anyone approaching us. “So?”

So?I wished I could hit him and get away with it. Fury lanced through me, heating me up and making me want to scream at the injustice of it all.

“I want to make sure he’s okay.” He couldn’t have received the same text I had been sent, not if he was clueless about it happening. That had to mean he hadn’t received the text that said to stay away from that area.

“No.” He narrowed his eyes. “You can’t decide when you visit him. I was told you wouldn’t be seeing him until the end of the month.”

Dammit!There was no way I could wait that long, not with news of violence near him in that crappy part of town.

“I insist,” I said coolly.

He laughed once, as if he were dealing with a pesky irritation, not a valid request. “I don’t think so.”

“Then take me to my father.”

That wouldn’t solve anything, either. He wouldn’t bend and let me visit Maxim just because I asked or demanded. But maybe he’d slip and tell me what was going on.

To my surprise, the guard agreed to arrange for my driver to come and collect me. He joined the driver in the front seat, and they discussed the possibility of Ilyin men causing trouble on campus. Causing trouble was what the Mafia did. They used power and danger and violence as tokens of business, but they had to be on top of it all in this dog-eat-dog world.

On the drive to my father’s, I tried not to panic and get sucked into too much worry about Maxim. The guard there would keep him safe. He wouldn’t let him be harmed unnecessarily.

My father rolled his eyes at me when I arrived, almost as if he’d counted on me to show up, worried.

“I don’t know why you waste your time thinking about that worthless boy.”

He’s my brother!

I bit my tongue and tried to remain patient. “Is he all right?”

He dismissed me with a wave. “Yes. He’s alive.”

Alive? That’s it?“Was he hurt?”

“No. He’s been temporarily relocated, and no, I’m not telling you where. He’s safe there.”

I crossed my arms. “You expect me to spy and snoop on those politicians while you hide him from me?”

Igor Petrov played hardball, but even he could respect when he was pushing me too hard. “He’s safe where he is. Another apartment. Near the docks.”

I gaped at him. “What? In those moldy apartments?” I knew just the ones he was talking about. They were disgusting, often used as torture cells for anyone they’d captured.

“It’ll do for now until the Ilyins stop fighting near his usual place.”

That was a clue I’d save for later.The Ilyins are behind whatever violence is going on.They were a number-one enemy and rival at the time. Since my father hadn’t succeeded in getting to the Baranovs at all, and Lev had escaped, that Family had retreated. I still saw Rurik on campus now and then, but the Baranovs had all but retreated from the drug and turf war in and around the college area. I couldn’t blame Oleg Baranov for backing out from this mess. He wasn’t stupid, and he was familiar with how my father would screw over anyone and everyone to get ahead.

Something was brewing with the Ilyins. They were rumored to be behind the recent increase of drugs and rapes on campus. This danger out in the rougher part of town… What weren’t they up to?

“Find him a better place,” I told my father. “Maxim can’t live in those conditions. Not with his risk for infections.” His difficult experience at childbirth had resulted in his being weak and immunocompromised. He’d become deaf from the strong medications and treatments they’d used on him in the NICU to keep him alive.

“He’ll live wherever I put him.”

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