Page 196 of Silenced

When he sucks in a breath, I can see his broken ribs still pain him, but he answers, “In the eyes of New York’s underworld, I’m the de facto leader of The Forgotten Boys.”

“That’s cemented into place?”

“I attended a Summit with the other leaders. The three factions don’t care who runs Russian turf. There’s been enough gang warfare on the streets for them to want things to be business as usual. As long as I can assure that, I doubt we’ll have any problems.”

“Andcanyou assure that?”

I clear my throat. “There’s little loyalty left with Moskva among the men.”

“How do you know that for certain?”

“Choices.”

Maxim snorts at my brisk retort. “Return to Moskva or we’ll kill your family.”

I shrug. “It worked. The few who support that asshole fled.”

“Fled to other territories that back the Krestniy Otets,” Maxim counters with a tired sigh. “It was heavy-handed but itdidwork. Momentarily.”

Nikolai frowns. “How many men did you lose?”

“Less than a dozen.”

His brows lift as he comments, “Not many.”

“Da.” His surprise is annoying. “I told you Maxim has earned their loyalty. You didn’t believe me?”

“It’s not that I didn’t believe you; it’s that you bought that loyalty. Anyone with a large bank account can come in and steal it out from under you.”

“It’s morphed by this point. Gossip from Moskva isn’t good. And with Turgenev gone, there’s going to be a power struggle for the role of Sovietnik.”

“How did Dmitri take the news?” I ask.

Niko doesn’t smile like I thought he would. There’s no relish in his tone as he states, “He didn’t react.”

I blow out a breath into the sudden silence that falls between us.

Dmitri might be awake but if he doesn’t rejoice in his sperm donor’s death then…

Jesus Christ, I don’t even want to think what that means.

Dmitri is the little brother that Maxim and I didn’t particularly want. I think we can both admit that we were jealous when Nikolai gathered him into the gaggle of boys he saved from the streets after Maxim found him sobbing behind an overflowing trash can and brought him home.

Now, it’s different.

He’s family.

Whether he knows it or not, that’s Nikolai.

He collects people. Not in a bad way, just in away.

It could be his silence that lures people to his side, or it could be his strength.

That magnetism is something we need.

Desperately.

Grimly, Maxim changes the subject: “Has the Krestniy Otets retaliated against you, Niko?”

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