Page 85 of Savage Bratva King

“Stop, Pakhan.” Tamara this time. “This isn’t how we operate.”

“No?” I don’t look at her. “Tell me, how do we operate then?”

“We’re better than this,” Ivana takes over. “We hit him where it hurts.”

“I’m listening.”

My mind is still focused on finishing the man responsible for taking my woman, but I’m not so blinded by bloodlust that I won’t listen to what she has to say. Ivana is the most calculating of the two sisters, often two or three steps ahead of me in this game of organized crime. The fact that she’s here is all I need to know about her unquestioning loyalty.

“We burn down his territories. Xander Amory is all about money and power. We start here. A warning that we will not lie down and take his shit. Then we move onto the next territory, and the next.” She pauses. “He’ll know who is responsible, so we target some of our own properties, misdirect the blame. I have men in place, Pakhan. I’ve emptied the warehouses, moved our assets into storage.”

While I’ve been spending my time with Gianna, Ivana has once again, gotten ahead of the game and manipulated the chess pieces in our favor.

“Talk to me.”

She explains which of our territories she has prepared to torch. They have already been targeted by Xander in his relentless attacks, making it easy for us to set the blame at his feet. I don’t want to lose more assets, but I have to look at the bigger picture. I can’t see a future that doesn’t include Gianna, and this war with her brother-in-law must end before I can win her back.

“Where is Andrej?”

Ivana shrugs. “He was at the house earlier today. Before?—”

“Before they came for the printzessa,” Tamara interjects. “He told her that the wedding was part of the plan to take down Xander Amory. She was a little … distressed.”

My fists clench around the weapons in my hands.

I love my little brother, but his ruthlessness has no boundaries and then it becomes a liability. “I’ll handle Andrej.” There is still the more pressing matter of what to do about Sergei’s betrayal.

“I tried to stop them, Pakhan.” Ivana is all coiled energy waiting to be set free. Together, she and I will be unstoppable with the mood I’m in, and I pity anyone that tries to get in our way. “I shot Sergei.”

I know how difficult this would’ve been for her—Sergei is like a father to her and Tamara—but I also know that they will do whatever it takes to protect me and the people I love.

“Then all we need to do is follow the trail of blood.”

The industrial estate is still silent. Darkness has settled upon the warehouses like a cozy blanket, and I have the unsettling feeling that Xander was expecting us. Like Ivana, he is sacrificing a territory for the bigger picture. But it will not win him Gianna Sedric.

She is mine, she is wearing my grandmama’s diamond and sapphire ring, and I protect what’s mine with my life.

There is more than one way to lure a rat from its hole.

I turn around, raise my weapons above my head and fire. Within moments, my men start moving forward in formation from their hiding places and close in on the Amory buildings. I’m confident that the area has been evacuated of people. They’ve had my warnings. Unlike my nemesis, I’m not here to murder innocent people in cold blood.

Ivana came prepared. Within minutes, the buildings light up like funeral pyres, the angry flickering flames casting an orange glow across our faces. The fires hiss and crackle. The heat is immense; sweat beads on my upper lip and trickles down my face and spine.

But I get zero satisfaction from razing my enemy’s assets to the ground.

While he has Gianna in his protection, there isn’t enough room in the city for the both of us.

“Pakhan?” The flames are reflected in Ivana’s flickering eyes, adding a devilish glow to her serious features. “Do I give the order to proceed?”

I nod once. I trust her when she says that she has moved our assets into storage, but I would destroy everything I own to have Gianna back in my arms.

“Proceed,” she snaps into her radio device.

One word.

That’s all it takes to set the burning wheels in motion, and I follow Marco back to the car, knowing that, by the end of tonight, both my assets and those of my nemesis will be seriously depleted. Dirty gray plumes of smoke bounce across the rooftops and spread out across Chicago like ancient tribal signals. Xander will already know that I am coming for him.

I don’t look behind me as I climb into the passenger seat of the car, and Marco starts the engine.

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