Page 17 of The Den of Sin
“Reading a magazine.”
“Get your feet off my desk before I beat your fucking ass.”
Everyone in my businesses, legal and illegal, yielded to my demands. Even Alexei, my half-brother, didn’t fuck with me anymore. Probably because he became a grouchy ass like me. But Sasha and Tatiana did exactly what I didn’t want them to do. Like they thrived in pissing me off. Neither had any interest in the businesses, which left it all on my shoulders.
I didn’t mind it for the most part, but it irked me when my brother acted like some flamboyant ass reading a goddamnPeoplemagazine. A fucking sniper, a killer, readingPeople. What the fuck!
“Want to know what I read inPeoplemagazine?” It was beyond me why he thought I would give a shit. Nobody but chicks read that garbage.
I gritted my teeth, keeping my mouth shut or risked losing my shit on him. I just came out of a good meeting in which we acquired a key piece of property in New Orleans. My brother was only interested in his sniper activities and the next guy he could eliminate. Anything to do with business and his eyes just glazed over.
But it was now that I needed him and Alexei more than ever. Those two were family; if something happened to me, they would take over the Nikolaev business. The three of us had same principals - never move flesh, don’t launder money for others, and never fucking do any kind of business with the men that did move flesh.
After my encounter with Isabella, I flew to Russia to take care of our businesses there. Fucking Benito King and Alphonso Romano had attempted to move flesh through my territory behind my back. I would never allow that to happen. It was against everything the Nikolaev family stood for.
Sasha and Alexei hated human trafficking too. They hated it so much, both of those hotheads liked to set their own targets and eliminate them. It was one of the reasons it set Sasha off to kill Lombardo Santos. Not that I objected eliminating people that participated in human trafficking, but we couldn’t start a full-blown war with every family Sasha and Alexei wanted to shoot down.
Although, I wouldn’t have objected to killing off Benito King and Alphonso Romano - that would certainly earn me a huge favor from Luciano Vitale. His wife has been missing for three years, and he blamed her uncle and had almost succeeded in bankrupting the Romano family. Too bad I didn’t really need Luciano’s favors. And I didn’t want conflict with Benito King that would make my family a target and weaken us.
If something should happen to me, I knew my brothers wouldn’t let it all just fall into our rivals’ hands. I needed them to think before they acted. Our vast business set up could do a lot of damage if used the way some of our rival families operated. If something happened to me, I needed my two younger brothers to keep Tatiana and Isabella safe. The fact that my father refused to do business with Benito King, the ringleader of human trafficking, and Alphonso Romano made Tatiana a target.
While I was away, Sasha and Alexei found themselves the new targets with the head of the Santos family. I could understand my brother’s need to kill the old bastard. Not only did Lombardo participate in moving flesh, but he was also indirectly responsible for our father’s death ten years ago. But Sasha and Alexei’s execution of Lombardo wasn’t the right move. Not yet, anyhow. We killed his eldest son in repayment for that debt a few years earlier.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Sasha continued, completely unperturbed that he was wasting my time. And his own, because I didn’t give a shit about anyone in that magazine. Keeping my family safe should be all of our focus right now. “Remember Tatiana’s friend? Isabella Taylor.” My body stiffened at the mention of her. Completely oblivious to everything, Sasha continued, “Okay, that was a dumb question to ask of my cold-ass brother, but I remember her. Sweet ass and even sweeter personality. Apparently, she caught her famous boyfriend, Ryan Johnson, red-handed banging some chick. They have a whole debate going on about what she should have done.”
Ignoring my brother, I sat behind my desk and powered my laptop by scanning my retina.
“Get your fucking feet off my desk, or I’ll break both of your legs.” This would be the only fucking response he would get from me. I didn’t even bother giving him a glance, but the threatening tone of my voice was finally enough to get him to obey.
Sasha didn’t know I held Isabella’s sweet ass in my hands for one glorious night. Nobody knew it but Isabella and I. He didn’t know that her pussy became my obsession and even after five long years, I could recall her sweet taste and moans as I fucked her hard. One night! It took that girl one night to do what no other woman had ever done. Make me an addict for her pussy.
When our eyes met at the awards ceremony, time stilled all over again. From the very first moment I laid my eyes on her, Tatiana’s freshman year, I wanted her. I didn’t give a fuck about her age or anything else. Just her sweet ass. Till I found out who her mother was. And even then, my cock zeroed on her and wouldn’t retreat.
Ryan Johnson was an immature rock star that liked to bang chicks on the side. Isabella was just too blind to see. If she’d ever only bothered to pick up tabloid magazines, she’d see evidence of it plastered all over the pages. And I had my men confirm the rumors. That bastard succeeded in securing the apartment in my L.A. building only because of his connection to Isabella, and so I could keep an eye on him. The second I heard he was trying to have her move in with him, I set out to burn him down. He wasn’t good enough for her.
The text sent to Isabella having her meet him that day was by design.
“Fine, be like that,” Sasha grunted. “All work, no play.” He threw the magazine onto my desk. “Okay, about work then. I hunted down some information on the old Santos man.”
“The one you killed,” I grumbled, reminding him what a fucking mess he started. He always had to stir a pot.
Unknowingly, with his rash decision, Sasha set more in motion that I was prepared for. I didn’t want the wrong people digging too deep into Lombardo’s affairs for a very good reason. I hated all those motherfuckers too, but in order to protect Tatiana and Isabella, I fought our battles differently. Not execution style, but more along the lines of tearing down their empires. Kind of like Luciano Vitalle, the guy that ran all of New Jersey, Connecticut, and some of New York alongside Cassio King, the illegitimate son of Benito King. The latter hated his father, just as much as his younger brother, Luca.
Now with Lombardo Santos gone, his youngest son Raphael became head of the Santos’ empire. And if I knew Raphael Santos, he would refuse to participate in human trafficking too. If Benito King or Alphonso Romano found out about Isabella, she would soon become a target too. Nobody knew about the connection, which would make Isabella the target of the mob world, no one except me. She didn’t even know it, but her name was whispered in the underworld already.
It was the reason I came back from Russia earlier than anticipated. Santos' execution caused a clusterfuck and a shit storm to deal with. We made it look like the Mexican cartel did it, but that blame shift wouldn’t last long. Raphael Santos, the only living son remaining, wasn’t dumb, and it would be a mistake to underestimate him. Besides, I wasn’t sure if he knew about Isabella, and I was unwilling to have her be an open target.
So there were multiple benefits to me coming back early - I put in motion my plans to get Isabella Taylor into my bed, keep her away from the fucking criminals of the underworld, not including myself, and lastly, I saved the latest real estate closing purchase. The account manager and the engineer almost fucked it up. Needless to say, they were both fired. New Orleans would forever be mine, and my family would be safe here.
“Fucking jackass deserved it.”
The Santos and Nikolaev families have had a feud going on for over forty years. The eldest Santos son, Vincent Santos, cost our father his life ten years ago. And we made Vincent pay for it with his own life. But the tension was still high. Our empire grew and expanded; our recent acquisition of a few key properties in Florida added fuel to the fire. My brother liked to kill. As I said, I liked to squash my competitors in a slightly different way.
But Santos kept wanting to play in the sandbox outside of Florida, so I kept apprised of their dealings and was always a step ahead of them. I owned the sandbox, and it made it slightly difficult for them to expand their empire. They better watch their own sandbox; otherwise, I’d end up owning Florida too.
“What did you find?” I ended up asking my brother. Clearly my little brother would drag this one on forever unless I get him to spit it out and move on.
“Apparently, there is a rumor that old man Santos has a daughter.”
