Page 40 of Scarred (Russian Sinners 2)

“His name showed up in Moscow and St. Petersburg,” he retorted and my body instantly tensed. If Vlad was suspected of being in St. Petersburg, that was too close for comfort. “He’s attempted to reach out to all our contacts; telling them Dimitry is out of the game, and with Boris’ death, he’s next in line. I’m telling you, we should have gotten rid of him long ago.”

I couldn’t agree more but that was neither here nor there. It wouldn’t help us now.

“He fed us wrong information for months,” I muttered. “But he’s not smart enough to have done it all on his own. There must be someone else in on it.”

“Exactly what I thought,” he replied. “But who? I checked into every single one of his men and they only worked for him because they considered him Dimitry’s guy. After this stunt, most of them are out.”

“Maybe Boris and he came up with the plan, and now that he’s dead, Vlad is leading it all on his own.” It seemed like a plausible scenario. Vlad always did want to be the top dog. He was a dog alright, and that was an insult to all the dogs in this world. But he was definitely not the top in anything.

“That is possible,” he agreed. “But I still think there is more to it. There would have to be someone quite powerful to have arranged for Boris’ escape and transport back to Russia. Boris has been put away for ten years; he wouldn’t have had manpower nor funds to pull it off.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. It was exactly what I was thinking. Vlad wouldn’t have had the power nor funds to pull it off either.

“Do we have a list of contacts he reached out to and status?” We needed to know which of the organized crime groups would start working with him. Because if they reached an agreement with Vlad, his enemies would be theirs. Hence, they’d come after us since he clearly declared war against my brothers and me. It would certainly complicate matters of getting out of this damn mess and way of life.

“I know for sure the Boston group, Italian, Irish, and Russian contacts flat out refused him,” he retorted. Russians would not want to work with Vlad; they remembered too well how Boris operated and they didn’t want a repeat of it.

“Does the Boston group still want to proceed with their daughter’s marriage arrangement?” After the woman that Sergei loved betrayed him and refused him; he reached an agreement with the head of the Boston mafia to marry his daughter. With his latest capture of Scarlett, I wasn’t sure how that would work out. I didn’t want to question him but we couldn't afford another group coming after us and the ones we loved.

“Yes.” Sergei was a stubborn motherfucker. I loved him to death but his way of thinking drove me crazy. How was he imagining marrying a daughter of the Boston mafia and having at the same time Scarlett in his home was beyond me. He knew better than that but fuck if he was thinking that far into it.

“That’s good,” was all I said. It was hard for me to stick to just that but I learned while we were children that certain things just didn’t work with Sergei. So I would let it go, till he either needed saving or advice. Because with two women in the picture, he was bound to need help. Poor bastard! Until then, I’ll pretend he was a grown man and knew what he was doing.

“What about the other mafia groups?” I asked, moving away from the sore subject.

“The others, it is hard to tell. I would bet my life the Lebanese will take his side. They’ve been just waiting for the right moment to get back at us. I think the Polish might side with him too.”

“No doubt,” I agreed wryly. The same night Dimitry was told by the witch there would be a woman to bring him to his knees; we eliminated most of Lebanese organized crime members.

Boris and Vlad were making a deal with the Lebanese organized crime, getting us involved into human trafficking. It went against the little decency we had left, so we fought and killed. Before they could reach the agreement, every single one of the members of Lebanese organized crime that came to make a deal was dead. And we instilled fear into them. Nobody could ever pin it on us but Boris suspected.

“I’ll keep digging,” Sergei pledged.

“So will I,” I told him. We needed to handle this once and for all so we can actually grow old without looking over our shoulder. “How are things with your woman?” I asked him against my better judgement. But fuck, I cared about my brother and wanted to see him happy.

What were the odds that three best girlfriends ended up with the three of us? Someone was definitely laughing up there, maybe God himself thought it was funny.

“She is pissed off,” he grunted. “Hit me upside the head with a vase… hundred-thousand-dollar vase.”

I scoffed with a laugh. “Why would you have a hundred-thousand-dollar vase?”

“I thought my future wife would like it one day,” he muttered. “I swear, no matter what I do or say since the kidnapping; she won’t hear it. She might slice my neck in the middle of the night.”

I was surprised. Usually Sergei could sweet talk anyone, particularly women. He was definitely the most appealing to women out of the three of us. He gave the appearance of the charmer but he was no less deadly than the rest of us.

“That bad, ha?” I didn’t feel sorry for him though. “Does she know about Anastasia being in the hospital?”

“Yes, I didn’t want to keep it from her. She is pissed off that I won’t allow her to go to her.” His heavy exhale came through the line. “I told her it wasn’t safe. But the damn woman is stubborn as a mule.”

“Good,” I retorted dryly. “Guess you found your match then.”

“And Olivia?” he asked.

“She is safe at my home,” I replied. Just hearing her name made me want to go back to St. Petersburg. It has been only a couple days but damn if I didn’t miss seeing those stunning eyes of hers. “She wasn’t happy about not being able to go to Anastasia but she understood.”

“At least you got a sane woman then,” he muttered. I wondered why he thought she was my woman; I haven’t told either of my brothers Olivia captured me. And that was putting it mildly.

Sergei and I discussed a few more options on Vlad. We both agreed finding him was imperative. We could not allow him to align himself with a powerful mafia organization. That would mean too much fighting. And we were looking to pull out, for fuck’s sake.

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