Page 86 of Tarnished Queen

Still, I decide to call her as soon as I have a free minute. Just to be sure.

“Has anyone talked to the firefighters?” I ask.

At that moment, Makar joins our group. “I just did. They’re going to blame an emergency light in the parking garage for the fire. A stray bullet hit the outlet and it sparked. Something like that. But there’s not much that can be done about the murder.”

“This’ll be great for business.”

I can practically hear Makar’s teeth grinding together. “I doubt Vadim cares about the ding this will put on the bottom line. They fucking murdered him, Nikolai. We need to retaliate.”

“Retaliate against who? Where?” I ask. “I want revenge for Vadim and Arslan and every man we’ve lost as much as you do, but going into this blind will only cost us more men. We need to be prepared.”

“Maybe we would be if—”

I’m in his face in an instant, towering over him. “If what?”

I silently dare him to finish his sentence, but he doesn’t. He shakes his head and steps away, hands raised. “Nothing.”

But we both know exactly what he was going to say.

If you weren’t so distracted by Belle.

“Nikolai is right. We need more information,” Yuri chimes in. “We could reach out to some contacts. See if anyone knows what the Simatous and Battiatos are up to.”

“Already done.”

“Christo is probably on it,” Makar grumbles. He glances at me nervously and shrugs. “Yuri told us he’s part of the Bratva now.”

Yuri shakes his head. “I did not say that. I said—”

“He isn’t in the Bratva. He’s a contact,” I interrupt. “But even if he was, it would have been my decision. And you would’ve sucked it up and fucking dealt with it.”

“Bloodlines aren’t worth shit anymore, I guess.”

My fists tighten painfully. “Nothing matters more than loyalty. And that seems to be running thin these days.”

Makar’s beady eyes sharpen. “Christo should know. He turned his back on his family to work for you.”

“And right now, he might be the only person able to tell us what the hell Xena is up to and offer some valuable information. That way, when we do actually retaliate, you don’t end up among the dead.”

Makar takes the implied threat just as I intended and shuts the fuck up.

Satisfied, I turn back to Yuri. “If there’s any salvageable footage from the security cameras, I want it as soon as possible.”

“I already had the equipment sent over to the tech guys. If there’s anything, I’ll send it to you straight away.”

Yuri is oddly on top of things today. Probably because the last time we spoke, I threatened his life. Death threats have a way of inspiring hard work.

“If Vadim was in the wrong place at the wrong time, we need to figure out what the Battiato soldiers were doing here and what they have planned next. Then—andonlythen,” I say, turning pointedly to Makar, “will we execute our plan and anyone who stands in our way. Is that clear?”

They’re both nodding when my phone rings. “What is it now?” I pull it out with a grimace. “Hello?”

“Nikolai, it’s Kostya… from the security—”

“I know who you are, man.” I shake my head. The kid is relatively new. I added him when I beefed up security at the main house. Even though I hired him personally, he can’t seem to stop introducing himself. “What is it?”

“The, uh… the police came to the house.”

I thought I got the detectives looking into me as a suspect in Giorgos’ murder off my back, but apparently not. I’ll have to pay them another visit, it seems. “Did you tell them I wasn’t home?”

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