Page 41 of Den of Thieves

A chill went down Nikolai’s spine. He shared a look with Venchi before following her inside. “When did this happen?” he asked as Venchi closed the door.

“Police found his body last Thursday. Whoever did this shot him in the back and let him drown in his own blood.”

Nikolai cursed. He should’ve known something was wrong when Alvin called him after their meeting. He assumed it was a butt dial. He sighed, sticking out his hand.

“He was delivering cabbage soup to a shelter. Who kills someone delivering cabbage soup?” She continued on, ignoring his outstretched palm until he dropped it.

“My name is Nikolai. This is Venchi. We worked with Alvin.”

“I figured. My brother didn’t have any enemies. He was always more distracted by the latest computer gadget to care about girls or fitting in. Bratva, right?” She stared at him over the rim of her teacup. Daring him to say otherwise.

“Excuse me?”

“Alvin might have been a genius, but it didn’t take a high IQ to see he got caught up in your mess. Suddenly, he’s buying houses and cars and paying off my tuition. Mama was so proud.” She pitched her voice higher. ‘Alvin is so smart. I always knew he would take care of us.’ Did she forget I was the older sibling? That I worked two jobs to put myself through school and help put food on the table?" Alaina cried.

Nikolai did not know what to say to that. Alaina was obviously hurting. He adored Jonah and could finally acknowledge he had repressed feelings for Sydney. But Nikolai was not keen on comforting emotional women. Just the thought of it had the back of his neck breaking out in hives.

He cleared his throat again and pulled a card from his wallet. “Have the bills forwarded to this address. We will make sure that you are taken care of.”

That dried up her tears. Alaina’s frown deepened as she snatched the card from his outstretched fingers. “We don’t need your charity!” Low moaning sounded from the back of the house. Alaina took a deep breath and calmed herself. “But I will not force my mother to move in this condition.”

After packing up his computer software, Nikolai and Venchi headed downtown, where Alvin’s body was found. They canvassed the area, but there were no witnesses. They even tried hacking into Alvin’s cloud-based accounts, to no avail. Not a surprise considering how many impenetrable government databases Alvin backdoored ‘for fun’.

Out of leads, Nikolai sent the files to Pavel in hopes that his software would have any luck. Nikolai was forced to admit they were at a standstill. He had no choice but to inform his cousin of Alvin’s demise. The silence was thick with tension over the phone. But not for the reasons he expected.

“Did he have anything on him that could link him back to us?”

“I don’t know, Vladimir.”

“Well, find out. The last thing I need is the mayor or president breathing down our necks more than they already do.”

Nikolai suppressed his sigh as a thought occurred to him. “Vladimir…if Alvin died last Thursday, who texted me over the weekend?”

“Do I look like a fucking genie? Track his phone.”

“It’s turned off. The last location was the homeless shelter where he delivered soup.”

“Find out everything you can from the night he died. Sever any ties between us, then get your asses back here. We’ve got bigger problems to handle.” Vladimir grunted, ending the call.

“Fuck!” Nikolai beat his fist on the steering wheel, before peeling away from the curb.

“Yes, Alvin will be missed but we must try to move on,” Venchi said, quietly.

“Move on? Move on?! He shouldn’t have been targeted in the first place. This is fucking khuynya and you know it!” he yelled, effectively calling out Alvin’s hit as bullshit.

“Suck it up.” Venchi rolled his eyes.

“Excuse me?”

“You act like princess. Do I need to run back to the compound and get you one of Anya’s crowns?”

“Fuck you Venchi. You’ve been chasing AK’s skirt for too long. Don’t forget who you work for.”

“Aksana is my boss.”

“No, you work for Vladimir. We all do. You would be wise to remember that.” His hands tightened on the wheel.

Venchi stared at the road, quiet for a moment. “The King has no time to spare your feelings. Shit is up in flames, as the Americans say. The least we can do is find the one who lit the fire.”

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