Page 24 of Midnight Purgatory

“And no windows.”

“Lev doesn’t like the sun.”

Nikolai looks bored now. “He plays football with you in the yard. Pretty sure the sun’s around when that happens.”

“Football with me is the carrot I’m dangling to get him out of that basement.”

Nikolai sighs impatiently. “Why am I here at 3:00 A.M., little brother?”

Little brother.I needle him with “Niko” and he needles me with that title. On the face of it, it’s accurate. I am the younger brother—but I am also thepakhan. I’mhispakhan. And even though he stepped aside and accepted my ascension to the helm, there are moments when I’m pretty sure he regrets it.

I hand him the box. Nikolai takes one look at the stump of a finger inside and glances back up at me with raised eyebrows. “Gift from Sobakin?”

“Who else? It was thrown over the front gate from the passenger seat of a white van.”

Nikolai smirks darkly. “He’s really leaning into the whole supervillain thing.”

“I’m gonna need an ID on that finger.”

Nikolai nods. “I’ll get right on it.”

He’s getting ready to leave when I stop him. “We may have a bigger problem.”

He turns back to me slowly, his eyes narrowed. In broad strokes, I tell him about Alyssa, about how she scaled my fence, made the mistake of stealing the wrong package, and then made the bigger mistake of opening it. I omit the dining room table sex for now. It doesn’t seem relevant.

Nikolai’s scowl gets deeper and deeper. By the time I’m done, the corners of his mouth slope down toward his jawline. “Wait… are you telling me she’s sleeping in your bed right now?”

I shrug. “I needed her out of her house so that we could check it.”

“Fuck,” Nikolai snaps. “Fuck!”

I’m rolling my eyes inwardly. He’s always had a habit of overreacting to everything I do. It’s another subtle needle.I would never have done that ifIwerepakhan.

“The situation is contained,” I reply coolly.

He looks ready to tear his hair out of his scalp. “How? She’s clearly seen the fucking finger. A finger that most likely belongs to one of ourvors.”

I’ve been trying not to think about that, because the solution to a civilian getting a peek at incriminating Bratva business is as simple as it is brutal.

She can’t talk if she’s dead.

“I have it under control,” I say instead. “She’s under my roof now.”

“And tomorrow?”

“Hadn’t thought that far.”

Nikolai grits his teeth. “Well, start thinking. Because Lev will be back tomorrow and Polly will be here for the weekend. You might be able to hide a couple of things from Lev—but Polly? Not so much.”

“I’ll deal with it.”

He takes a step towards me and points a finger in my face. “I don’t want this touching them. We made a pact to keep them far from all this shit, remember?”

I clench my jaw. “You think I don’t remember? I was the one who came up with the pact.”

Nikolai looks away from me but I can see his jaw tightening as he thinks. “I could try to convince Lev and Polly to stay with me for a little while.”

“It’ll never work. They’re both comfortable with me.” Nikolai’s eyes narrow.Yeah, okay. Poor choice of words.“What I mean is—”

---