Page 18 of Destroyer

"It seems my father knew exactly who Nico's grandfather was. And the deal was to keep the boy quiet and out of the way so Balen could pretend he was dead along with his mother."

"Why? Because she had an illegitimate son?" I hate this guy on principle.

"No. His mother was a psychopath. She didn't play by the rules and chose to walk the streets rather than put her son's needs first. Balen thinks his grandson is the same."

"A psychopath." I nod, unable to argue the point.

"A kid who strung a grown man up and tortured him because someone told him the family is like a tree."

"A kid who doesn't understand emotions and happily kills cats." Damn, it all makes perfect sense.

"Which brings us to Gregory. A man who randomly appears, makes secret calls to my dad, and pulls Paul down before he can tell anyone who this is all about."

"He was the one to tell me Nico was off doing his own thing."

"And now?"

"He is disposing of the body outside of the county."

"I think we need a quiet chat with Mr Gregory Turnbridge."

"So, tell me about the Russians."

Knox explains everything, just like he did in the days when I was his right-hand man, not some horsey-Knight as Nico says. I'm not sure how house security becomes a horsey Knight in his head, but it is too adorable to disagree with.

Gavriil and Edward had a mutual agreement around keeping Nico in the country. The Russians wouldn't operate on the family-controlled land, and in return, Edward wouldn't use Balen's might to take them out. Now, with Gavriil's passing, the Russians are expecting us to move on their owned land and are preparing a pre-emptive strike.

"Great. So, we need a new deal with the Russians and the only person who can talk to them is Nico or…"

"Just Nico," Knox interrupts. "Our school teacher has taken herself a job in Scotland."

I'm not sure there is much call for Russian translation up in the Highlands, but her morals always niggled at her.

"Then offer Nico the job."

"I wanted to talk to you about that before I decided anything."

"He needs a purpose. A job. He may not have realised he was being paid for it, but until Gavriil was shot, he had a function."

I would love to keep him locked up in the house all the time, but he needs something to fill the void. A translator we never need would be a great job for him.

"I'll offer him the job of translating this agreement," Knox nods. "I'm glad you have finally got what you want."

"Last night… finding him with that man, I just wanted to protect him from all of that."

"I know." Knox gives me a proud smile. God, I hate that smile, even if he was right and I was being an idiot all this time. “We expected him to stop without actually telling him. We need to be very clear with him. I don't mind talking to him if you'd like.”

“We should do it together. It isn't ganging up on him if we're just showing a united front.”

Nodding is the only response; the boy doesn't do hints and clues. Unless we tell him directly, he might not know we expected him to stop when Gavriil passed away.

For the rest of the morning, I am not a security guard for a large house; I am not even the right-hand man of the underboss. I am the consigliere and trusted ally of the city's drug cartel boss.

Far from our usual meetings about club business or staffing issues, we're discussing the nitty-gritty work of actually running the whole business. Who are our enemies? Who are good allies? Who can we make deals with? It's more exciting than I imagined.

Why did I give this opportunity up?

Why did I think I had to walk away in order to be what Nico needed?

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