AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mikhail glances at me, then nods. “We don’t know which men are our father’s… and which are loyal to you.”
“Bingo,” I grunt as we walk into the study.
“You should sit at the desk,” Mikhail says, dropping into an armchair and waving a hand at the large desk. “You’re the boss now.”
“I don’t need to do that.” I sit in the other chair. “You know what I’m going to ask you.”
“Yeah, the same thing as earlier. It’s not like I can say no now, is it? It’s not like I can abandon you to deal with this alone.”
“So you’ll be myzamok.” My underboss. “You’ll help me clean up this mess and stop this city from falling apart.”
“Damn, brother. That seems ataddramatic.” Mikhail places his glasses on the arm of the chair, then smooths his hair back into place. “I thought everything was running smoothly.”
“It was, but now, unless I marry Mila Petrov, our father arranged for the city to be handed over to her father.”
“Marry her, then,” Mikhail says. “What difference does it make? Or have you found somebody else?”
“Don’t be stupid,” I growl with a tad too much aggression. It’s like I’m trying to convince myself as much as him. “We can’t let the Petrovs dictate what we do. Our father said he notified several key men about this arrangement. If Mila Petrov isn’t a Sokolov by the fall, the city is his.”
“What’s that, then? Three weeks?”
“About that. That’s why I need your help. I need a list of the most likely candidates, off-the-books, involving nobody else. I need to know who’s loyal tous, not our father.”
“What about the ones who are loyal to our father?”
I look at Mikhail coldly. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Imagine being almost forty andstillbeing treated like a kid.”
“I thought you wanted nothing to do with this.”
“If I’minnow,” he says, “I might as well be all in.”
I shrug. “I’ll exile, hurt, or execute them, depending on how much of an issue they want to make of it.”
Mikhail nods. “I’ll get to work, but it’ll take some time. I’ll need some cash to replenish the crypto I need to use.”
“For what?”
“Services,” Mikhail says. “Paying hackers. Maybe a bribe or two. In the meantime, don’t you have some planning to do?”
“Planning?”
“There are wedding bells in the air…”
I stand up, shaking my head. “I’ve always admired that about you—how you can joke, laugh away serious matters, but not this, Mikhail. This… thismarriageisn’t funny, okay?”
Mikhail leans back, narrowing his eyes as he looks up at me. “Sure, Dimitri,” he says in a searching tone.
I turn away, leaving the room. The end of my days belongs to me. After the business and the stress, I give myself the freedom to change into my workout gear and lock the door to the private gym. As I warm up on the treadmill, I can’t stop thinking of Lia.
With everything going on—my father is dead, the Sokolovs and the city are under threat—Istillsee Lia’s messy bun, the pencil in her hair, the fear in her eyes. I still feel the need to help her.
But tomorrow, my wife-to-be is to arrive. I have to remember who I am. I’m not my own man, with my own desires. I am now the Sokolov Pakhan and the CEO of one of the most successful tech companies in the world. In the end, I stop trying not to think of Lia, though. She won’t leave my mind.
Midway through the workout, an idea occurs to me while my muscles are straining, sweat coats my entire body, and myclothes are sticking to my skin. It’s not something I should entertain. I’ve got so much else I should be thinking about.
Yet I know I can do it once the sun sets and the world is quiet. What’s stopping me? I can get her address from the work database. I can’t be with Lia. I can’t kiss her. I can’t own her curvy, thick, perfect body.
