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Classic Dimitri stares stubbornly ahead. He doesn’t want to look at me because it’ll mean giving the truth away. Sometimes, my big brother likes that I can read him when nobody else can. Other times, I can tell he hates and resents it.
“Is it that obvious?”
“She’s changed you, brother.”
“It’s been a week, less than.”
That almost makes me howl with laughter because he’s right. It should be impossible. It should be laughable that a man like Dimitri Sokolov could change so much so fast. He doesn’t realize how many signals he’s sending out, the ease with which he smiles, the new emotion in his usually serious eyes.
“She’s changed you,” I say gruffly. “Are you saying I’m wrong?” I go on, trying not to think about the meeting we’re about to have with Nikolai, my woman’s dad,who laid his hands on her. Sleep seems a long, long way off. I’m not even tired anymore.
Finally, Dimitri says, “I don’t know what she’s done or how she’s done it. I don’t know what’s happening. Our father died. I saw it. Then there was my woman, and it’s been spinning out of control so fast. I need time to think.”
I’ve never heard him like this before. It stirs the little brother in me. I never thought Dimitri would be truly happy. As the heir, how could he be? He had to keep up his Bratva duties, or our father would turn the city into a trafficking hellhole.
“You don’t need to think. I can see it. You’re different.”
“Why do you care so much?” he says gruffly. “Last time I checked, neither of us has ever had a love life.”
“Maybe one of us can finally be happy.”
“You always said marriage was pointless. You said making somebody a Sokolov would be the worst thing you could do.”
I try to mask my rage with a smirk. It bubbles up in me, the fury, like a deep primordial instinct. Maybe I thought that once upon a time. I believed it would ruin everything. That was beforea beautiful, fierce, shy, talented woman entered my world and changed everything forever.
“That’s why I love you so much, brother,” I tell him. “You always remember every little thing.”
As Dimitri and I walk through the hotel lobby, I realize I’ve made a mistake coming here. The closer we get to the private meeting room with Nikolai, the more I think about standing in that cave that felt like a different universe earlier this morning. This manhitmy woman. That means he belongs in the dirt. Yet if I were to do what I wanted, end his rat life, his men might revolt, which would mean a war and more death. I need to be smart about this.
We walk into a private poker room, Nikolai sitting at the poker table. Sweat pours all over him as he clumsily tosses a chip around, trying to be impressive. He smirks, and I think about tearing his eyes from his skull. He hit my goddamned woman.
“I like this place,” Nikolai calls over.
Suddenly, I’m rushing across the room. I’ve leaped onto the poker table and kicked him in the face. He’s fallen backward. Then I jump down, land on him, and go feral. I go berserk. Hehit his daughter, and that’s on top of everything else: the trafficking and the abuse of innocent people. My chest is rising and falling hard as I stand here, my mind vividly playing the beat-the-crap-out-of-him scene over and over.
I need to remember the Bratva and my duty. I need to besmart.
“We’re glad to have you,” Dimitri says. “Are you …”
“Alone? I know. It’s sad, but I thought my men might enjoy the casino more.”
“Your men are out there now?”
“Yes, is that a problem?”
It would be so satisfying to wipe that self-satisfied grin off his face. He knows full well that having the Petrov Bratva here, causing issues, could bring heat onto the legitimate side of the business. My mind flashes to Mila, screaming as this bully swipes his hand and …
Myhand strays toward my weapon. It takes all my self-restraint not to empty a clip into himsoon.
“Of course not,” Dimitri says, trying to sound casual, but I can hear how pissed he is.
I have to do something fast.Yeah, kill him. Make it painful. My head is pounding like there’s a drum in there, beating aggressively, telling me I have to do this, have to end him. Now, now, now …
Lowering my voice, I tell my brother, “I’ll head out to the casino and make sure they’re not causing a fuss. The last thing we need is your name linked with theirs.”
“Good thinking.”
I quickly leave the room, opening and closing my hands as tension scorches through me. I’m fighting every instinct I possess as I walk back down the hallway and enter the casino’s main room. People glance at me as I walk by. I’m not the CEO of Sokolov Securities, so I’m not as well-known as Dimitri, but I’m still a Sokolov.
