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“I know what you’re thinking, Maksim,” he said after he exhaled. “I know what you’re thinking, and I do not need an additional byki.”
Just like we all had specific titles for our positions, so did the other men in our organizations. Where the Italians had capos and soldiers, we had kryshas, torpedoes, and bykis. Kryshas were our muscles, torpedoes were our killers, and bykis were our bodyguards.
“I just do not like not knowing where the sonofabitch is, Akim,” I told him, not bothering to deny it.
“While I feel the same way, we have other things that need our attention more than Klive Simpson or Nikel Ovchinnikov…or whatever he calls himself,” he replied dismissively. “As far as I’m concerned, he is no different from any other enemy that the bratva have. We all know how to handle ourselves, or else Avgust never would have allowed us to join his family.”
Though Akim wasn’t necessarily lying, he was thinking like a man that hadn’t ever had to raise a younger brother. He hadn’t ever had to look out for someone else on a daily basis. He’d never had to worry about eating or trembling from the cold Maryland winters, because I’d been the one to go to bed hungry, so that he could eat. I’d been the one that had felt the cold deep in my bones, so that he could wear my jacket. Now, while I wouldn’t say that Akim was spoiled or careless, his leadership and organizational skills had developed with maturity, whereas mine had been born out of necessity. Akim and I were not the same, and that made these talks a bit difficult at times.
Deciding to table Nikel Ovchinnikov for a moment, I asked, “How is Mindy fairing?”
Akim grinned. “She appears happy enough.”
After I’d left the café that day, I’d had Akim assign Karik Nikitin to Mindy and her family, and while Karik was more of a soldier than he was a guard, he’d still been a good choice for the role of Mindy’s protector. Though we didn’t have anyone on our payroll with the skills of Morocco Carrisi, Bogdan was still handy with a computer, so it wasn’t hard for us to do standard background checks on people. Of course, we’d learned enough from Kyle Michaelson’s phone that a full background check hadn’t been needed, and with the help of all the information that we’d manage to get off his phone, it hadn’t been that hard to prove to him that I’d been serious about his daughter.
At any rate, once we’d had enough on the Michaelson family, Karik had ‘introduced’ himself to Kyle Michaelson, and from what I understood, he’d made quite the impression on the young girl’s father. Now, while Karik had other duties assigned to him within the organization, he made random appearances in Kyle Michaelson’s life, and it appeared as if our influence was working in favor of the little girl.
“Does she?” I questioned as I shot him a look that he knew well.
After taking another puff of his joint, he said, “Two days ago, Kurik followed the entire family to the park. Kurik forced Michaelson to introduce him to his wife and daughter, and after joining Mindy on the playground for an hour, he feels as if the little girl trusts him enough that he can check on her at school now or away from the parents.” Akim shrugged. “He’d like to question her away from her parents, so that he can stay on top of the truth.”
Satisfied with that answer, I asked, “And how is Karina and the kids?”
Karina was my sister-in-law, though we were not close. She and Akim had met seven years ago while she’d been catering an event that he’d gone to, and according to him, it’d been love at first sight. He had asked her out, she’d said yes, and six months later, they’d gotten married. Now, while I liked her just fine, she was a bit shy and timid, and it was easier to avoid her than have to watch my tone around her.
As for my nephews, I had two, Alek and Gian, and they were six and three, and I saw them and spent time with them often. They were sweet kids, and they were going to be bratva one day, so it was easier to connect with them than it was their mother.
Nevertheless, Akim’s family was my family, and they were another reason why I worried about my brother’s cavalier attitude regarding Nikel Ovchinnikov. Where I had nothing to lose, Akim would leave behind a wife and children that needed him. Sure, they’d be taken care of financially should anything ever happen to him, but a wife needed her husband for more than just money, and children needed both their parents to teach them the ways of the world.
“They are well,” he answered. “I have extra guards on Karina, and the boys do not go anywhere without one of us with them. They are even no longer allowed to visit Karina’s parents at their home. If they want to see the boys, they must come see them at our house.”
Perhaps Avgust had been correct, and I wasn’t giving my brother enough credit. Though he had an army to help him protect and provide for his family, he was still responsible for them, and I was treating him as if he didn’t understand the concept because I still saw him as the little boy that had depended on me for everything while we’d been growing up. Akim was a grown man with a family and a high-ranking member of the Russian Bratva, so maybe it was time to begin treating him as such.
“That is good,” I remarked, feeling marginally better than I’d had before.
“You’re letting our personal connection to Ovchinnikov get to you,” he said. “He is no different than any other enemy that we’ve had to deal with in the past, Maksim.”
“That is untrue,” I argued. “This is the first time that someone has come after us for personal reasons. Everything before now has always been about business, nothing more.”
“You know, for someone as intelligent as you are, you should know that everything is not so black and white in this world, bratok,” he chuckled.
The most frustrating thing about having an intelligence level as high as mine was that there were times when I expected the answers to come to me easily, and that was not always the case. For the most part, I didn’t struggle with solutions, but when I did, I wasn’t pleasant to be around. It was both a curse and a blessing, but given the choice, I’d rather be a frustrated genius than a durak. Especially, since I didn’t have any patients for idiots.
Ignoring him, I said, “Just be careful. Do me that one favor.”
Akim let out a deep breath, knowing that I was serious. “I am always careful, Maksim. You really have no need to worry about me.”
“It’s something that I’ve been doing since the day that you were born,” I reminded him. “So, it’s not anything that I see changing any time soon.”
My brother grinned at me. “You need a wife.”
“The fuck I do,” I immediately retorted.
“It’s time, Maksim,” he said seriously. “You’re thirty-five and-”
“And you have plenty of sons to carry on the Barychev last name,” I pointed out, interrupting his nonsense. “I know that you and Karina have no plans on just stopping with two.”
“A family would do you some good,” he kept on, insisting that he knew what was best for me.
