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ONE
NIKOLAI
My fingers fumble with the knot on my tie as I make sure that I’m presentable for the unexpected visit. It’s not every day that the powerful and feared pakhan comes to my office. In fact, it has only happened once before when he signed a contract agreeing to buy oil and weapons exclusively from my company. Since then, I continued expanding the scope of my business. My firm supplies goods to various groups around the globe, but this man is my biggest client, and his business counts for more than half of what my company sells.
My secretary discreetly knocks on the door. I drop my hands and lift my chin.
“Come in,” I call out.
The door swings open, and Dimitri Sokolov struts in, flanked by two of his sons, who also serve as his bodyguards.
I stand up behind my desk and run my palm over the dark fabric covering my chest, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. A small smile sneaks onto the corner of my mouth as I make brief eye contact with Igor, the middleman in charge of making sure our partnership runs smoothly. A womanizer in his late twenties, Igor resents seeing me enjoying a degree of power that he won’t achieve while his father is alive.
“Mr. Sokolov,” I greet, stretching out my hand to shake his. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Come on, Nik. Why do you have to be so damn formal?” He laughs, grabbing my hand.
“Because people wouldn’t respect me if I behaved any other way,” I reply, waving to the seats around my desk. “Let’s make it easy for everyone.” I push a button, and the door behind him opens.
My secretary peeps inside. “Sir?”
“Coffee and a bottle of vodka,” I order.
“Right away, Mr. Volkov.”
Dimitri sits in the middle chair while his sons take one on each side. I wait for him to speak. Dimitri’s mind always works at high speed. His eyes trail over the small details, taking in everything from the large windows to the black executive desk and my six monitors displaying multiple live feeds.
“We’ve been working together for years,” he starts, examining his black and gold cufflinks with an engraved letter S. They undoubtedly cost more than my secretary’s weekly salary. “And my respect for you has only grown. That’s why I decided to share with you a piece of information that has been kept a secret.”
I squint slightly, and my hands pull into tight fists, wondering what his true motive might be.
“Consider it a display of trust,” he adds.
My eyes move back and forth across his face, anticipating his next words.
Dimitri takes a deep breath before he speaks, the only indication of his nerves. “We’ve found ourselves in a bit of a pickle, out of which we could use your help.”
An internal sigh of relief escapes my lungs, but still, my hands stay fisted under my chin.
I expect Dimitri’s following words to be a warning. He doesn’t know that nothing coming out of his mouth holds the power to scare me.
“Igor here,” Dimitri continues, glancing at his son, who wisely avoids his father’s gaze, “couldn’t keep his worthless dick in his pants. He somehow managed to wiggle his way into Gargarin’s daughter’s bed.”
A knot tightens in my throat as my jaw slacks, eyes snapping to meet with Igor’s before shooting to Dimitri, then to his other son, Aleksander, and back to Igor.
My brows are shooting up at the same time as I ask with utter shock, “You slept with your rival’s daughter?”
“Well,” Igor drawls, giving me a cheeky grin and a cocky shrug, “I didn’t know she belonged to that pig. She’s much prettier than him.”
No matter how idiotic his son has acted, it isn’t exactly out of the ordinary. Scandal-free families are a rarity in a business as demanding as ours. Despite their money, they can’t live on a far-away island and never see anyone but close relatives. It’s basically an impossible dream, and although annoying and dangerous, these kinds of affairs are accepted by the Bratva community.
“Obviously, Gargarin wants him dead now,” Dimitri continues. I brace myself, expecting that he’ll finally reveal to me the reason for his visit. “We need more guns. To protect ourselves.”
“And because I control the weapons in this town, you’ve decided to come see me,” I conclude out loud.
Dimitri draws closer and lays his arms on the table, shrugging. “You’ve said so yourself.”
Of course, I wouldn’t outright accept, but as his words sink into my mind, I shift my weight to the back of my chair, folding my arms across my chest. “I’ll offer you a deal.”
