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“Hey buddy,” a deep voice said—Konstantin’s voice. “How about you leave the lady and pick on someone your own size?”
Owen’s hands paused. He turned around and chuckled when he saw Konstantin. “You must be the asshole she’s married to.”
In a split second, Konstantin strode toward them. The next second, Owen was being flung across the room. Just one punch from Konstantin was all it took for him to lose consciousness.
Chapter 12 - Lev
“Are you fucking stupid?” Mikhail asked. His voice was calm, but Lev felt the fury trembling underneath. “What were you thinking getting married to a woman you met once?”
Lev propped his legs on the mahogany desk in his brother’s office. “I wasn’t. Just went with the flow.”
Mikhail’s brows furrowed. “You’ve lost your damn mind.”
“That’s rich coming from someone who married his enemy’s daughter,” Lev said, cocking his brows and waiting for his brother’s reply.
Mikhail’s wife, Mira, was Dostoevsky’s only daughter. The circumstances around their marriage were strange and hilarious. Mira had married Mikhail to spite her father after he arranged for her to marry and older man. Mikhail, on the other hand, planned to use Mira against her father.
Somewhere in between, the two fell in love, and the rest was history. Lev guessed how they met didn’t matter since they were both happy now. He wondered if there were a tiny glimmer of hope the same would be the case for him and Zia.
He’d never really given marriage or growing his own family a thought. He wasn’tPakhan,so he definitely didn’t need heirs, but now, at the back of his mind, there was this voice whispering to him that there could be more.
He didn’t plan to fall in love with her, but maybe they could just be happy with lusting after each other, maybe have a kid or two. They’d both be contented with just that if Zia was up for it.
She wasn’t, he knew that. But she would be someday; he planned to make her desire him.
Mikhail rubbed his jaw. “Well, I can’t beat that one. Who’s the girl?”
“Her name is Zia Kincaid. She was the assistant manager at the event planning agency,” Lev answered. “And don’t worry about her; I don’t think she can cause us any harm.”
“What you think doesn’t matter. Keep an eye on her for now,” Mikhail ordered. He didn’t sound like a brother talking to a brother right now; he sounded like a Pakhan talking to his second-in-command. “We can’t trust anyone with everything going on.”
“I found out everything I could about her, but I’ll keep an eye on her,” Lev assured his brother.
Lev knew Mikhail was right to have his doubts. Lust and attraction weren’t enough. Trust and loyalty were earned in their world. Trusting the wrong person often resulted in death, something he wasn’t willing to risk. His older brother was finally happy for the first time, and he would never forgive himself if that got destroyed because of him.
Mikhail crossed his legs and leaned back in his seat. “I know you will.”
“About the attack,” Lev started, shifting the conversation. “It was Cillian Moore. Looks like the loyal dog has finally started to bite.”
“I should have killed that asshole when I killed Dostoevsky. I knew he would become a problem someday, but I underestimated how soon it would take.” Mikhail pressed a finger to his temple. For someone who’d been home having fun with his family, he looked stressed as fuck.
If looking so fucking screwed came with having kids, Zia and I can skip that part,Lev thought.
“We need to find a way to get him under control,” he said, finally taking his legs down from the table and sitting up.
Mikhail inclined with a nod. “Have you come up with anything so far on how we can keep him under control?”
“The meeting with the other heads of the mafia is coming up soon, and we’ll start there.” After carefully thinking last night, it was the only peaceful way to do it. The second option was finding Cillian and putting an end to him with a bullet. While that was quicker and preferable, it would make them lose allies and start a war.
“I don’t see how that will help us.”
“Cillian made a big move attacking us. He’ll come up with excuses at the meeting as to why he did what he did,” Lev explained. “Whatever excuse he comes up with, I plan to counter it and make him seem like a fool. He’ll feel insulted and try to retaliate, and then I’ll have a reason to end him for good.”
Mikhail put a hand over his mouth. His eyes narrowed a bit and he seemed to have been considering what Lev said very carefully. “And if he doesn’t fall for that?”
“Then I’ll attack, consequences be damned,” Lev said, his chest swelling with rage. “We have a reputation, and the others won’t go against us that easily.’
In fact, letting Cillian get away with his behavior was the most detrimental to Bratva's reputation. Others would think they were becoming weak, no one would fear or respect them, and that would open doors to more attacks from the other rivals.
