Page 83 of Taken By My Grumpy Pakhan

I gave him a quizzical look. I couldn’t understand his angle anymore. “Whose side are you on?”

“I’m trying to explore the options and show you how this is a terrible idea since you think with your dick where Genevieve is concerned. She will rebel if you keep her in again.”

“And you know this because you’re the Genevieve whisperer?”

His lips tilted by a fraction. “She’s different from the women you’re used to.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“She might be calm and sweet, but she’s not docile. She doesn’t sit when you command and she doesn’t hesitate to give you a piece of her mind. She won’t sit in a hotel simply because you asked her.”

I agreed with him and I had already factored the details in, which is why I picked a hotel I knew she would love.

There were multiple activities to distract her; I lined up a spa visit and multiple beauty treatments to keep her entertained.

She would have a day any woman would trade a kidney for. Besides, I was sure her fight was all part of a grand scheme. They were all the same in the end, women. Which is why it didn’t matter which you ended up with. You just have to pick the most beneficial.

“She won’t this time,” I assured, but Nikolai only smiled harder.

“Finally, something to look forward to beside Vasily’s sour face.”

Thankfully, he dropped the topic of Genevieve and moved to important things like planting spies and gathering information.

I already had that covered. One thing I’d learned was to trust no one regardless of the situation.

I was certain Svet must’ve planted one or two amongst my men, which was why I kept vital information locked between Nikolai and Lev and conducted a clean sweep of the room whenever she left.

The alliance was more a plaster to conceal the hemorrhage and not a treatment. The bleeding was still ongoing; it was only a matter of time and which side would be foolish enough to rip off the Band-Aid first.

“And the loopholes?” Nikolai asked.

“Still searching.” This agreement was struck by my father and he made sure to enforce it even in death.

He was a Pakhan who valued clan life more than ego wars and he feared I would be different, hence the measure he took to enforce the agreement even in death.

I couldn’t blame him. I was one for cutting and shooting, but rising to power had taught me differently; it was a pity he wasn’t here to see it.

Stepping into his shoes, I realized there were better ways to rule and incite fear, and that was the birth of the security business.

Information. If you had the right information, you could control the world, and it had proven right over the years.

Good old blackmail and a little motivation, and you got what you wanted. The arms and drugs were great, they showed who was in charge, but they didn’t offer much leverage.

However, I knew a loophole existed and after the attack, I was better motivated to find one. I didn’t trust that family for shit.

“I’ll dig deeper,” Nikolai said. “Tell Lev to send out his best men and take a couple of gadgets to plant on their cars.”

“Good.” I nodded. I knew Nico was doing his job, but I also knew he had his selfish interests: his hatred for Svetlana.

He rose from the chair. “Let’s get this done and over with.”

Chapter Twenty

Genevieve

“He got the same room for us,” I said into the phone, pacing the luxurious suite.

“You did say it was just you two, Lev and Nico. He probably figured it was no use pretending.”