Page 37 of Obsession of the Bratva

“Fair.”

She studied me and then smiled softly.

“You know that he loved you, right?”

The words hit unexpectedly hard. Loved. Past tense. I looked down at my cup.

“I know.”

The softness disappeared from her expression.

“He probably still does.”

Before I could answer, her phone buzzed, and she glanced at the screen. Everything changed, and the smile on her face vanished. The color drained from her face as fear settled in my stomach immediately.

Please god, let Nico be okay.

“What is it?” I asked as soon as the call ended.

Ilana stood. “Avgust just called to tell me where Nico has gone in such a hurry.”

Ice flooded my veins. “Where?”

“One of the Romanov facilities was hit this morning, and apparently many of our men have died.”

The world seemed to stop. An attack on a facility. Everything connected at once because I already knew. I knew that the only person behind this evil scheme could be Papa.

He had found me, and now he was trying to find me.

This was only the beginning of this war.

Chapter 9 - Nico

“You are taking this too personally.”

I lifted my gaze from the wreckage in front of me and stared at Fyodor.

“Am I?”

“Yes.” The answer came without hesitation.

Around us, men moved through what remained of one of our distribution facilities. The smell of smoke still lingered in the air despite the fire having been extinguished hours ago. Broken glass covered the concrete floor. Several walls had been blown apart. The damage was extensive enough to be expensive and annoying, but not catastrophic. Some of our men had gone down, but most of them only had grazes or treatable wounds.

Which meant whoever had done this knew exactly what they were doing. Not a declaration of war. Just a warning message. I crouched beside a section of damaged steel and ran my fingers over the black scorch marks.

“Whoever did this had access to our schedules,” I said.

Kliment nodded. “They knew exactly when the facility would be operating at minimal capacity.”

“Which narrows the list.”

“Not enough.”

No. Unfortunately not.

For the last year, things had been unusually peaceful. The alliance network we had built made most people think twice before acting against us. Between our own strength and the families connected to us, attacking the Romanovs usually ended badly for everyone involved. The Romanovs had managed to form good relationships with the Chernykhs, the Aslanovs and even the Dubows all of it in turn led us to the alliance network of the Maslovs as well.

Yet somebody had decided the risk was worth it. I straightened slowly. Workers continued documenting damage around us while security teams swept through every corner of the building.