Page 61 of His to Own

His smile is genuine. “I’m glad.”

“But…” Panic enters my chest in a flash. “But she told me that she’s going to fail me anyway. If I don’t pass this class…” For some reason, I don’t want tell Maxim about Professor Burgov’s internship. “If I can’t pass this class, it will hurt my position at this school. I can’t fail it.”

“Why does she want to fail you? You’re always studying. Always doing your work.”

“Because she has it out for me. I have no idea why. She’s always berating me. I can’t fail this class. I’m not sure what to do.”

Maxim’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. “Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

He doesn’t respond and I don’t push for more. Sometimes it’s better to not know everything that’s on Maxim’s mind. It’s a scary place in there and one I’m not fully ready to tread.

Maxim

Working with Nikolai is fun. Working with Gregory is like pouring dirty sand into my eyes.

With Nikolai, we can intimidate people into giving us money. With Gregory, he sucks the fun out of everything with his moods.

As Nikolai and I sit in his private booth at the restaurant he owns, having just been paid by a man who owed a fuck ton of money to us, Gregory storms over, already frowning.

Great.

“What is it now?” I ask.

Gregory barely looks at me before he turns to Nikolai. “One of our shipments was attacked.”

This makes both Nikolai and I tense.

“Which shipment?” Nikolai asks.

“The one full of fireworks.” That’s code for guns. You never know who may be listening. Every day, we check Nikolai’s restaurant for bugs.

“Who attacked it?” I ask. “Who would go against us? We’re too much of a might to want to attack. It’s why I agreed to work with you two in the first place.”

“Some fucker named Aleksander Baranov. I know this because he wrote his name. In blood. From the head of the truck driver. His head was cut off.”

I let out a low whistle. “He sounds fun.”

Nikolai shakes his head, frowning. “That doesn’t sound fun. I haven’t heard of him.”

“A new player?” I suggest. “Someone new to town who wants to make a name for themselves.”

“Must be,” Gregory says. “We have to deal with him before he attacks anymore of our shipments. I don’t want to lose money because you two don’t know how to run a business.”

“It’s your shipment too,” I say. “What does that say about you, Gregory?”

He only sneers in my direction. “I hate that you both forced my hand. But now we’re working together. I am not going to lose everything I have achieved. We have to deal with him.”

“And we will,” Nikolai says, holding his hand up, trying to calm Gregory down. “We’ll deal with him. I’ll look into who this Aleksander Baranov is. Everything will be fine.”

“Just like how you’ve handled everything so far,” he spits out.

“Go home and relax, Gregory. You’re too angry to be dealt with right now. So go.”

He clenches his hands into fists. “I am not a child for you to boss around. I am older than both of you. Show me some respect.”

“Of course.” Nikolai inclines his head. “Now, we’ll handle this. All right?”