AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
Roman
15 years old
I look over at Danil and take another drag off my cigarette. I’d stolen the pack from my mom, using them purely to stave off the hunger pains that never seemed to go away, but they aren’t doing anything to stop the ache in my ribs, a parting gift from the latest of my mom’s douchebag boyfriends. When Danil finally looks up from the laptop he’s hunched over, he’s giving me a big grin.
“Got it.”
I smile and look over his shoulder at the screen that I can’t even begin to decipher. The MacBook is Danil’s newest toy, a gift from a couple of tourists who'd unknowingly donated to our cause. We’d spotted them sightseeing last week, and the diamonds hanging off the woman made it clear they could afford to buy a new computer. We, on the other hand, were in desperate need.
“What the fuck am I looking at?” I ask him.
He laughs and gestures to the endless rows of numbers. “I hacked into the bank and transferred some money for us.”
“You won’t get caught?”
He lifts a dark brow at me. I’ve known Danil since we were toddlers, and even at fifteen, he’s smarter than anyone I know. Hell, he’s smarter than anyone I’ve ever even heard of.
“No, I won’t get caught. I transferred money to my stepdad’s account.” He holds up the debit card he must’ve taken this morning. “We’re going to empty it. If anyone’s going to get caught, it’s going to be that stupid fuck,” he says with a laugh.
I grin and smack him on the back as he puts the laptop in a messenger bag, slinging the strap across his chest. We leave the alley and join the crowded sidewalks of downtown Moscow. Traffic is bumper to bumper, and when we dart across the street, we’re met with angry honks and several pissed-off yells that we ignore. Even though I trust Danil with my life, I’m still nervous when he slips the card in and punches in the access code. When a thick stack of money exits the machine, I laugh and feel the tension leaving my shoulders.
We’re still grinning like mad when we turn the corner and meet up with the others. Vitaly, Lev, and Matvey are leaning against the corner of a small grocery store, and when I see Lev’s black eye, I feel all that tension come settling right back between my shoulder blades, right where it always is. I’m the oldest by a few months, and it’s made me feel responsible for them in a way that irritates them and annoys me because it’s just one more thing to fucking worry about. They tease me about it all the time, but seeing another bruise on Lev’s face makes me want to kill someone.
“I’m going to fucking kill that bastard one day,” I tell him in greeting.
He waves away my concern and brushes back the hair that’s always a tad too long. “It’s fine. You know the ladies love scars and all that.”
“It’s not a scar, dumbass,” Vitaly says with a laugh. “You just look like you got your ass kicked.”
“I did get my ass kicked,” Lev says, still smiling. “It’s not like I can fight against my own dad. One day I’ll kill him for all the times he’s hit me, but today is not that fucking day. At least he can’t hit my mom when he’s busy punching me.”
I hold up the stack of money, immediately getting their attention and turning the focus away from our depressing lives. “Look what Danil got us.”
They laugh and grab for the money. It’s more than any of us have ever seen at one time. We’re used to nothing, but that doesn’t mean we’re content to stay that way. Vitaly tousles Danil’s hair like a little brother, making Danil laugh and duck out of his grip while the others smack him on the back in thanks.
“What the hell are we going to do with all this?” Matvey asks.
“Whatever the hell we want,” I tell him.
“I want a piercing,” Lev quickly says, making us all laugh. We all know how badly he wants to pierce and tattoo his body. I often wonder if it’s because he has so little control over what happens to him now. The five of us all come from abusive families, and we all handle it in different ways. Danil escapes into his brilliant mind, Vitaly cracks jokes, Matvey pretends everything’s fine while secretly plotting how he’ll get all these fuckers back, and Lev has decided he’s going to mark his body in his own way. To each his own. I hand him the money and bump his shoulder with mine.
“Lead the way,” I tell him.
He’s still smiling when he steps into the dark shop advertising tattoos and piercings. The woman behind the counter eyes us but doesn’t immediately kick us out, which we all take as a good sign. Lev leans against the counter and gives her a wink. Even with the black eye, he manages to make her blush.
“What kind of piercings do you do here?” he asks.
“What kind do you want?”
Matvey nudges my shoulder and lets out a soft laugh at the flirting going on in front of us.
“All of them,” Lev says with another smile, “but I want to start with a lip ring.”
By the time we walk out, Lev has a silver lip ring in the corner of his mouth and the girl’s phone number in his pocket. We laugh and start down the street again, but when we see a group of men up ahead, we step to the side and watch.
“Holy shit, it’s the Safronov Bratva,” Danil whispers.
