Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Arlo

I 'd gotten the text from Dmitry this morning.

Butcher and Son. Midnight.

A part of me wasn't going to go. I didn't owe the bastard anything. I didn't work for him or his father, yet a dark curiosity filled me on why Leonid's oldest would want to speak with me. And if we were doing this at the old slaughterhouse, it was clear he didn't want a witness. He didn't want the Pakhan to know.

I pulled my car around the back of the old building and cut the engine. I grabbed two guns, a GLOCK and a Beretta, and tucked one in the waistband of my pants and the other in the front. I adjusted my jacket and climbed out, already having three knives strapped to my body, hidden yet easily accessible.

I didn't trust any of these fuckers.

As soon as I stepped in the warehouse, I felt eyes on me and found Dmitry leaning against one of the rusted walls to the sides. The shadows hugged him like an old friend, welcoming him back to the fray.

Tendrils of smoke curled around him, the end of his cigarette lighting up in the darkness, a flare of brilliant orange as he inhaled. He exhaled, those tendrils turning into a thick cloud in front of his face before dissipating.

Although I only saw Dmitry, I knew his brother was close. They were never far from each other. At only a year apart in age, they acted more like twins than siblings, knowing what the other thought, what the other felt, how they'd react. It was fucking eerie.

"Your brother can crawl out of whatever dark hole he's occupying anytime now." I kept my voice low, but I knew it was loud enough Nikolai would hear. I made my way toward Dmitry, watching for any subtle changes in his posture, listening to the sounds around me to gauge where his brother was.

The Petrov brothers were young, in their early twenties, yet I knew they'd experienced much of the same depravity of the underworld as I had. It had hardened them, made them lack any normal empathetic, human feelings toward others. It had pulled that light that could've grown in them completely away until there was no chance they'd ever grasp it.

That's how I'd been, how I'd felt. I had always assumed I'd die in a dark hole where I'd forever be alone, the dirt covering me up so I'd never have the chance to crawl myself out of it.

I thought of Lina back in my apartment. Moy svet . My light. She made that light attainable, reachable. Real . And that's why I'd do anything—everything—I could to ensure my world didn't touch her.

I could hear Nikolai's low laugh somewhere close by, echoing off the rusty, debilitated walls, but I kept my focus on Dmitry. When I was a few steps from him, I watched him inhale again, that smoke circling him, clouding his visage. Yet his eyes positively glowed as he stared at me.

He leaned against the wall with one leg crossed over the other, one hand tucked into his pants pocket. He flipped the ash from his cigarette, took one more hit, then flicked it away before pushing off the wall and coming to stand before me. His lips peeled off his teeth, all straight, white, and flashing in the darkness.

"My father has been talking nonstop about the scene you caused the other day." He let those words hang in the air between us. And so did I. "I swear he's got a constant fucking hard-on because of it. It's been a long time since I've seen him so excited about something."

I had no doubt Leonid was obsessing about the fact that I'd expressed so much emotion, especially over a woman. That's why she was at my penthouse, because I knew the fucker wouldn't give up until he figured out a way to take her, to use her so I would do what he wanted. And that was joining his army in the Bratva and just becoming another soldier, another one of his pawns.

He was twisted enough to hurt her to force my hand. And I wanted her too much that I'd do anything to keep her safe.

I heard one set of footsteps behind me. I knew it was Nikolai. He was even less of a threat to me than his brother and his father, although only because I was more skilled, more deadly and dangerous. I saw him in my peripheral as he made his way around me and stood beside Dmitry.

"I don't know whether to be offended or to up my game over the fact that you didn't even flinch in my presence," Nikolai said, and I looked in his direction.

"Probably safe to assume both."

Nikolai sneered in my direction but kept his mouth shut.

Both the Petrov boys were large assholes, as tall and as muscular as me. With matching dark hair and eyes, they looked more likely to grace a fashion magazine or be on the big screen than slithering around in the dark, killing and maiming in the name of the Russian mafia.

If their father was the gun, they were the bullets.

"Your father needs to find a hobby if my life is so consuming to him." I addressed Dmitry in reference to what he'd said about Leonid. I looked back at Dmitry and saw something flicker in his eyes, a hard calculation. But it was gone as soon as I'd seen it, washed away with a sharklike grin.

Long moments of silence stretched out, and my patience wore thin, my annoyance growing. I wanted to go back to Lina. I wanted to feel the softness of her cheeks again. I wanted to feel her lean into my touch. And these little fuckers were taking my time away from her.

"You need to get the fuck on with it and quit wasting my time." My voice hardened, my jaw tightening. My fingers twitched to grab my gun and aim it at Dmitry's head, to pull the trigger and put a bullet through his skull just to send a message to Leonid. I always was a trigger-happy bastard.

"I'd like to offer you a job."

I didn't hesitate to respond right away. "I already have a job with the Ruin." I could see the snarl on Dmitry's lips, but I didn't care if the fucker didn't like my response. "And even if I didn't, I wouldn't take a job from someone who barely has hair on his balls.'' It was a low blow, but I was agitated over the Lina situation and these assholes keeping me from her.

Dmitry laughed, deep and low. "Man, Arlo, if you were anyone else, I would have already put a bullet between your eyes for your insults."

I curled my lip. "You could try ." Dmitry may have only been a decade or so younger than I was, and far from a child, but I'd seen more in my years in this fucking underworld than he'd probably ever experienced in his life, even being the son of the Pakhan.

"I'm going to give you a pass on the disrespect." He held up one finger. "But just this once, Arlo."

I curled my fingers tightly into my palm and bared my teeth. "Is that so?" I took a step forward and saw Nikolai tense. But Dmitry held his hand up, stalling whatever his brother was about to do.

"I think we're getting off on the wrong foot here." Dmitry tipped his head to the side as if trying to examine me, trying to figure me out. Good fucking luck. "I think this is something you'll like, Arlo, something that will satiate that evil, tar-stained, fucked-up soul of yours."

Nikolai gave a little chuckle in response.

And then the air shifted, changed as it charged with something sickly and vicious. The atmosphere wasn't lighthearted anymore, wasn't the soft laughter of a demented man with fake smiles and a twisted mind. It was a sudden seriousness that was cloaking, a sturdy presence like a fourth body in the room.

"We want you to kill our father." Dmitry said it so matter-of-factly that I was actually taken aback, his words so final there was no doubt in my mind he meant every single one. "I know, before you say it or even think about it, that you're wondering if this is a setup." He held his hands out, palms up. "This is my brother and me offering you an olive branch. We're giving you a chance to take out the threat that is directed at your woman, no strings attached, no repercussions with the Bratva. No retaliation."

I eyed them both, gauging their body language, sifting through it all to see if they gave away any signs. Sweating, shifting of eyes, twitching of bodies. But they were both cool and collected, their breathing easy, their focus on me.

Well, fuck me. They were dead serious.

I knew they had no real love for the man who'd fathered them, had heard plenty of stories of their upbringing and all the vicious shit Leonid did to "toughen" up his sons. Where he treated his daughter like a princess, a little bird in a gilded cage, his sons got the blunt force of his brutality.

I chuckled, but it held no humor. "You little shits think you can take down Leonid on your own?" I lifted an eyebrow as I eyed them both. "I'll give you both credit; you have some balls of steel, conspiring to take down one of the strongest Pakhans in the Bratva."

"He's become unorganized, his vengeance with the Cosa Nostra becoming volatile. He's making too many mistakes and fucking things up. He's going to end up bringing a lot of fire and death down on this organization and ruin a lot of connections we have in place." Nikolai was the one to speak, and I was surprised by the thought-out response. He actually sounded clearheaded and not like a raving lunatic.

I'd always heard Nikolai was more of the partygoer in Petrov's trio, the one less likely to give a shit about following in his father's footsteps. The responsibilities fell more on Dmitry for obvious "oldest son" reasons.

"I'm not sure how this is my problem," I responded, feeling the need to go to Lina even stronger than before.

Dmitry gave me a hard smile. "This is your problem, because my father has plans for your woman."

My entire body tightened, even though I already knew Leonid wouldn't leave this alone. I'd seen the excited glint in his eye as I took Lina out of his bar.

"I don't need you or your brother interfering."

Nikolai snorted and leaned back on the wall, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring.

"He's like a dog with a fucking bone over having you join the ranks." He shook his head. "I don't get his obsession with you, but he holds you in high regard and will use whatever means necessary to bring you in."

"And he plans on trying to use her as collateral to force my hand." I didn't phrase it like a question, because I knew that was the outcome Leonid saw. I knew the way the fucker's mind worked. Dmitry was quiet for so long it started to feel like this itch under my skin.

"I don't think you understand the obsession my father has with that woman. Because he knows you want her, because you couldn't control yourself, he won't stop until he makes you see his way of thinking." I saw a muscle in Dmitry's jaw tick, as if just speaking about how fucked up his father was almost sent him into a rage. "He wants to make her his , Arlo. That's the fucking truth of the matter." Dmitry took another step forward, and my entire body tightened. With readiness. I was already walking on a razor's edge and trying to control myself after hearing the news—the fucking threat—of what Leonid wanted with Lina.

I moved my hand suddenly to my back to get better access to my gun.

"Do you understand what I mean, Arlo? Do you understand what my father does to women?"

I gritted my teeth. I knew.

"He's a savage toward the fairer sex. Fucking deplorable."

I was surprised to hear the venom in Nikolai's voice as he spoke about his father. Although they may not have cared for the man in a father/son sense, I always assumed they had some kind of respect for him. It was very clear they didn't.

"He'll destroy her, Arlo, and I don't mean end her life in the most humane, painless way possible. He'll beat her down mentally and emotionally until she's nothing more than dough that he can form into whatever vision he sees fit. And when he's the only thing that she can grasp on to, when he has you right where he wants you, he'll destroy you too."

I was seething with rage, and there was no way I could hide my body's reaction. I wasn't even trying as a deep growl of aggression and warning left me.

Dmitry smirked, but it didn't hold the amusement or satisfaction I assumed it would from seeing me lose control. The very thought of anyone so much as laying a hand on Lina made me want to desecrate the entire city of Desolation. To think that somebody would touch or hurt her, to snuff out that light, made me want to go on a killing rampage.

"Our father needs to be taken out, Arlo. And because you now have a direct link to him through your woman, because she's a threat and you know my father won't stop until he gets what he wants, which is now both of you, she won't be safe."

I curled my lip at him. "Don't fucking act like you're giving me some kind of fucking gift, like you're doing me a favor. You're doing this because you want power, Dmitry. You're doing this because your father is psychotic and destructive, becoming too volatile apparently. Don't fucking act like you're giving a handout simply because you have a good heart. It's just as fucking black and soulless as mine."

Dmitry laughed and looked over his shoulder, which had Nikolai chuckling as well. "As much as we'd like to take out the old fucker ourselves, show him the kind of family love he's shown us as we grew up, you know how our world works." He looked back at me. "It would be bad form for us to have a personal hand in it. But you're the best of the best. A real coldhearted bastard, aren't you? You could take him out and make it look like he just disappeared. Poof," he said as he curled his hand into a fist in front of his face.

I turned from them and paced, knowing what I had to do but not wanting to fucking work with Dmitry or Nikolai. I didn't want to make back-alley deals with them. This wasn't even about the Bratva or their Pakhan. I couldn't give a shit about Leonid and his fucked-up morals. My only concern and priority was Lina.

I turned to face them and growled out, "She's mine."

Dmitry started laughing. "Yeah, I think you made that pretty fucking obvious when Dima touched your girl and you pulverized his fucking hands." Nikolai started laughing even harder this time after his brother spoke. "Although it served the fucker right. He was a touchy bastard and doesn't know what the word ‘no' means."

I clenched my jaw so tightly I wouldn't have been surprised if I cracked some teeth. As I stared at the dirt and trash strewn on the ground, the stench of decay and age surrounding me, I knew what I had to do.

"You and I both know you're going to take him out." The confidence in Dmitry's voice made me instantly want to break his neck, but I said nothing, just glared at the prick. "My brother and I don't need more war. We want an alliance between the Cosa Nostra and Bratva. We need to grow stronger and create not only domestic deals but international ones. And we found a way to do that. But if our father stays in power, he'll destroy the progress we're making." Dmitry looked at Nikolai and smirked, as if they shared a silent conversation on what was really going down.

"Didn't you know?" Nikolai prompted and pushed off the wall, stalking toward me. "I'm getting hitched. Got an arranged marriage to a sexy little just-turned-eighteen Italian hottie." He wagged his eyebrows and grinned lasciviously.

"That's your plan? An arranged marriage between the Petrov Bratva and Cosa Nostra?" I ran a hand over my face and shook my head. "You guys are even crazier than I thought."

Dmitry grinned and didn't say anything else. Good. I wasn't into all the politics that came with the crime underworld. And I didn't want details and logistics on what was all going to go down.

"So we came to a father killer to handle this."

I kept my expression composed as I stared at Dmitry. They wanted their father out of the picture, wanted to fucking tie themselves with the Italian mafia, so that was their fight to deal with. But now Lina was in the mix because of me and my fuckup. I had to finish this. I had to go into the fold whether I wanted to or not, but when it came to her, I realized I'd do anything to protect her.

She had secrets, ones she'd tell me eventually, ones I'd take care of for her, so she never had to worry about anything again but being with me.

I'd do anything to make her mine. And tonight I was going to make her see—and feel—just that.