5. Nikolai

5

NIKOLAI

A lek entered the back room at one of our restaurants. My brothers and other top soldiers were waiting for him, and I glanced at each of them in turn.

No one looked happy, least of all Alek. I didn't blame him.

I was furious.

"How bad is it?" Ivan asked Alek as he sat for our meeting. He'd called us all here after he personally checked in on the damage.

Last night, those men I was suspicious of turned out to be affiliates of the Ortez Cartel. Just like I fucking thought. When I slipped outside to chase down Amy, they put their plan into action.

I'd turned back to Harrow's when I saw Steven Murphy and his other cop friend laughing and walking away. It was my first clue to get back to what I was supposed to be doing. But I was too late. By the time I re-entered the strip club, the Cartel members had begun their attack.

"The aftermath isn't pretty," Alek said, rubbing his brow. "Four dancers were killed. Lots of property damaged. Many scared clientele." He grunted, shaking his head. "At least no one got to the rooms in the back."

That was a small mercy. If the Cartel members or their friends, if anyone, busted into the back rooms where illegal gambling happened, where underhanded deals were struck, we never would have been able to overcome that breach of faith.

"And you've confirmed it was the Ortez Cartel?" Dmitri asked. He glanced at me, since he knew I had been there to keep an eye on things.

Which I clearly fucking didn't.

Guilt swept through me, and I ground my teeth at the sickening sensation. I was mad that the Cartel attacked our business. I was annoyed that'd they dared to come on our turf in the first place. But I was most furious with myself.

I was there. I had been there at the damn strip club just before they attacked. I spent hours hawking the crowd and seeing firsthand if anything bad was going on.

Then when I spotted Amy, I was distracted, lured to follow her and see her up close again.

"Yes," Alek said, sighing heavily. "It's confirmed. The Ortezes were spotted on the security footage."

I bit my cheek, so mad that I struggled not to growl out loud. Losing my temper—at myself—wouldn't change anything now. I'd failed my Bratva. I should have been there to handle this attack. The moment the first asshole opened fire, I should have been right there with security to help take them down.

But I wasn't, and I wasn't sure I'd ever forgive myself.

"What pisses me off the most is that those cops were there," Alek said. "Fucking Murphy. "

Ivan and Dmitri argued about the sleazy cop, but I tuned them out. I'd already reported all that I knew and saw. I didn't go into too many details about why I was in the alley. I'd volunteered to go there and take a look around. He hadn't tasked me with an actual mission. He hadn't given me a directive to assassinate or spy or start a project.

"How'd this happen?" Alek asked, looking at me.

I opened and closed my mouth, stalling on how to best word myself.

"I'm not judging you. I'm not holding you responsible. Not at all, Brother."

His insistence didn't cut through my guilt.

"But you were there," Dmitri said. "You didn't think anything was off about those guys?"

I sighed. "I didn't. I noticed them and I suspected they might be affiliated with the Cartel, but they were not ranking members we would already have information on." And I was distracted, looking at Amy and following her.

"That's all?" Alek asked.

I gritted my teeth and fisted my hand on my lap. I hated to own up to this. "I saw a woman."

Alek rolled his eyes and held up a hand, stopping me from going on. "That's beside the point."

Maxim scoffed. "It is a strip club."

I shot him a dirty glare. I wasn't distracted by some easy piece of ass. Those dancers didn't hold a candle to Amy's beauty and sultriness. But I hadn't told any of my brothers how stuck I was on the random one-night stand over a month ago.

"This is unacceptable." Alek stood to pace. "And we have to show the Cartel that this bullshit is unacceptable. "

Ivan shifted in his seat, nodding. "If Pavel were still here, he'd just wave it off and let it go."

"And we're not operating like that anymore," Alek said. "Our father would be rolling over in his grave if he knew we'd let this shit continue. Pavel's gone. This is my— our —time to make things right again."

I stood, too riled up with this conversation to sit. As I gripped the top of the back of my chair, I looked my Pakhan , my older brother, in the eye. "We will."

"Damn right, we will. I refuse to let those fuckers invade and trespass on our turf and do shit like this."

I released my chair and stood up straight. "And I have an idea how to teach them that lesson."

All eyes were on me, and I reveled in this dark and sinister energy. We were pissed. There was hell to pay, and I knew precisely how we could strike back against those assholes.

"How?" Ivan asked, raising his brows.

"Last night, when I first noticed those men, I got close to listen to them." I hid well, and that was why I was always the best for spying and clandestine operations. Being sneaky was my nature. Disguises were easy for me. I also didn't have the traditional tattoos visible on my neck or arms. My brothers—and many soldiers within the Valkov organization—had the same emblem of a tattoo. Most were visible, the better for our rivals and enemies to take note and easily identify us as their opponents. I, however, had my tattoo low on my stomach and to the side. I never wanted to mark myself so permanently on my face, neck, or arms strictly because I was trained to be a spy from an early age.

"They didn't recognize me," I added.

Alek shrugged. "Of course, they wouldn't. "

I took pride in his comment. I had to have pissed him off in not being right there in the club when the attack happened and gunfire filled the rooms. I took faith in the fact that he would know without a doubt that I could remain successfully undercover.

"I got close enough to listen in. They were discussing what I assumed was a rumor. Talking shit and all. But now that I think about it, it must have been legit."

Now that I knew those men were, in fact, part of the Ortez Cartel, they were probably speaking the truth with loose lips.

"They were talking about a new location uptown that was ideal for their trafficking operation."

All my brothers looked at me, serious and interested. It was common knowledge that the Cartel dealt with women. They were infamous in this city for trafficking all kinds of women. I wasn't expecting them to be surprised.

"I know the building they were referring to. It's an older warehouse near Chinatown."

"What about it?" Alek asked.

"They were talking about being able to store more women there. Something about more flexibility to work around the cops in that area." I shrugged. "I say we bust in there and steal their women. It'll screw them over."

Maxim cringed. "We don't traffic women, though." He looked at Alek, almost as though he needed to check with our new Pakhan that this policy hadn't changed.

"We don't," Alek agreed. "And I don't want to take the family in that direction." He stood straight and crossed his arms. "But I see the merit in this plan."

I nodded. "I'm not proposing we sell the women. But we'll fuck them over. They attacked a Valkov Bratva business, so we'll attack one angle of their business."

"Going straight to their territory would be difficult," Dmitri said. "They have too many in numbers."

"And the cops apparently want to help them," I added.

"That's fucking bullshit," Ivan said, shaking his head once more with a lethal expression. "They just turn their eyes when we have trouble and suffer an attack."

"Turn their eyes?" Alek snapped. "No, they're trying to frame us and pin us for the murders and violence at Harrow's. They'll do anything they can to try to bring us down."

"And since they didn't seem to care about the Cartel causing trouble," I said, "it's fair to assume they're allies of some kind. Going to the Ortez area would be risking interference from the dirty cops working with them."

Alek agreed. All my brothers nodded or gave other gestures of assent.

It was decided. We would bust in and take their women to spoil their plans. Maxim was correct in reminding us that we weren't involved in the human trafficking market. Maybe long ago, before our grandfather was Pakhan , the Bratva might have leaned into questionable practices, but it wasn't who we were. It was an ideal and opportune moment to mess with the Cartel, though, and they really focused on their trafficking for income. It would hurt, losing some of their "product" like this.

For the next hour, we discussed how to pull off our plans. Ivan volunteered to come with me. Dmitri too. Maxim was still a behind-the-scenes kind of brother, and that was where he excelled. Other soldiers were called into the room, and they all received their orders with immediate willingness to do their part .

Tonight, we would storm into the Ortez warehouse. And tonight, they would learn the lesson that we didn't take hits sitting down and weak, like the way things were when Pavel was our leader.

They would know that you didn't fuck with the Valkovs and get away with it.

If only I could learn my lesson, though.

Amy had no place in my life. She couldn't be a tempting distraction. She didn't belong as a tease of what I couldn't have. We'd never compromise. We wouldn't be able to meet in the middle and accept the other's life.

But as I headed to my wing in the mansion to clean up and prepare for tonight's strike, a stubborn part of my heart rallied against the rational thought I tried to force upon myself.

I didn't want to give up the idea of having that sensual blonde again.

But I have to.

She wouldn't be mine. There was simply no damn way, no matter how much I wished otherwise.