Me: Are you awake? I have brownies.
The door was thrown open a minute later. Nas blinked down at me, awake, dressed, and wide-eyed. She smiled, but when she glanced down at my empty hands, she scowled. “There are no brownies, are there?”
I pushed my way inside and snorted a laugh. “No. That was all part of my dastardly scheme to get you to let me in.”
She sounded insulted. “Not cool, shorty. Not cool.” She watched me climb the stairs. “Hey. Where are you going?”
“I’m going to say good morning to my hubby.” I smiled to myself. “Do you mind?”
I opened the door to Nastasia’s room and let myself in. The curtains had been drawn and clothes were flung around the room. Vik was sitting up in bed, a sheet pulled up to his waist, arms folded behind his head, watching the morning news on the TV Nas had on the wall. The moment he saw me, he beamed. “Damn, wifey. You lookin’ good today. You’re all glowin’ and shit.” He grinned cheekily. “You got lucky, didn’t ya?”
I loved Vik. I actually had a hard time believing that he and Anika were made from the same sperm and egg, that they shared DNA. Sometimes I wanted to give him my condolences on the fact that his sister was a giant asshole.
Today, I smiled at him. “I’d come over there and hug you if I wasn’t so sure you were buck-naked under that sheet.”
He gave his hips a light thrust to show me he was indeed bare under there, and I held a hand over my eyes, groaning.
He was such a pig. A lovable pig.
Nas walked into her room with a tray of coffees and I took one from her, giving her waist a light squeeze. She knew me too well. She winked at me, and I took a seat on the farthest edge of the bed, while Nas sat cross-legged next to Vik. She handed him a coffee, and he leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. And, God, it made me smile.
I loved how much he loved her.
“So,” Vik began. “How are you feeling about what you saw last night?”
Nas’ brow bunched as she trained an eye on me. “What did you see last night?”
Vik shrugged. “Business. Dealing with the Moretti prick.” Vik threw me a sympathetic look. “Mina saw Lev doing his thing.”
Nas’ shoulder slumped and she sighed. “Oh, Mina. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
They acted like it was a simple misunderstanding. It was the kind of reaction I’d have expected if they’d made an appointment with me they had to break, like it was so easy to understand and forgive, and yet I was still so confused. I held both hands around my coffee mug, warming them. “I don’t know how I feel about it. Lev didn’t exactly tell me much when we got home last night. I’m just really confused. Which is why I’m here.”
Nas reached across the bed to place a hand on my knee. “I wish I could have warned you.” She looked disappointed with herself. “I’ve been wanting to for weeks, but held back. Then when you started dating Lev, I thought he’d tell you about it.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, as if he would, right?”
I didn’t get it. “Why wouldn’t he tell me?”
Nas looked to Vik and he answered for her. “You know, Lev’s no stranger to female company, Mina.” Why do I need to hear this? I scowled at him. He grinned and carried on quickly, “But those women were there for one reason, and he made sure he spelled it out for them. Something about you has him treating you differently. He’s never let a woman sleep in his room before. Not ever.”
Nas smiled at me. “Not until you.”
My heart beamed and my belly fluttered, but I kept my game face on.
Vik added, “You’re the only person he’s locked into a room with him since he was ten years old. I don’t know why, but he’s included you into his small circle of protection. You’re part of his sanctuary.”
“Okay,” I muttered, elated by the information, but still confused. “What does that mean?”
Nas spoke gently, spelling it out. “He didn’t tell you because he’s scared to lose you, doll.”
I sipped my coffee, barely tasting it. “Right, okay. That still doesn’t explain what I saw last night.” I looked from Nas to Vik. “Either one of you want to enlighten me?”
Nas lifted Vik’s left arm and pointed to a tattoo there. A large, bold tattoo that read XAOC. “It all starts here, with Chaos.”
“What is that? Like a gang or something?” I asked carefully.
Vik chuckled. “Whoa there, small stuff. You call it a gang and you’ll get yourself shot.” He explained, “They call themselves a firm. We were a firm.”
Nas sat up straight. “Let’s rewind twenty-one years back.” She cleared her throat. “Bratva were the Russian mafia, the brotherhood. They’re still around, but they’re not advertising, you know. They’re a remote, private group. The only way to get in is to be the son of a member or have two of their members vouch for you. It doesn’t happen often. They don’t want people, cops namely, up in their business, so they started firms all around the world to throw off the scent of their business dealings. As far as the cops knew, the firms weren’t involved with Bratva.” She paused. “In come my father, Anton, and his brother, Ilia. Both men were members of Bratva, as their father and grandfather before them, but when they moved to the US from Russia, they were asked to start a firm, recruit some of the finest Russian-American crims known to man and do what firms did.”
I almost didn’t want to ask. “What did firms do?”
Vik pursed his lips. “The usual. Drug running, racketeering, extortion, arms dealing, fraud, smuggling.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. “You know.”
Nas went on. “So dad becomes president of the firm. Uncle Ilia became vice-president. Vik’s dad, Yuri, was account keeper. The firm was tight. The warehouse where they ran things was almost impenetrable. Then it comes time for the sons to be initiated.”
Okay, I was getting answers, but I had so many more questions. “What does that mean? Why did they need to be initiated?”
Vik smiled. “You say it like it was a bad thing, but to us, to the sons, it was an honor. We were enforcers. Me, Sasha, their cousins, Nik and Max, and their adopted brother, Asher. We all joined at the same time.” He grinned wickedly. “We were out of control. It was fuckin’ manic, baby. We had guns. We had women. We had money. Best years of my life.”
What about Lev?
I had to ask. “What about Lev? You didn’t mention him.”
Nas looked sad. “The men in the firm decided against Lev. They voted no. Said he was too unpredictable. Said they couldn’t trust him.” She added quickly, “Which was a total load of shit. They didn’t even give him a chance.”
It sounded screwed up to feel bad for Lev for him not being allowed into a group of thugs, but my heart squeezed painfully. He was always the odd one out. I hated that.
Nas continued, “So the boys are off getting their Chaos tattoos, leaving this one guy, Maxim, to enforce on his own for the night. None of the boys knew shit was about to hit the fan. No one but Lev.” She sipped her coffee. “The tattoo parlor that belonged to Chaos had its door busted in. A rival firm of Italians had been on our backs for getting in on their turf. One of their men decided to send a message. Comes in, guns raised, ready to shoot whoever got in his way.”
My heart started to beat faster. “What happened?”
Vik answered, “Lev happened. He came from behind, out of the shadows, threw the fucker down and let his fists do the talking.” Vik smirked. “We’re talking a grown-ass man with not one but two fucking guns, being overpowered by an unarmed fifteen-year-old boy, and being beaten so badly that he needed surgery to fix his ugly mug.”
Whoa.
Nas cocked her head to the side. “The Italian was disgraced. They were a laughingstock after that. Chaos was pleased. Well, you can imagine what happened after that.”