Let me guess. “They wanted Lev in the firm.”
“Yep,” she confirmed then smiled. “But he wouldn’t join. Said that he would protect his brothers, but he would never be Chaos. My father was disappointed. He wanted Lev to be a brother in every way, but he agreed that Lev should have a choice. He respected that.”
“What happened then, if he didn’t join?”
Vik clarified, “We were the enforcers, but Lev had our backs. He was our muscle. We did the collecting. He did all the fighting.” He hesitated before telling me, “It’s like he was born to battle, Mina. It comes so naturally to him. He can get lost in here.” He tapped on his temple. “You’re helping him find his way out of that prison.”
I uttered, “But he’s enforcing now, right? How did that happen?”
Nas spoke. “My dad was getting older, as was my uncle. Both had families. They wanted to settle down, but you just don’t leave a firm. It’s for life. When my Uncle Ilia died suddenly of a heart attack, my father took it hard. They were close. Dad’s health declined and he withdrew his responsibilities from Chaos. Bratva agreed that he was in no shape to lead.” She shook her head lightly. “Long story short, Bratva weren’t happy with the way things were being run down here without my father on board. The men were fighting amongst each other, fighting for power. People took sides. Loyalty fled. Eventually, Bratva forced the firm to disband. Everyone went their separate ways.”
Vik drawled, “You can take the boy out of the hood, but you can’t take the hood out of the boy. You get me?” I didn’t. He must’ve seen this, because he explained, “Most of the disbanded members formed their own illicit firms. We didn’t do that. We opted to stay neutral, start a business, go clean on the straight and narrow.”
My brow rose. “Doesn’t look like it to me.”
Nas raised a hand. “Listen, the boys, they’re not doing anything too crazy here. Sasha is a broker. He loans large sums of money to people at high interest. When they don’t deliver on the set terms…” She tried to smile, but it came out a wince.
I spoke for her. “They get the shit beat out of them. By Lev.”
Vik scoffed. “Well, of course it sounds bad when you say it like that.”
Ah, Vik. I couldn’t help but smile at him.
I spoke softly, “Well, that explains things. I still don’t know how I feel about it, but now I know.”
Nas eyed me. “Let me ask you something, Mina. Does Lev doing this affect how he treats you?”
No. It didn’t.
I shook my head.
She had another question. “Do you really want to know every time he thrashes someone? ‘Cause I don’t. Vik and I, we don’t talk about it. Or are you just sore that you found out by accident?”
I was sore about how I found out. It was all Anika’s fault.
Nas added, “Yes, he roughs those losers up, but those idiots know exactly what they’re getting into when they make a deal with Sasha. They’re not so innocent, you know. There’s a reason they can’t go through legal channels to get the money.”
I understood this. It didn’t make it any better though.
I shrugged.
Her hand came down on mine and squeezed. “Do yourself a favor. Put it out of your head. It’ll cause problems where there are none.” She stressed, “It’s a job, Mina. Just a job. Think about it as debt collecting.”
Vik nodded in agreement then uttered, “You can judge, Mina, but remember,” his eyes softened, “Lev didn’t judge you when he busted you stealing his brother’s wallet. He gave you a job, a place to live, and fed and clothed you when you had nothing.”
That statement hurt so much, because it was true. Lev didn’t judge me. Sure, he didn’t trust me at first, but he didn’t judge me. He was there for me when I was alone, without a friend in the world. And here I was questioning him.
My heart sank. I was a terrible person.
Vik went on gently, “This is the life we were dealt. It’s all we know. We might not be churchgoing, god-fearing men, but we’re not bad people, babe.”
He was right. Who was I to judge what was normal?
I was angry with myself. Lev was a sweet man. He was kind to me in a time when I did not deserve it. My mind made up, I went against what I had been taught about all that was good in the world. As far as I was concerned, I never saw what Anika planned for me to see.
It was not important.
It was long forgotten.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mina
“Sunday Funday?” I bunched my nose with a small smile. “Do I even want to ask?”
Nas chuckled as we walked into the mall, Vik rushing up behind us and putting a protective arm around both of our waists. He grinned, biting the tip of his tongue. “It’s really just an excuse so we can see our women in swimsuits.”
It was warm and all, but it wasn’t beach weather. “And where is this funday held?”
Nas threw me an apologetic smile. “Sasha’s. He’s got a heated pool ‘round back.”
Oh, fuck that. I wasn’t interested. “Well, you all have fun at your funday then.”
Nas groaned, extracting herself from Vik’s arm to walk next to me. Putting her head on my shoulder, she whined, “Mina. Come on. I know you guys have issues and all—”
I snorted. “He tried to bribe me to stay away from Lev!”
Her brows rose and she pinched my arm lightly. “In an attempt to weasel out a gold digger, which, by the way, did not work, so you’re all good. You passed his test!” She waved an imaginary flag and let out a weak and poor attempt at a cheer. “Hooray.”
I stopped walking and turned, staring her down. She shriveled under my firm look.
She was lucky I loved her.
Vik pushed into the middle of us, wrapping his arms around us. “Ladies, ladies. You don’t need to fight over me. There’s enough Vik to go around. Now,” he spoke matter-of-factly, “these swimsuits aren’t going to try themselves on.”
I peeked past him over at Nas. “Why is he here?”
She rolled her eyes. “He heard ‘swimsuits’ and insisted he come to,” she did air quotations, “ ‘protect us.’ ”
“I see.” I eyed Vik, looking him up and down.
He grinned hard, blowing me a kiss. I turned my head to the side and bit his chest. He jumped back, holding his nipple and glaring at me. “Ow. That hurt. You’re physical acts of violence are harming the love I have for you.” He moved to lift his tee up over his nipple and stepped closer to me. “Now kiss it better.”
I burst into laughter and ran away from him, hiding behind Nas. She rolled her eyes at the two of us, but she did it smiling. My friends were kind of awesome.
I hooked my arm through hers. “Okay, I’ll come, but if Sasha so much as looks at me dickishly, I’m leaving.”
“Whatever,” Nas muttered under her breath. “You guys are going to have to get over it. Both of you. Sasha loves Lev. You love Lev. You both need to cool down and get along.”
I was immediately defensive. “It’s not my fault. I could easily get over it and I would, for Lev, but Sasha won’t let me. Every opportunity he has, he says something nasty or gives me that freakin’ look, like I’m lower than him, like I’m scum. For some reason, I don’t think you’d let that fly if it were you, Nas.”
She agreed, “No, I wouldn’t. I’d call him out on it.”
“Oh, yeah. He’d love me for that,” I mumbled.
“No, he wouldn’t,” she paused a moment, “but he might respect you for it. We’re a funny people, Mina.”
We walked into a lingerie store and headed straight for the swimwear. As we were walking, Vik called out to us, holding a clothes hanger. “I think you’d look great in this, Mina.”