Page 58 of Savage Bratva King

There’s only one way to resolve the fireworks exploding in my head: speak to Gianna.

Laughter. It sounds like there’s a party going on in my kitchen, and the mood I’m in, I’m going to be the biggest fun-sucker the world has ever seen.

I hear Andrej’s voice from the hallway. He’s telling a joke using a clipped British accent, his voice rising as he builds up to the punchline. He’s one of the few people I know who can tell a joke and have people crying with laughter, and he has the uncanny ability to pick up accents from all around the world. He lowers his voice so that I miss the end of the joke, but it’s obvious from the ripple of laughter around the room that he has finished his storytelling.

I enter, and silence settles around me. “Don’t stop on my account, Andrej.”

He raises a beer to his lips and takes a long glug. “I would offer to fetch you a beer from the fridge, brother, but it looks as if you’re already a few drinks ahead of me.”

Tamara and Ivana are sitting on the breakfast island with their feet on bar stools like this is a public holiday, and I realize that business has been slack for too long, thanks to Xander Amory’s relentless attacks. Relaxation isn’t in the Ivanov vocabulary. Take your eye off the ball for a fraction of a second and the enemy will be performing a victory dance between the goalposts before you can blink.

“Is everything on track for tonight’s shipment?” I address the room and wait to see what comes back to me. In his crate, Marvel rests his head on his front paws and his eyes on me.

“Sergei has it under control.” This is Ivana.

“I want you to be present, Andrej.”

Andrej strokes his chin as though contemplating whether to shave or grow his stubble for another day. “Not my remit.”

“I’m making it your remit. Xander Amory has a taste for the blood of our men, it seems. I trust you to make sure that the next blood he samples is tainted with something lethal.”

Andrej’s mouth contorts into a lopsided grimace. He might be the comedian of the family, but he’s also the one without a conscience. He stands up, glugs the rest of his beer, and studies the empty bottle. “Sounds like an offer I can’t refuse. Although you do understand that Xander doesn’t personally steal our shipments out from under our noses, right?”

“He’s a rodent. He’ll snatch a poisoned crumb if he thinks it will add some zeroes to his bank account.”

I keep my eyes fixed on my little brother, but I sense the sisters following the conversation closely. Bringing Andrej in is a last resort. I was hoping to save it until I was done with Gianna, but after this morning’s fiasco, it can’t wait. There’s a loose knot in my team and I need it tightened.

“Point taken, brother.” My brother’s gaze slides sideways and settles on Tamara’s swollen cheek and black eye. “I was hoping to meet our little printzessa first.”

Ivana and Tamara bristle like cats on the scent of a bird, and I clench my jaw. As the youngest sibling, Andrej has always had the luxury of treating life as his latest video game, something I’ve learned to ignore over the years. But not when it comes to Gianna.

“She isn’t a doll to be dressed up and pushed around a pretend house.”

“Really?” His eyebrows zigzag across his forehead. “That isn’t what I’ve heard.”

I breathe deeply, regulating my heart rate. The fact that he has heard anything outside of what we discussed earlier with our sister is pushing me to my limits; any information being leaked, even within family, is too much information.

“What exactly have you heard?”

“That you let her into your bed and then she tried to escape.” The lopsided smile reappears. “You want to win the war, you’ve got to learn to lock it inside your pants.”

I count to three. Slowly. Biting back the retorts that I would fling at my brother if we didn’t have an audience.

“I’ll be sure to bear that in mind.”

“Good. Because I’d hate to see you lose your precious asset when the fun is only just beginning.” Andrej tosses the empty bottle into the recycling.

The sisters both hop off the breakfast island to leave with Andrej.

“Tamara stays here.”

“But, Pakhan, I?—”

“That’s an order.”

Tamara holds my gaze. This goes way deeper than jealousy of the printzessa. The two sisters might be calculating, ruthless, and even reckless on occasions, but one thing they are not is careless. She knew that I would question this morning’s events, so she’s either trying to play me against Gianna, or she isn’t the person I thought she was, and there’s only one way to find out: process of elimination.

I don’t hang around. My brother can show himself out. Tamara can wait.

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