Page 14 of The Bratva's Captive

But who?

“Maybe it’s all a diversion,” Nik guessed, looking at me, then Damon.

“Diversion from what, though?” I shook my head and wished I had a cigarette. When our grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer, our grandmother urged us all to quit. It hadn’t been easy, and I still had my weak moments, but for her, we tried.

Nik shrugged. “Time will tell.”

“I agree,” Hugo said. “Just like those orders from Anastasia to set up a meeting with the Barzini family.” He rolled his eyes. “One of you is really going to settle down?” He laughed once. “Wait ’til you’re older like me to find a wife.”

“No,” I growled. I couldn’t speak for my brothers, but I had no interest in her scheming. “I’m not even thinking about settling down.”

Hugo grunted another laugh. “It sounds to me that Anastasia’s starting to prepare a selection process for one of you to be arranged in a marriage.”

“Not me,” Nik, Damon, and I said in unison.

Chuckling some more, Hugo headed toward his car. “If you need anything else, you know where to find me.”

We thanked him for capturing the man. After he left with the soldiers assigned to him and his bloc, my brothers and I entered the house.

“Diversion from what?” I asked again as we stalled in the large entertainment room in the back.

Nik shrugged. “I don’t know. And I don’t know why the Romanos or Kozlovs would bother trying to take out a dealer in that neighborhood.”

Damon arched one brow as he looked between us. “Are you certain that our trouble is coming from those two families?”

Nik shook his head while I shrugged.

“They seem most likely,” I replied. “Things have been tenser than usual between Father and Anton Kozlov.”

“And the Romanos are looking to recoup money from fighting with the Cartels this spring,” Nik said.

“Between both of those potential threats, there’s no time to be distracted by any diversions,” I said, frowning at how someone from within the family would be distracting us from focusing on safety.

“But I think it’s not surprising that someone could be trying to mess with us now,” Nik said. “We’ve been stable and increasing profit without anyone holding us in check for decades now.”

“Yes, because it took Father at least a decade to clean up the losses and messes Beatrice made by turning traitor.” I grimaced at the thought of our mother. We never called her by that title. Even Grandmother struggled to speak her name without an expression of distaste on her face.

“We’ve been envied for a long stretch,” Nik said as he joined me in heading toward the bar for a drink.

“We have,” Damon agreed. “And it surprises me that families haven’t been pursuing us for an arranged marriage because of that.”

“Everyone wants a piece of us,” I muttered before tossing a shot of vodka back. “All of them want our power and wealth. Without a woman to use us through, though, they haven’t been able to bring us down.”

“Do you think that’s what’s happening?” Nik asked. “Someone’s trying to take over?”

“When isn’t someone trying to do that?” I challenged wryly. We were at the top, the leaders of the criminal underworld in New York, and plenty of our enemies wanted what we had. What we’d spent generations to build. Our empire hadn’t grown overnight. And it wouldn’t be threatened without justice served, either. Facing Damon, who didn’t take a drink like me and Nik, I shook my head. “And Father wouldn’t be entertaining any offers for marriage arrangements because he doesn’t give a shit.”

“He will,” Nik said. “He knows we’ll need an heir.”

“Someday,” I argued. “But I mean it. I’m in no rush to find a wife. Father won’t rush either because he knows more than us how dangerous a woman can be.”

Our grandmother was an exception, but that wouldn’t sway me out of this stubbornness to remain a bachelor. With a woman, we’d always have to worry whether she’d sell family secrets, have affairs, or look out for herself to get more and more power from other families.

“And Father’s fine.” Nik smirked. “He’s not that old yet. With his health, he could fuck a couple more mistresses and add to the heir line besides us.”

He won’t.“He’s not willing to let another woman in his life after Beatrice nearly got us all killed from her affair with the wrong people.” I took another shot, needing to loosen up from all this stress. Damon would go downstairs and handle torturing that stupid fucker, but I was tense, nonetheless. All this talk about marriage bothered me. “Fuck, I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready to have a woman in my life forever.” I preferred flings, quick fucks with random women and absolutely no strings attached.

Just sex. No emotions. Because that was how Beatrice nearly ended the family. She had emotions. She fell in love—just not with Father. Those feelings were all the motivation she’d needed to manipulate us all, but since then I’d learned the lesson that women could only serve one purpose in this world, in our family.

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