Page 1 of Cruel Russian Monster
Chapter 1 - Jaroslav
I stepped out of the casino and slid my sunglasses back on to block the midday sun.
You’d think that as the underboss of the Safin Bratva, I’d be back in Philly, at my brother’s side, helping hold shit together.
For Christ's sake, Lev and his wife, Katya, just had a kid. A baby boy named Alexi. Lev needed all the support he could get. Not only that, the faction had been bleeding through chaos for the past year.
But I wasn’t there.
I was in Las Vegas.
Not for pleasure.
But for retribution.
My target? Vera Rykov.
My ex.
The woman who cracked open my chest and pissed on the pieces.
The reason our family’s empire is fucking crumbling.
About a year ago, when Lev said he was planning to marry Vera, whose family had always been a rival faction, my heart fucking stopped.
He wanted to seal the alliance because he’d found out that Artyom, her oldest brother and head of the Rykov faction, was running an elite intel brokerage. We’re talking top-tier shit—files from Interpol, the CIA, even MI6. With access like that, our faction would have leveled up overnight, stayed dominant and untouchable on U.S. soil.
But Vera ran. She disappeared for a whole damn week before the wedding.
And as twisted as it sounds, I was glad. Because I didn’t think I could’ve stomached seeing my brother marry the woman I once fucked and loved.
But guess what? It also pissed me the fuck off.
I felt as though she played me. Again. Not only that, but she played my family and had us looking like fucking idiots.
Her disappearing act kicked off a goddamn domino effect that sent everything spiraling.
When both men thought they’d been double-crossed by the other, shit escalated fast.
When Artyom wanted blood, heads rolled. This time was no different. He called me directly and declared the Safin faction an enemy.
As far as I knew, there was a complication with the wedding between Lev and Vera, but he was handling it.
After that call from Artyom, though? I wasn’t taking any chances. I rounded up our siblings: Marten, Avit, Pyotr, Mariya, and Ninel, and we rolled up to Lev’s place.
That’s when he finally came clean. That he’d kidnapped Vera and married her.
I damn near blacked out.
But the second I laid eyes on her, I knew she wasn’t Vera.
My sisters took to Katya instantly, but I kept my distance. I didn’t trust women, not after what Vera had done to me. And until I knew who sent her look-alike and why she was planted in Lev’s life, I wasn’t about to start.
And sure enough, the truth slapped us across the face at a party later that night when the real Vera walked in.
Everyone, except me, was stunned. Seeing Katya and Vera side by side was like copy and paste: same curves, same blonde hair, and same icy blue eyes.
But it made Lev wonder, who the fuckdidhe marry?
