Page 70 of Paved in Venom

As soon as I see the name Lebedev, I know it’s the one. Simona is still playing the piano, so I grab my laptop and run upstairs, hollering for my brothers in Russian as I go. They come barreling in as I set my computer on the counter, and when they see the look on my face, they put their guns away and their shoulders relax.

“Fucking hell, you just gave me a heart attack,” Roman says, tucking his gun into the waistband of his pants while Lev just shakes his head at me and Vitaly laughs.

It’s Matvey who steps closer and says, “Show me what you found.”

And I do. I show them everything, and when they see the list of three Bratvas and they read Lebedev, they all start smiling. Lebed means swan in Russian. The Swan Investments name paired with the feather tattoo that Simona had seen on his hand—it all fits.

“The fucking Lebedev Bratva,” Matvey growls.

The Bratva wasn’t active in Moscow; they ran out of Saint Petersburg, just like Stefan mentioned, but we’ve all heard of them, and they would occasionally venture into Moscow territory. They could’ve easily been behind Alina’s abduction. They have a reputation for being brutal, the same as all of us, but they’re widespread, and there’s been rumors about them being involved in sex trafficking, but that’s not an uncommon rumor. Most Bratvas are involved in trafficking in some way or another.

“All the money goes to Swan Investments,” I tell them. “They’re behind everything, every fucking thing.”

Simona comes up the stairs, looking around at me and my brothers. She knows something big has just happened, but she doesn’t understand a word of the Russian we’ve been speaking. That doesn’t stop her, though. She immediately walks up to me and wraps her arms around me, hugging me tightly.

“What did you find?”

I cup the back of her head and wrap my other arm around her. It feels so right to have her with me, like she was always meant to be here. I kiss her forehead, breathing in the scent of her, and just like it always does, it soothes me on a deep level, slowing my heart and quieting my racing mind.

“I need you to look at some photos for me, sladkaya.”

Her blue eyes meet mine, and I see the worry in them, so I quickly say, “Nothing like that, baby, just some photos of some men. I need to know if you recognize them.”

She nods and lets go of me so I can pull up the photos I found earlier. The Lebedev brothers don’t like their photos being taken, so it took a long time to find one, but I’d managed to find one on the dark web. It was taken outside of a club, and the photo is at least five years old, but it’s clear and easily shows both their faces.

As soon as the photo comes up, Simona lets out a soft gasp. “It’s them,” she whispers, clutching at my arm. She points at Konstantin. “That’s the one they called Pakhan.” Then she points to his brother, Osip. “He was with him, but I could tell the other man was the one in charge.” She looks up at me. “Who are they?”

“Konstantin and Osip Lebedev,” I tell her. “They run the Lebedev Bratva, and they’re the ones who are behind all of this.”

She surprises me by cupping my face and pulling me closer. Her blue eyes are filled with pride and love. “I knew you’d find them. You’re a goddamn genius, Danil.”

To my absolute amazement, I feel my cheeks heat up. I’ve never blushed before in my life, but her praise and the look of absolute and complete trust is making me heat up like a schoolgirl. She gives me one of her beautiful smiles, the one that she saves just for me, and then kisses me, and I swear I love her so much it’s like a fucking ache in my chest.

“What are we going to do about this?” Matvey asks, breaking my Simona trance. “How can we get them?”

“Now that we know who it is, we can track them, follow them, find out a way to get close to them, and then when the time is right, we take them and make them tell us where Alina is,” I tell him. “I’m going to set up alerts, so I’ll be notified of any mention of their Bratva or Swan Investments. We’ll know the second they board their private jet, we’ll know what cities they’re in, and we’ll know exactly how to find them. They own properties all over the world, and right now they’re in Berlin, just like Stefan mentioned.”

Roman scrubs a hand over his face and sighs. “I can’t fucking believe it. What’s stopping us from flying to Berlin and just taking them now?”

Matvey perks up at that, but I was expecting them to want to jump to this, and I don’t blame them, but it’s not the smartest move.

“Because all we have right now is the element of surprise. We know who they are, but they have no fucking clue who we are or that we’re hunting them. One wrong move and they go underground and we never see Alina again.”

“He’s right,” Lev says, and I know he’s seeing this as clearly as I am. Roman and Matvey are too close to this, too emotionally involved, and they’re not looking at the big picture right now.

“They’ll be coming back soon,” Vitaly says, “and when they come back into our city, we’re going to be ready.”

“Agreed,” I say. “Everyone will be at Pink tonight. We’ll go, act like we’ve been acting, keep getting closer and building relationships with those involved, and making damn sure no one suspects anything. All the dancers will be listening in to everything that’s said.”

I look from Roman to Matvey. “We’re going to get her. It’s only a matter of time now.”

They both nod, but I know it’s taking all their willpower to not go out there and find these bastards and torture them very slowly until they give us what we want. The only problem is there’s no guarantee they will. Men like Konstantin and Osip don’t cave easily. They’re not like Stefan. If they withstood the torture, and there’s a very good chance they would, then we’d never find Alina. Her location would die with them, and I know damn good and well that Matvey wouldn’t survive that. Roman would for the sake of Emily and their unborn child, but it would kill Matvey. We all know it, and that’s what will keep us all from doing something stupid.

“I’m going to go and let Emily know what we’ve found,” Roman says. She’s been getting tired more easily, and Roman’s been insisting she take daily naps. Before he walks off, he stops and grabs her an orange juice from the fridge because he’s adamant that she get enough folic acid. He’s going to be a helicopter parent, and it makes me laugh every time I think about it.

“You need to eat something,” Simona says, giving me another kiss. “I’ll get you some leftovers.”

“Thanks, baby,” I tell her, giving her perfect ass a soft smack as she walks away.

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