Page 4 of Paved in Hate

“Fucking nice,” Grisha says, still eyeing her. “Give her my number when you’re done with her.”

I watch Matvey’s hand tighten on Alina’s waist, and before he can say something that will most likely get at least one of us killed, I wrap an arm around Grisha’s shoulder and hand him my shot. “Wait till you see the group of women I just saw a few minutes ago,” I say, leading him away from my brothers and Alina. Anatoly follows, not wanting to miss out on getting laid, and when I look back over my shoulder, I have just enough time to see Matvey practically carrying Alina out of the club.

Lev walks over to join us, handing me another much-needed shot and making sure that the two Safronov men quickly forget about the dark-haired woman they just saw. We load them with drinks and make sure there’s a crowd of willing women around them. We all have our strengths, and being the life of the party has always been one of mine. By the time Anatoly and Grisha stumble out of that club, they can barely remember their own names, let alone the dark-haired woman that Matvey’d had a death grip on.

“Not bad,” Danil says, giving me a grin and another shot, because despite pouring vodka into the two Safronov men all night, I’m completely sober.

Roman comes over to join us. “Think they’ll remember her?”

“I doubt it,” I say. “They’re fucking wasted, and even if they do, they won’t know who she is. We can just give them some other dark-haired girl’s number. There’s no way in hell they’ll know the difference.”

“I still don’t like it,” Roman says, shaking his head.

Lev scratches at the stubble on his cheek. “We could take them out.”

“It’s risky,” Danil warns.

“The plan was always to take over the Bratva anyway. By killing two of the top men, we’re just saving ourselves the extra work later,” Lev reasons.

“That’s not a bad point,” I say, while Lev grins at me.

I know that look in his eyes. He’s hoping to kill someone, and I can’t help but share his enthusiasm. I sometimes think our fucked-up childhoods created something dark inside all of us. We all carry around a lot of anger, a lot of unresolved shit that we’ll never get closure for, and the only thing that’s made any of us feel any better about it is violence. There’s no denying that we all feel loads better about our pasts when our hands are covered in blood. The beautiful thing about it is that it’s also free and doesn’t require me to spend an hour talking about my goddamn feelings. I’d much rather kill a man than have an emotional heart-to-heart. No fucking thanks.

“All right, we might as well do it now then,” Danil says, already reaching for his laptop. His fingers fly across the keyboard doing whatever kind of hacker magic he does with that crazy brilliant brain of his. While he works from the corner table we’re at, I wave away yet another group of very willing women.

Lev laughs. “That looked painful for you.”

“It was, and I don’t know why you’re laughing. As much as it pains me to admit it, they weren’t just coming over here for me.”

He laughs harder. “I’m sure the female population will survive one night without us. It’s Alina’s birthday. She’ll never forgive us if we leave with a couple of strange women. You know she’s going to want to stay up late kicking our asses in some racing game and then order pizza at two in the morning.”

“True, and we get to kill a couple of fucks.”

Lev smiles. “Not a bad night at all.”

“All right, I’ve hacked into the CCTV cameras within a mile radius of here so they’ll just keep looping the last hour.” He stands up and slings his messenger bag over his chest. “There’s an alley we can use about a hundred feet from here.”

I down another quick shot and then follow the others through the packed club. Lev leans in close so I can hear him over the music. “Maybe we should take our time.”

Laughing, I say, “Alina might be getting one hell of a birthday present right now.”

“Exactly.”

Roman turns to look at us. “What the hell are you two laughing at?”

“Nothing,” I say, giving another laugh. “Just excited about the upcoming bloodshed.”

He looks like he doesn’t believe me, but he lets it go. Once we’re outside, we stick to the sidewalk and start looking around for two drunk hitmen. It doesn’t take long to spot Anatoly’s broad shoulders and Grisha’s shaved head. They’re both not even close to walking a straight line, and within seconds we’ve caught up to them.

“Hey, party’s not over yet, guys,” I tell them, throwing an arm around Grisha and leading him down one of the side streets.

“It’s not?” he asks, slurring his words so badly I can barely understand him.

“Fuck no it’s not,” I say. “There’s a couple of women who’d like to meet you.”

He laughs, and I do, too, because the thought of him being able to fuck someone right now is laughable. He’s barely keeping his body upright at this point, let alone his cock. Lev and Danil make sure Anatoly is following along after us, and as soon as we step into the alley and see that it’s clear, Roman pulls his gun and shoots Anatoly while I shove Grisha down and pull my gun out.

“What the fuck?” he manages to slur while his sluggish brain tries to wade through the alcohol to make sense of what’s going on.

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