Arranged Bratva Love

Ive

OneMonth Later

Hank and Benjamin hadn’t come out ofhiding, but that was okay. I happened to locate several of their workers, and in fact, I smiled as I watched the man before me who was hanging upside down. I’d captured him a month ago, on the very day my wife had come to the office at my casino and asked me if she was a prisoner.

No, my wife wasn’t a prisoner. I wouldn’t treat her like this.

The man before me, David Butters, was a known thug. He was one of the men who carried the girls out of my nightclubs. He helped to round them up, and from my information, he’d been the one to purchase the grounds. Here are the sticky details: the man was broke and had no money. An amateur thug who collected money for Hank. He wasn’t even that high up in the ranks. He was nothing, and yet, he suddenly had the funds to buy property. Again, I couldn’t help but believe that Hank and Benjamin were working for someone else. So far, Vlad hadn’t been able to locate any information that backed up my theory, which pissed me off big time.

“Please, let me down. I’m going tobe sick,” David said.

He’d not eaten in a week.

“Then be sick, and don’t worry, I’ll be sure to feed it to you.”

In the past month, there had been a lot of mess to clean up in Oleg’s territory. I had to leave my own for a week to handle it, with the rest of the brigadiers. There was a threat from the fucking Irish mafia, who felt they had a claim to it.

Ivan needed to get his shit together and put someone in place. There was a rumor he already had someone in place, and if so, we were all fucked because they were doing a shit job of it.

Iwas angry. And this man in front of me wasn’t helping me feel any better. All I wanted to do was slit his throat, but that kind of death would be too easy. I needed answers.

David didn’t vomit. He got his shit back in control, and then he began to scream, yell, and curse me out. Now, thatI could deal with because that was fucking easy.

I was impressed because for ten minutes straight, I listened to allof David’s threats about what he would do to us, as well as Hank and Benjamin. How they planned to take over, and that we didn’t have a fucking clue what was in store for us, and we wouldn’t be alive to see how they intended to take over every single part of the Volkov Bratva. All you needed was a little bit of patience and a lot of fear, and people had a tendency to talk, like now.

David’s long tirade ended in tears andbegging as he knew he’d said too much. I crouched down so that I was eye level with him.

“And how are your friends going to do all of this exactly?” I asked. “I got wordthat the girls are back home with their families and it was nothing but a game gone too far. Your friends have nothing. I took that away.”

David glared at me. “But you don’t have them, do you? That’s why you’ve got me.”

“No, I’ve got you because you dared to interfere. You see, I knew who you were, David. I was quite happy for you to be this pathetic thug, thinking he was making a name for himself. It was rather charming. Weren’t you trying to impress me and Mr. Volkov with how … unique your skills were?” His skills weren’t unique. He beat the shit out of people to get what he wanted. The whole fear tactic, like the one I was using now. The only difference was David rarely killed anyone. He might have left them with a broken bone or two. They at least got to walk away. It was rare for anyone to end up like this in my care to get away with it.

Apart from Charlotte. But then, she was a special case and I never turned her upside down, nor attempted to starve her. Ivan would have been pissed if I had done that. Thinking about it, if I’d done that to my wife, I’d have been pissed with myself. I guess I’m going to have to thank Ivan for something after all.

I drew my attention back to the man hanging upside down.

“Hank and Benjamin saw my potential,” David said.

“No, they saw an easy target,” I said. “They knew there was a big chance their plan wouldn’t work. It was a long shot, based on one person and one scenario-Ivan Volkov’s death. They thought they had a chance with him dead, but he wasn’t dead. It was nothing more than an act, a ploy, and now you get to pay the price.”

I was done with this man. Seeing as I had to go out to dinner, though, I stepped away and watched as Vlad slid the blade across David’s throat. He didn’t die right away, but took a few minutes, and by then, boredom on my part had already set in.

“Any news?” I asked, as men already started to dispose of the body and do the cleanup. I stepped aside, making my way out of the abandoned warehouse. I tended to do my kills in some of my basements. I hated these obscure locations, but this was close to where Vlad had located him.”There are rumors that Hank and Benjamin were approached by another organization larger than them.”

I smiled. “There are a lot of suspects, Vlad. Irish, Italian, even theSpanish.”

“Some believe it’s the cartel.”

This made me stop. Of course it could be the cartel. They were always on the fucking border, attempting to find paths that led straight from the docks to the main cities. I, unfortunately, was one of those fucking routes. It made sense for it to be the cartel. I was hoping it wasn’t, because they were nothing more than a pest. Also, I knew some of the cartel had dealings with the previous Bratva.

“What do you believe?” I asked.

Vlad sighed. He hated delivering bad news, but until all of this was cleaned up, that was all he was going to bring me.

“I believe it’s the cartel, but I also think this is somewhat bigger,” Vladsaid. Now he did have me intrigued and this was rare for Vlad. “Go on.”

“The cartel are noisy. They don’t just sneak in and take over, right? That’s not who they are.”

Not in our experience, but people change and evolve.

“I believe the cartel are working with one of the mafia sects.”

“Intriguing.” I had already come to thatconclusion. Running a hand down my face, I glanced across the warehouse. I owned this main warehouse, and five miles away was one of my many cages, where I liked to keep people when they were being a problem. I found some time and careful treatment helped to loosen their tongues, like David had just done.

It was all coming together.

Benjamin and Hank coming together was a stretch. Both men wanted to take territory. They were more likely to kill one another than work together, so that instantly brought ina third player.

TheVolkov Bratva had a lot of enemies, and we’d been able to keep them at bay, for the most part, but shit like a fake death and the betrayal of a brigadier had put us in a few difficult positions. None of our enemies were strong enough to outright attack, but they could slowly attempt to build up power. Work on those that are weak who could turn against us.

I needed to speak with Ivan. But I also had a lunch date with my wife. Ivan had been setting us up at different places to go and eat. I knew what he was doing and it was pissing me off.

When we reachedthe car, Vlad got behind the wheel. I climbed in the back, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed Ivan. The call was never answered. Ivan was like this. In all honesty, it was rare for me to attempt to call him. I often waited for him to call me. He was a busy guy and didn’t usually stay in one place for any length of time.

Tapping my fingers on my knee, I thought about what I had learned so far. It wouldn’t be long before I got Hank and Benjamin. They were already on the run, andI’d made sure there was no possible exit for them without being detected by my men.

What I didn’t like was the possibility of who they were working for. The cartel were always a problem, but I had removed them from the docks when I first took over my city.

My cell phone went off and I answered it without looking at the caller ID.

“Hello,” I said, rubbing at my eyes.”Why haven’t you returned my calls?”

Rage. I’d recognize that irritating voice instantly.

“I didn’t realize I had to answer your calls so fucking quickly.”

“If you valued your territory, you’d answer them. I’m trying to contact Ivan, where is he?”

I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself because I had no fucking idea how to contact him either, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. I didn’t like Rage. In fact, I didn’t like anyone from the Evil Savages MC. Making deals with them always ended in disaster, and seeing as I was now married to Charlotte, I had to wonder what shit was going to happen.

No, that wasn’t it.

I didn’t like the Evil Savages MC before, but seeing the scars on Charlotte’s back, and just knowing in my gut what her bastard father had been like, I didn’t like Rage, or any of them. I’d gladly kill every one of them, and it wouldn’t cause me to bat an eye. I hadn’t wanted them at my wedding either, but Ivan was all about making friends. Fuck that. I wanted to annihilate the MC, and one day I hoped to get that chance.

They weren’t my current problem, though. No, Hank and Benjamin’s mystery fucking companions were.

“You bore me with your threats.”

“These aren’t threats. I was approached by a Hank Belafonte, claiming to be a front man for the cartel, claiming it was only a matter of time before the Volkov Bratva was destroyed.”

Okay, shit, fuck, maybe I should have answeredhis call, but I wasn’t going to admit it.

“We need to talk,” I said.

“I’malready on my way into town. Also, I brought Cassie, she wanted to see her sister, and seeing as Charlotte hasn’t returned any of our calls, I can only assume you took away the cell phone I gave her.”This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.

I didn’t respond to this. I needed to talk to Ivan, not make small talk.

“You know where to meet me,” I said.

Hanging up the call, I dialed Ivan’s phone again. This time, it didn’t go to voicemail.

“Ive, I had to wonder when you’d call me.”

“Where are you?” I asked. “I just got a call from Rage. We need to talk, and not over the phone. This is important.”

“So, you are on your way back home to see your lovely wife?”

This made me frown. Why the fuck was Charlotte being brought into this?”And you got her a birthday present as well. See, my dear, no one forgot your birthday.”

Ivan hung up the phone and I gritted my teeth. Shit. Fuck.

Dialing Rage’s number, he answered within two rings.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me it was Charlotte’s birthday?” I asked.

“Oh, fuck,” he said. “That explains why Cassie was so desperate to come and see her.”

Yeah, we had all messed up.