Reaching goals doesn’t happen arbitrarily.
Not only do I need to make them happen, but every path the other party takes should, without a doubt, lead back to me. I have a zero percent margin of error and no tolerance for mistakes.
A fact my men know about me, which is why they’re fine with training like machines all day, every day, just like we’re still in the army.
It’s one of the reasons I took them to Russia in the first place. Some needed discipline, and others needed to be acquainted with a harsh lifestyle and to know what it’s like to live with a sense of deprivation.
Unlike what they thought, I never planned to stay in the military all my life. It’s bland, too strict, and doesn’t allow any type of meaningful progress.
However, they had to believe that or else they wouldn’t have put their all into it.
It’s not a question of training as much as it’s a change of mindset.
I did miscalculate my father’s desperation to bring me back to New York, though. Despite all his clinginess and his annoying fucking existence, I never thought he’d kill my men—his men—just to force me back to where he thinks I belong.
After I went through his logs and papers, I found out exactly why he did it. His power was wavering, and his accounts are suffering.
The first happened because he made a few mistakes and took the side of the wrong people in other crime organizations’ internal wars. As a result, he gradually lost the Pakhan’s trust. Interestingly, the one who gained it for making all the right choices is none other than Adrian.
He has impeccable information-gathering skills, a secretive method of working, and keeps a low profile, even within the organization.
Most importantly—he makes the right decisions. All times. Every time.
Since I came back, I’ve known exactly who my ally would be, and he goes by the name of Adrian Volkov. No, he didn’t agree and merely ignored me, but he’s already on my side.
He just doesn’t know it yet.
The second mistake my father made, on a financial scale, was apparently getting on Yulia’s shit list, because she’s been slowly but surely distancing him from her banking people. She made it her mission to forbid her family to give him low-interest loans and slowly cut his relationship with them.
This didn’t happen when he was in his prime, no. Yulia is too smart to commit an amateur mistake that would’ve gotten her killed. She waited, bided her time for decades, and was very patient.
As soon as the illnesses started to gang up on him, she slithered out of her hiding space like a snake, snatched the power that he married her for, and started to gradually funnel it to the useless Konstantin.
Unlike what other people would assume, I don’t hate my brother. I just find him utterly…impulsive. If he were to get full rein, he could and would get himself, Yulia, and Karina killed sooner rather than later.
It’s probably why my father didn’t want him in power, no matter what.
He knew that I’m a better fit to keep his legacy alive and protect his little Karina. As much of an asshole as my father was, he did dote on my little sister. After he screwed up her life, that is.
One of the reasons why I’m a better fit is because I have solid control over my men, unlike that fool Konstantin, who lets them do whatever they wish.
It’s a sense of respect as well. They were more avoidant and scared of me before Russia. But after the military and the countless missions we carried out together, they respect me as a leader, which is, again, another reason that Russia had to happen.
Is that manipulative? Maybe. But in order to be at the top, it’s imperative to have the right people by your side.
I tell myself this is also why I’m basically torturing Sasha in training. It’s been a month since we started, and she’s still on the ground more often than not.
Someone else would’ve given up already. Many of my guards definitely did when I started this test back in the military. They just admitted defeat and went on with their lives.
Not Sasha.
Every day, she comes to the training ground dressed in sweatpants that majorly fail to hide the line of her hip and stomach.
Sometimes, I wonder if I’m the only one who notices her feminine traits or whether they’re all completely oblivious.
She has an hourglass waist, for fuck’s sake. Yes, she hides it, but still, those two fuckers, Maksim and Yuri, are touchy with her all the time.
They also had the audacity to ask Viktor if they could take over the night duty for Sasha so she could get some sleep.
I had Viktor shoo them away in his signature unwelcoming tone.
Fuck those two. Sasha will remain on night duty indefinitely.
She spends the night right outside my room. I’d prefer it if she were inside, but she refuses. Because she’s carefully keeping her distance.
Except for when it’s time to fight.
That’s when the fire inside her blazes, and she turns into an entirely different creature.
She has the determination of a cat who has an attention span of twenty seconds. Every day, she forgets that she was defeated and jumps back into the ring for more.
Is she making progress? Yes. Will she be able to defeat me anytime soon? Probably not.
This is starting to become more routine than anything else. The highlight of my day isn’t trying to form any type of alliance or slowly stripping the control Konstantin has over some of the clubs.
It’s being in that ring, waiting for Sasha to appear with her defiant expression.
I’m about to head there when Viktor appears in front of the office door like a damn ghost.
“Make some noise, would you?” I start down the hall, and he falls in step beside me.
“Igor is requesting to meet with you.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t say. He wants you at his house tonight.”
“Hmm. Tell him I’ll be there.”
That old man was one of the most eager to have me, instead of Konstantin, take over. I’m sure it has something to do with old-fashioned rules, where the eldest son should inherit his father’s legacy.
“Copy that. Since you’ll be busy tonight with the meeting, should we head to the club now?”
“No, I have a training session.”
“With Lipovsky?”
“Why is that voiced as a question when you know the answer?”
“I don’t trust him, Boss.”
“Why not?”
“He’s just…suspicious.”
“What a massive argument you have there, Viktor.”
“You know it, too. He’s been getting close to the young lady.”
I stop in the middle of the hall. “Karina?”
“Yes. She lets him into her room and asks Anna to prepare snacks for them.”
“Why is that bad news? In fact, it’s good that she lets anyone into her chamber of horrors. Even I am not allowed in there most of the time.”
“Seriously?”
“What?”
“He could take advantage of her, Boss.”
I laugh, and he watches me as if I’m an alien, so I stop and call forward my serious expression. “I will cut his head off if that happens.”
“Doesn’t mean it’ll stop him. Wouldn’t it be better to prevent that situation before it happens?”
“He’s not going to take advantage of Karina. I promise.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“He’s…let’s say, attracted to men.”
“He does seem gay.”
“Is that so?”
“Doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”
“Then why did you think he’d take advantage of my sister?”
“The fact that he has a functional dick.”
I suppress the need to laugh again, and Viktor narrows his eyes on me. “He was acting strange in front of your office a while ago.”
“Strange?”
“He pretended that he was there to knock on the door and search for you.”
“And that’s strange how?”
“The fact that I caught him doing the same thing again last week. And another time this morning. I was watching the surveillance video and caught him looking at the lock for two seconds before he left.”
“Are you watching him, Viktor?”
“He needs to be watched.”
Interesting. This means Sasha has something in the office. Or maybe she’s searching for something.
What could that be?
“Let me take care of him. Stay out of it and stop watching him.”
“But, sir—”
“Stay out of it, Viktor. That’s an order.”
He purses his lips in clear disapproval, but he doesn’t push it.
His words, however, definitely bring a lot of ideas to my mind. Such as Sasha’s actual motives for coming to New York.
During today’s training, Sasha managed to touch my chest. It wasn’t a punch, and she collapsed right afterward, but she had this victorious smile on her face.
As if she’d done what she set out to do all along.
She didn’t gloat, didn’t attempt to even count that contact as a point, but she did look at me with those defiant eyes that get me all fucking hard.
No. It’s the idea of what look I could put in those eyes that gets me hard.
“Let’s go. I know just the right thing to do so you can relax.” Maksim gathers her by the shoulder, and she uses him for support in order to walk. My eyes narrow, but I soon conceal it.
The right thing to do to help her relax.
That’s what he said, unless I’m hearing things. I’m about to follow after, when my phone rings.
I’m fully ready to ignore it, but it’s rare for my sister to call me.
My attention remains on Sasha disappearing with Maksim into the annex house as I pick up. “What can I do for you, Kara?”
“I told you to stop calling me that!”
“Fine, fine. What seems to be the problem?”
“Do I need a problem to call you?”
“No, but there must be a reason.” And she hasn’t threatened to kill me in my sleep yet.
“I need a favor—no, I need you to do something for me.”
“I refuse.”
“What…but why? You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”
“You want Sasha as your personal bodyguard, no?”
“How did you…? Anyway, yeah, and you’re gonna give him to me.”
“He’s not a toy, Kara.”
“Don’t care. I want him to be my bodyguard.”
“My answer is still the same.”
“But…but you have, like, a thousand of them. Why can’t you spare Sasha?”
I wish I knew the answer to that. “Still a no.”
“I voted for you the other day. You owe me a favor, you fucking bastard!”
“I didn’t ask for a favor, and I certainly never agreed to owe you one.”
“You fucking manipulative, Machiavellian, psychopathic asshole with no moral compass. I swear to fuck—”
“I’ll ask Anna to bring you some herbal tea. Helps with the agitation.” Then I hang up.
I can almost imagine her throwing the nearest object against the wall, and while I don’t want her to injure herself, I also won’t go check on her.
Karina’s problem is being spoiled, sheltered, and out of touch with the outside world.
I might have left her to her own devices before, but there will be no more getting what she wants just because she asks for it.
After she developed her chronic anxiety due to Roman’s brutal parenting methods, he spoiled her rotten, probably out of guilt. He also didn’t think that she mattered in the great scheme of things because she’s a girl.
I’m not making his mistake.
Although I have a thousand documents lying on my desk, waiting to be reviewed, I make the very ‘logical’ choice to follow Sasha and Maksim.
I’ve never liked how close they’ve gotten since the army. Yuri, too, even though that fucker is smarter and knows how and when to keep his distance.
Maksim has little to no sense of self-preservation and might—will—accidentally end up with a chopped-off head pretty soon.
I manage to escape Viktor’s consistent shadowing since he’s busy supervising the others, and slip into the house.
Not long after, I catch a glimpse of Maksim jogging down the hall, shouting, “Gonna bring some refreshments. Go on ahead of me.”
Ahead of me.
I wait for a few moments after Maksim disappears in the direction of the kitchen, then head the opposite way.
Turns out, the place where Maksim wanted Sasha to go ahead of him is the sauna.
I halt and shove a hand in my pocket, then slide my glasses up my nose. Is this woman planning on sweating in the sauna with…Maksim?
It takes me a couple of minutes to try and ease the fire that’s mounting in my chest. I partially fail, because when Maksim reappears, two drinks in hand, I honestly wonder why I shouldn’t snap his neck.
“Boss,” he says with bewilderment. “You need anything?”
“Yes. I need you to go investigate Igor and his men. Take Yuri with you.”
“Now?”
“When else?”
“Uh…let me at least take these to Sasha and tell him I have to go.”
I subtly take the drinks from his hands. “I’ll do it. Go.”
He doesn’t appear happy with the order, but he does leave, even though it takes him a moment, and he looks back at me as if contemplating if someone is impersonating me.
Maksim has been with me all his life, and he knows that I never bring drinks, hold them, or even offer to serve them. So this scene must look alien to him.
Once I make sure he’s gone, I push the door to the sauna’s locker room open, then place the drinks on the bench and turn the lock from the inside.
The locker room appears empty, but then there’s a commotion in one of the bathrooms—a rustle of clothes and a low curse.
“One moment, Maks!” she calls. “I’ll be out in a sec.”
Maks.
That’s what she calls him when they’re alone.
Fucking Maks.
The only reason I don’t break the door to the bathroom open is because I have a better plan.
I remove my shirt, shoes, pants, and boxer briefs, then hang them in one of the lockers. After I wrap a towel around my waist, I head to the sauna and add more charcoal to the pit, making it unbearably hot.
Then I lounge on the wooden bench, watching the entrance. A few minutes later, Sasha appears at the door, wearing a bathrobe. Her hair is longer now, falling to her nape. Usually, she ties it in a small ponytail, but not right now.
Even with her head lowered as she focuses on tying the belt, she looks every bit the woman she’s spent a lot of time and effort to hide.
“This is the first time I’ve done this. Promise it won’t be too hot?”
“I’m afraid I can’t.”
Her head whips up, and I revel in the way her lips part and her skin turns a deep shade of red in a fraction of a second.
Patience is my strongest attribute, but that doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to this woman.
It’s time she knows exactly why she shouldn’t fuck with me.
