“Do you want to hit up The Rouge Lounge, brother?” Nik asks as he throws open my office door. He pauses in the doorway and looks around. “What the hell happened?”
I’ve been in my office for two days straight, but I look around the room with new eyes. It could certainly be tidier.
“I’ve been working in here.”
“And sleeping in here, too, by the looks of it.” He eyes my pillow and blanket strewn across the sofa. “Things between you and Luna still on the rocks?”
“This has nothing to do with Luna.” I snap. “I’ll clean up when Akim is dead.”
Because once Akim is dead, Luna will be gone. Then I can walk around my house without the fear that I’ll slip and accidentally find my dick deep inside of her.
It’s been days since I’ve seen her and I feel the distance. I thought the ache for her would fade, but apparently, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Right now, even the thought of touching Luna has me semi-hard.
“Speaking of…” Nik kicks my office door closed and slides his phone across my desk. “Here’s an article about The Rouge Lounge.”
“What the fuck is that?” I scroll through the article, stopping as soon as I see a familiar name. “Akim’s club is finally opening.”
“In two days,” Nik confirms. “At the bottom of that article, he tells the interviewer that he is going to be standing outside the front doors the entire night, personally welcoming guests inside.”
“He might as well paint a bullseye on his back.” I toss back Nik’s phone. “It’s the perfect time to strike.”
“There are going to be a lot of people there.”
“Enough that we can slip into the mayhem without anyone seeing a thing.” I drum my fingers on top of my desk, thinking. “We have to be smart about it, though. If we march up to the club with an army, Akim will see it coming from a mile away.”
“We could set up a wider perimeter and minimize how many people go in.”
I shake my head. “A perimeter is still a risk. Akim will be watching everything leading up to the opening.”
“What do you suggest then?”
“You and me. That’s it.”
Nik’s eyes widen, excitement coursing through him. “We’re making this hit ourselves?”
I can’t imagine sending anyone else in my stead. Not after everything Akim has done to my family. It needs to be me.
I nod. “We go in alone and we tell no one. The more people who know the plan, the more likely it is that Akim gets a heads-up. If he does, that fucking rat won’t show his face again anytime soon. It’ll be months before we get another good shot at him. Which is why, when we take this one, we won’t fucking miss.”
Nik stands up. “I’ll do as much recon as possible—exits, entrances, security, the surrounding area. The more we know, the cleaner this kill can be.”
“Good. Meeting with Akim’s dealer and finding an in that way can be a backup, but for now, we focus on a hit two days out.”
“Two days out.” Nik grins, shaking his head. “Fucking finally.”
I try to share in his excitement, but I can’t quite get there. I never thought killing Akim would be bittersweet, but now, it’s tangled up in Luna leaving. Once he’s dead, there won’t be any reason for her to be here. She’ll leave and this house will go back to the way it’s been since my father was killed.
Quiet.
Lonely.
Suddenly, the door to my office flings open and Mariya is standing there. “Family meeting?”
On second thought, maybe it won’t exactly be quiet and lonely…
“Bratva business,” Nik corrects, trying to push the door closed. “Get out.”
Mariya squeezes through just in time. “I’m Bratva.”
Nik snorts. “Being part of our family doesn’t make you a soldier, little sister.”
She sticks her tongue out at Nik. “I deserve to know what’s going on.”
Nik opens his mouth to argue, but I wave him off. The two of them could go back and forth for hours. We don’t have that kind of time.
“Do what you need to do,” I tell him. “I’ll handle this.”
Nik slips through the door and Mariya turns to me. “I’m not a ‘problem’ that needs to be ‘handled.’”
“If that was true, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“I want to know what’s going on.”
I shake my head. “It’s safer for you if you don’t know.”
“No. Nuh-uh.” She perches on the arm of the chair Nik was just sitting in. “I didn’t know anything last week and I snuck out of the house and got kidnapped by a pedo. I think we’ve learned that it’s safer when you keep me in the loop.”
“No,” I grit out. “We’ve learned it’s safer when you don’t fucking sneak out of the house.”
“I wouldn’t have snuck out if anyone in this house treated me like an adult! You all act like I’m some little kid. I’m not. When Dad was killed, I was kept in the dark. No one told me we were in danger. Even afterward, I didn’t know what happened.”
Mariya watched our father die. Nik tried to keep her back, but she fought her way towards where our father was dying in my arms. She saw it all. I never talked to her about it afterward because she’d already seen enough. Why relive it again and again?
She leans forward, eyes pleading. “If we’re in danger, Yakov, I deserve to know.”
“We’re one of the most powerful crime families in the world, Mariya. We’re always in danger.”
She throws up her hands. “So that’s it then. I sit at home while you and Nik run around and risk your lives. How come I never get to have fun?”
“Because you think my job is fun,” I snap. “It isn’t, Mariya. Everything I’m doing is to keep you safe.”
“And Luna.”
Her name snags in my mind, catching my train of thought. “What?”
“Me and Luna.” She arches a brow. “You’re keeping us both safe, right?”
I roll my eyes. “Right. Sure. The bottom line is, the best thing you can do is stay home and stay out of trouble. Not chasing you around the city to save your ass makes it a lot more likely that Nik and I come home alive.”
She crosses her arms and slouches down in the chair. “I’m old enough to have a job.”
“You want a job? Fine. You can… You can watch Luna.”
“I have been watching Luna,” she mutters, “but since I don’t have a fetish for vomit, it hasn’t been great for me.”
I sit up. “What the fuck does that mean?”
She shrugs. “Luna has been getting sick a lot.”
“I didn’t know she was sick.”
Hope hasn’t said anything. Nik didn’t mention anything, either. If she was really sick, I’d know. Wouldn’t I?
“It’s probably all of the stress. Keeping us both in the dark doesn’t keep us safer; it makes us anxious.”
Luna is sick. Luna is sick and I didn’t notice.
It’s not like I’ve been around. I haven’t seen her in days, except for the glimpse I caught of her in the garden yesterday. As soon as I saw her flash of golden hair bobbing between the foliage, I closed the blinds.
“You aren’t getting sick, are you?” I ask.
Mariya arches an eyebrow. “Please. I grew up in this world. I have a stronger stomach than that.”
“How often is she throwing up?”
“I’m not keeping track. I’m not a doctor,” she says. “If you’re so worried, why don’t you go talk to her?”
I want to—that’s the problem. I can’t risk the distraction, especially now that we’re so close to taking out Akim. I need to keep my head clear. But even when I’m not seeing her every day, she’s in my fucking head.
It’s why I know I’m doing the right thing. Cutting her out is harsh, but it’s for the best.
“I’m not a doctor, either.”
“You’re the reason she’s sick, though!”
“She isn’t sick because of me. She’s sick because she can’t handle this world. She doesn’t belong here.”
Another piece of evidence that I should send Luna back to her old life as soon as possible.
Mariya shakes her head. “You don’t really mean that.”
“You have no clue what I think.”
“If you really thought that, then you wouldn’t be hiding in your office because you’re afraid to see her. After everything you’ve put her through, the least you could do is talk to her.”
I fire back, “If you really think I’m the reason she’s sick, you should want me to stay away from her. That’s the solution here.”
Mariya sighs and turns for the door. “You may call all the shots—but sometimes, you are really fucking clueless.”
She leaves the door open behind her.
After a few seconds, I get up and slam it closed.
