CHAPTER 23
Gavril
I sat at the table in the far back of the club, guarded by Anatoly and a few other loyal Belaya brigadiers. The sniveling man before me was Justin Vida, a businessman who had once been considered a partner of the Belaya Bratva. He had used his real estate business as a front for me to push money to a few of my friends in Mexico and Canada. Until now.
Now, there were rumors that he was keeping some of the money for himself. I had taken the liberty of checking the reports on my own. The old Russian adage of trust, but verify. And sure enough, the numbers added up.
So, I had called Justin here for a discussion. A chance for him to plead his innocence. Or at the very least, own up to the theft.
I demanded loyalty. It was the one trait that my own mother had instilled in me when she allowed me to take over the reins. Loyalty was everything to a Bratva but also to the businesses that I dealt in. If I couldn’t keep my own men honest with me, then how could I keep my reputation with the other organizations?
In this world, a man was only as trustworthy as his word.
“Pakhan Kirilenko,” he stuttered, forehead dotted with sweat. “I swear to you, I didn’t take your money. I delivered it just like you asked me to.”
I drummed my fingers on the table, keeping my expression neutral. Did he think I was stupid?
“Is that so?”
He nodded vigorously, like a bobblehead that had just been flicked into motion. “I swear it. I wouldn’t cross you.”
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table, outwardly looking every inch the cool, calm, collected Pakhan and not like the raging storm inside of me.
“But would you lie to me?”
“Never, Pakhan. I swear.”
“How bizarre,” I said, “that in the last thirty seconds, you’ve lied twice.”
I reached for a folder in front of me that contained all of the receipts and transactions that condemned Justin, and continued—my voice even. “The client never got the amount he expected from you.”
His face paled even further. “He’s lying!” he blurted out. “I gave him that fucking money!”
“Did I say you didn’t give him the money?” I tsked, my gaze hardening. “I said he never got the amount he expected. Furthermore, it seems that you bought yourself a nice property in South Beach. How convenient that the down payment was the missing amount.”
I knew I had him between a rock and a hard place. He was successful, but no way in hell could he have put that down payment on the South Beach property without a little help.
A little help that had come out of my pocket.
“I, I—” he started as Anatoly came up behind him, placing his hand on Justin’s shoulder.
“I don’t like liars,” I said in a low voice. “And I cannot tolerate thieves who steal from their masters. I’m an honorable man, Justin. Those who repay my honor with theirs are rewarded. Those who do the opposite are punished. Surely you understand this. As a businessman yourself.”
“Please,” he begged, his lower lip trembling. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that he was going to burst into tears at any moment. “Please. I can get you back your money. I just need some time.”
I leaned back and picked up my drink, the liquid shimmering off the low lighting in the club. “You had your chance earlier, and you chose to lie. You can go home and settle your affairs. I’m giving you twelve hours to do so. At the end of those twelve hours, either you can take your own life or one of my men will do it for you. Consider this an act of generosity.”
He started to mewl and beg, but I nodded to Anatoly, who grabbed him up by the arm.
“Chin up,” Anatoly growled as he handed the shaking man off to the waiting guard. “Be a fucking man about it.”
“Bastard,” I muttered before I sipped from my drink.
I hated that I had had to leave Naomi to come all this way tonight, but men like Justin had to be dealt with in person. I wanted him to think about what he had done to me, what he had done to his own life, and if he didn’t have the balls to do what I had demanded, then my men would hunt him down and make certain that he was dead.
This was the other dark side of my business, but I had to take a stance on those that didn’t respect me. Justin could have continued to have a good life if he had only done what I asked. Hell, I wasn’t asking much.
“Konstantin Poroshenko is here,” Anatoly said next to my ear. “I can send him away.”
I looked at my watch. It was already nearing eleven, and I had promised Naomi I wouldn’t be gone for this long. But Konstantin Poroshenko didn’t usually make late calls like this. Not without a good reason.
“Let him through,” I growled.
Anatoly gave me a side eye but stepped back, and the Krasnaya brigadier was shown to my VIP table. Without a word, he sat in the very chair that Justin had just vacated.
“I’m assuming this isn’t a social call,” I started out.
He grunted. “No, it’s not. I’ve heard some news, and I want to know if it’s true.”
I arched a brow, curious to know what he could be referring to. Was this about Razmin again or something else?
“Go on.”
“Sveta Orlov is dead. True?”
Fuck me. A tremor of concern shot through me, but I kept it out of my expression for now.
“For what purpose do you ask?” I retorted. “Because I left her begging for my cock just an hour ago.”
“Don’t turn this back on me, boy.” The other man’s lips curled. “You’ve been lying to us all along, haven’t you?”
“Careful,” I warned, all pretenses of this being a friendly conversation now gone. “What you say next could have disastrous consequences.”
He was still a brigadier and I a Pakhan. Challenging a position of power came with consequences that I didn’t think he wanted to go through right now.
Konstantin chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t you think we’re past threats now? The bitch whose mouth was wrapped around your shriveled cock isn’t Stanislav’s little girl. Never was. Just some bitch you scooped up from the streets.”
If he thought he was going to get any answers out of me, he was wrong. I didn’t know what angle he was playing at or what he wanted, but truth be told, it wasn’t surprising that he was looking for a way to get out of this alliance. I doubted I had ever had his loyalty from the start.