Taking a seat, he got comfortable, and folded his hands over his stomach.
“I did. Now she has a reason to torture Hunter by calling him brother in Russian, without him knowing the meaning.”
“I’m sure she wants to call him other things after Lena’s story, so he should be grateful.” Like I was. I was grateful that she’d speak to me, let alone allow me inside her body.
Nodding in agreement, he smirked at me. “I came to see you earlier, but you were… otherwise engaged.” Seeing my jaw tense, he raised a hand to ward me off. “No need to get angry, Taras. I’m only saying that I’m happy for you.”
Sitting back, I rubbed my chin with my hand. “I don’t know how she’s done it, but letting me back into her life…” I trailed off, unable to even say the words.
“Perhaps because she understands? I mean, she can see how difficult life is, and you’ve been living in this situation longer than she has. Knowing you did it for her and her family goes a long way, no?”
Still.
“I keep picturing the roles being reversed, and what I’d do if I was in her shoes.” Even the thought had me clenching my fists.
Looking down at my hands, my brother smiled. “Yes, but you’re a vindictive fuck.” When I didn’t say anything back, he shook his head. “There’s no use in wondering what if, brother. It’s happened, it’s almost over, and you have your woman and the bonus of two sons, who are healthy and growing like weeds.”
Just talking about them drew my attention to the collage of photos of them on my wall. Yes, it was proof I had a weakness, but the bigger significance was that it sent a message I would go all out to protect them.
I had claimed them—all three of them—and they were mine.
“You know,” I murmured, “I asked Nell if she’d have still told me about them if the marriage had been real or the bomb hadn’t gone off.”
“She said yes, didn’t she.” It wasn’t a question. There was no doubt about the fact she would never have deprived our sons of their father.
Regardless, I nodded. “What did you come in here for, Dmitri? As much as I enjoy brother bonding time, I doubt your visit was to discuss how much you enjoy being an uncle.”
“I love being an uncle,” he agreed, then quickly added, “When your children aren’t puking on me.”
It’d happened once, and sadly you couldn’t predict a baby's digestive system.
“I told you to read the books so you had a better idea when you were holding them. It’s not like we’ve had a lot of interaction with little humans.”
Grimacing, he brushed his hand over his thigh like he was getting rid of where it’d happened. “I’ll read the books the day I’m in your shoes, if it ever happens. But you’re right, there’s a purpose for my visit.”
When he didn’t say anything else, I rapped my knuckles on my desk. “Tell me.”
“As you know, we let Kuznetsov go once he was stable after his questioning.”
Kuznetsov was the man I’d used the knives on, and we’d gotten him medical treatment then released him, hoping he’d find us some answers. The man had always been an excellent addition to the Bratva, and we were hoping that by showing him leniency, he’d voluntarily dig for information for us.
“And?”
“And, he spoke to Simeon today with an update.”
“So we were right, he did do the right thing. I’m not surprised, he was always a good soldier.”
“That’s not the point. The reason I’m here is that, as he was leaving the Azarov house, Donna mentioned the divorce, not realizing that Makar had some guests over.”
“Who were the guests?”
“Ribeiro’s here from São Tome, but he was sharing a cigar with none other than Padraig Ryan and Nicolas Scala.”
A huge grin grew on my face.
“Fuck me, Raig and Nick got in there.”
“We owe a huge grazie to Ben for suggesting it.”
The difference between the Azarovs and us was that they never let anyone into their Bratva who didn’t bring them power. They stole their soldiers from other Bratvas on the homeland, and the men in their ranks were from influential gangs around the world. This didn’t breed loyalty, it bred greed—big mistake.
And that’s precisely what their greed had just brought them.
Benito had suggested getting Padraig Ryan and Nicolas Scala, aka Raig and Nick the Greek, into the Azarov household to meet with Makar and get the lay of the land.
The fact that Ribeiro was there, too, showed how many fuck ups ego brought on a man. If you went into a war with your ego leading you, you would lose, because it overrode your ability to think outside of the box.
This left us with one problem, one pawn missing. The man who was the proof to the link with Los Segadores. “And Abar?”