Gavriil (Stepanov Mafia)

“You stole money from the mob?” I shouted, my voice echoing off the walls.

He held a finger to his lips in a desperate attempt to quiet me.

I stood up, towering over him. “You are even dumber than I thought. What in the hell were you thinking?”

“You’re going to wake up Mom,” he whispered, eyes wide.

That managed to break through my rage. I took a deep breath in and then let it out through my teeth. “How were you involved with the mob?”

“I shouldn’t have even said that much,” Devin said, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t know anything about this.”

“I know you worked for a Gavril in the mob.”

Devin looked at me, eyes hard as rocks. “Don’t repeat that to anyone. You don’t know anything about this, okay? When I disappear, you tell everyone you don’t know a thing, got it?”

The anger inside of me broke up at the idea of never seeing Devin again. “You’re going to disappear?”

He shrugged. “Or turn up dead. No matter what, it won’t be good news for me.”

“There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t, Sam. I screwed up, and now I’m going to pay the price. I don’t want you and Mom to suffer because of it.”

Funny. I wanted to mention how much suffering he had caused us while he was alive, but I decided it was better to be kind in the moment.

“Can you forgive me?” he asked. “Can you choose to remember the good and forget the bad?”

Again, I wanted to tell him that there would be nothing left if I forgot the bad, but that isn’t what Devin needed to hear then. Instead, I swallowed down my anger and nodded.

“I love you, Dev. Of course I can forgive you.”

He looked relieved.

“But it won’t matter,” I added. “Because we are going to find a way to fix this.”

Devin gave me a sad smile. I knew he didn’t believe me, but it was because he didn’t know what I knew. My brother who didn’t think I was capable of lying, didn’t know I was keeping something from him.

I had a plan.

Chapter Four

Gavril

My guys had been following the thief for a few days, and he hadn’t shown any signs of running. But I was still suspicious. Hopeful, even. I wanted him to run. It would give me the satisfaction of catching him in the act. Of punishing him for disobeying. It would help break up the work week – if nothing else.

I’d become boss of the Stepanov family on a Wednesday. I didn’t have any projects to work on, and Wednesdays were always a little slow. So, I decided to kill my father. He should have stepped down years before. He was forty when I was born, and now I was thirty-four, so you do the math.

The man was past his prime and growing soft. To our enemies, at least. He never let up on me. I was never good enough, never strong enough, never vindictive enough. I’m sure he changed his mind before he died, though I was too busy tightening the cord around his neck to notice.

In the end, though, my father still won. He held onto his title for as long as he could. So long that I had to pry it from his arthritic hands. If I’d killed any other mob boss, people would have been impressed. They would have feared me. But I’d taken out an old man who had his guard down. Why would he, after all? I was his son.

He had no reason to believe I’d hurt him. Except, he’d raised me. He had taught me that people were there to help you get what you want. If they got in the way, you got rid of them. And he knew I wanted to lead the family. He should have known I’d come after him. But then again, Father had always underestimated me.

A knock at my office door pulled me out of my thoughts, and I wasn’t upset. I didn’t regret what happened with my father, but I didn’t like to dwell on it. I wanted to move forward and leave him where he belonged – in the past.

“Come in,” I called.

Yuri stepped through the door. The stubble on his face had grown out and was unkempt. I liked for the men to keep trimmed facial hair. We needed to look presentable, respectable. But Yuri had been tailing Devin Conway for the last sixteen hours, so I decided not to mention it.

“Yes?”

He tipped his head in greeting and then spoke: “Someone is here to see you.”

“Do I take walk-ins now?” I asked, face screwed up in annoyance. “Tell them to schedule something.”

Yuri looked over his shoulder nervously. “Okay. Uhmm, I’ll tell her to come back another time.”

Her? I quickly cycled through the women I knew and kept in contact with, which was a very short list. My mother was dead, I didn’t have any sisters, and the women I slept with were disposable. I didn’t even bother to remember their names if it wasn’t necessary. And for my purposes, it usually wasn’t. So, I hadn’t the slightest idea who could have come to see me.