I can tell from the zeal in his eyes that I’ve hooked the fish. Now, it’s just down to reeling him in. Usually, this would have been the easy part, but I can tell that I’m dealing with a different kind of specimen here.
Dominik Evanoff is all business. He might nurse personal grudges and harbor secret vendettas, but I doubt he’d jeopardize his own safety and the safety of his Bratva in order to act on them. I have to make this worth his while.
“I’m saying we join forces and take down the bastard once and for all. He hurt your family deeply. Now, he’s trying to do the same to mine. I say we stop him. I say we end him. We bury him like he buried your father. Like he buried mine.”
Dominik’s eyebrow ticks up a notch. “He killed your father, too?”
“I couldn’t prove it until recently. He staged quite the spectacle just so that the accident that took out my parents couldn’t be traced back to him. But you can’t hide these things forever. Someone always talks.”
“Someone always talks,” Dominik agrees. He takes a sip of his drink. Bourbon, from the smell of it. “Killing Boris Sobakin has been on my to-do list since I was a very young man.”
“Now, you have the chance to cross it off.”
He cocks his head to the side. “It is tempting. Very tempting. But I don’t need to remind you, Mr. Bugrov—”
“Uri. Please.”
He nods. “Uri. I don’t need to remind you that I am the pahkan of a comparatively small Bratva. I don’t have the kind of influence, resources, or manpower that you have.”
“No. But you can add to my strength. One thing’s for sure: Boris won’t be expecting you.”
Dominik’s lips curl into a smile. I can tell why he doesn’t do it very often: it’s nauseating and unpleasant. “No, he will not.”
“Finally, you and I would both have revenge for what he did to our families.”
Dominik nods. “And I want to jump on board…”
“But?”
The gleam in his eyes recedes back into disengaged deadpan. “But what’s in it for me?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Other than revenge?”
“Yes,” he says unapologetically. “No matter which way you slice it, there will be losses. If you’ve come to me, it means that Boris has joined forces with someone else. Am I right?”
“Artur Agapov.”
“Agapov?” Dominik scoffs. “He’s a rabid dog without a master to call him to heel.” He taps the edge of his glass. “But it proves my point. I need to come out of this battle with more than what I started with.”
“What do you want?”
“What are you offering?”
I roll my eyes and sigh. “You know what I like about you, Dominik? You’re a straight shooter. Don’t ruin that now by acting coy. You want something for the risk. I respect that. Just lay it on me so that I can either accept or walk away.”
Dominik’s jaw flexes. His eyes darken just a little and he licks his lips. “You have three clubs in the city. I want ownership of one of them transferred to me. And I want an additional property. An empty lot, a suburban house, a decrepit shack—I don’t care, as long as I hold the deed.”
“That’s all?”
“And five million dollars. Cash.” He eyes me carefully, waiting for me to balk. “I can live without avenging my father if doing so means risking my Bratva and my reputation in the process.”
“Allying with me will only help your reputation,” I growl.
“Unless you lose.”
“I won’t lose.”
“If you knew that, Mr. Bugrov, you would never have sat down with me in the first place.”
I consider his requests for a moment. “I’ll transfer my least profitable club to you. There’s a small warehouse on the edge of the city that you can have. And as for the money—I’m willing to agree to one million dollars.”
“Four million.”
“Two.”
He lifts his eyebrows. “Agreed.”
We shake hands and Dominik reclines against his high-backed wingchair. I get to my feet. “I’ll be in touch. Until then, prepare your men. I need them ready to move at a moment’s notice.”
“Understood, Mr. Bugrov.”
I give him a parting nod and leave the Barrington’s lounge. Dimiv is standing by the entrance, smoking a cigarette when I approach.
“Well?”
I grab the cigarette from between Dimiv’s fingers and bring it to my lips. “He’s in.”
44
URI
I’ve only been gone for a few hours and I actually miss her. It’s a new feeling and I have no idea how to deal with it. Maybe that’s why it annoys me so much to walk into the private hospital room I’ve paid for to find her laughing it up with Nikolai.
She certainly doesn’t look like she’s missed me. Hell, she barely seems to register that I’ve been gone at all.
“What’s so funny?” I demand irritably when I walk in and catch them mid-joke.
The laughter dies at once. Nikolai doesn’t respond aside from getting up and drifting towards the window. Alyssa just gives me a little wink. “He was sharing stories from your childhood.”
“Our childhood,” Nikolai calls over. “You don’t have exclusive rights over those stories, you know.”
“Maybe not, but I do have exclusive rights over this room. And I’d like to be alone with Alyssa now.”
“Uri!” Alyssa snaps at me. “Don’t be rude. Nikolai, it’s fine—you can stay.”
That annoys me as much as anything else. Nikolai just shrugs. “All good. I’ll leave you to Sir Sunshine here. If you need an escape from all his warm optimism, just give me a ring.”
Alyssa giggles but tries to suppress it behind a cough. The moment the door pulls shut, I turn to her. She reads my face and rolls her eyes at once. “He was kidding, Uri.” Reaching out to me, she asks, “Can you walk that grumpy face over here, please? If not, I’m coming over there.”
Sighing, I go to her bedside. She’s dressed in white sweatpants and a matching sweater. But as comfortable as she looks, it just doesn’t fit. Nice though it may be, there’s no escaping the fact that we’re stuck in a hospital room. She should be back home, in my room, in my bed, where she belongs.
As I get to her, she takes my hand. “I spoke to Lev and Polly earlier. They’re a little bummed that I have to stay here.”
“That makes three of us.”
“The next few weeks will fly by. And anyway, you and Nikolai will keep me company, right?”
“Babysitting is definitely more his speed, but Nikolai has shit to do.”
She narrows her eyes. “Will you stop being such an ass about your brother?”
“I didn’t realize you were so protective of him.”
“Well, I am,” she retorts firmly. “The same as I am with Polly and Lev. The only difference is you don’t revert to a moody, hyper-jealous teenage boy around those two. That’s reserved for Niko. It’s giving me unnecessary anxiety, Uri.”
She squeezes my hand to really lay it on thick, but I scowl and pull my fingers away from her. “I’ll go easy on him when he stops flirting with my woman.”
“Flirting?” she repeats. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s typical Nikolai bullshit. He’s always wanted what I have.”
Instead of responding, Alyssa’s face spreads in a slow, subtle smile. An in-joke kind of smirk that makes my hackles rise. “The hell is so funny?” I grumble.