There was a sound of movement, and his brother’s muffled voice as he spoke with whoever he was with before Ruslan was back on the line. “What the fuck did you do this time?”
Ruslan wasn’t far off. The last time Vasily had called him in this early was because of a shipment Kaz had fucked up and needed to fix. “Nothing that I’m aware of.” The last thing he was going to mention was Violet.
“I haven’t heard anything, if that’s why you’re calling—can’t help you this time.”
Kaz only had a few minutes before he would be outside of Vasily’s residence, so there was no point in him asking for information anywhere else. He would just have to go in and pray to whoever the fuck was listening that he wasn’t walking to his death.
“How’s the face?” he asked changing the subject.
Ruslan made a disgruntled noise, sounding almost annoyed as he said, “Looks worse than it feels. I’ll probably need to avoid Mama for a while. You know how she feels when she sees that shit.”
Irina wasn’t clueless. She knew all too well what the men in her life were doing, even without the specifics, but she never liked when it was staring back at her. That just made the reality of it all sink in a little more. If they could help it, they didn’t show her that side.
“Do that.”
“Right. Well, call me after your meet.”
Yeah, if he lived to see the end of it … “Will do.”
With a quick farewell, Kaz was off the phone, tossing the device in his passenger seat as he pulled up to the gate, punched in the code, and waited for the metal doors to swing open before he pulled in and parked. At first glance, he could already see that Irina wasn’t at home, nor were the twins. One of the two matching BMWs that Vasily had bought them for their birthdays was missing.
He might have been inclined to think of this as a good thing. Kaz didn’t want to believe that Vasily would kill him under the roof where Irina and the girls slept, but knowing his father the way he did, he would have him cleaned up long before any of them got home.
Grabbing his gun from the glove compartment, he checked the clip before holstering the weapon. It was now or never.
The front door was open when he tried the knob, not all that surprising since it was pretty well known who the house belonged to.
He crossed the floor to the spiral staircase, heading upstairs to the second level where Vasily’s office was located. Though the door was pushed closed from what Kaz could see from down the hall, the gruff, but soft voices could still be heard.
Rapping his knuckles twice against the door, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. There were five men in attendance, his father included. Raj stood off to the side looking disapproving—probably because Kaz had arrived after him, though they had left from the same place. Two more men were seated against the back wall, not speaking. And last, there was Andrei who was standing across from Vasily, his gaze shooting to Kaz the moment he entered the room.
“Good of you to finally join us,” Andrei said, condescension dripping from his tone.
Kaz’s brow rose as he regarded the man, but he kept his mouth shut. He and Andrei had never gotten along, in part because the man felt Kaz didn’t deserve the spot he had. Andrei had been a part of the brotherhood for more than two decades, had even spent a tour in a Russian gulag back during the fall of the Soviet Union, and yet he was still occupying the same position as Kaz.
Of course, he couldn’t voice his anger to Vasily—not if he wanted to live—but he lived to make Kaz’s life difficult every fucking chance he got.
“Sorry, Mom,” Kaz said. “Next time I’ll call to let you know when I’ll be late for dinner.”
Chuckles arose, making Andrei’s face mottle with red. “You little—”
“As entertaining as this has been,” Vasily interjected. “We need to get to business. Take a seat, Kazimir.”
Kaz quickly surveyed the available spots left in his father’s office to sit, noting the only seats would put his back to someone else, or a window. Standing where he was, his back was only to the door, and that was better than it facing men he didn’t trust all that much.
“I’ll stand,” Kaz said.
Vasily passed him an indecipherable look, but settled on a nod. “Fine. Last night—”
“I still think we should send a message to the Italians,” one of the two men standing against the wall said.
“I’m going to speak without interruption, or the next time someone jumps in on my conversation, I will have their tongue removed and bronzed for a paperweight,” Vasily said rather dryly.
Any and all sounds in the office silenced instantly.
Vasily wasn't known for idle threats, and he always had a certain flair when it came to making a point.
“Good,” Vasily said, pleased with the quietness around him. “As I was saying, I wanted to revisit the attack on Ruslan last night, and what I have decided to do about it.”
Kaz shoved his hands in his pockets, curious but wisely choosing to stay quiet. It would do him no good to open his mouth at that moment, and he was well aware of that fact.