Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
This morning he had to attend to several business meetings with some of his brigadiers over some pressing matters. Drugs had gone missing and Dmitry wasn’t happy. There was a loose cog in their organization and he was going to find it and destroy it. No one stole from him, fucking no one. It wouldn’t be long before he had the information he needed. He had spies in all areas and he’d find the problem. He needed to focus, not be standing at his office window, looking out at the blonde distraction playing with Sofia.
He expected one taste to be enough. Women never entertained him for long. He’d known how poisonous and toxic they could be. He never allowed any of them to get close, not even his dead wife. Dmitry had kept her at a distance, only fucking her when he had to. Her only duty to him had been to give him a child. Once Sofia was born, her duty had been to provide him with a son, but she turned on him.
Dmitry hadn’t given a shit about a son or a daughter. One look at Sofia, he had loved her instantly. He knew his men demanded a son. Someone to pass the Balakin line to. They would never follow a woman and if he could, he would make sure Sofia’s life never touched this world. It would be hard, but he was determined for that to happen.
There was a knock on his door. He stepped away from the window and took a seat. “Come in,” he said.
Benjamin Nikitin, one of his spies, stepped into his office, closing the door behind him. He didn’t trust anyone but if he even allowed himself to lower his guard, he would do so for Benjamin. The man had taken several bullets for him, as well as a few knives during his years of service. The man before him was the bastard son of one of the old brigadiers as well as a whore for a mother.
He’d been placed into Dmitry’s father’s household. All Bratva were to be taken care of, but Benjamin’s father refused to have him. The truth was, Nikitin’s wife had been a cruel woman. Once she heard what he’d done with the whore, the woman had turned up dead. Dmitry’s father hadn’t liked the cruelty and power the woman showed and in doing what she did, he stripped Nikitin of his title and forced his wife to serve the new brigadiers. In terms of roles, Benjamin had more power than Nikitin did.
Dmitry liked to take Benjamin and rub it in the bitch’s face. That was always a fun dinner party. To have her serve Benjamin, the bastard son of her downfall.
His father had taught him that there were always consequences for actions. For Nikitin, it was because he’d not been able to control his wife. If he couldn’t control his wife, he couldn’t control his own men. His powers had been stripped, and because his wife had been so cruel and killed a woman who could provide sons, she had been forced to undergo a hysterectomy and stripped of her title. She was forced to serve those that were once within her power, that she was now powerless to.
This was a warning to all Bratva—they must keep to the rules, otherwise, they could end up serving those they had been cruel to in the past.
Benjamin took a seat.
Dmitry tensed as he reached into his jacket but he pulled out a file. “They went missing between these two points.” He opened the map and pointed at the two locations.
Staring at the map, he saw who they passed between but what he also recognized was George’s location. He was tempted to look out the window.
“We have an associate here,” Dmitry said.
“I know, but his shop has been closed for several weeks now.”
“Several weeks?” Dmitry asked. “This is news to me.”
“According to Angeloff, he told you,” Benjamin said.
Dmitry tapped his fingers on the table. “They pass through Angeloff’s territory. He’s the one that introduced us to George.” Again, he wanted to look at the man’s wife.
“Rumor is, he gave his wife to save his own neck,” Benjamin said.
He didn’t say a word.
This is why he allowed some rumors to be repeated. In order to survive, he had to set up a web of confusion to all those around him. No one can know what he planned to do. His father had taught him this from a young age. When you had power, everyone would try to take it from you.
Being the one with the most power was a lonely position. At least his father had told him that on his death bed. One of those scary-as-fuck all-feeling confessions. All his life, he’d felt the harshness of his father’s tongue, the strike of his belt, the slap of his palm.