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CHAPTER EIGHT

NIKOLAY

Surprise! Everyone knows about your vampires.

Nikolay gritted his teeth as he stood looking out of his St. Petersburg mansion. Elizabeth was sleeping, as she had for days, since being kidnapped by Brayden Moretti and his big oaf of a sidekick.

He hadn’t expected that. God knows why, but he thought the vampire would rush to get his mate and be putty in his hands.

Yet again, he’d underestimated them.

Nikolay figured they knew he had Elizabeth—a former BioZen employee—but not that she was his wife and someone he, well, yes, loved.

Fuck it.

He’d lusted after her the moment he laid eyes on her. Stolen her from Xander and then kidnapped her. She was the filthiest and sexiest little Italian slut he’d ever met. Perfect for him.

When Elizabeth had told him she was pregnant, there had been no choice but to marry her. After a fast private ceremony, they were now awaiting the birth of his heir.

Flying her to Russia after the trauma of being taken by the vampires was not ideal. Neither was staying in the United States. It wasn’t an option.

Not after that stupid fucking human revealed to the world that vampires truly did exist.

Talk about stealing his thunder.

He’d had to listen to his partners in crime—literally—rub it in his face. Specifically, Enzo, mob boss of the NYC Italian Mafia. He enjoyed every minute.

“Surprise, everyone knows about your vampires.” He’d blown out his cigar smoke with glee in his eyes.

Idiot.

But the partnership was dead and ineffective, so Nikolay no longer gave a fuck. They were useless to him now.

After instructing them to do everything in their power to produce the serum which put vampires into a temporary sleep, the gang leaders had got to work agreeing to a percentage of the profit.

Instead, the government had destroyed their plants and distribution channels.

Which confirmed his suspicions. Someone at the top of the food chain in the US knew about vampires. Otherwise, why would they have put that much resource into stopping them?

They didn’t for drugs. Proving how much they cared about their doped-up citizens.

Not much.

Probably because the crime families lined enough of the politician’s pockets to keep them off their backs. How people didn’t connect the fucking dots, he didn’t know.

Idiots.

All of them.

“What’s the plan, Pakhan?” Alexis asked, leaning with his arms crossed on the corner of the wall.

Nikolay turned to his second and stared for a long moment. On a nearby sofa, Demetri sat with his arm along the back of the furniture. He gazed at him next before speaking. “We can’t trust them.”

“Who, the vamps?” Demetri asked.

“The families,” Alexis replied. “Their value has diminished.”

That was why he was his second-in-charge.