Page 26 of Brutal Union (Ruthless Mafia Kings #8)

NADIA

Aleksandr sits across the table from me.

A steaming cup of breakfast tea in his hand and his eyes locked on Lily, who’s perched at her desk, munching on a Granny Smith apple as she flips a page in Pet Sematary .

Her lips move silently with the words, her brow furrowed in concentration.

She’s so invested in King’s twisted little world, she doesn’t even flinch when Aleksandr shifts in his seat.

I drop into my chair across the room, black coffee in hand—strong enough to strip paint, just the way I like it. Aleksandr lifts his eyes to me just as I sink into the plush leather with a satisfied sigh.

“One of these days,” I nod in the direction of Lily. “She will feel you looking at her like that. Scream and I will never see my sweet girl again.”

He growls, turning to face me .

“My bad,” I smirk, raising the coffee cup to my lips. “ Our sweet girl.”

He glances toward Lily again, his voice low. “You shouldn’t have let her read that book.”

I swallow the faintly chocolate-tasting bitter coffee and slide my chair forward, tugging it closer to the desk. “She’s a grown woman. She can choose her own books.”

“She’ll have nightmares,” he mutters.

At the desk in the hallway, Lily leans closer to the book, her apple now resting half-eaten on the desk. Her lips have stopped moving—whatever part of Pet Sematary she’s in, it’s gripped her tight. She reads too fast to whisper now, and her glasses have slipped to the tip of her nose.

“This is the same girl that thought The Human Centipede was ‘kinda scary,’” I shrug, placing my mug down on the desk. “She’ll be fine.”

The elevator dings open and the quickened steps reveal a lanky delivery guy, holding a medium-sized package awkwardly under one arm. His uniform polo is wrinkled, his eyes sparkle a beautiful shade of brown as he smiles down at a book-obsessed Lily.

Clearing his throat, he pushes her book down with the tip of his finger, and softly speaks. “Hey Lily…I got a package for ya.”

The sexy way he says package makes her ears turn a faint color of pink, and she startles looking up with an embarrassed smile.

“Oh! Who is it for?” She says quickly, cheeks flushed. She stands and moves toward him, brushing her hair behind her ear as she reaches for the package.

“You must be really into that book,” the guy chuckles, handing it over, his gaze lingering too long on her face. “Didn’t even see me walk in.”

“She was busy being traumatized,” I offer dryly, sipping my coffee with an amused glint in my eye as I stare at Aleksandr, who is currently hunched over staring at Lily and the delivery guy as if they are both prey.

Lily giggles nervously. “It’s, uh, a classic.”

“You’re really into those horror books,” the guy says, grin widening.

“Yeah,” she blushes.

“Anything that goes boo, is up for me…too?” She trails off as she talks. “Sorry, I thought that was better in my head.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he sighs, leaning against the desk. “It’s cute.”

Aleksandr’s voice sucks all the sexual tension out of the room, as he growls “Drop off the package and leave.”

The delivery guy jumps, glancing toward the office where Aleksandr is now standing, looking like a viking ready to go to war.

Lily turns, frowning toward him. “Aleksandr, don’t be rude,” she calls, sticking her tongue out before turning back to sign the slip.

“I’ll show you rude if he doesn’t leave in the next thirty seconds,” he grumbles under his breath, plopping back into his chair .

I laugh, shaking my head. “Easy, Alek. You’re going to give yourself an ulcer.”

He glares at the poor delivery guy, as he takes back the pad and waves goodbye at Lily. “Where is Nik?”

I glance at the clock on the wall. “Supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.”

Aleksandr mutters something in Russian I can’t quite catch, but when I look up I see Lily shaking her head at him like he’s a puppy who peed on the carpet. Just as the elevator dings again. I hear Nikoali’s voice ring through the office.

“I’ll be back in an hour tops, but if the fever doesn’t go down Roshin will take you to the ER, and I will meet you there.” He waves at Lily, turns and looks into the room with a narrowed gaze, the door blocking most of his body. “Because I said so.”

I give him a tight smile, showing my hands so he knows I won’t try to hurt him this time…at least not immediately. “Alright. I love you, Kotik.”

Nik hangs up and enters the room. “No knives this time?”

“Are you going to disrespect me this time?” I counter, leaning back in his expensive leather desk chair.

“Of course not, Vor.” He nods, bowing slightly in a sign of respect.

“Then close the door and sit.” I nod, pointing to the two chairs in front of me.

They follow accordingly, sitting across from me like two loyal guards rather than my brothers. “I have called you here as your sister, not as the Vor v Zakone of the Bratva.” Highest ranking official of the Bratva .

“This must be good,” Nik chuckles, leaning back in his chair.

Aleksandr’s brow twitches. “I thought you couldn’t trust us.”

“I can’t, but this is my only option,” I shrug. “You are my only option, because I need you to back me… not just as soldiers or subordinates—but as blood.”

“Whatever you need Nadi,” Alek nods.

“I have a boyfriend.”

Aleksandr scoffs so loudly it echoes. Nik blinks, as if I’ve just spoken in tongues.

“You brought us in here,” Nik growls, “like this is a fucking emergency—and it’s about a boyfriend ?”

“Not just any boyfriend,” I say, eyes narrowing. “Sho.”

Aleksandr closes his eyes. Nik shoots to his feet, the chair scraping hard against the floor.

“You want us to give up our biggest bargaining chip , our only leverage with the Yakuza—for your boyfriend ?” he snarls, pacing as his hand grip his hair at the root.

I stay seated, as calm as I can. “Yes.”

“You’ve lost your goddamn mind,” Nik snaps, pointing toward me. “Aleksandr told you who Sho was. I thought you had a cute crush, not this. This is too fucking far--”

“I am not asking for you to go to war with them,” I bite back. “I am just not giving him over to the Yakuza. ”

Alek leans back, running his hands over his face, before huffing out a sound of annoyance. “Would you give up the Bratva for him? ”

“No.” I meet his gaze. “I want both. And if you are truly loyal to me, as your flesh and blood, then you will help me have both.”

“You cannot have both, Nadia. You choose this family. You choose the Bratva, or you choose him.”

“Nikolai--”

Aleksandr sighs. “Nik’s right. You can’t have both. You know what the council will say if they find out?—”

“I don’t care what the council says,” I snap. “I care what you say. I care that you will stand beside me and help me. Nikolai, we did everything for Gwen. You never had to choose between us and her.”

Nik leans back slowly, rubbing a hand over his jaw, eyes dark with conflict.

“I am not asking you to like this,” I continue, the words catching on the dread curling like smoke in my chest. “I am asking you not to abandon me. Don’t make me choose.”

The silence stretches. Aleksandr looks away first, jaw clenched so tight the veins in his neck stand out.

I zero in on him. “Let me ask you this, Alek. Would you give up the throne? Would you give up us… if it meant keeping Lily alive? If it meant you could be with her?”

Aleksandr stiffens, his eyes glancing towards the double doors.

For a moment, he doesn’t speak. Doesn’t breathe. His shoulders rise and fall once. Then he meets my gaze and nods.

“Without hesitation,” he says, voice low. “But don’t mistake my answer for approval. Nadia, you will get us all killed. ”

“You don’t have to agree,” I reply, softer now. “You just have to trust me.”

Aleksandr mutters a string of Russian curses, half under his breath, and sinks back into the chair. “Like you trust us?”

I hold his stare, unflinching. “This is how you prove your loyalty to me.”

“And if we say no?” Nik asks, looking between Alek and me.

My eyes sharpen. “Then I’ll do what I have to, and whether you both survive or not is your business.”

“Fuck,” Nik hisses. “You better reinstate me.”

Aleksandr leans forward, hands on his knees. “This is your fate, Nadi. I will not stand in your way, and I will stand with you when this eventually explodes in our faces.”

The breath I didn’t realize I was holding slips from my lips, slow and shaky. Every muscle in my body unwinds like string, the tension bleeding out of me until all that’s left is the after-burn of holding on too much, for too long.

Then my phone rings. The sharp trill rings through the room. I glance down.

The caller ID shows the name Asshole which is still Sho’s name in my phone. This man has perfect timing.

I rise slowly from the chair, lifting the phone just enough to show the screen.

“You’re dismissed,” I say quietly. “Both of you.”

Nik arches a brow. “That’s him, isn’t it?”

“What about dismissed, do you not understand?” I cock my head to the side, and Nik holds up his hands with a tiny smile on his face.

“I think she’s scarier with a boyfriend,” Nik teases, wiggling his eyebrows as he backs away to the door. Alek chuckles quickly following him out of the room.

I answer the phone, the smile that creaks across my face. “Boyfriend.”

“Girlfriend,” he says in a voice that makes me think his smile must be blinding. “I got a quick question for you.”

“Shoot,” I smile, leaning back in my chair and placing both of my boots on the desk.

“A really old, crappy guy is currently sitting with my blade against his neck, but he told me that you are supposed to hand me over to the fucking Yakuza?” Sho asks, in a voice that sounds too amused to be serious. “Is he lying, or do I get to pound his head in the rocks?”

The breath catches in my throat. “What old ass man told you that?”

“I’ll tell you that if I like your answer,” he grunts, the sound of waves crashing in the background. “Now were you, or were you not supposed to deliver me to the Yakuza in exchange for an alliance and the location of your father.”

I sit up straight. My legs slide off the desk and hit the floor with a dull thud. My spine locks into place as if bracing for impact. A slow, tight pressure coils in my chest, and I can’t breathe right.

“You don’t understand?— ”

“Hime.” His voice is clipped. Sharp. Controlled in the way that only means he’s anything but. “What did you do?”

“Sho, this was before?—”

“Before what?” His voice hardens. “When did you make this deal?”

I hesitate. My lungs feel shallow. “Three months ago.”

A silence follows. It stretches too long.

“I fucked you three months ago,” he says. The words leave his mouth without hesitation. He isn’t asking. He’s stating fact. The kind that breaks things. A short, humorless chuckle follows, but it doesn’t sound amused. It sounds tired. Hollow.

“Sho—back then, we were just?—”

“Just what?” he cuts in, his voice louder now, more direct. “Because we weren’t friends, and we weren’t enemies. So what were we?”

I swallow. I try to find something solid to stand on, but my thoughts feel loose and slipping through my hands.

“Sho, stop. Just talk to me.”

“Fine,” he growls. “Talk to me , Nadia. Say something. Tell me the truth.”

The heat in his voice scorches through the phone, and I flinch at the sharpness of it, at the way it pierces through my chest. I don’t look around the room—I can’t. I’m not here anymore. I’m with him, wherever he is. Feeling him come apart. Because of me.

“Because from where I’m standing,” he continues, his voice snapping like tension wire, “it looks like the Bratva made a deal with the very people who’ve tried to kill me. Who’ve hunted me across three continents. Who tortured the boy I used to be until there was nothing left.”

He breathes hard, but doesn’t stop.

“And you said nothing. You didn’t warn me. You didn’t try to protect me. You didn’t even tell me. You're silent. You’re still fucking silent.”

“I never said I did that,” I snap, my breath coming out in sharp gusts of air.

“You didn’t need to, Nadia. You hesitated,” he whispers. “You hesitated, and I felt it. In my fucking chest. I felt it”

My pulse drums in my ears, a rush of panic slicing through me. I grip the desk to steady myself, the wood groaning under the pressure.

“Did you ever love me, Nadia?” Sho asks, voice low. The gravel in his throat makes him sound fucking wrecked. “Or was that just another weapon in your arsenal?”

The words splinter something deep inside me.

I don’t answer. Because I don’t know. I’ve never felt love.

I’ve felt control. Hunger. Power. Obsession.

Unyielding loyalty. Companionship. I’ve felt the ecstasy of bloodshed and the high of victory.

But love? That’s a language I never learned.

No one ever taught me. No one ever stayed long enough.

I don’t even know what love would feel like, but I can’t lose him.

I can’t feel this everlasting pain in my chest.

I can’t call what I have with Sho love, but I know he was the first person to see the monster inside of me and still want to touch it. But I don’t know if that’s love. Or just something close enough to trick me .

Sho exhales shakily on the other end. “I loved you, Nadia. Even when you had a blade to my throat. Even when I knew you could end me with a word. I never lied. I never betrayed you.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I whisper, like if I say it softly enough it’ll be true. “Sho, please. We’ll figure it out.”

“I can’t trust you.”

“You can ?—”

He laughs again, louder this time, crueler. “Don’t say that. Don’t you fucking say that .”

My heart feels like it’s trying to claw its way out of my chest.

“I meant what I said in the basement,” he continues, voice steady now—too steady. “If you wanted me, you’d have to come get me yourself. But don’t bother anymore.”

“Sho—”

“This is over.” His voice goes ice-cold. “I’m as good as dead to you now. That’s what you wanted, right? To kill me? To sentence me to a life of torture.”

I gasp, the words not leaving my lips.

The empty chuckle that crawls across the speaker and laces through my flesh makes me want to scream. “You got your wish, Hime.”

And then— Click.

The line goes dead.

And for the first time in years, I feel something dangerously close to fear.

Not for him. For me .

Because I think I just lost the one person who made me feel anything at all. I think I may have just lost the closest thing I have ever felt to love.