Page 6 of Tangled Souls (Bratva Souls Duet #2)

KIRILL

After taking a few days off and a long weekend, which wasn’t nearly long enough, being back at work and stuck behind my desk makes me want to rage and burn down the entire building. At least then I could easily excuse being at home with our wife instead. But here I am.

Without any more answers than I had a day ago, a week ago, fucking months ago.

Everything with Mikhail makes it feel like I’m chasing my tail and it’s been this way for far too long. With Oaklynn in our lives, the pressure for this to be done, for the man who is desperate for power in this city to be eradicated, has only increased.

It feels like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. The responsibility to keep my family alive has never felt this heavy before.

I know it’s because it matters so much more now, but that doesn’t make it any easier to manage.

My eyes are narrowed on Hendrix at the moment and have been since he’s stepped forward as the mouthpiece for his team today.

It’s possible he hasn’t earned my ire, but I’m not going to admit that out loud.

Not now. I need to direct this frustration somewhere, right or wrong, and he’s in my crosshairs.

“What you’re saying is that we still don’t have any idea where Mikhail is or what he’s doing?” The growled question feels like it comes from deep inside of me, from the beast I’ve been working hard to keep under control.

But now it’s virtually impossible.

Even the thought of our woman, of her softness and her strength, does nothing to soothe the feral creature inside of me. He wants out. Desperately.

Maybe the only solution to this problem is to take out the entire fucking city. Let it burn while keeping our woman safe.

Hendrix rubs his hand over his face, the frustration in his eyes matching my own. “I know it’s not what you want to hear, Kirill,” there’s a placating note in his tone which has my fingers twitching to reach for my gun.

I don’t.

Barely.

He holds his hands up in surrender. It does nothing to quench the fire burning in my gut.

“Now we have a weakness, one which has been made very public.” My voice turns ice cold and deadly, “The wedding being made public on social media and in the papers was necessary, but it doesn’t sit right with me.”

“We needed something to draw him out. He won’t be able to deal with the pressure. You know it was the right call,” Hendrix points out.

“I don’t have to like it.”

“No,” he concedes, “you don’t. With Chambers and Lev being put down, you marrying Oaklynn is going to feel like another hit to his ego.”

“That is assuming he knew that he was the one who was supposed to marry our woman in the first place,” I’m barely able to get the words out of my mouth.

I hate them so fucking much. The thought of our woman, our Oaklynn, being married to an animal like Mikhail makes the edges of my vision blur a little as anger threatens to take me under the surface. It would be so easy to drown in the feeling, the rage, but I fight against the undertow.

It won’t do me any good to have my emotions overrun. Not right now.

I’ve always prided myself on being levelheaded and being able to anticipate what is coming my way, but with Oaklynn in the mix I feel out of my depth.

“You didn’t have to marry her so quickly,” Hendrix points out.

I tilt my head to the side and assess the man, wondering what the fuck he’s thinking. “Are you trying to get Kirby pissed at me?”

He grins, but it’s not nice by any stretch of the imagination. “Why would she be pissed at you?”

Like he doesn’t fucking know.

“You know,” I make a dismissive motion with my hand as if my words are casual when they are anything but, “if I were to send you home to her in a body bag.”

Hendrix barks out a laugh, but there’s no trace of amusement in the sound. I’m very aware that the man in front of me, the one who has never backed down from a fight or a dangerous situation, is more than willing to walk through fire. That was how he was forged in the first fucking place.

Then there’s the fact that he’s highly trained. He might be an asset, but that doesn’t mean he’s not being an asshole right now.

Might as well be one back.

“But, then again, she does have two other men. Maybe you’re expendable to her,” I muse.

Hendrix doesn’t rise to the occasion, his face remaining a neutral mask. His eyes don’t even flare in anger.

I know it’s not because he doesn’t care. I’ve watched him, along with Dominic and Wolfe, with Kirby.

He’s just not letting me push his buttons. It’s pissing me off.

“I get it, you don’t want a target on Oaklynn’s back.” Hendrix’s voice is measured and steady. “But the reality is that the moment she came here to see you and tell you what her father as up to, she was put in danger. Don’t pretend like you didn’t know the risks.”

“Fuck off, Hendrix,” I growl, my voice filled with a threat I know he won’t heed.

“I’m not going to blow sunshine up your ass, Volkov,” Hendrix barks. “I’m also not saying anything you don’t already know.”

Baker grunts under his breath, “Fucking hell.”

When I look at him, he’s running a hand over the back of his head, clearly agitated with my behavior. I can’t say I blame him. I’m acting like a fucking asshole, but I can’t help it.

“This shit needs to end. And soon,” I bark the words.

“I’m not disagreeing,” Hendrix tries to placate me.

“No, but you aren’t doing a fucking thing to smoke Mikhail out,” I challenge him.

He stiffens slightly, showing the first crack in his armor.

“I’m going to call our woman and get her ass down here,” Maxim states like he’s talking about the color of the sky, “it seems like you could use some stress relief, brother.” He grumbles, more to himself than anyone else, “One would think you’d be relaxed considering the number of times you filled our woman since the wedding. ”

I snap my head around to glare at my brother as Hendrix tries to smother a smile with his hand. It doesn’t work.

Assholes.

I’m surrounded by pricks who don’t seem to feel the same thing I do. The noose tightening. The danger approaching. The darkness encroaching.

Can’t they see? Our woman is in danger.

Yes, I’m aware I brought the danger right to her. It might be my fault that our woman can’t go anywhere without an escort, which will be true even after Mikhail is finally taken care of, but I’m not going to apologize for it.

At least not in front of Hendrix.

Maybe the rest of them.

But that’s only because I can’t seem to stop myself from softening when I’m around our woman. She brings it out in me, and I can’t help it. It’s one of the reasons desperation is clawing at me. I want our woman to be safe and right now that is the last thing she is.

“Don’t talk about her like that,” I grit the words out through my teeth, my eyes locked on my brother.

Maxim holds up his hands, but the smirk on his face tells me he’s far from sorry. And now I’m thinking about sinking my cock into our woman’s tight, wet cunt. Even after shaking my head in the attempt to dispel the thoughts, they plague me.

“But now you’re thinking about it,” Maxim singsongs like a fucking court jester.

He kind of is. Even though I’m still on edge, I can feel some of the anger dissipating. Not enough, not nearly enough, but some.

After a few deep breaths, my vision becomes sharper, and I can look at Hendrix without wanting to launch myself at him to beat him until his blood is coating me. I might not like the fact that there hasn’t been nearly enough to find about Mikhail, but the man, and his men, are family.

Damn it.

“Shut it,” I command Maxim even though there’s no real heat behind the words.

“You are right about something, Kirill,” Hendrix pulls my attention back to him with his words.

He shares an uneasy look with Wolfe who has been quiet during this meeting which isn’t like him. Dominic is the same stoic presence he normally is.

When I arch an eyebrow in question at Hendrix, he sighs and admits, “You do have a weakness now.”

“Oaklynn knows how to take care of herself,” Baker points out.

Baker has assessed her in and out of the ring many times in the last few months. Watching when they spar is like watching foreplay and it does normally end with them naked, but that doesn’t mean she’s not capable of hurting someone when she needs to.

She’s sparred with all of us at least once. It put my mind at ease, but my heart is still pounding in my chest at the thought of her being in danger.

“She shouldn’t have to take care of herself,” my words are tortured and ragged.

“No,” Baker agrees, “she shouldn’t. But my point is that she can. And she has protection as well. Just in case.”

Hendrix nods, knowing all of this already. He’s gotten in the ring and spared with Oaklynn as well. As impressed with our woman as I am, the thought of her needing to use those skills has my gut pitching from one side and then the other.

“I think we need to use it,” Hendrix throws out there casually.

My eyes are not the only ones which snap to him. The only people who don’t look surprised right now are Wolfe and Dominic.

“Explain,” I bark.

“We put Oaklynn in controlled environments and get her out in public. No more hiding her away.”

“We haven’t been hiding her away,” Huck tries to defend us.

Hendrix doesn’t look at all impressed with Huck’s bullshit. And we all know that is exactly what it is—bullshit.

“Okay,” there’s no judgement in Hendrix’s tone, “you’ve been taking your time and getting to know her.

But the fact is that before she met the four of you, she was active within the community.

She spent time volunteering with various charities and helped to organize charity functions.

” He shrugs one shoulder as if he’s not asking us to knowingly put our woman in danger.

“I’m not saying you wrap her in neon or anything, I’m just suggesting that she goes back to business as usual. ”

I’m shaking my head before I’ve even given myself a chance to process his words.

On the surface, I can appreciate the fact that he’s making sense. But my heart is pounding in my chest, and my gut is twisting uncomfortably.

Putting our woman out there, into the world, while knowing Mikhail is looking for any opportunity to weaken us, to hurt us? It doesn’t feel right.

I clench my hands together in fists and fight my instincts to hurt Hendrix for even suggesting such a thing.

Baker sighs, the sound labored and filled with regret. “You know our woman is not going to allow us to keep her locked away in some tower like she’s a fucking Disney princess,” he points out.

Unhelpfully.

I shoot the man a look which has made more than one man piss himself before. He’s not the least bit affected by it. And that only pisses me off more.

“That doesn’t mean we use her as bait,” I roar the words.

They might be right about this, and I know Oaklynn would probably go along with it, but that doesn’t mean I need to like it.

When I get my hands on Mikhail, I’ll finally be able to put this all to rest and move forward. That cockroach has been a problem for far too long.

It’s past time for him to die.