Page 69 of The Ecstasy of Sin

Eric Malone fucking bailed on tonight. One of my crew told him he was up against Dom.

TORIN

That’s why we keep telling you to keep your mouth shut about your main eventer.

RYKER

Not my fault he’s a little bitch.

GHOST

So, there's no fight?

RYKER

Of course there is. Maksim took Eric’s place.

TORIN

As in Dimitri fucking Volkov’s brother?

RYKER

The one and only.

GHOST

We really need to do something about those fuckers.

TORIN

He’s been pressuring you to sell his drugs in your club for months, and you sign up his brother to fight Dom?

RYKER

He knows the stakes. He knows men die in my cage.

GHOST

You crazy son of a bitch. You want Dom to kill him.

TORIN

Does that mean we’re officially Team Killian Kinahan?

Dimitri and Maksim’s efforts to carve out a foothold in Toronto’s criminal underworld has escalated lately. Their crew is just one small branch of the Bratva, but they’ve got heavy homeland support.

They must be under a lot of pressure to fill the void the Italian mob left behind when they were wiped out.

A quiet war’s been brewing between the Russians and the Irish, and the only thing keeping it from getting loud and bloody isthe influence me and my brothers have over the city. No one takes power unless they have the Brotherhood’s blessing.

And the Russians don’t. They want us to accept their authority. To serve. To play pawns on their board while they crown themselves kings. But the Brotherhood bows to no one.

Killian Kinahan and his Irish syndicate have been here longer. They respect my brothers and I, and have no interest in getting involved with us outside of hiring us to tip the scales of power in their favour.

We made a promise long ago to never move forward with any major plays unless all four of us were on board, and Ryker took a long fucking time to agree to finally taking action.

He’s the one that will be at the forefront dealing with these fuckers, so I can’t say that I blame him for taking the time to think on our options.