Page 27 of Trapped by the Bratva (The Valkov Bratva #5)

DMITRI

“ I know it’s not ideal,” Alek said with a measured and cautious glance at me across the table, “but it seems like the best option.”

I exhaled steadily through my nose, refusing to comment.

We would officially back off from going after Avilov. That was what this meeting was called for.

They had a solid lead on Erik Avilov. Finally, the man who tortured me was showing up and lingering somewhere in New York City.

On our turf. Part of the reason the Avilovs were so hard to pin down was because they didn’t operate strictly out of the States.

Lev Avilov preferred his yachts and staying at sea, and most of his men ran businesses in an international sense.

That was also, I presumed, why the FBI and countless other law enforcement agencies around the world wanted to get the new leader.

It wasn’t just here that they committed crimes.

They weren’t selective to kidnap and torture enemies and get in the middle of existing feuds with other crime families here.

It was something they had their hands in all over the world.

“Freeman has more resources to follow Avilov,” Maxim said, also glancing at me as though he counted on my disliking what he had to say. “Buttane was after Lev Avilov for decades. Freeman’s been on the case too. Others are as well.”

“It sounds like we’re jumping in on their efforts,” Nik added.

Alek nodded. “I can see it in that light too.”

I sighed. “So we can’t ‘take’ this one. That’s what you’re saying?” It killed me to let someone else capture Erik Avilov. To allow someone else to be the executioner of that sadist.

I hated that I wouldn’t be the one to end the man’s life, and I doubted this aftertaste of disappointment would fade soon.

But I understood what they were concerned about.

So many others wanted to bring Avilov down. We were “new” to this game. Avilov hadn’t been a rival before Sergei Kastava approached them for funding and support to attack us. Before then, the Avilov outfit hadn’t been on our minds or part of any of our agendas.

It would cause more problems if we took over this situation.

If Alek told Freeman and all the other agents to fuck off, that his brother wanted dibs on killing Erik, we’d instigate more issues to deal with in the long run.

Looking at it from a different perspective, I realized that I didn’t have any real claim to killing Avilov.

I was only the most recent victim, one among so many.

“The Feds sound like they’ve been determined to learn more about the Avilov organization for a long time.

The whole thing. All of them and their many subsidiaries,” Maxim said.

“They don’t just want Erik Avilov.” He looked me in the eye.

“And trust me, I want to kill that fucker for ever trying to hurt Nadia on top of what he did to you.”

“All of us do, Dmitri. You know that,” Nik said.

I nodded. I did know it. I hadn’t been talking out of my ass when I told Hannah how close-knit we brothers were. I was aware that they wanted to avenge what happened to me.

“But Erik is only one piece of the organization,” Alek said. “They need him—alive—to really start the process of dismantling their family and corporations.”

And we didn’t have any scrimmages with them, not as a whole. They’d only entered our realm of interest when Lev backed Sergei Kastava in trying to attack us and then capturing and torturing me.

“I can see that,” I admitted. It wasn’t easy to give up. This was what it felt like, surrendering completely, but I wouldn’t be a stubborn asshole just for the sake of it.

I thought back again to Hannah knocking on the door’s window.

She seemed stressed, and I was in a rush to see her and help her with whatever was bothering her.

If I had to guess, that fucking good-for-nothing sister of hers had called her.

It was past time for her to change her numbers for good.

And why wouldn’t she when she should know she had a place with me, for good?

I really like the sound of that. Knowing I had Hannah to focus on for my future helped ease the sting of annoyance that I had to give up my rights to killing Erik.

“We won’t stand in the Feds’ way,” Alek said. “And we’ve agreed to let them in on what we know about Avilov’s movements in the city.”

Maxim nodded. “Freeman’s been grateful for the surveillance intel I’ve shared with him so far.”

“While the Feds are busy dismantling the Avilovs, we can concentrate on our enemies, on our turf. Primarily the Kastavas.”

I grunted in agreement. We were long overdue to squash those pests once and for all.

I had a bone to pick with Sergei Kastava for arranging for my capture.

But Alek was determined to show his father-in-law what he thought of his attempts to get his daughter back—as if it wasn’t bad enough that he’d put a hit on his daughter in the first place when she didn’t marry according to his plans.

The meeting concluded after we discussed a few more details. I appreciated how my brothers were considerate of my opinions and input about the situation. At the end of the day, though, Erik Avilov wasn’t mine to kill.

Afterward, as I began to leave to find Hannah and see what she wanted, Alek gestured for me to stop and talk with him.

“I’m impressed.”

“With what?” I asked, shifting my weight on my feet and glad that today was a “good” day. I felt only slight discomfort in my ankle.

“You. I’m impressed with how level-headed you are about all of this.”

I smirked at him. Now. How level-headed I am now. I gave him plenty of shit for even wanting to cooperate with the Feds and help them in the beginning.

“I respect that you’ve changed your opinions about this. It couldn’t have been easy.”

“It’s never easy.” I bet the deeper scars of my torture would be with me forever. They would be more manageable with Hannah in my life. She calmed me. She soothed me, and with her stubborn optimism and happiness, she pushed me to be a better, more balanced man.

“You’re not letting your revenge control your life anymore.”

I nodded. Sometime over the last several days of being with Hannah, I’d come to accept that.

When we were house hunting, I couldn’t shake the feeling of belonging with her.

Of each of us grounding the other. Like a phoenix or some sappy shit like that, I was emerging from the pain of my injuries and rising as a new, better man.

“It’s come to my attention that there might be more to life than sticking in the past.” I shrugged. “A new home. A new woman.” Hannah and a place to call our own. That was all I needed. It sounded like a promise of a better life than sticking to the past.

“So long as Erik is handled,” I said and arched a brow. “So long as Erik is no longer a threat… Fine.”

He patted me on my back, the opposite side of where my shoulder still felt too tight.

I was overdue for more exercises, and I wondered if maybe that was what had Hannah seeking me out.

She was always so diligent to keep me to my routine of stretches and movements meant to regain strength.

My girl was a stickler for improvement, no matter how old it got or how hard it could be to keep going.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Alek huffed a single laugh. “But I can’t say Mila and the others will let go of her so easily. They seem ready to fight over who gets to ask her to babysit.”

“She doesn’t mind.” Every time she came back from spending time with my nieces or nephew, she was happy and smiling.

Maybe we shouldn’t wait on starting a family after all. I wanted to be greedy and hog her, but time would tell how long it would take to knock her up. I didn’t plan to ever use a condom with her. Feeling her wrapped around my bare dick was too damn good of a bliss to ever pass up.

Alek accompanied me on the walk back to my wing.

He wasn’t nosy, but curious, with his questions about where we were looking to move to.

We all had multiple properties, most handed down through the family, but I wasn’t alone in wanting to have a separate, family-friendly house apart from this mansion.

He and Mila were still looking for a place, but this large property would likely be his home for good since he was the Pakhan and we treated this location as our most heavily guarded headquarters.

When we walked into my wing, Hannah wasn’t there.

“I could have sworn I saw her at the window to the doors during our meeting,” Alek said, furrowing his brow as I looked around and called out for her.

“I saw her too. She knocked, but I gave her a look to tell her to wait.” She’d appeared right when they were discussing letting the Feds have Avilov, and I couldn’t pull my focus from that topic then.

“She seemed kind of worried,” I added. “I’m guessing her sister called her again.”

“Is she going to be a problem?” Alek asked, hands in his pocket.

He was chill and relaxed with that question, because if Melissa was a problem, he’d find a way to take care of it.

By calling Hannah my woman, she was automatically granted full protection and security the same as Mila, Amy, Becca, and Nadia had.

“She already has been a problem for Hannah. All their lives, it seems.” I frowned, stopping at a note left on the table in the living room. “What the hell?”

I read it three times, shifting aside so Alek could skim it over my shoulder too.

“Melissa’s the sister?” he asked.

I nodded. “This shit is going to stop now.”

Fury filled my veins, making my heart pump harder and faster. That bitch had interfered too far, trying to follow Hannah and see who she was working for now. She was no longer just an employee of the Valkov Bratva, nursing me back to full health. She was my woman.

I was so eager to tell her that I was going to put my trust in my brothers and let the Feds have Avilov. That I wasn’t going to focus only on revenge. That I had her to live for now.

She’d tamed me. But she wasn’t here. She was off to be too damn giving and compassionate with the one woman who didn’t deserve an ounce of her generosity or money.

“Let’s go,” Alek said. He already had his phone out as I frowned at him.

“After her?” I asked. Me too? I was ready for him to insist that I was too weak or wounded.

He nodded. “You’re walking fine, as far as I can tell. We’ll bring a crew with us.”

I was glad he wasn’t trying to insist that I stay here and let others handle this situation for me. He’d never realize how much that gesture mattered to me.

I wasn’t a damn invalid, and it was with careful urgency that I left with him. Soldiers rode with us, in this car and another. We weren’t being rash or impulsive, and I was confident I could handle the strain of moving this far and this much.

My shoulder tensed and my ankle started to throb, but not in debilitating degrees. Even if they hurt, I’d plow through it and get Hannah away from her sister.

“At least she told you where she was going,” Alek mused as he got off the phone with someone at Freeman’s office.

“She likes to be honest,” I replied. “But I don’t like that she didn’t tell anyone else.

Not even a guard.” I mentally cringed at the possibility that this was why she’d knocked on the window during the meeting.

She’d known that I would want to be immediately informed of a connection with the Avilovs.

“You’ll need to tell her that she can’t leave without a guard.”

Alek was right. I bet Hannah would struggle with that loss of freedom, to be expected to never be alone out in the world again. But security was a must. “Oh, she’ll learn a lesson, all right.” I’d teach her.

I’d teach her all she needed to know about being my woman.

First, I had to sever the ties between her and her sister and walk away from these Avilov connections for good.