THE RUSSIAN THUG: Abducted by the Bratva ~Krasnov Brothers Book 1~

by Warren, Rie

  But they’d all lowered their firearms. Even Lucky and Arkady.

  “Remind me of that later,” I sassed quietly, but my knees still wobbled.

  I finally got a good look at my brothers and I almost wept at the sight of them now that the six not-amigos had chilled the hell out for a second.

  Then Kelly, who was ginger-haired like me, sneered. “What the hell you wearing, sis?”

  Kirill’s cold voice could level a lesser man when he said, “Proper clothes. Not that shit you let her go around in, pretending to be a boy. Besides, I usually prefer to keep her naked, but I didn’t think you’d appreciate me parading her around out here like that.”

  It was like he wanted to throw gasoline on the fire.

  Fresh rage brimmed from my brothers—nostrils flared, cheeks hollowed, eyes glimmering darkly.

  I swallowed harshly and attempted to head off another firestorm.

  Stepping forward with Kirill my constant shadow, I tilted my head. “Do you all know each other?”

  “Da.”

  “Yeah.”

  “As much as I want to.”

  “I don’t even wanna be here.” Dex glared.

  Ugh.

  Frowning, I tried to placate everyone again. “Well, Lucky, you asked the Krasnovs to come here for a reason, right?”

  Kirill yanked me back by my tied wrists, his face taking on severe angles. “I told you to mind your place.”

  I glanced at him. “I’ll be quiet now. Just hear them out, please.”

  His narrowed eyes shone like black sparks, but he nodded shortly.

  He lay a heavy hand on my shoulder and gestured to Lucky who stomped forward a few paces, his scowl not lifting at all.

  “If you’re here to take her back, that is not going to happen.” Kirill’s grip tightened. “Now, you owe us for the booze you’ve been ripping us off with as well as the damage to The Sickle.”

  Brother against brother, the other four carefully guarded one another.

  I knew as enforcer, Kirill was usurping Arkady’s role as underboss yet Arkady stood back and let him take over.

  The three of them had a special bond, just like my brothers did.

  Lucky stood stiffly. “We had nothing to do with the retaliation last night.”

  “Really. And I was hearing things when someone yelled that the shooting was a message from the O’Sullivans?” Scoffing, Kirill spread his feet wide, bulking up his stance.

  “That was our da.” Kelly ranged closer.

  Arkady shadowed him like a grim reaper.

  “He decided on that course of action. Not the three of us,” Kelly persisted.

  “Why wouldn’t you come after your own sister? You knew I had her.” Kirill wasn’t buying it, and he wasn’t letting last night’s shootout go either.

  After hanging his head for a moment, Lucky glanced up.

  His blue irises reflected the glow of the SUVs headlights. “Maybe you think we don’t care about Jo.” He stared at me, his eyes crinkled at the corners. “We decided she might be better off outside of the clan’s compound.”

  Kirill rocked back. “Better off? Without her family?”

  It was what I’d tried to tell him before.

  Not without my family.

  But without my da.

  Oh lord, please don’t let Lucky, Kelly, and Dex know everything.

  A breath gasped from me, and I staggered.

  Kirill ran an arm around my waist.

  I couldn’t look at him.

  I didn’t want to see concern or pity.

  I knew my brothers meant the best for me.

  Did they think this Russian nightmare was what was best for me?

  I swallowed thickly.

  Kirill had shown he was mean and capable of cruel things.

  There were moments I’d been terrified.

  He hadn’t been a monster to me.

  I’d known a monster or two before . . . intimately.

  I didn’t want Kirill learning about any of that.

  Lucky’s voice sounded hollow when he said, “We came here to ask you to help us.”

  Looming behind Lucky, Maksim uttered, “That will be a cold day in hell, Irish.”

  “What if the ask is to help us take out our father.” Peering directly at me, Lucky took the breath from my body.

  Everyone became still.

  Even the roiling fog with its spectral fingers slinked down to the ground to lick around our feet.

  My brothers wanted to have our dad killed?

  Tears swam in front of my vision, and I tucked my lips together as breath halted in my chest.

  Maksim stomped up first. “The fuck is this?”

  “We take him down together.” Lucky locked eyes with Kirill.

  Kirill had not dropped his statue stance. “This is a set up.”

  Dex and Kelly surrounded us, and I heard the deadly click of guns again.

  Arkady held out two pistols, one aimed at each of my middle brothers.

  Maksim raised his gun to Lucky’s temple, and Lucky didn’t flinch.

  He didn’t blink.

  Kirill barked a harsh laugh.

  He grabbed my upper arm and forced me several steps away from my kin.

  It was another stupid standoff.

  “This must be a trap. You want us to take the fall for whatever beef you’ve got against your father, the boss of the O’Sullivan mob. Was she in on all this?” Strong arm around my throat again, Kirill jerked me against him.

  Lucky jolted forward, but Kirill checked him with his firearm cocked at his chest.

  Arkady raised the butt end of his gun above Kelly’s face. “Blyad. We don’t have to listen to this bullshit.”

  “Why?” At the last moment before new mayhem descended, Kirill waved his hand down. “Why do you want this? What about the repercussions?”

  “Jo didn’t tell you, did she?” Lucky’s arms bulged when he clenched his fists.

  “Tell me what? That none of you give a single fuck about her anyway?”

  My stomach dropped when I saw the taint of my pain flash across Lucky’s, Dex’s, and Kelly’s faces.

  Oh no.

  I would’ve reached out if my hands had been free.

  My voice broke when I begged my brothers, “Don’t. Please.”

  No more shame.

  No more humiliation.

  Not here and not now and not in front of the Bratva.

  Not in front of Kirill.

  How did they even know?

  I’d kept my hurt quiet, my pain silent, my cries muffled.

  I shook my head.

  Lucky gnashed his teeth together before jerking his head at Kirill. “You help us take him down. That keeps Jo safe.”

  “Ha! No retaliation? You’re full of shit.” Kirill clasped his hand at my waist and squeezed there.

  A silent signal . . . or an unsaid threat?

  Bullying his way through everyone, Dex put his neck on the line. “Have you kept our sister protected?”

  I was absolutely mortified.

  The remaining guns lowered.

  The killer glares dropped.

  Kirill stamped down a flash of confusion that flickered across his face. “Yes.”

  “Did you beat her? Rape her? Abuse her?” Lucky asked.

  I wanted the harbor to sweep me away in a riptide.

  “Nyet.” Hand slashing through the air, Kirill’s anger pulsed in waves from his body.

  “You still haven’t told Kirill, have you, sis?” Kelly came up next, his tone mellowing.

  I was aware of all six men staring at me.

  “Please,” I whispered, face crumpling. “Don’t.”

  Lucky nodded.

  He swallowed.

  He looked straight into Kirill’s eyes. “Do you have feelings for her?”

  I couldn’t have been more degraded had Kirill marched me out here naked like he’d threatened.

  How could Lucky ask that?

  The mere thought was
ridiculous.

  The silence surrounding the insane question grew deafening.

  Drawing my shoulders back, I lifted my head.

  No one would ever call me weak.

  I found my voice. “He has shown me a certain amount of protection and . . . kindness.”

  And many other things, which would never be spoken of again.

  15

  Kirill

  “DO YOU HAVE FEELINGS for her?”

  Feelings?

  Da.

  Mostly regarding their sister belonging in my bed.

  All eyes locked on me, except for Joanna who seemed to hold her breath.

  I couldn’t exactly tell what her brothers were after with this odd line of questioning, but then Jo took a pace forward and told the other three Irish hotheads I’d treated her fairly and with some form of kindness.

  If spanking her bouncy ass had been a kindness.

  Frowning, I watched as she moved obediently back to my side.

  I unsheathed my KA-BAR, and her family all raised their voices at once, pulling firearms back up to target me.

  Ignoring the trio, I told Jo, “Turn.”

  “You put that blade anywhere near our sister, and I’ll blow your head clean off.” Lucky issued the low-voiced threat.

  Arkady and Maksim took up protective stances in front of me and Jo, prickling with barely restrained hostility.

  I held up my free hand. “Relax. Everybody.” Leaning low, I muttered in Jo’s ear, “Show me your hands. Unless you want to start a bloodbath.”

  She quickly spun and, with one quick snip of my knife, I freed Jo’s wrists from the zip tie.

  “What are you doing?” Disbelief infected Arkady’s tone.

  I spoke up for all to hear, “Consider this a show of trust.”

  While Jo rubbed her wrists, I sheathed my KA-BAR.

  Everyone else lowered their guns.

  Then the O’Sullivan brothers held a nearly silent conversation full of shared glances.

  Lucky, clearly the leader, approached again.

  I gestured him closer. “You can check her out.”

  Standing stiffly beside the brother and sister, I witnessed their reunion.

  Lucky clasped her face in both of his hands. “You’re really all right, sis?”

  She clung to his wrists. “I promise. But Kirill is stubborn—”

  I cleared my throat, slitting my eyes at the difficult woman.

  “If you want the Bratva’s help, you’ll have to give him a good reason,” she finished.

  Lucky’s gaze slid from his sister to me.

  Then he grasped her by the shoulders. “It’ll be better for you—for everyone—if Da is dead.”

  She glanced down at the pavement, and I thought for a moment her lips trembled.

  “That is enough.” I motioned Lucky away and pulled Jo to my side.

  “We just need your help, man. If we bring our families together, combine our forces, this could be a clean kill.”

  Something uncomfortable flipped inside of me. “You want to combine our families?”

  Jo shot me an unfathomable look.

  Maksim and Arkady likewise stared.

  Marry Joanna. If we help kill her father?

  I wasn’t sure that was much of a bargain.

  As if they read my mind, the three Irish brothers inspected me from their semicircle.

  “That’s not an option without Jo’s say-so.” The ginger haired one—Kelly—wore a heavy frown.

  “Damn right it’s not an option,” Jo retorted.

  I cleared the cobwebs from my head.

  “No dice anyway.” Folding my arms over my chest, I bulked out my stance. “So what’s in it for us?”

  “Besides Jo?” Dex—one who was perhaps even more rash than his sister—appeared to challenge me.

  “You already said I couldn’t be traded like that.” Anger spiked through Jo’s voice. “I’m not a pawn!”

  “Be quiet, sis.”

  Good luck with that.

  “I already have Jo.” I clasped her around the waist, drawing her in front of me.

  Dex cursed. “I knew these Siberian cunts wouldn’t help. This is a fucking bust.”

  Lucky held his machine gun harmlessly out to the side, his expression stark. “There’s no goddamn reason why we’re always at each other’s throats. We have different territory—”

  “Until you shot up our club last night,” I reiterated.

  “And different dealings,” he added.

  Arkady glared from lowered brows. “Until you tried to elbow in on our gun trade.”

  As tempted as I was to simply decimate these three, I’d never gain Joanna’s trust by murdering her family right in front of her.

  When had I ever needed her trust though?

  “What if I’m just like you? What if I was lost and, in taking me, you found me?”

  She’d said those words to me earlier.

  “Are the O’Sullivan soldiers loyal to your father?”

  Lucky’s jaw tightened as his glance swept unreadably across Jo. “Yeah. That’s why we need to outsource this. Get rid of him then make new terms between us without his interference.”

  “Not good enough . . . An agreement later means nothing but a damn lot of hot air especially when it’s our manpower and our necks on the line.”

  “Lucky,” Jo whispered in a pleading tone.

  “Fine.” Lucky squinted hard. “No more swindling on the alcohol deliveries—”

  I gave a thin smile. “I’d have thought that was a given. You don’t happen to have other sisters I could abduct, do you?”

  His nostrils flared. His teeth gritted.

  “And a fifteen percent cut on the coke profits for two years,” he meted out between clenched teeth.

  I’d agreed to this meeting expecting to be ambushed, hoodwinked, or to have them try to steal Jo back.

  The deal Lucky offered exceeded expectations.

  But still . . .

  “Make it twenty percent, three years.” I almost added and consider that a bride price for your sister.

  But I didn’t need their money.

  I just wanted them to recognize who was master here.

  “And we will have final say on how to undertake your father’s assassination,” I added.

  When Lucky extended his palm, we shook on it.

  Arkady even looked satisfied with the deal.

  “Yury will have to sign off too.” The pact was sealed, but I didn’t release Lucky. “We still have some things to discuss. Just you and me.”

  “Fine.”

  “Here and now.”

  He nodded.

  When our grasps parted, I glanced at our combined groups.

  I didn’t doubt for a moment the O’Sullivan brothers were capable of causing mayhem, committing murder.

  They were definitely soft on their sister though.

  I didn’t ever want to get caught out like that over a female.

  Jo met my gaze with brittle hazel eyes.

  I wondered if she was worried about just what kind of bargain she’d been thrown into.

  “Lucky and I need to nail out some details. Don’t kill one another,” I advised all.

  Steering the eldest brother away so we were secluded between two giant shipping containers, I fished out a package of rarely used cigarettes and lit a smoke.

  I tapped out another coffin nail and offered it to him. “Why don’t you drop the bullshit and tell me what’s really going on.”

  Lucky exhaled billows of smoke. “I don’t have the first fucking clue what you’re on about, Russkie.”

  “Made men and your baby sister.” I clamped the cig between my lips. “Heard she’s been offered around for big money.”

  “Fuck.” After sucking in another deep drag, he squinted toward his sister. “Didn’t know you knew about that.”

  “Did you and your brothers have anything to do with that?”

  Lucky pulled a fist up, and he was a
big man, but I could flatten him with one punch.

  I locked my feet in front of him, just daring him to strike out.

  He skimmed me from head to toe then notched his head back. “He put feelers out. Our da.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?” A bitter taste invaded my mouth, and it had nothing to do with the cigarette.

  “Our father thinks she’s outlived her usefulness. He lifted the veil on her. Started farming her out.”

  “Farming . . . Joanna . . . out?” The words clotted in my throat.

  Lucky tossed his smoke to the ground, grinding the smoldering butt beneath the heel of his boot. “To test her suitability as a mate for the most money or best deal.”

  His child. His daughter.

  Chattel.

  “Who beat her?” The words escaped through my tight chest and dry throat. “The bruises on her ribs.”

  “Our da. She jabbed one of her suitors with her switchblade.”

  I glanced over to Joanna. Two pairs of brothers hovered over her in protective stances.

  Suddenly a hell of a lot about the girl fell into place.

  “How often does this happen?”

  “Whenever she steps out of line.”

  Considering Jo, that probably meant a lot.

  I nodded, jaw clamped down.

  Squaring off with Lucky, I struck my palm out again. “I’ll be in touch.”

  He didn’t let my hand go after the shake. “I consider her to be safer with you lot than back at the compound. Don’t prove me wrong.”

  I didn’t knock him flat on his ass and his teeth from his head for that threat only because I now understood where he was coming from.

  We all parted ways without further violence—the Irish in one direction and us in the other once we hit the road again.

  The drive back remained thick with unsaid words until Arkady peered at me through the rearview mirror. “That did not go how I expected.”

  I grunted in response, much like Maksim.

  Ultimately aware of Jo, I studied her.

  She stared out her window while we cruised along the night’s streets.

  The only crack I saw in her demeanor came from her reflection in the glass, when she very subtly swiped her fingertips beneath both eyes.

  We parked in one of the bays, and her gaze flew to her delivery truck when she got out of the SUV.

  I tugged her along.

  In the back hallway, the noise of bass-heavy music and the low hum of chatter drifted to us—the club open again for business.