The Volkov Brothers Series: The Complete Series

by Leslie North

  Hornbull snorted and placed his foot in the center of Nik’s chest, forcing him to the ground beside Kaz as he drew his gun and aimed between Nik’s eyes. “Yeah? And who’s going to make me pay, huh? Not you, you Russian pussy. You think I’m scared of your Bratva family? Well, think again. There’s nothing you bastards can do to me that would be worse than what I’ve already gone through with my daughter. All I ask is that you leave me alive, so that I can take care of my daughter. That’s all that matters now.”

  “D-daddy!” Serena screamed. “N-noooo!”

  Daphne fumbled her way over to the girl and knelt beside her in a feeble attempt to calm her. “Please, can you describe the dealer like he asked?”

  “H-he s-s-said h-his n-n-name was T-t-tolya.” Serena frowned, blinking, her gaze locked on the floor near her feet. “S-s-small guy. L-l-looked l-like a w-w-weasel.”

  “Small?” Kaz said, spitting out blood from his mouth from where Hornbull had hit him. “Tolya was bigger, like Nik and I.”

  Nik scowled, his gaze still trained on Hornbull’s Smith and Wesson staring him in the face. “There’s only one man I know who looks like a weasel and it isn’t Tolya.”

  Eyes wide, Daphne gasped. If Nik’s suspicions were correct and Rezan was selling drugs, then it had to have been Rez who’d sold Serena those drugs. Daphne had thought there was something conniving about him when they’d first met. He was definitely weasel-like. In fact, now that she thought about it, that would explain why Rez had left the door open that day at the safe house too. To lure her out and have her act as bait for Hornbull.

  “What the hell are you saying?” Hornbull demanded, cocking his gun. “You’re such a fucking liar. All of you Bratva boys are. Maybe I should just blow your brains out now and save time.”

  “Wait. I propose a deal,” Nik said, his tone cool and measured, as if he weren’t lying in a shithole house with a loaded weapon pointed at his head.

  “Fuck you and your deal, Volkov.”

  “Hear him out,” Kaz said, trying to sit up. “What have you got to lose?”

  Hornbull sneered at Kaz then glared down at Nik as he cocked his gun. “You’ve got two minutes.”

  “You shot the wrong man. I know who sold your daughter those tainted drugs,” Nik said. “Rezan works for me, but he’s a traitor. I suspect he’s betrayed me and our entire Bratva family by going behind their backs on this drug deal. I have no part in the Bratva’s drug dealings. I work strictly and legally in the artwork and antiquities. I will give you the cell phone number of my Pakhan to confirm this. That’s why I didn’t realize what Rezan was doing right away. Once I did, I vowed to put a stop to it and him. You let us go and I swear to you that my Bratva will get Rezan to confess. I will take great pleasure in having him tortured to the point of death until he tells the truth about what happened with my friend. I will even get him to confess to killing setting up Tolya and having him killedTolya. That way you can frame the evidence to point to Rezan for the conspiracy to commit murder and get off scot-free.”

  “No,” Daphne cried, her world shattering around her. She’d thought Nik was brave and honorable despite his less-than-legal affiliations, but this was wrong. So wrong. “You can’t do that. Please, Nik. Don’t—”

  “It’s the only way,” he said, finally meeting her gaze, all his emotions swirling inside his gorgeous green eyes—anger, love, acceptance, determination. “This will get him to stop hounding us and will keep you safe, baloven’. And it will bring the man truly responsible for Tolya’s true killerdeath to justice and restore the honor of my Bratva. That’s all I ever wanted.”

  A pang of desperation stabbed through her chest. Her rational mind knew what he was saying was true—if Hornbull took Nik’s deal it would solve all their problems—but her broken heart yearned for her life to go back to normal, like it was before she saw Tolya get murdered.

  After a few tense silent moments, Hornbull removed his foot from Nik’s chest and narrowed his gaze, uncocking his gun. “If you’re lying to me, boy, I swear to God I will come down on you and your family so hard you won’t know what hit you. Understand?” He signaled to the guards to cut the zip ties holding Daphne and the others hostage then clicked on the safety on his gun and stowed it back in the holster at his waist. “Now get the fuck out of here, all of you, before I change my mind.”

  Nik helped Daphne up while Kaz helped Regina and they all rushed outside to freedom. They walked toward the nearest main street and Nik pulled out his cell phone, speaking in brusque Russian to the person on the other end of the line. Once he hung up, they took a seat on a bench inside a bus hut to wait. “I’ve called my men. They will have a driver here shortly to pick us up. I’ve also told them to get Rezan and lock him up at the old safe house until I can talk to him. Mama, we’ll drop you off back at the penthouse. And Daphne, we’ll take you back to your apartment. Both locations should be safe now since I’ve worked the deal with Hornbull.”

  “No.” Daphne said, crossing her arms, her voice belligerent.

  “What the hell do you mean no?” Nik asked, his tone edging toward peevish. “I need to know you’re all right until I get things settled with Rezan. I can’t worry about you right now.”

  “The person you need to be worried about is yourself,” Daphne countered. “This deal you’ve made with Hornbull is stupid. Yes, I know it would solve all our problems, but what about you, huh? If you can torture and kill a man without giving it a second thought, then you’re not the man I thought you were.”

  “She’s right, Nikolai,” his mother said. “Even your father would tell you this is not good. There are other ways to get Rezan to confess, ways that will keep you from getting blood on your hands.”

  “Why don’t you just turn him over to Hornbull?” Daphne asked.

  “Because then I would still have blood on my hands, which I do not want. Even from a snake like Rezan. Besides, that is not the Bratva way.” He raked a hand through his hair and stood, staring out across the street. “And who’s to say killing Rezan would stop Hornbull from carrying out his own brand of justice anyway. I’m sorry if you’re disappointed in me, baloven’, but perhaps I’m not the man you expected. Maybe I never was.”

  “I don’t believe that,” she said, her eyes stinging from unshed tears.

  Nik looked back at her at last, the sorrow in his eyes nearly her undoing. “And that’s why you don’t belong in my world, with me. This is why, for me, there is only one life—my business life. I cannot be in this business and have the life with you that you deserve—I cannot keep you safe. I must handle Rezan myself for the same reason that you work at a job you hate to care for your mother, Daphne—because it is my responsibility. Because I will do anything for my family and for those I love. Because I would risk it all to keep them safe and secure. Those are the reasons I must do this.”

  Daphne wanted to argue, wanted to rally against the truth in his words, but couldn’t. In a last-ditch attempt to stop this madness, she turned to Kaz, who was slumped in the corner of the bus hut, watching them all with detached interest. “What about you?” she said to him. “Can’t you talk him out of this?”

  “I wish I could.” Kaz shook his head and straightened, clapping a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You see, there’s something I think even he hasn’t considered.”

  “What?” Nik snapped, glancing over at his brother.

  “You can’t kill Rezan without proof of his crimes.” Kaz exhaled and walked around to stand near the curb. “We need to ensure that he talks, that he gives a full confession to everything you promised Hornbull back there or none of us is safe. Not you, not me, not Daphne and not our mother.”

  Nik cursed under his breath and lowered his head. “I’m so sorry, Mama. I never meant to drag you into all this. Papa managed to keep you out of his world and safe for all those years and I turn around and bring you right into the middle of it all.”

  His mother snorted. “You honestly think your father never asked fo
r my help while he was alive? If that’s the case then I did a better job of sheltering you boys then I realized.” She smiled fondly at her sons and shook her head. “A marriage is a partnership, in all aspects of that word, my sons. While I did not approve of all of your father’s activities for the Bratva, I was always there to support him when needed. Healthy disagreement is good for a relationship, but when the chips were down, we were a team, no questions, no excuses.”

  As Daphne listened to the other woman’s logic, an idea occurred. “I think I know how we can get Rezan to confess to dealing tainted drugs and setting Tolya up without torturing or killing him.”

  “How?” Nik and Kaz asked in unison.

  “I remember the first day I met him, he kept watching me. He did the same thing when he’d bring me groceries at the safe house. Like he wanted to see me naked or something.” She shuddered. “It creeped me out, but what if we can use it to catch him, get him to confess? He won’t see me as a threat.”

  “Nyet. No, I won’t risk your life,” Nik said firmly.

  “Wait, brother,” Kaz said, his expression thoughtful. “This could work. She is Rez’s type, so I could see how he’d be infatuated with her. We could use her to tempt him, get him talking, then intervene before things escalate.”

  The Bentley pulled up in front of the bus hut and Nik helped his mother into the backseat first. “Absolutely not. I will not risk any more lives over scum like Rezan.”

  “Except your own,” Kaz said, his stare flat. “We don’t want to lose you either, brother.”

  Daphne slid into the backseat beside Mrs. Volkov, then waited until they were all seated and the car was heading back to the penthouse. “Please, Nik. Kaz just said you can keep me safe by intervening and I want to help. Please let me do this, for you, for all of us. Then, if it doesn’t work, you can still go through with your plans.”

  A small muscle ticked near Nik’s jaw as he stared out the window. “I hate this. And I swear, if he harms a single hair on Daphne’s head I will end him. Understood?”

  Her battered heart leapt. Maybe there was hope yet. “Understood.”

  “Right then,” Kaz said, giving her a quick wink. “So, here’s what we’re going to do then…”

  “I don’t like this,” Nik said as he wired Daphne for a hidden mic while Kaz kept a lookout for Rezan. They were back at the old safe house, since Kaz felt that was the best place to trap Rezan in his own mess. The fact his brother was right about that didn’t make Nik feel any better about sending Daphne into harm’s way. Alone with Daphne in the apartment behind the lounge, he finished taping the wires to her lower back, doing his best not to allow his touch to linger too long on her silky skin and failing miserably. With a muttered curse, he tugged her curve-hugging emerald green dress back and zipped her up, his breath catching at the scent of her floral perfume at the back of her neck. Since the night in the hotel, he’d been unable to forget the sweet taste of her mouth, the softness of her sighs, the warmth of her gentle touch on his body, the way she’d stroked his tattoos like they were the most beautiful things she’d ever seen.

  Being a practical man, Nik wasn’t ready to go overboard and claim that what he experienced with Daphne was love, not yet. But it was more than he’d felt for another woman in a long time, perhaps ever. Whatever it was, whenever he thought of her his blood heated and his emotions and body swelled and this thing between them was definitely… something.

  He waved a dismissive hand and stepped away from her, hoping the distance would clear his head. It didn’t. If anything, it only made him want to pull her into his arms, protecting her against Rez or Hornbull or anyone else who tried to hurt her. He frowned. “No. I don’t like this plan at all.”

  She gave him a look over her shoulder as she studied her reflection in the mirror in the bedroom. “Well, I guess that’s karma then.”

  Nik frowned. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means that I didn’t appreciate you putting yourself in harm’s way back at Hornbull’s either.” She sighed and turned to face him, arms crossed. “You are the most stubborn, bossy man I’ve ever met. But I also happen to care about you.” She shook her head, her expression adorably exasperated. “Don’t ask me why. We barely know each other.”

  “We know each other quite well, in my opinion,” Nik said, trying for levity. The truth was, she was becoming more and more his partner every day. Then there was the bombshell his mother had dropped about helping his dad with his work for the Bratva. He’d always assumed his father handled business and his mother waited at home for him with dinner on the table, a complete separation of the two worlds. Now, he realized that what he’d always thought was true about his parents’ relationship wasn’t actually true at all. Things blended, got messy, but still they’d stayed true to each other and the love they’d shared.

  “I’m not talking about sex,” she said, her tone annoyed. “I mean that was good, don’t get me wrong. Beyond good, actually. More like great, wonderful even.”

  “Earth-shattering,” Nik offered, brow raised.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” she snorted, then looked away, her cheeks heating a delightful pink. “Okay, fine. Yeah.” She covered her face with her hands before fluttering them away. “Anyway, my point is that I care about you now. I don’t want you to get hurt or killed. I want you to be safe too and when you take risks like that it makes my heart ache, okay? In fact, you scared the crap out of me back there.”

  Unable to resist any longer, Nik stepped forward and pulled her close, threading his fingers through her soft blond curls as he pressed her cheek to his chest, right over his heart. He kissed the top of her head, eyes closed, inhaling her now-familiar, calming scent. In front of his men, he was hard, tough, the brutal Bratva enforcer he’d pledged to be. But with Daphne, his Daphne, he could let down his guard, let his emotions free and just dwell in the moment, with her. “I’m sorry I frightened you, baloven’. I would never want to do anything that harmed you in anyway. Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Trap Rezan?” Daphne asked, lifting her head to meet his gaze. “Absolutely. If it ends this nightmare and brings justice for your friend, I’m all in.” Her blue eyes flickered to his lips before returning to his gaze. “And after this, maybe we could start over again, if you want. Meet just as two people, get to know each other for real, try out a real relationship between us.”

  Stunned, Nik stared at her, blinked. He’d never considered the possibility that she might want to stay involved with him after this case. Deep in his heart, he’d wished, hoped, but he’d never actually thought she’d want to be with a ruthless thug like him. She was smart, funny, gorgeous. She could have anyone she wanted. It staggered him to think she might want him.

  She apparently took his silence for rejection, however, and pushed away from him. “It’s fine.” Daphne walked away before he could stop her. “It was a crazy idea anyway. Forget I mentioned it.”

  He opened his mouth to tell her that he would love spending more time with her, but she held up one hand, the other on the handle to the door. “Ready to do this?”

  Before he could stop her, she was walking out into the lounge and Nik was cursing himself for acting like such a bumbling idiot. Jaw clenched, he double-checked his weapon then followed her out of the apartment.

  Kaz sat on the sofa against the wall, his normal bottle of Jameson in his hand, while several newer Bratva associates—or Shestyorka as the family called them—milled about trying to look cool or tough or otherwise useful. All the men’s gazes locked on Daphne as she crossed the room and headed for the fridge to get a bottle of water. Fists clenched at his sides, Nik headed to the bar instead of pulling his weapon and taking them all out for staring at his woman.

  He stopped, blinked.

  My woman?

  “Shit,” he muttered as he pulled out his bottle of Stoli from behind the bar.

  Kaz got up and joined him, wearing a small amused smile. “Don’t look so homicida
l, brother. She’s a beautiful girl.” Nik growled and Kaz backed up a step, hands up, grinning. “And obviously taken. She hasn’t taken her eyes off you since you two walked in the room.”

  His brother’s words made him feel a bit better. Nik took a swig from the bottle then froze as Rezan entered the lounge. The man scanned the room, as if sizing it up, then headed for the Volkov brothers, his glance darting toward Daphne in the corner.

  “You wanted to see me, Avtoriyet,” Rezan said, bowing his head slightly in deference.

  The move only served to stoke Nik’s already taut anger. He’d considered Rez a friend, a confidant, an ally. To know that this man had betrayed him, betrayed their Bratva family, betrayed them all by selling tainted drugs, setting Tolya up to get killed and then lying about it, made his blood steam.

  His fury only grew stronger when Daphne approached and smiled warmly at the little weasel of a guy before them. “Rezan.” She smiled. “Long time, no see.”

  Rez’s stare lingered a bit too long at her boobs for Nik’s liking, but he reminded himself this was all for the greater good. After they got the confession they needed, he might even resort to the bloodletting he usually avoided and beat the shit out of the guy for looking at his woman that way.

  “You’re looking beautiful as always,” Rez said to Daphne. His pupils were dilated and his hands were shaking slightly, beads of sweat dotting his forehead in the cool air of the bright room—all signs he was high on his own poisoned product.

  “Thank you.” She batted her eyes at him then slipped her arm through Rez’s. “Why don’t we go sit over on the sofa and catch up. I’ve missed seeing you every day with my grocery delivery.”

  The guy looked astonished for a moment, then quickly acquiesced with only a brief look at Nik. “Of course.” He led her over to the sofa while Nik did his best not to draw and fire his gun right then and there.

  “Patience, brother,” Kaz whispered from beside him. “She knows what she’s doing.”