Gilded Tears: A Russian Mafia Romance (Kovalyov Bratva Book 2) by Nicole Fox (novels to read for beginners txt) 📗

Then I hear Budimir’s voice carry towards me from the open sunroof of the car.

“I’ll take good care of your wife and son,” he bellows.

Then he’s gone.

I stand there as Budimir’s words hit me square in the face. It feels as though he’s struck me, and suddenly, the pain of my physical wounds disappears underneath the acute fear of what I have yet to lose.

“Fuck!” I yell furiously.

I double back and head back to the Regency’s lot, where Adrik and the rest of my men are pulling out, along with the men the O’Sullivans deployed.

I jump into the first car with Adrik.

“Safehouse,” I reply. “Now.”

I turn in my seat and spy Maxim’s body in the back. He would almost look peaceful if it weren’t for the sheen of blood that almost completely obscures his features.

I grimace yet again.

Cillian. Maxim. Stanislav.

Too many good men dead because of my uncle. Far, far too many.

“What’s his wife’s name?” I ask.

“Lena,” Adrik answers softly. “He’s got two girls.”

I catch sight of Luka then. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I demand. “Where the hell is Svetlana?”

“She insisted on staying in the field,” Luka tells me. “She told me to tell you that her position hasn’t been compromised yet. Budimir had two men assigned to her, and they took her away as soon as the fighting started.”

“She went with them?” I ask.

“She did,” Luka says. “Don’t worry; they didn’t see me.”

I know this information should leave me feeling like I have the upper hand again, but it doesn’t.

He has my wife.

He has my son.

The grim reality of those facts repeat in my head, over and over again, a mantra that has me unravelling.

“Boss—”

“They have Esme,” I snap, cutting Adrik off. “They have my son.”

Adrik stares at me for a moment and grabs his phone. I know who he’s trying to contact, and I also know that no one will pick up.

“Don’t bother,” I tell him. “Alik and Gennadi are gone.”

“It’s not too late,” Adrik says quickly. “Budimir wouldn’t have captured them just to kill them. He’s using them as bait.”

“I know,” I reply, and the tone of my voice silences any further discussion.

The moment we get to the safehouse, I head inside. My weary men follow behind me. They all look tired and uncertain, but my determination has just reached new heights.

I turn, just as Ronan’s men file into the safehouse behind us.

“I appreciate the help,” I tell the main soldier. “What’s your name?”

“Kian,” he replies, extending his hand out to me.

“How many men were you sent with?”

“A hundred.”

It’s impressive, but not even close to the number we’d need to take on the entire Bratva.

Still—it’s a hundred more men than we started with.

“What made your boss change his mind?” I ask.

Kian shrugs. “You’ll have to ask him that,” he says. “I just follow orders.”

“What were your orders, exactly?”

“Come here and help you take the Bratva back from your uncle.”

I raise my eyebrows. “I haven’t done that yet.”

“Well, then, I guess we can’t go back home until you do,” he says with a grin.

I don’t let the surprise show on my face, but in essence, Ronan has transferred command of a hundred of his men to me. It’s a gesture that tells me a lot.

He never forgot about you, Cillian.

He never stopped thinking of you as his son.

I don’t believe in an afterlife or an after-anything. But in this one moment, I actually hope that I’m wrong. That there is such a thing.

If only so that Cillian could know that his family hadn’t abandoned him as completely as he’d always believed.

I nod and turn around, so that it’s clear I’m speaking to all my men. “We have to move fast,” I announce. “And this time, we’re pulling no punches. We’re going to attack in full force. All our men. We’re going to take back my father’s compound.”

“We’re still going to be out numbered,” Adrik points out.

“Yes, we are,” I agree.

I stand my ground and wait for someone to tell me that I’m insane.

That this plan of mine basically amounts to a suicide mission.

But no one does. Every man in there stays silent.

Some look nervous. Some look resigned. Some look eager.

They all look loyal.

“I know this house,” I tell them. “So do many of you. We’re going to spend the next two hours planning our method of attack. Then we storm the compound.”

I turn towards my office, but halfway there, I glance back over my shoulder.

“Oh, and one more thing,” I say. “When we do manage to take the compound, the men who declared loyalty to Budimir are to be given a choice.”

“What?” Adrik asks in shock.

I don’t hesitate, though. I head into my office and close the door. The door stays closed for maybe five seconds tops, and then it flies open and Adrik enters, along with a handful of my unofficial underbosses.

The last to enter is Kian, but no one asks him to leave, and the door closes behind him.

“You want us to give Budimir’s men a choice?” Adrik demands, jumping right into it.

“Yes.”

“They fucking betrayed you!” he practically yells.

I stare him down until I see him swallow. “I… I just mean… there should be consequences.”

“And there will be,” I say. “But the consequence doesn’t have to be their lives. I have it on good authority that many of them were threatened into choosing Budimir. Their families’ lives were on the line.”

“And you believe the source?” Vasyl asks.

I nod.

I can tell Adrik is not happy. A few others don’t look convinced of my decision either, but I don’t take back my words.

I plan on being a leader who listens to everyone’s opinions. Like my father raised me to be, even if couldn’t see the wisdom of that back then.

But there are some issues I cannot and will not compromise on.

Every man deserves a chance to right his path.

“Get the men organized into groups,” I say. “I want teams targeting the compound’s exterior. Once we get inside, those teams need to turn their