Page 43 of Trapped By the Bratva
He had an intense dislike for the authorities. I couldn’t blame him after Becca’s father—an NYPD cop—almost got her killed.
“I’m not saying we need to become friends,” Alek said. “It’s impossible to strike up an alliance with the Feds or any level of law enforcement.”
“Then why are we even talking about speaking with the CIA?” I demanded.
“Not the CIA.” Maxim shook his head. “Freeman is with the FBI.”
“I don’t give a fuck which alphabet agency you’re potentially talking with,” I said.
Maxim sighed and lowered his head for a moment. “It’s not ideal. But there’s no changing the fact that we sort of… owe them.”
I pounded my good hand on the table. “That’s how this bullshit always starts.Owingthem? No.” I shook my head.
“Tom gave me the tips I needed to find Nadia and you,” Maxim argued. “Without him, it might have been too late to get you.”
“Say we consider teaming up on this,” Nik said. “When would it end? We can’t be thinking about letting the Feds in for anything else.”
“Theyarethe enemy,” Ivan added. “They could end us. They could bring down the Valkov Bratva or make it very difficult to operate at all.”
“Just this,” Maxim said. “Before Buttane died, that was the deal I made with him.”
“Holding up a dead man’s promise?” Nik mocked. “That will last.”
“Freeman seems to understand how Buttane and I met.” Maxim glanced at Alek. “It wasn’t ideal to work with the Feds. I know that. I’m not suggesting anything else. But Buttane helped me find you. All he wanted was to find Avilov and charge him. He wasn’t interested in the Bratva or Nadia or anything else. His objective was Avilov,onlyAvilov. And it sounds like Freeman is determined more than ever now to get him and arrest him in honor of Buttane’s sacrifice in looking for him.”
Get in line, then.
Erik Avilov was a dead man. The more I thought about someone else getting a hold of him, the more pissed off I became. I wanted to kill that fucker. It was supposed to bemyjob. My honor. No one else’s, especially not someone I hadn’t met from a federal agency who wanted to bring the asshole in for a pat on the back from their boss.
This was a personal matter. Erik beat me, pushed me to wishing for death. Revenge fueled me to get stronger.
Yet, I was weak. I wasn’t ready to really be in the game of hunting down Avilov. If walking down a few hallways made me this fatigued and out of breath, I had no standing to chase down that fucker and hurt him.
“It’s not the norm to workwiththe Feds,” Ivan said, glancing between me and Alek, “but in this case, on a one-time basis, maybe this isn’t so stupid.”
Alek nodded. “We both have the same target.”
“And they’ve been making cases against the Avilov Family members for decades,” Maxim said. “They’ll have more resources to get to them.”
Whereas the Valkov Bratva was still learning about them.
“Don’t deprive me of the chance to kill him,” I warned.
“I understand the drive to want an eye for an eye,” Maxim said, “but?—”
“But nothing,” I growled. “If I don’t have the opportunity to search for him and return the favor of how he’d treated me, I will never have closure.” It sounded so dumb, but it was true. I wanted revenge. I lived and breathed to seek it, and if someone else interfered, I’d be stuck in that cycle of anger and facing unfinished business that would haunt me forever.
“Dmitri,” Alek said, “we need to consider all options for assistance. If we expend all we have in looking for Avilov, there are countless other things that we’re letting slide.”
I stood, too angry to listen to another word of this bullshit. No one stopped me as I grabbed my cane and turned to leave. My fury wafted behind me, a living wave of wrath that I doubted anyone would want to get embroiled with.
I hobbled from trying to walk too fast, but I managed to reach my room.
“Dmitri!” Hannah was there, gasping in surprise when I opened the door so forcefully and let it bang on the wall. “What—” She rushed closer when I staggered to continue striding in. “Careful.”
“Fuck that,” I growled. Careful? It sounded like that was what Alek wanted to do. Be careful and let someone else do my work for me. To let the Feds intervene in my mission for revenge.
“If you’re not careful, you can over?—”
