I hit answer.
“What the actual fuck?” he says. “Alina told me.”
My head spins. Did she… But I dismiss her telling him she’s pregnant without letting me know first.
I approach carefully. “Told you what?”
“Security, Ilya. Fuck.”
No clearing of air, then.
“Upgraded security means extra money and manpower, two things you don’t have right now,” Demyan says.
“You have no idea of my financial situation. This bratva isn’t in the red.”
“And it hasn’t been buying soldiers either,” he snaps. “Nor have men flocked to join your ranks.”
“Spying?” I ask, curling my hands into hard fists as my blood boils up inside me.
“Tell me you didn’t do something stupid like go crawling back to Santo.” Demyan takes a breath. “Because?—”
“I really don’t have time for this conversation right now. Not that I call it that. This is more a berating by you that you’ve no business doling out. Perhaps if we were friends. Perhaps if you wanted to talk or sort things out, but you fired me, pushed me from your organization, and either ignore me or do…this. So, I’m busy.”
“Doing what?” Demyan’s tone scrapes me the wrong way. “Fucking things up?”
“What I do or how I do it is none of your business anymore,” I say to him in Russian. “Hui s’gory.”
“Same to you,” Demyan almost growls. “Know this. If anything happens to Alina while she’s at your place, I’ll make sure you play,suka.”
Somehow I resist another profanity. There are some choice ones out there, but calling him a dick from the mountains and him calling me a bitch is enough. I don’t need to get into a verbal brawl with him.
I continue in Russian, “If I didn’t think she was safe here, I wouldn’t be letting her stay.”
With that, I end the call. I turn my phone over on my desk and scowl at my computer.
I don’t need Demyan telling me Santo is a bad idea. I already know that.
But he’s right and wrong about money.
I have money.
I don’t have a reputation to get loyal men to come knocking. And buying men won’t work. Mercenaries are the last people I need. They’re loyal to one thing—the dollar.
So yeah, I’m aware Santo is my only option.
He wants something from me, and I’ve seen that his men are loyal.
Shouts outside filter in. I shoot to my feet, pull my gun from the drawer, slam the clip into place, and take the stairs two at a time.
I race outside as a gunshot rips apart the air. More shouts and the sound of a scuffle reach me.
I turn right. There I find the new security team that Demyan just lectured and warned me about restraining two men on the ground.
Others race over, guns at the ready.
I look around. “What the hell’s going on here?”
One of my men, whose name slips my mind, speaks up. “They tried to ambush the mansion.”
