He nodded, blond curls bobbing. “Along with three other men, who fortunately had not tried any product yet. I tested each of their bags, too. All the same.”
My fingers turned the bag over and over in my hand. If his man bought it here and everything Kostya said was true, it was fucking shit. I wasn’t the dealer or the supplier, but deaths landing atmy feetwere only going to cause problems. If my patrons couldn’t trust that the drugs sold on my property were clean, my business would tank. Plus, it would potentially expose me to law enforcement. All were recipes for disaster and threats to my bottom line and my future.
“I am not in the business of buying and selling drugs, Kostya. You should take this up with the Italians, not me.” But still, my mind was already planning to go through the approved dealers and track down who exactly sold shit drugs here.
“No, you’re not, but this was purchased inyourclub, Ryu,” he snapped. “Imagine if one of your regular customers got into this supply. Do you know how quickly you’d have the Feds up your ass?”
“I’m aware of the attention it would put on my properties,” I replied, voice hard. Kostya’s attitude was grating. “I’ll handle it. But you have bigger things to worry about right now. You shouldn’t be in my office in some dick-swinging competition, taking your stress out on me. You should be out on the streets, fixing your shit, before you’re run back to Russia.”
He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m handling it. The Five Families and I have a score to settle. But you need to get control of your club before this gets worse.”
“I could say the same about you and your men,” I said, jaw clenched. “Kolya was downstairs earlier, ready to pull a gun on an Italian soldier. It wasmystaff that kept him from makinga decision he would regret. May I remind you that any blood spilled, from any Family, gets that entire Family banned from my clubs. I won’t have violence on my property, even if they’re at war.”
He sighed, jutting his head at one of the men standing behind him. The soldier nodded and stomped out of the room, likely off to contain Kolya before he did anything else stupid.
“I’ll get him under control,” he said. “But you should know; I’m out for blood. This is going to get messy.”
“What’s your response?” I leaned back against the desk. “I heard you already hit up one of their casinos.”
“Yeah, that’s just the start of it. Last month, they jacked our entire supply route. I lost ten million in that deal. We’re still trying to figure out how long they’ve been doing it and how much they’ve stolen from us, but it’s obscene.” He shook his head in disgust. “A complete and total failure on my part. I have to respond swiftly and deadly.”
“Your grandfather isn’t happy, I take it?” Kostya took over the North American branch of the Bratva after his father died, but his grandfather still directed the whole operation from Russia. It was a huge responsibility, and I knew Kostya eventually hoped to take over the role back home when his grandfather retired.
“I look like afoolto the elders in the motherland. The Italians are fucking with me, and I’m going to fuck back,” he continued. “I’ll do my best to keep the club neutral ground, but know that they’ve got targets on their back, and I don’t plan to miss.”
His frustration and all the dick-swinging energy he came in here with all made sense. It wasn’t just about his dead man from drugs purchased here.
It was that a considerable part of his drug business had been snapped up right beneath his feet, which made him look like hecouldn’t handle his business. And now people were dying, likely using the very drugs that were stolen from him.
“Noted. I’ll get to the bottom of the laced drugs, Kostya. If they’re coming from the Italian dealers, they’ve made enemies of me, too.” I’d ruin anyone who thought they could come into my clubs and put them at risk with this kind of shit. I crossed my arms over my chest and tilted my head back. “You can always hire us.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll just hire the Shadows for a few million dollars. My grandfather will love that,” he said as he waved his hand. “Friendship has its perks, I guess.”
“He loves me, and you know it,” I laughed. “That’s the friends and family discount, too. Be grateful.”
“Thanks. I know you don’t normally intervene unless paid, but if you hear anything about the Italians, let me know.” He extended his arm, and I clasped it. “Da skorava,friend.”
“Mata ne.”
Just as quickly as he pushed his way into my office, he collected his men and his brother and got the fuck out of my club.
The evening wore on, and the club slowly died down, but my mind still raced.
Tainted drugs. Onmyproperty. The fucking nerve of whoever sold them here. Plus, this shit with the Italians was bound to boil over into my business, and nobody would be happy if that happened.
I texted Alec to get me the names of every single supplier who set foot in this club in the last sixty days. Notjustthe Families, but the exact names.
Kostya was right; if the Feds came knocking on my door because of drugs linked back to my club, or if this war started to impact me, then all the work I put into growing a legitimate business could come crashing down in an instant. Everything Iworked for could go up in a puff of smoke, and I could end up back where I started: without a penny to my name and with zero control over my life, forced to do whatever I was told.
I had to fix this fast to avoid whatever mess happened between the Russians and the Italians.
33
RYUJI
Ifinally collapsed into my giant ass bed around 5 am. Konstantin’s warning kept me occupied at the club while Alec tried to nail down exactly who was cleared to sell drugs on my property and cross reference that with whoactuallyhad sold drugs on my property.
So far, our list extended to a certain number of Italians, a small group of Konstantin’s men, and two or three members of the South American cartels. I’d made two hundred grand last month off people paying for the privilege of selling drugs in my clubs. While that was not a number to scoff at, it was nowhere near a large enough amount to justify the possibility of tainted drugs being sold to my customers.
