I’m startled when two seats in front of me swivel around to reveal Griff and Levi. The former has a grim expression on his face, lips pressed in a disappointed line. The latter has a smirk on his face but not his usual golden boy smirk, this is the one he wears right before he tears into someone. There’s a tense silence beating between us as they stand up and stare me down.
“Fucker,” Levi says with ice in his voice. “What the fuck did I tell you when I beat the shit out of you weeks ago?”
“Please,” I sneer, “you didn’t beat the shit out of me.”
“Con.”
“Lev.”
“You deserve a repeat performance for this dumbass stunt you’re pulling.” He steps toward me, attempting to use his slight height advantage to intimidate me. “How stupid and selfish can you be to run off to deal with your family on your own?”
“How do you even know what I’m planning on doing?” I shoot a glare at Griff because I know he found out somehow. Probably tapped my office or something.
“I put a program that copied all your texts, emails, and files on your phone when you started acting shady,” he says with zero remorse. “The program uploaded everything to my servers while it uploaded to your cloud simultaneously.”
My inner psychopath is already scheming up ways to use it. After all this is over, I’m going to have to hit him up for it.
“Quit plotting ways to be a psycho with Griff’s tech,” Lev rolls his eyes, clearly seeing my plan written all over my face. “Why are you doing this on your own?”
“I’m not going on my own. Dad will be there, and Lake has a team set up for us as back up.”
“The only people I trust to have my back are standing in the cabin of this plane. I sure as fuck wouldn’t be running off to fight a dirty war with my family and not have you guys with me,” Lev looks as hurt as he is pissed.
I look at Griff, questioning him nonverbally about whether to tell Lev the whole story or not. He nods, understanding wordlessly. Lev looks back and forth between us, turning red with anger at the conversation he’s not privy to.
“What. The. Fuck. Is going on?” he seethes.
I sigh and rub my hand over my face. “Sit down, and I’ll explain everything from the very beginning.”
Lev plops down across from me, a hard set to his face. Griff sits down beside him, his mask of indifference on his face. I don’t know what to expect from Lev, how he’ll react to my secret. I take a minute, staring out the window to collect my thoughts. They both understand this is challenging for me, so they wait patiently until I’m ready.
I begin with the story of the little ways the abuse started my first summer with Ivan. Then explain how it became progressively worse each summer. All the awful things I witnessed and the fucked up things I did. I can’t bring myself to make eye contact with either of them after I finish. Griff had a general idea of what went down, but he didn’t know any details. I’m terrified that when I look up at my two best friends, my brothers, I’ll see the loathing I feel for myself reflected back in their eyes.
“Right,” Lev says, “so are we killing your uncle slowly and painfully or just fast and brutally?”
“I vote for slow and brutal, personally.” Griff’s voice holds a sadistic edge. “Drag it out for all the years of abuse.”
I finally look up and see nothing but support coming from them.
“Good call,” Lev holds his fist out, and Griff bumps it with his own.
“I like where your heads are,” I shake my head, “but it’s going to have to be quick. There’s a party tonight celebrating the joining of The Nine. Essentially, The Nine are the nine families who hold all the criminal power in Eastern Europe. The party includes the members of each family’s organization, and it’s held on neutral ground at a mansion outside St. Petersburg. The leaders of each family will meet in a closed-door meeting halfway through the party.”
I stand up and grab my iPad with all the schematics and information Lake was able to procure for us. I walk back to the conference table and motion for them to follow. It’ll be easier to discuss everything around it.
“Dad has three of the families on our side. We know that Ivan has three as well. Two families are notoriously focused only what benefits them in the long run. I know that Ivan has infringed on the territory of one family regularly over the past decade. They will likely back us or at least remain neutral. The other family has had leadership upheaval recently, and none of us have any idea what we can expect from them.”
“You guys can stay out at the party. Lake has a team already in place for us to act as security. You can absorb into that.”
“Fuck that,” Lev says.
“No,” Griff says at the same time. They share a glance. “We’re going wherever you go.”
“Guys,” I lean back in my chair, “this is unlike anything either of you has ever experienced. A full fucking shootout is likely. These people are some of the most dangerous individuals on the planet.”
“Oh, I’m aware from the letter you left me,” Griff pulls an envelope out of his jacket and tosses it on the table. I wrote them both goodbye letters and hid them in their suitcases, although, apparently not well enough. “I’m not scared, nor am I letting you go in there alone.”
“I didn’t get a letter,” Lev’s brow furrows as he opens Griff’s letter. “Dick move, Con.”
“You did get one, apparently you just didn’t find it.”
“Did
