Dmitri inhaled, as if to speak, but stopped at the Pakhan’s sharp look.
“You refused to join the bratva sixteen years ago because you thought you were better than us. You let the man who hurt you live rather than give up anything to kill him.”
My hands curled under the table.
Dmitri inhaled again, and Nikolai held up his hand. “Youare only here because you are my second. You will not speak one word until I have finished negotiating with Coach Novikov.” He turned back to me. “I don’t want you in the bratva.”
Dmitri took a sharp breath, opening his mouth to speak.
“Enough,” Nikolai snapped. “Dmitri, out.”
My cousin gave me a long, considering look, his fists clenched at his sides, then strode out of the kitchen, leaving me to face the Pakhan alone.
“I don’t want you in the bratva, but I do want to remove Jed Carter’s influence over sports betting in the United States.”
“That makes two of us,” I answered, meeting his ice blue eyes.
“Don’t lie to me. You want him to leave your pet alone, and you want him to leave your team alone, and if he did those two things, you wouldn’t care if he lived or died, da?”
It’d been a long time since someone had held a mirror up to my motivations. “Da.”
“How badly do you want it?” he asked.
“I’ll do anything,” I promised.
“Would you kill for her?”
“Anything.”
“Tell me about Carter’s operation. Everything you know.”
I took a breath, arranging the pieces I’d been turning over in my head. “Carter’s been running an illegal sports betting network for at least five years. He’s not just taking bets—he’s fixing games by blackmailing players and bribing officials.”
“And what does that have to do with your girl?”
I ignored the warmth in my chest at the Pakhan’s recognition of Eva’s place in my life. “He’s blackmailing her to spy on my team. She feeds him information about players,strategies, and injuries. I believe he uses that intelligence to adjust bets and guarantee his wins. He shared our plays with another team, and it almost destroyed us.”
“The girl gave your plays to him?” Nikolai raised an eyebrow, and I reminded myself he had no reason to trust Eva, no reason to believe her like I did. She could still be lying to me, could be playing a deeper game than I could have imagined, but she hadn’t faked her fury, she hadn’t faked her submission, and that had to be enough for me.
“He’s holding her father’s life over her head.”
“Conrad Jackson,” Nikolai mused, and my eyes narrowed. How much of this did he already know? “The man whose life you saved when you refused to join the bratva.” After a pause, he went on, stoic and to the point. “And what do you need from me?”
“First, protection for Eva and her father. Carter won’t hesitate to kill them both if he thinks she’s turned on him. And then make sure he doesn’t escape when this all comes falling down on him.”
“And what makes you think I’d risk my organization for your girl?”
"Because Carter’s been eating into bratva interests for years,” I said. “His operation competes directly with your sports betting network. If he’s gone, then there’s no one to compete with you in Yorkfield.”
“No one but the Irish,” he mused. “But I could cut a deal with Declan Flannigan, I think.” The Pakhan cracked a smile, his eyes softening for a moment. “I’m getting old and sentimental, it seems. Dmitri’s like a son to me, and there isn’t a day in the last sixteen years he hasn’t regretted pushing you away.”
Remorse settled deep in my bones. I should have taken his calls.
“Here is what I will offer you,” Nikolai said, interrupting my cycle of self-recrimination. “I will allow Dmitri to use bratva contacts when he is seeking information for you. When you deliver Carter to me on a silver platter, I will dispose of him in a way that doesn’t implicate you. And in return, you will take the oath.”
“That’s not enough,” I said. “I need?—”
Nikolai laughed, not cruelly. “You were barely a foot soldier when you left to play for the NHL, and when you were given an opportunity to come back, you refused. You may not have my men until you earn them, not even to protect the girl.”