Page 20 of The Bratva’s Monster

My hair looks good. My beard’s trimmed. The cut over my eye still looks a little janky after two weeks since it reopened and Marius had to restitch it closed, but at least the bruises on my face have faded down to nearly nothing.

It’s not perfect, but I doubt anyone at the party will care. Certainly not Deshawn and the other Blue Devils.

I go into my bedroom to put on my shoes. Right when I get my left shoe on, the doorbell rings. Puzzled, I sit up in wonder. I’m not expecting anyone. And even if I were, most people I know call before they come over.

I walk over to my nightstand to grab my gun and leave my bedroom, down the stairs and across my living room to the front door as I cock the gun. I pause at the door, standing to the side, avoiding the peephole.

“Who is it?” I yell out.

“It’s me. Open up.”

Alex? I put the gun in my pants and open the door.

My brother is in a suit and tie, his closely cropped beard well-trimmed and his dark hair styled and gelled, silver streak prominently displayed. He’s fidgeting with his cufflinks when I open the door, but he looks up and greets me. “Ready?”

I tilt my head. “What are you doing here, Alex?”

“Picking you up.” He walks past me into my living room and looks around briefly. “If you’re not ready, get to it. We need to be there by eight.”

I just stare at him. He never said anything about driving me there, and I never agreed to be driven in the first place. “I don’t remember agreeing to your being my date,” I say with a smirk. “What happened to your going with Nona?”

“She needed some extra time to get ready, so she went ahead with Yeva.”

We’re staring at one another, with me in surprised silence. Finally, I say, “What’s actually going on?”

Alex just shrugs, his stone-cold blue eyes unwavering. “Safety in numbers. That whole dust-up you had with those Irkutsks got me to thinking we should move a little more carefully. Especially during big events like this, where a lot of us are going to be in one place.”

“Nobody’s stupid enough to hit us tonight,” I say as I walk past him, back upstairs to my bedroom. “Give me another minute and I’ll be ready.”

I try to shake off my annoyance as I get to my room. Alex has never moved like this. Not unless Father insisted, which he rarely did unless we were under direct threat. Maybe he got some intel that’s got him spooked.

I get my cufflinks, splash on some cologne, and I’m ready to go. Back downstairs, Alex is standing at the fireplace, looking at the photos on my mantel. Most of them are of us when we were kids, and a couple of Mom. When he hears my footsteps, he says, “Not smart keeping these out in the open, you know. The wrong person seeing this might use it against you.”

“Most of the people in those photos are dead,” I respond. “And anyone who decided to come after you or Yeva will probably already know about me beforehand.”

He looks over his shoulder at me, then looks me up and down. “You look good.”

“Thank you. Let’s get going, shall we?”

He nods and we walk out. In the hallway, he says, “You know, Deshawn’s cousin May is supposed to be there tonight. She’s had a thing for you for a while now.”

The image of Deshawn’s cousin comes into my mind. The last time I saw her, we were teenagers. Back then, she was a short, curvy thing with an ass like a planet and a face with more acne craters than the moon. Despite all that, she was a nice girl, as I recall. Of course, Deshawn was fiercely protective of her. We couldn’t have gone near her if we wanted to.

“Yeah, I’m good on that,” I tell my brother.

We stand at the elevator and I can feel his eyes lingering on me. I guess Kostya has been in his ear about me finding something to fuck before I explode.

He doesn’t say anything more about May or any other women on the elevator ride down. In fact, he doesn’t say anything at all until we’re in the car. Once the driver pulls out, Alex raises the partition so we can talk freely.

“Thank you for coming out tonight,” he says. “I know you aren’t a big fan of this kind of shit.”

I shrug. “Wasn’t doing anything tonight anyway. I’ll be honest with you, though, I was only planning on staying for a couple of drinks.”

He scoffs. “No shit. You think I picked you up just for safety? You don’t get to bail on tonight. I’m your ride.” His crooked smile fades a little. “Also, I wanted to clue you in on a little intel about Josef Kiselev. That guy who started shit with you the other day.”

“Already know he’s Stefan’s brother. What else do we need to know?”

“Well, you might be interested to know that he just got out after doing a stretch for manslaughter at Rikers. According to Kostya, he was doing life for first-degree murder, but the charges got argued down to manslaughter.”