Heart of Fury - Stone and Fire # 2 [17+]

Chapter 9

baes back tday

Mikhail's POV

Lev and Vik walk over to me, glancing at each other in the process. That meant one, or usually the both of them, had fucked up. 

"Alright. Who's getting beat up today?" California was great, but there was no underground boxing ring I had a chance of taking part in. It was a boring place, with too much fucking sunshine. So, right now, as I cracked my knuckles, a particular itch lashed at me to slam my fists across a jaw or two.

"Look, I didn't do shit." Lev's blonde hair shakes when he puts his hand up in defense.

I look at Vik instead. 

"Talk."

"The Pakhan." He drawls on.

My ears perk up. My shoulders become rigid against the polished leather of my seat, eagerness clouding my brain.

"He, uh.." His hesitation tightens the noose around my patience.

"Vik. We're 30,000 feet up in the air. You know what happens when a person falls from that height?" His eyes widen the slightest before his mouth opens like a gun barrel.

"He wants you to recruit more trainees." 

My shoulders slump and I sit back down.

Motherfucker.

"More trainees, huh?" My muscles tighten, fingers starting to grip the armrests a tad bit tighter than usual.

"And what does the lovely Pakhan mean by that?" The Pakhan was usually loose with his assignments, unless of course he had a certain grudge against a man who isn't as.. intellectually advanced. Nikolas of course, was like the golden child in every way possible. Strong, brawny, mentally inviolable.. and of course his leadership's been proven over the years he's taken over after our father died. Me on the other hand.. let's just say the Pakhan's fondness only goes so much as to give my brother the perks.

"He says people are responding positively to there being a woman on the team, and he want you to find other worthy recruits." He clears his throat. "Women recruits." 

Silence.

"He says to have it done by the time the deal's closed in the Westside. Nikolas is gone for the week, but the Pakhan wants you to stay at homebase and control the rest of the clan. They're going crazy after what happened with the Castellanos."

I'm suddenly listening again.

"Castellanos? Like Xavier Castellano?"

A man with black, polished hair and a just as clean attitude rises in between my thoughts. A stupid, emotionally unaware human who's better of classifying as a calculator rather than a made man in the Italian Cosa Nostra.

"Yeah. Apparently, the Orlov's didn't respond well to the daughter's proposal rejection. They want her dead, but her brother's looking to take them down first."

Yeah, right. That pussy's just a cocky nerd with a law degree from Harvard. 

"Her brother, Xavier Castellano?" I scoff. "What's he gonna do, drop a library on their house?" Lev muffles a snicker.

I halt my own satisfaction when Vik doesn't smile. "What else?"

"He needs weapons." I wait, my eyebrows rising over the few seconds he doesn't expand on said weapons.

"High-grade weapons." At that I smirk, a chuckle rising from my throat. 

"Xavier Castellano, the nerd from next-door, wants to use my weapons?"