Beautiful Trouble by B. B. Hamel
Darren
Roman sounded tired.
He always sounded—something. Stressed, on edge, pushed to his limits. That was how he lived: always one step away from the edge.
It made him dangerous.
“My wife is unhappy with present circumstances.”
I smiled to myself and paced around my desk. Anthony rolled his eyes from his seat near the fire, slouching back in the chair.
I should have more people in the room for a conversation with another Oligarch. At the very least, my mother would want to have Chika present.
But this wasn’t something I wanted recorded.
“I can imagine she is.”
“What will it take to get Winter back?”
“Renounce your wealth and walk away from the world.”
He didn’t laugh. He rarely did. The bastard had the worst sense of humor in the world. I didn’t know what Cassie saw in him.
“We both know that isn’t going to happen. You’ve made my life extremely difficult lately, Darren. You’re lucky you’re not dead.”
“Idle threats, Roman.”
“They aren’t idle.” His voice took on a menacing pitch. “You killed my men. You flooded my home.”
“Casualties in a war. You would’ve done the same to me if you were in my position.”
“Regardless, you broke the rules. You ruined the truce. What’s your game?”
“You know what my game is.” I stared into the fire, watched the flames consume the wood, turn it into ash. “The problem is, you won’t play along.”
“The world doesn’t work that way.”
“But it should.”
He let out a grumble. Roman, so dramatic.
“What do you want?” he pressed. “Give me terms. Something to work with. Otherwise, I’ll dedicate all of my time to hunting you down.”
“I doubt that. You’re fending off intrusions from multiple crime families while handling the other Oligarchs. That stunt with the MacKenna family annoyed a lot of people.”
“And yet you’re the one that broke the rules.”
Anthony made a jerking motion with his hand. Rules obsessed loser, he mouthed.
I clenched my jaw and ignored him.
“I want you to renounce your claim to the Libertos and the MacKennas. I won’t suggest you step away from the Brozdov, considering your historical ties, but that would be appreciated.”
Roman chuckled darkly. “Would you like my cock cut off and put in a little box with a bow around it as well?”
“You control three families. That’s three too many. You know how we do things.”
“I thought we did. But then you flooded my home.”
“Renounce them Roman. Do that now and spare yourself a lot of pain. You know the others won’t allow this to go on forever.”
“The others don’t have a choice. Cassie wants Winter back, and I will give my wife whatever she asks for. Return the girl and this can be over. I won’t seek revenge for what you did to my home.”
I looked at Anthony. He looked as surprised as I felt.
Drowning Roman’s little creepy super villain bunker was an act of serious provocation. If I’d done that at any other time, the rest of the Oligarchs would’ve rolled up to my door and dealt a serious and swift and likely long-lasting punishment to my operation.
However, given Roman’s growing strength, there are more than a few of them that agree with what I did.
Not all, but a few. Enough to keep my head on my shoulders.
For now, anyway.
But Roman’s offer to drop his revenge is almost tempting. When I had his men killed and dumped tons of water down into that wretched place, I was escalating a war that’d been simmering between us for at least twenty years. I looked at Anthony again, at his strange, blue eyes and his easy smile, and I wondered how we’d let this get so far.
Family did that to a person. Blood connections mattered, but how you spent your life mattered even more. I didn’t have to be related to a person to love them like a brother or a sister.
It helped, but it wasn’t everything.
Release Winter and we could return to equilibrium.
Except I didn’t want the status quo. Roman was too strong whether he wanted to kill me or not.
And we’d never get along, not with the past still staring over our shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Roman. I have to keep the girl.”
“That’s unacceptable.”
“I knew you’d feel that way. Tell your wife what my terms are. I’m sure she’ll talk some sense into you.”
“Darren. You’re making a mistake. I won’t sit by and wait for much longer.”
“No, Roman, I don’t think you will,” I said softly, almost sadly, and felt a whirling heady mix of emotions as I hung up the phone.
Anthony watched me carefully. He fingered a button on his shirt, head tilted to the side, his usual smile flattened into a strange neutral stare.
“That went well.”
I leaned against my desk and crossed my arms. “He’ll get aggressive.”
“Yes, he will. That’s what he does. Throws a tantrum when he doesn’t get what he wants.”
“I drowned the place where he lives. I don’t think it’s a tantrum to hit back.”
Anthony shrugged impassively. “You know how I feel about him.”
“I worry that we let the past dictate too much of the present.”
He took a long breath and drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. “Does it matter? Then past doesn’t change and what’s happening now is all we can influence.”
“We’re getting too philosophical for a couple of gangsters.”
He snorted. “We’re not gangsters and you know it.”
“I only want to make sure we’re not targeting Roman because of what he’s done, but because of what he might do.”
“We’re in agreement there. We want the same thing.”
“Good.” I watched my little brother carefully. He smiled so easily and was so quick to laugh, but there was a lot hiding beneath his surface: lies and heartbreak and rage, so much rage, simmering down deep. I feared that one day it would blow sky high and take everything we’ve worked to build up with him.
“What’s our next move?”
I walked back around my desk and sat. “I have a meeting with Kaspar and Maeve in Chicago. I want to bring Winter with me.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Is that smart?”
“Probably not, but it might be interesting, and I don’t want to hide her from them.”
“She’s a token of good will then.”
“Something like that.”
His smile slipped back into position like it’d never left at all. “Then you have my blessing, big brother.”
“Not that I need it, but thank you. Make the preparations please, and tell the girls we’ll be gone.”
“Penny won’t be happy. I think she likes Winter.”
“Too bad for Penny then, because Winter is under strict orders to stay away from them.”
“You’re too protective sometimes.”
“I wasn’t protective enough once and you remember what happened.”
He shrugged and got to his feet. “Barely. I was ten, remember? Anyway, I’ll get the ball rolling.”
He left the room and shut the door behind him.
I sat back in my chair and stared at the crackling fire.
I trusted Anthony with my life. He was my little brother, after all, but there were things about him that I feared. It wasn’t just his personality—I could handle that aspect of him.
It was his past, where he came from, and what it meant for all our lives.
Too many secrets, too many lies.
My world was a cesspool of interconnected family histories and violence stretching back over generations.
And there was no reason it would ever end.
Unless someone stepped up and did something about it.
