Page 3 of The Darkness is Calling

“You used to be more fun.”

“Used to?”

“Before you became Pakhan,” he explains, clicking his tongue, but his shoulders sag.

Then he shakes his head and speaks to me the way he used to when we were young and determined to make this entire world ours.

“I know the title came with even more responsibilities, especially since you’re the youngest Pakhan the organization has ever had, but don’t forget to enjoy yourself once in a while. You’re thirty years old, for fuck’s sake.”

Now it is my turn to let out a skeptical sound.

“Don’t forget where we come from and where we’re going, Misha.”

“You’re too gloomy tonight,” he mutters, disappointed. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

“You tell me who else I need to speak to while I’m here and then you let me leave to handle my own business. My plane is already waiting, and the engine has been running for ten minutes.”

“You really have no intention of staying for a little fun? I know you enjoyed Lust. Maybe we could go again to that club, especially since you seem to get along with DeLuca.”

His idea for tonight is tempting, but it isn’t part of my plan. I like having everything organized in advance.

I certainly don’t like throwing my schedule into chaos for reasons so frivolous. Especially since I have a meeting in the morning with an informer who wants to brief me on a few matters from the north of Great Britain.

“I have more important things to do.” “The Irish still giving you trouble?”

I nod, still staring at some empty point across the room, though my attention is everywhere.

“Not all of them. But someone over there has started doing business with the Albanians, and it's kind of ruining my already fragile relationships with them.”

He lets out a low whistle, understanding the gravity of such a situation.

“That complicates things.”

“It has always been complicated.”

“And what are you going to do? How will you solve it?”

I turn my head toward him and look into his blue eyes before answering.

“I won’t solve it.”

He blinks, confused.

“Then what will you do?”

I smile with a coldness that makes even the man I grew up with – the one who knows exactly what I am capable of – blink. He had been my mate for years – mine and my brothers’ – while we trained together to become the Bratva’s ideal soldiers.

“I’ll annihilate it.”

His eyebrows lift slightly, but satisfaction gleams in his eyes.

“You were always famous for your bloody methods.”

I lift one shoulder and look back toward the great hall.

“It’s the most efficient option. And the fastest. I don’t have time to waste.”

“Speaking of time,” he says suddenly. “Wait one second.”