The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

1. Lev

Chapter 1

Lev

~6 months later~

"You know she is over eighteen."

I stated the obvious, not bothering to look up at the middle-aged couple sitting across the meeting table from me. Lazily, my eyes scanned the simple information sheet and spread of polaroids before me of a young Asian woman.

"Yes, that is why we are coming to you for help. The police won't do anything because legally she is an adult. I know it is a tough ask, but we heard that you are the best of the best at this. We just want our daughter back, safe and sound with us. Nicole would never run away, she's a good girl, always punctual and on a strict schedule. This is very, very, very unlike her, very out of character. Please, we just want our daughter found and brought back." The woman, Martha Le, broke down crying into her hands, and her husband was quick to rub a soothing hand on her back.

If I was an amateur, then the tears would have done me in. Too bad I could smell bullshit a mile away. Their words carried some sincerity but with an edge; their eyes held nothing but contempt and clouds. They wanted their daughter—Nicole—back, that part was the truth, but everything else from their mouths were lies.

Either way, it was none of my business, nor did I want it to be.

This assignment seemed more trouble than it was worth but fuck it. I've got some time to kill with my latest clearance, so might as well take it easy with a locate and retrieval assignment. I mean, how hard could it be to track down a sheltered girl and drag her ass back to her parents? She didn't seem like that much of a challenge from how soft she looked in her pictures. This assignment would be easy as fuck.

"Three million, half up front and the other due upon her safe return." I sat the offer on the table as I leaned back in my chair with my arms crossed. A little much for locating and retrieving a simple girl? Probably, but Volkov services ain't cheap. Besides, if they came to us for help then they knew what they were getting into. And I might as well get a good chunk of money for shaving out some of my time doing this task; I could assign it to one of the many workers at Volkov Inc., the company I co-own with my older brother, Stepan, but I was bored enough to pick this task up myself.

Also, something about this girl intrigued me a little. She seemed innocent enough from her pictures, innocent and tame, but there was this spark in her eyes that really drew me in. Well, the fact it was muted and masked kept my interest; there were plenty of women I knew who had fire in their eyes. Yet, something about her attracted me, and I couldn't fully explain it, especially since she was somewhat average in terms of looks. Five foot three inches, according to her information sheet, and from her pictures, I could see her lovely amber eyes behind a pair of metal-rimmed glasses. She seemed to be on the skinnier side of average from a quick look, subtle curves, small chest, but she had a bit of an ass that was grabbable, and those lovely long and toned legs looked so perfect in the heeled boots she wore.

"That's a bit much, but anything for our daughter. As long as she comes back to us completely unharmed, without a single scratch on her, then we will be fine with any price. Just please, find her." The empty, emotionless tone of the father's voice grated my nerves the wrong way, but I held my tongue while offering an overly friendly smile to mask my displeasure .

A job was a job; money was money. I didn't need to know all the nitty, gritty details, and usually I didn't give a single shit, but something about these two and Nicole made my stomach lurch. Something in my mind egged me to dig deeper and learn more about what the hell was going on. I shouldn't dig my nose into things more than I needed too, but… One glance at Nicole's sad smile tugged at my dead heartstrings to help her, not her parents.

Something about all of this smelled and felt extremely fishy, and I was too enamored with this woman in the picture to let it go.

"Well," I said, getting up from my seat and holding my hand out, "I'll keep you updated as I go. As you know, this isn't an instantaneous thing, it takes a while, but I assure you, I will personally work on this case and make sure it gets done in a very timely manner. Nicole will be back in your arms before you know it." Or not, depending on what shit I find later with my research.

Yes, I took the assignment. They are the clients, but if there's something malicious going on, then like hell would I turn this innocent woman over to them. If something is going on, then I'd switch sides. Terminate the contract with the Le's and help Nicole instead. Terminating a contract was never a good thing, but my family and I didn't care. Our bratva ran the whole city of Nespin, California, along with other cities in the state. We've made our standards clear to everyone. The Le's would have no one but themselves to blame if I killed the contract and swapped sides. Hell, if I did, then they should sleep with one eye open because I wouldn't do something like that lightly with little to no thought.

Contrary to what people say about me being the dumb brute with brawns and no brains, I had functioning brain cells I used. For the most part, I let people underestimate my brain power to use their ignorance and obliviousness to my advantage. Granted, compared to my other brothers, I was definitely at the bottom of the pile when it comes to smarts; I blamed it on my father dropping me on my head too much, or maybe it was from him actually beating my head too much. Either way, the smartest out of the five of us would be the youngest twin, Alexei, who—no surprise—was a smart-ass doctor. My older brother Stepan's pretty smart, too, along with Arseny, Alexei's older twin. Nikolai, the oldest out of all of us, was up there as well; he had to be smart, though, to run our family bratva.

Either way, dumbo me still had a functioning brain which I used on occasion, this being one I'd have to pull it out for. This Nicole better be damn worth the headache. Well, my stupid gut and heart better be right about this nagging feeling, not like Nicole asked me personally. My instincts were seldomly wrong, so I'd entertain this avenue until further notice.

"Thank you, for agreeing to take this assignment, you have no idea how thankful we are. We will make sure you are compensated nicely beyond our agreed rate." Mr. Le's overt eagerness made shaking his hand hard before we sat back down to write up the contract for the assignment.

Three months. I'll be at least three million dollars richer, not that it mattered too much because that was chump change to me. I didn't take assignments for the money most of the time; it was the assignments themselves. Yeah, I liked work for the work itself because it gave me a good avenue to vent out my frustration and energy in a productive manner.

Volkov Inc. offered a plethora of services, from simple things like accounting help to loans to more gray area matters like hits, kidnappings, and shipments. I had a tendency to stick to the more high-risk assignments, but sometimes I liked to relax with simple tasks like this seek and retrieve assignment, especially if the target was easy on the eyes.

I couldn't help but let my eyes linger on a candid photo of Nicole where she laughed at something off-screen. Her small figure was accentuated nicely in an Asian dress; I think it was some Vietnamese dress because it looked like something my sister-in-law would wear to fancy events from time to time. Either way, Nicole looked divine in the black dress adorned with gold floral embroidery.

The more I studied her, the more I engraved her into my mind. Her long but slender face had the perfect set of upturned almond-shaped eyes, a soft nose bridge to a somewhat tall and small nose, and those brownish amber eyes of hers captivated me so much because of how they popped with her glasses. I couldn't help but wonder if they'd look as shiny and glimmering in real life when I'd have her face in my hands. God, those plush little lips of hers would probably feel so soft too, so nicely sized and reddish pink.

Ugh, get a grip, Lev, she's your target, and you can't form attachments with the target.

I reminded myself with an internal and audible groan as I ran my hands down my face after tossing the picture back down on my desk.

Shoving my own thoughts and feelings aside into the fire, I recollected myself enough to focus on digging around Nicole's life, or at least whatever life the internet offered. At least she was pretty active on social media until she went missing. Countless posts gave me an insight into the young woman, along with a quick search through records by not-so-legal means.

Nicole Le seemed like a simple, successful woman who had it all in life. She had a job at her family's business as the C.O.O. right under her younger brother and father, who were the C.E.O.s. She had rich little friends, from what her posts showed. She was smiley, happy, and living the life. Yet, looking deeper, she didn't seem so simple.

Her smiles in pictures that weren't candid shots were empty, almost flat, and forced for the sake of keeping her image up.

Then her eyes, those sad, empty eyes, cried out to me.