The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

27. Nicole

Chapter 27

Nicole

~1 week later~

Going back to what used to be my company felt strange, more so than I expected. What used to feel like home felt so foreign and cold with the strange looks everyone flashed me when I walked in.

"M-miss Le." The receptionist's face paled upon recognizing me. It was as if she'd seen a ghost. Clearing her throat, she averted her eyes to something on her desk. "This is unexpected. Um… Do you have an appointment?"

I don't know why, but the frankness of her attitude, along with how she actively avoided eye contact with me, pissed me off. Approaching the fancy desk, I slammed my hands on top of it. "Do I have an appointment? At my own company that I started from the ground up?" Narrowing my eyes into dangerous slits, I scowled at her. "Don't think that you are going to escape from this unscathed." The threat was meant to be empty, but from how she flinched and shrunk away from me, I couldn't help but wonder if she had some part in my usurp.

"Tell my sperm donor and child bearer that I will be in my office," I commanded the receptionist in a low and stern voice. "And tell them, don't be late."

Not bothering to wait for a response, I pushed off the desk and made my way to the private elevator at the back of the lobby, carrying my head high and chest proud the whole way.

Stopping at the keypad, I pulled out my phone to load the digital keycard to swipe. Obviously, it wasn't my original one when I worked here, but it was child's play to create a new one after hacking my own company. Actually, with how bad my company's tanked, even a tech-illiterate person like my little lion could hack the damn place.

Just as I expected, the doors opened after the swipe, and I stepped in along with Lev and some of his men. No, I wasn't raiding my parents or shooting the place up. This really was meant to be a peaceful meeting—just talk. All of us were dressed professionally, as in business professional, not tactical gear.

No one dared to stand in my way as I strutted down the hallway to the grand room that used to be my office. Well, everyone probably avoided me because of the six rough-looking men who trailed behind me. Lev insisted on bringing some backup just in case things went haywire, and I wasn't in the mood to argue with him about it when there was really no harm in having extra manpower. Granted, I hoped this meeting wouldn't end up in a shoot-out. I wasn't so much worried about Lev or our men getting into it; it was my parents and their idiots who I worried about.

Barging into my office, I paused at the entryway when I saw my brother sitting behind the grand desk. Before the shock got him scrambling to put himself together, it was obvious what I had interrupted.

Fucking gross.

"Get out," I bit out with a disgusted scowl.

Can't believe this is the idiot they gave my shit to.

With one hand holding his pants up, he fumbled around on the desk for the emergency button. "G-guards!" he shouted, his hand throwing papers and folders randomly aside in search of the button.

"It' s under the desk in the first drawer, you fucking idiot." I deadpanned, watching as he followed my direction.

It was a little amusing to watch his face light up with hope before realization smashed it. "Guards!" His desperate shout echoed throughout the room and down the hallway.

"Are not coming," I merely told him as I walked over to the desk calmly. "Maybe if you'd pay them decently and treat them well, then maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have been so easily bribed," I told him matter of factly, with a smug smile that lasted a second before my face turned deadly again. "Now, you have ten seconds to get your pathetic ass out of here before my men throw you out." It was his final warning, and the grave infliction in my voice would have made it evident.

Guess my brother decided to be utterly stupid today. He got his scraggly ass all up in my face while the poor girl who had been servicing him scrambled out of the room. "No, you listen here." I didn't budge or flinch as he spat in my face. "You do not belong here, so you leave before someone throws you and your loser thug heads out."

Now, I did move when he decided to lay his hands on me and shove at my shoulders. I quickly caught myself before I could trip on my own feet, and I struck back. I felt no guilt in backhanding my younger brother. Unlike me, he fell to my feet with one strike. "Lev, I'm fine. Put the gun away." I could see Lev's outstretched hand pointing a gun in my brother's direction in my peripheral.

Looking down at my brother with a dead expression, I nodded toward the door. "Leave and be lucky I'm not picking my bone with you today, or possibly ever because you're not worth a second of my time."

Sure, my younger brother was a brat, and I didn't like him, but I didn't really have anything against him. Unfortunately for him, he was a product of our parents. He couldn't help how they raised him, and I definitely had no say in them raising their damn golden child. And maybe I held out a little hope for him in the end because I think deep down, he had the potential to be a good man; he just needed to get his ass kicked and set straight and removed from my parents .

That hope was short-lived, though. Getting back up to his feet, he got in my face again. "You are such a bitch. You know that? Always walking around like you own everything, that you are the shit." His seething face was inches from mine, letting me smell the alcohol and weed on him very clearly. "You're just a selfish cunt who wants everything for herself. I mean, you can easily create another company or give me some money to help me start my own, but no! You refused to help your own brother start off a good life!"

Confused, I lightly furrowed my eyebrows together and opened my mouth to speak, only to have my brother silence me with a finger to my face. "No! Don't you dare try to gaslight me and shit." He scoffed spitefully. "And, of course, when things don't go your way, you through a bitch fit and ruin things for all of us." Turning on his heel, he walked away a few steps before whirling back around to continue his nonsense.

"Would it have been so bad to marry Phi? He would have given you the damn lavish life ya wanted, given you more companies to be a tyrant over, but no, you wanted to be a stupid 'I don't need no man' feminist and didn't even show up to your own wedding." Throwing another accusing finger at me. "You have any idea how much shit we got from them? How much money we lost? How much shame was brought upon us?"

Yeah, color me confused because I truly had no clue, not even a shred, about what he went on about. "Are you high? Drunk?" Was that the reason for his outburst?

Before I could question my brother, a new voice took the spotlight from us. "Liam! That's enough!" Lazily, I turned my head over to the doorway, where my red-faced father stood with my mother right behind him. "Leave! Now!"

Liam instantly apologized, bowed his head, and left with his tail tucked between his legs.

Fucking coward.

Taking a deep breath to recenter myself, I pulled the jacket off the back of the desk chair and set it on the seat. After seeing what gets done in this chair, no way would I sit on it without some kind of barrier. Hell, I wanted to burn my eyes after seeing the initial scene, and I was sure that these clothes would end up in a bleach bath or in a fire pit once I got home.

Suffocating silence filled the room, following the doors slamming shut. For a long while, I sat there, glaring at my parents with spiteful, dead eyes. "I would say I love what you've done to the place, but lying is unbefitting of a humble woman," I snarked at them with a fake smile. "But, who am I kidding." Dropping the act, I let the loathing edge inside me sharpen my voice. "I'm not a humble woman."

Scowling deeply, I propped an elbow onto the desk and leaned my head onto my hand, and my other hand drummed at the desk's surface. "Since everyone's so convinced that I'm such a bitch, then I might as well start acting like one." I scoffed, shaking my head disapprovingly at my parents, who stood there in a brooding silence. "Igor Petrov," I demanded with a hardened expression. "And don't you dare feed me some bullshit of 'oh, I don't know what you're talking about' and shit because I know you've been meeting him in secret, and I have proof of it. So, start entertaining me before I let Angel handle you two."

Slow steps interrupted the silence in the room as Lev moved next to me. "Talk," Lev demanded menacingly from beside me. "Now!"

My parents flinched at Lev's raised voice. My mother started stammering for a split second before my father silenced her with a hand in her direction. "How dare you," my father started, taking a step in my direction, only to stop when the men who surrounded him drew their guns at him. "You have no right to trespass and demand things of us."

"Igor. Petrov. Now," I repeated, not wanting to engage in useless conversation with them. "Why are you meeting with him? What is he doing here in Nespin? What does he want?"

"That is none of your business." My father stood firm, not running his mouth. "You're wasting your time, so unless you're going to tell me that you're coming back and going to be the obedient daughter you're supposed to be, leave."

Well, this was going how I somewhat expected.

Forcing out a short, ridiculing laugh, I shook my head. "You fucked over my life one too many times." Leaning back in the chair, I defied them with an arrogant look. "You already have everything I owned in name, so why even need me back?" I questioned in a bored voice. "And this is your last chance to talk. If you don't, then I suggest you start getting used to the idea of living in a three-by-eight-foot room."

When I was met with another stretch of silence, I sighed heavily. "Fine. Have it your way." Lifting a finger, I signaled the men to act. "Cuff 'em, and we'll take them to The Catacombs."

Needless to say, my parents weren't too thrilled being walked out like perpetrators. No matter how much they protested, though, they wouldn't give me what I wanted, even when I gave them one last chance before they were thrown into the car.

"Wait," I half shouted at my men, making them stop right before they put my mother into the car. "Put her in mine and Lev's," I commanded, nodding toward our vehicle.

"Martha! Don't—"

My father's shouting became incoherent after I slammed the car door on him. "Oh, shut it!" I hissed under my breath.

The fake smile I flashed my mother would've put a snake to shame. "Let's go for a drive, mother."

If anyone between my parents were to break, it would be my mother. The only problem was my father, who controlled her. Not to say she was a good person without him around because she wasn't, but she was easier to manipulate without my father to block any attempts.

As expected, my mother trembled like a leaf in the wind the moment we started driving in a dead silence. "You know," I spoke up after we left the city limits. "I wonder how long it'll be before Liam's body turns up in the morgue. I mean, without mom around to feed him and tend to him, how is he going to survive? All that booze and drugs will get to him faster without anyone around to help curb his habits." My eyes glanced up at my mother's reflection in the rearview mirror. "I say the company bombs and tanks within three days max, and it'll just all blow up real quick after that."

No one at the damn company was loyal to my parents, at least not without the right incentive, which they wouldn't receive with my parents locked away in our desert prison. "Actually, it might be less than that." I sighed in disinterest. "It'll only take me an hour or two tops to completely drain every account you have in existence while I have some men tear your homes apart from the foundation up."

I wasn't serious about everything I spoke into existence. It was all to scare my mother into spilling about Igor and whatever else they had up their sleeves. "No money, no home, no company, just what will your poor Liam do besides drown his sorrows until his heart stops? And what will you have to come back to if you ever live through this?"

"Nicole, please, have a heart and reason. Your father and I just want what is best for you. We always have. We were taking away the stress of the company from you and setting you up with a good life with a rich man who would have spoiled you with all you could ever think of." If it weren't for the sheer desperation and lack of emotions in her voice, I might be inclined to somewhat believe her.

Too bad I knew better now.

"And I don't want to hurt you. You're my mother." Turning around in my seat, I looked at her with a frown and sad eyes. "This is why I wanted to have you with me in the car. I know I can talk to you." I continued to play the caring daughter despite the fact it made my stomach churn my lunch back up my throat. "Listen, whatever this Igor person is offering you, it's nothing compared to what the Volkovs—"

Out of nowhere, my mother shot up, leaning toward me. In a low voice, she spoke in Vietnamese, "The Volkovs can go eat shit!" Whoa, did not expect the sudden outburst from her. "Everything was going perfectly fine until they took over, and we had to obey their stupid rules. You have any idea how restricted we became? Our profits were cut in half overnight, and we've been on a downward trend ever since your stupid friend merged and gave leadership to her husband."

From the corner of my eye, I could see Lev flash me a look of concern. "Little lion, it's okay," I assured him with a wave of my hand. "Just drive, okay?"

Then, I turned my full attention back to my mother with a fake smile plastered on my face. Switching to Vietnamese, I conversed with my mother. "And Igor is much better? You know he has next to nothing, right? The takedown ruined his whole family. Even if you help him, that won't be enough. He has no funds, no men, no army, nothing. If you go to Russia with him to try and retake what his family lost over there, then I hope you're prepared to have an icy grave because the Volkovs control quite a bit of Russia and outpower Igor by far." Honestly, what the hell were my parents even thinking? It really made no sense to me, business-wise or not.

"The Volkovs are about to fall because of their stupid rules. No one likes them. They are all teaming with Igor," my mother told me in a slightly hushed voice. "It's only a matter of time."

Well, ploy or not, she had my interest piqued. "Oh? Who then? It doesn't matter if they're little people." Time to see what information I could pry from her.

My mother quickly prattled off a list of names, nearly all of whom have been dealt with accordingly rather recently. However, it would seem as if my mother had no idea about the recent shift in leadership and loyalty. "Oh? Wow, I didn't think there were that many." But her ignorance would bode well for me. "So, Igor, he's got a shot then? Like a good shot."

Realization beamed on my mother's face as she fell for my act. "Yes, exactly. Everything will return to how it was before with Lady Qing." Then, her face grew brighter with a hopeful grin. "And you know what? He's taken rather a liking to you and wants you as his wife. Isn't that amazing? You'll have all the power in the world with him as your husband, and our family's alliance with him will be complete."

And there it was, just as my informant told me. "Really? Why me?" Might as well dig for the whole treasure if I was getting dirty already.

"He really loves how you look, and he needs a woman by his side to look better for all the followers. It's actually one of the conditions he gave your father and me that for this working business between us to fully work, you had to be the one to solidify it through marriage." I didn't like how comfortable my mother was getting, as if she'd just won the lottery. "So, come on, stop this nonsense with those useless Volkovs and come back to your father and me. We can be a family again, and everything will be wonderful again."

A part of me hated how genuinely hopeful she seemed. This whole thing was nothing more than a grand delusion, in my opinion. Sadly, it seemed like she' d fallen for it all—fallen to the bottom of the pit with no chance of help. Granted, there was no help for her before, but it was pitiful how she'd deluded herself.

If I had more of a heart to give her, then maybe I could care enough to try and save her, but she was way beyond saving. She was too set in her old ways. I would always come third to her, Liam and my father being first and second. Whatever money I'd throw at her would go straight to one of the two men in her life, and even if I got her help somehow, she'd pull Liam along.

Unfortunately, it was the stupid dance of old customs and culture with my parents, and it was one I refused to partake in. For crying out loud, we were in the twenty-first century and in America. Women had rights, we had autonomy, and we definitely didn't have to bow to some stupid patriarchy.

Tearing my attention away from my mother, I leaned over the center console and hugged Lev's arm. "Hey, are you going to be fair to our children?"

Lev's arm shook gently with his confused chuckle. "What do you mean, zhizn moya ? Of course, I'm going to treat them fair? I mean, if one of them needs more discipline or something, then obviously I gotta treat them a little different." His gaze fell down at me briefly before snapping back to the road.

Okay, I probably should have worded that a little differently. "I meant like our girls and boys like you won't favor our boys over our girls, right? Or treat them better and shit." I couldn't help the slight disdain from slipping into my words.

"Of course not," he quickly replied in a firm voice. "I don't give a shit about gender." He scoffed softly and muttered something in Russian before flashing me a playful grin, "Though, if I'm being honest, I might spoil our girls more than our boys." His soft laughter filled the car, along with the sound of my hand hitting his shoulder. "I'm going to treat and raise all of them the same, and according to who they are as a person. All our girls will know how to kick ass like our boys. And all our boys will know how to cook and clean just as well as any girl."

"Girls and boys? Plural?" I questioned him with a playful wariness. "How many kids do you want?"

Lev shrugged his shoulders with a hum and chuckle. "Like enough to fill a van? So five? Six?"

Staring at his cheeky face for a second, I waited for him to change his mind to a lower number. When it was obvious that wasn't happening, I smacked his arm again while rolling my eyes. "Let's start at one or two, mister, then go from there." I decided for us with a soft chuckle and warm smile.

The thought of having to wrangle more than two kids seemed exhausting to me. If I was being honest, thinking about raising one child was enough to get my hair to fall out. I mean, what if I fucked up at being a mother somehow? What if I was an oddball where my mothering instincts don't kick in? Would I even be a good mother? Why didn't I think about any of this before agreeing to roll the dice with Lev and kids?

A soft pinch to my thigh derailed me from my train of worries. "Hey, look at me." Lev's prompting got my body moving accordingly. "Our children are going to be perfectly fine. We have all the money in the world to provide amazing lives for them, and we're going to be amazing parents." I don't know how he could sound so assured about something so unstable and unpredictable, but I'd take the comfort. "Or, at the very least, we know what not to do as parents." He barked out a curt laugh and grinned goofily at me.

I mean, he had a good point there. Even if we might not know the rights when it comes to parenting, at least we know the wrongs to avoid at all costs.

Kissing Lev's arm, I squeezed it in a brief hug before turning back to face my mother. "It's a shame. Lev's an amazing boyfriend, and he would have been an even better son-in-law." Sighing disappointedly, I shook my head at her. "Too bad you'll never know from The Catacombs."