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Another man with an automatic weapon makes his way toward Curt, but Curt’s too fast. He raises his hand and throws the knife, hitting the man square in the forehead.
“Christ.” I have to turn away, unable to watch it. Curt’s a trained killer. It’s obvious in every move he makes that this is what he was taught to do. I don’t know how to reconcile the man I was chatting with in the barn with this assassin.
I check the time. Shane should be back anytime. I hope Curt’s message reached him, and he doesn’t walk into this without being warned.
My God, they could kill him.
And it would all be my fault.
Why did he bring me here? Why did he put himself and Curt at risk?
Sure, we flirted a lot over the past few months, but it’s not like he owes me anything. And now his property and his friend are at risk.
He is at risk.
Because of me.
If something happens to him, I’ll never forgive myself.
Chapter 14
~Shane~
“It’s a party,” Cameron says when my brothers and Nadia file into the office in downtown Denver. “I should have brought chips or something.”
“Good to see you,” Carmine says, shaking his hand.
“I wish it were under better circumstances,” Cameron replies. When we’re all seated around the room, me behind the desk, Rocco standing to my left, and Nadia and Carmine on the couch, Cameron gives his report.
“As far as I can tell, the Sergis were behind yesterday’s attempt at a raid,” Cameron says, making Carmine swear ripely. “I was able to do some digging and found ten-thousand dollars deposited into the asshole’s account. I suspect it was just a scouting mission. If they were serious about getting in and grabbing Ivie, there would have been more than just one guy there.”
“I thought the same,” I add with a nod. “Why would Billy start a war with the Tarenkovs?”
“Because he’s a piece of shit,” Nadia says coldly. “He has to know that Ivie is one of ours. He’s not stupid, and he was at Annika’s wedding earlier this year. Not to mention, he has a grudge against me.”
“The Sergis love money,” Rocco adds.
“They have plenty of fucking money,” I remind him.
“Come on, man,” Rocco says. “You know he heard that there was a bounty on Ivie’s head, dead or alive, and figured he’d cash in on the payday.”
“A million dollars,” I mutter, shaking my head. “He’s willing to start a war over a measly million dollars. They’re worth a hundred times that much.”
“Billy’s not particularly smart,” Carmine adds. “I wonder if his father knows what his son’s up to.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
All of the eyes in the room fly to me. Cameron scowls. “Shane—”
“I’m going to tie him up and disembowel him. Slowly. The son of a bitch will pay for this.”
“There’s more.” Cameron stands to pace the office. “You said that Ivie kept coming up with her father’s name as one of the owners of the phone numbers yesterday.”
“What?” Carmine demands. “I thought he was long dead.”
“We all did,” I confirm, and can see from the look on Cameron’s face that the man is very much alive.
“It was a cover,” Cam says and blows out a breath. “If anyone finds out that I came into this information, my family and those closest to me could be at risk. The O’Callaghans can’t be touched for this.”
“They’ll be protected,” I assure him. “You all will.”
“I’m trying to get the fuck out of this life,” Cox reminds me and then shakes his head in disgust. “Okay, so about a dozen years ago, maybe a little more, a lot of people wanted Pavlov dead. He was a piece of shit, a bad businessman, and liked to borrow money that he never repaid. We won’t even get into his lack of parenting skills.
“Anyway, I was part of a taskforce back then that was trying to find his whereabouts so we could get in, assassinate him, and get out.”
“The government wanted him gone?” Rocco asks, surprised.
“Oh, yeah. He was a Bulgarian operative. It’s all just a mess, and the world was better off without him. Anyway, before my team could get in and take care of him, someone supposedly beat us to it. Killed him. We saw a video of it, for fuck’s sake. They hung him.
“We closed the case and forgot about it. Wrote it off. We had other missions to worry about, and while Pavlov was a pain in the ass, he was small potatoes compared to some of the things we do.”
“But?” I ask.
“I made some calls, started asking around. Discretely. Called in some favors. It was a cover. Pavlov wasn’t hanged that day. It was a guy who looked a lot like him. Turns out, Pavlov has been living in Dallas for at least a decade, still doing his shady shit but on a smaller scale.”
