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The pain coursing through my system was increasing, my chest on fire. While I wasn’t certain, it would appear the bullet had gone clean through. Still, I couldn’t afford any downtime at this point. There was far too much to lose. Even heading toward the safehouse was an admittance that I didn’t have a handle on the situation. I also couldn’t shove aside my instinct that whoever Sergei was working with had inside knowledge of our organization.
“How bad is it?” My father rarely minced words nor did his voice ever differ from its usual gruff tone. Tonight, I could hear concern.
“Bad enough we should be prepared for an onslaught of unwelcome guests, including the cops. DEA. They’re using explosives.”
“Goddamn it.”
“As I told you before, Pops, the fucker should have been eradicated before.”
“Don’t you dare ever tell me what to do!” His voice was shaking. “I’ll handle the damn cops, but we need to develop a plan before this gets any further out of hand.”
“Yeah, Pops. I got it. I’m headed to the safehouse. Kirill is on the hunt. We will track them down.”
“I understand you have a woman with you,” my father snarled. The pictures had surfaced. Sergei was hoping to create enough chaos he could use it to get to one or all of us. My father didn’t take kindly to anyone venturing outside the norm, especially his offspring. He was stuck in the old ways, a culture that had no place in America. While he’d tried to adapt, the arranged marriage he’d forced Sevastian into with the daughter of the Italian mafia family had been a clear indication he wasn’t ready to give up the aging culture.
We’d had several almost tragedies over the years, near misses on breaking apart our family. While each one of us had become hardened, scarred by the events, even pretending they hadn’t existed, we all knew there was a ticking timebomb hanging over our heads. AsPakhan, my father commanded respect even with people considered upstanding citizens, yet one day he would be assassinated.
The thought had never left my mind.
That time could be now.
“She is of no concern to you,” I barked in return.
“How so, son? She’s the enemy. The woman has been a part of prosecuting and persecuting our world for years. We are the laughingstock of the entire city. The Irish, the Italians just realized we are prime for a takeover because of the choices you made. Now this. Volkov is feeding off the scandal, which will allow him a wide-open door to destroy us.”
My father’s relentless scrutiny was never just directed at me, but it was becoming more than just an irritant. He was also deflecting, something he was damn good at.
“This, Father?” I hissed. “How quickly you forget that our past, no,yourpast is coming back to haunt all of us. That’s the only thing that matters at this point.” When he remained quiet, I sensed I’d been right about the assumption he kept a dark secret. It was the way of the Bratva. We held certain information to our chests, never to leave our lips no matter the level of torture we were forced to endure.
“Mind your tongue, Alexei. I am still your father and yourPakhan. If you choose to continue harboring your whore, then you can consider yourself ostracized from the family.”
When he ended the call, I slammed the phone onto the dashboard twice, cursing in Russian under my breath.
“It would seem your father doesn’t like the fact you’re involved with the enemy,” Stephanie said quietly, devoid of any emotion. When I glanced over, I could see a sneer on her face.
“Was that your intention all along? Alienate members of my family so you could tear us down one by one?” Fuck. Losing my temper wasn’t going to help the situation.
There was a split second of continued sadness in her eyes when she gave me a hard stare, as if I’d hurt her deeply, denying what we’d shared. Then her face turned to stone.
“I’ve done nothing to you, Alexei. Not one damn thing. I have no idea why you believe that to be true, but right now, that’s the last thing on my mind. Hoping I can stay alive takes top billing. However, I can’t help but think that if I’d never met you, my life would be far better.”
“Is that really the case, Stephanie? Do you not think Sergei would have managed to end your life in a fiery explosion?”
“No, he told me explicitly what he was planning on doing to me. He said he would enjoy…” She shook her head, pressing her hand to her mouth. Whatever the fucker had said to her, he would pay for by experiencing my method of revenge firsthand.
“He will never be able to touch you. Never.” The information Cassian had found on her was just as heartbreaking as certain aspects of my past had been. At least I’d found out what had fueled her determination to fight heinous criminals. The information had also presented more questions in my mind. Could a woman who suffered the way she had sell her soul to someone like Volkov?
“You can’t protect me from evil, Alexei, because you’re exactly like the Ghost. Merciless. Without a soul.”
Her words were not said to rile me, but they were heartfelt, the joy we’d shared becoming nothing more than the fantasy she’d mentioned.
An ache remained deep inside, the need to shed blood in the forefront of my mind. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as I made the final turn toward the safehouse. The endgame would be bloody. We would suffer significant losses but she wouldn’t be one of them.
At this point, I’d use every soldier, every method possible to hunt him down.
I swung around the curve, scanning the street continuously before turning and rolling up the driveway and into the small garage. While it remained on the outskirts of Brooklyn, the entire area was still protected by my soldiers, the small businesses paying taxes in exchange for protection. It had been a full year since I’d visited the location, the facility generally used for temporary housing when the heat was brought down on one of my soldiers by law enforcement. It had also been used to handle difficult situations with certain enemies, the houses on either side still under renovation, which allowed for punishments to be doled out as necessary.
Our stay would only be for a few hours, at maximum a day, but I needed to get a handle on Sergei’s intentions in order to make calculated decisions. I doubted he was in control of every operation Volkov had planned, but Sergei’s was entirely personal. That made him even more deadly.
