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His words made me snort and shake my head. Just a few months ago, Alex had been someone I could count on, but ever since Ivy came into the picture, he’d changed. He’d coveted what I wanted most.
Dom looked back and forth between the two of us clearly frustrated that his words had done nothing to change the way things had become. “I called you both here because I thought that you would be interested in learning the information I’ve obtained.”
I said nothing, but I felt every muscle tense.
Dom looked at me. there was a bit of pity on his face. “I have someone tailing Sasha,” he said.
I was surprised. I’d thought that he was going to tell me something about Ivy. ”Does Sasha know that you have someone following her?” I asked. My brother was incredibly territorial when it came to his wife, and he wouldn’t even let me question when he made a decision that he thought would be best. Too bad for him, I never took order well. I also didn’t think that he needed more than one guard on Sasha.
Dom nodded. “She’s aware.”
“I’m surprised.” When Sasha first came here, she felt smothered. She’d wanted nothing more than to leave her family and go to college. My brother had been amenable to the college part, but he’d wanted someone with her at all times. She humored him, but I knew that it irritated her.
“You shouldn’t be,” Dom said. “With the baby on the way, she knows that it’s for her own safety.” Dom was worried about the new Pakhan. Sasha was technically the heir to the Bratva. She was the daughter of the last Pakhan and granddaughter of the one before him. She could be a challenger.
But no one would accept Sasha in the Bratva. So even if she wanted the Bratva, she didn’t have any way of making the Bratva hers.
“What did your man discover?” Alex asked. He liked Sasha well enough, but I could tell he was curious as to why he was being brought in. He’d been off in Italy for the early months of Dom’s marriage, and while he was kind to Sasha, he didn’t know her very well.
Dom reached into his desk and grabbed a folder. He handed it to me. It reminded me of the folder he’d given me the night he ordered me not to kill Ivy. That one had been compiled by Alex, behind my back.
I opened the folder, surprised to see photos of Ivy. “What the hell is this?” I asked. “Are you tracking my wife?” My anger grew heavy. Sasha was in some of these photos, but in others, it was just Ivy. In some of them, she looked sad. I knew that those were ones where she’d been leaving the hospital.
“I wasn’t tracking your wife,” Dom said. “Not at first.”
Dom was speaking cautiously. I knew that he was remembering that night when I’d slammed him into the wall with enough force to rattle picture frames off the wall. It was the first time that we’d ever fought physically since we were adults, and I knew that it had left an impression on him.
“Why would you have Ivy followed? Hasn’t she been shacked up with Marco for the past few weeks?” My hands grabbed the file hard. I didn’t want to punch my cousin in the face, no matter how pissed off he made me.
Dom ignored the question, and I bit my tongue. I wasn’t going to give Alex the satisfaction of knowing he’d angered me. “He caught some interesting photos while he was tailing Sasha.” Dom strode forward and grabbed the file from my hand. He placed one of the pictures on the desk and pointed to a man in the background. “He noticed this man.”
I looked at the photo. The man was older, graying, and appeared to be homeless. “So?,” I asked. “He’s a homeless dude in one photo.” I didn’t see the danger. We lived in New York city. As much as we tried to keep our loved ones close, this was a city with millions of people.
Dom reached into the folder and laid several oher photos onto the desk. He pointed to the background of each photo. In each photo, there was the same man. He was standing just far enough away from Ivy that he blended into the scene. If we hadn’t been looking, no one would ever have noticed him.
“He’s following her,” I said.
Alex walked over to the photos. He looked as concerned as I did as he pored over the photos. The man was in dozens of them. Just out of Ivy’s sight, but he was there nonetheless.
“Are there photos out with the two of us?” I asked.
Dom hesitated for a moment, and I knew my answer. There were. He’d had someone follow me, and I hadn’t even noticed it. I’d been so wrapped up in Ivy that I’d ignored my surroundings. My father would have had my head for such an action if he were alive.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Dom said. “He’s good.”
I threw the few leftover photos in my hands down on the table in frustration. “Ivy could have died. He could have taken her…” I didn’t know who this man was, but I knew that he was stalking my wife.
“Do you think he’s one of the Russians?” Alex asked. His eyes narrowed as he examined the photo. “I can’t make out his features too well. He’s done a good job with his disguise.”
“He might be,” Dom said. “My man hasn’t been able to get too close. Whoever this is, he’s narrowed in on Ivy. Whenever she turns or someone gets too close, he vanishes.”
That thought didn’t make me feel any better. This man was a ghost. One that I didn’t know of in time. One who made sure that he was flying off the radar.
“What now?” I asked Dom. For the first time, I was at a loss. I couldn’t fight someone I couldn’t see.
“Keep Ivy close.” I didn’t know how I could keep my wife any closer.
Alex cleared his throat. “She needs the same thing that Sasha has,” he said. “She needs someone with her when you can’t be. Whoever is following her isn’t going to make a move when you are around.”
