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At leastsomeonewants pancakes.
I walk into Luka’s office, trying to ignore the sharp pang every time I take a step. I stand against the wall, bringing my hand to the base of my spine. I knead the muscle, gritting my teeth as I listen.
“The reason why we’re all here today is because Alek dug deeper on Van Dyne and got some information we need to act on.” Luka gives me a pointed look. “Fast, since lover boy here decided to step up and marry our leverage.”
I roll my eyes. “Fuck off. It’s a solid strategy.”
Alek’s blue eyes pin me to the wall. He’s got a knack for that. And at almost seven feet tall, he doesn’t need to do much else to intimidate people. But I’m not intimidated. I’m too focused on what the hell is going on in Skyla’s mind to pay much attention to anything else.
“We know Van Dyne is linked to Denis Stepanov, although we can’t link them through any transactions.Yet.” Alek steps toward me, like I’m his only audience. “You had one job to do, steal the bride so we could make sure to crush whatever plans Van Dyne and Stepanov had for taking down your family since we know that as part of Red Ladro, we’re all associates and all vulnerable to an attack.”
“Why the hell do you care now, Sev?” I straighten up. “You’ve always pushed our shit back on us, saying that Red Ladro is a separate entity. What changed?”
His jaw tenses, dark eyebrows pulling together. “What’s changed is that this involves more than just the Malikov family. Two other members of Red Ladro have a vested interest in tracing the information we found. There are a series of shell companies with transactions from several countries in Eastern and Western Europe. All of them track back to a parent company in Switzerland called Strathmore Enterprises. We checked out the board of directors.” He pauses, making sure to look at each one of my brothers and Boris. “Tyson Van Dyne is listed as one of them.”
“And what does Strathmore Enterprises do?” Nik asks.
“They own hotels and run elite sex parties where they lure in young women and kidnap them for trafficking purposes. It’s a multibillion-dollar organization, one we’ve been investigating for a while. But we’ve always come up empty because the companies open and close before we can track any details. But once Tyson got assigned to the board, there was a delay in covering their tracks. They didn’t erase their trail fast enough, and that’s how we found them.”
“And who are the other members of Red Ladro who want in on taking down this sex trafficking ring?”
Alek turns back to me. “The Villanis and the Mulligans. Turns out one of the shell companies links back to the sex trade in Dublin, Ireland, and they have a vested interest in the man running the show behind the curtain. Same man you’re after. Branko Ivanova.”
“Motherfucker,” I mutter.
“I’d told your father about the Mulligan girl who’d been snatched in Dublin years ago.”
I look over at Boris who’s sitting in a black leather chair next to Luka’s desk. I haven’t seen him in at least two years and Jesus, it looks like he’s aged about twenty more. His skin is sallow and worn, blue eyes watery. You’d never know he lives in South Florida. Looks like he hasn’t seen daylight in years.
Boris clears his throat, his voice still raspy. “It was after I’d done some work with Patrick, the boss of the Mulligan family, up in New York. But all the searches for her came up empty. Your dad wasn’t able to locate her or the group who took her. It was supposed to be some act of revenge, but all leads were dead. Until now. The information Alek found might lead to the people who took her. To Branko himself. And that son of a bitch needs to die. That’s the priority now that we know he might be close.”
“What about St. James? We stopped the wedding so we could kill their plans to fuck up our weapons distribution business.” I look at Luka and Nik. “We have that exchange planned. We can’t pull out.”
“This is bigger than our weapons business. This means finally finding Branko Ivanova and destroying the threat to our future and the man who is responsible for our last three and a half years of hell.” Luka sits on the edge of his desk. “And right now, we can’t take any risks that will blow up our organization. We don’t know what the hell Tyson Van Dyne is gonna do next, and if he’s tracking Skyla, he’s tracking us, too. We need Skyla to lead us to Branko.”
“Yeah.” Alek turns and points to me. “You said you snatched her to save your family. Now’s when you need to make your move. Fuckfest 2023 is over.” His voice drops. “Don’t think I haven’t seen the security feeds.”
“You’re a fucking sicko,” I seethe. “Demented as everyone says you are.”
His lips curl upward into a malicious smirk. “I’m evidently not the only one who holds that title.”
“So what the hell do you want me to do?” My pulse jumps because I know exactly what he wants me to do, what everyone expects me to do, what I need to do to regain all the respect I’ve lost.
“It’s time for you to take the princess back to her ivory tower.” Alek points a finger at me. “And then we’re gonna torch the fucking thing.”
Chapter30
Skyla
My hand freezes on the bathroom door.
“…take the princess… back to her ivory tower… torch the fucking thing.”
And then Zak’s voice.
“Done.”
He’s giving me up. Taking me back to Tyson. He’s choosing his family over me…again.
