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Especially if he was hurting Vanna.
“Fucking fuck.”
“I’m glad you agree. Now call Liam and get as many guys out there as you can, because I’m going to his house whether you’re there or not.”
He hurt my wife. And even though I knew killing him would start the war we’d been trying so hard to avoid for years, I no longer cared. He would pay. And I would take back what was mine.
“Goddamn it, Gabriel. You know you’ll only get killed. Get your ass to the north warehouse and make a plan, at least. Give me three hours. Then I promise you we’ll get her.”
I hung up on him and sped up. The crushing guilt for being the reason Vanna was back in that hellhole was all-consuming. It was my fault she was there. My fault she had to face her father again after I’d promised her I’d protect her for as long as I lived. I’d vowed that she could count on me. And I’d let her down, exactly like everyone else in her life had.
It took me nearly thirty minutes to get to the warehouses. Fucking Chicago traffic.
It was packed with cars. My brother must have called absolutely everyone. I pulled up next to where Jude was waiting for me with a tight face.
I didn't stop to greet him, just stomped in the direction of the front door. “Let’s go inside.”
The men lingering outside followed us into the large space, pulling out crates filled with guns. We had enough weaponry and ammo to last us for weeks. Not that I planned on drawing anything out past tonight. It was time to end this.
Liam came up next to us, his jaw clenched so tightly I wondered how he hadn’t cracked a tooth. “What the fuck is wrong with you? I thought we were going to use a little more finesse. We managed not to shoot him for years, no matter how much we wanted to. What’s fucking changed?”
Taking a seat at the table, I nodded at the unoccupied chairs opposite me. “He hurt Vanna. And I won’t leave her with him a second longer than I have to. You’re either with me or you can fuck off. I don’t have time for your shit. He’s dying today. No more diplomacy. No more fucking waiting for the right moment.”
That was all I had to say for both my brothers to be fully on board with the plan I laid out.
* * *
Aleksándr opened the front door as we pulled up, three of his closest men at his side.
I exited the car, taking in my father-in-law. I’d never seen him look anything but indifferent before. But today, his gaze seemed to be unfocused, the muscles in his neck strained. One of his hands beat a staccato on his thigh while the other hovered over the gun strapped into a holster.
“Gabriel. How nice of you to show up at my house unannounced.”
I held my hands up to make sure they didn’t shoot me as soon as I took a step forward. “I was just driving past and thought I’d drop in.”
His hands now rested loosely next to him, and his face had smoothed out. He thought I was willing to talk when all I wanted to do was make him hurt.
“Where is my wife?”
Contempt spread over every inch of his body, and he smirked. “She must be something else for you to want her back. Personally, I think you made the right decision by kicking her out. She’s never been good for anything.”
“You have two seconds to tell me where she is.”
“Or what?”
His arrogant smirk and haughty posture rubbed me all kinds of wrong. I hoped Jude was quick about sweeping the house because my hand was twitching to take him out.
I’d been adrift since Vanna had left. Hadn’t been able to focus on anything. But seeing Aleksándr squirm made me feel alive again for the first time in days.
He was posturing in front of me, blind to what was really going on.
Raising a brow at him, I grinned, knowing it would come across as a deranged grimace. “I know Mikhail kidnapped Quinn. And Liam isn’t looking favorably on anyone scaring his woman. You shouldn’t have tried taking out Locked Security at the same time.”
I basked in the way his body tensed and his eyes widened. “Mikhail does what he wants. This has nothing to do with me.”
I chuckled, his audacity mind-blowing. “We both know you control your family with an iron fist. And Mikhail answers to you. There’s no way you wouldn’t have known what was going on.”
Stepping forward with an oily smile in place, Aleksándr held my gaze. “You don’t want war. I don’t want war. Why don’t we just agree that Mikhail has gone rogue? And it just so happens that I sent him back to Russia weeks ago. He’s no longer an issue.”
