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The man’s words cut off when Nickolay rammed his fist into his stomach. Vlad was rushing down the alley, and the two of them grabbed him by the arms, dragging him to the van before he got a chance to fight back.
Nickolay tied him up and gagged him in the back of the windowless van while Vlad took off, heading for a safehouse. On the way, he sent a message to Alek.
Their leader was already at the safehouse when they arrived, and there was a cold anger radiating from him as they opened the back of the van and yanked the man out. He was trying to shout at them, but all that came out was muffled protests around the gag.
“Get him into the basement,” Alek ordered.
This wasn’t the first time they’d brought someone to this place, and Nickolay knew that Alek would do whatever he needed to do to get information out of the man. He tied the man to a chair in the dark basement. The place smelled of mildew and there wasn’t much in the room aside from some tools designed to get information out of anyone, no matter how much they resisted.
Vlad left to go take care of the man’s car, still at the bar. He wasn’t going to make it out of this basement, so they needed to make him disappear properly. Nickolay stayed. This was unsavory business, but sometimes, people had to be hurt to get business done. In this case, Alek beat the shit out of the man, including burying a knife in his thigh, until he spilled his guts.
They were right. He admitted to being a part of the destructive vigilante group. It took a little more convincing to get him to name his friends, and there was blood dripping from his broken nose when he eventually told Alek that there were three more men in their group. Nickolay typed the names of the men out playing hero every night into his phone.
“You’re wasting your time, targeting us,” the man sneered. “We aren’t the only ones tired of the corruption in this city. Others will come along to clean up the city eventually.”
“Other delusional bastards like yourself?” Alek asked in a deadly voice. “Men that think they are righteous and justified, even if they are gunning down innocent people in the streets?”
“Innocent people don’t walk the streets in the neighborhoods we patrolled.”
“You’re fucking delusional,” Nikolay growled.
“I’m willing to accept the death of a few people that you call ‘innocent’ if it means that we rid the streets of people like you.”
Nickolay’s stomach turned in disgust. He couldn’t pretend that the Bratva was full of noble men that didn’t cause harm. He’d committed more than his fair share of violent acts over the years, but there was always purpose. It was business.
Killing randomly on some twisted mission of justice was sickening. These men had appointed themselves as judge, jury, and executioner, and the nonchalant attitude of the man tied to the chair showed that he didn’t feel guilty in the least about what they’d done.
“I think we’ve gotten everything we need out of him,” Nickolay said, and Alek nodded. Reaching behind his back, he pulled out his Glock. Nickolay looked away as he pointed it at the man’s head and pulled the trigger.
That was one down, three to go.
“Call a cleanup crew to come take care of the mess and meet at my house tomorrow at noon. Bring everyone. We need to work out a plan moving forward.”
“You got it, boss.”
Alek was grim as they walked upstairs, and neither of them said anything else. This was a messy business sometimes, but he meant what he said to Alice about doing what had to be done to protect his family. These vigilante bastards were a threat to the Bratva, his chosen brothers, and they had to be stopped by any means necessary.
* * *
Lately, Nickolay had been spending way too much time in Alek’s office, attending meetings about how to keep the Bratva safe from all these threats. If the others felt just as tired of it, they didn’t show it, which was probably a good thing, considering Alek’s dark mood.
He seemed like he was just pissed about the lack of progress that Sam had reported when it came to the FBI, but Nickolay knew him better than the other men. He understood that Alek was stressed out because the baby was due to arrive any day now, and all of these threats to the Bratva would become direct threats to her the moment she was born. As a father, he understood that protective instinct and sympathized with his friend.
“I’ll keep digging,” Sam said. “The FBI isn’t exactly easy to infiltrate. I haven’t even been able to learn much about the investigation into us yet. They are keeping that pretty locked down. But I’ll find a weak link to exploit eventually.”
“Good,” Alek said. “Nickolay and Vlad have tracked down the names of the three remaining members of the vigilante group. We’ll move against them in small groups over the next couple of days. I want the threat eliminated before they get a chance to gun down anyone else.”
A plan was put in place, and the meeting ended. Everyone cleared out, including Alek, who went upstairs to check on Chloe, who was napping. She was doing that a lot these days, but considering how huge she was, Nickolay figured that she needed the rest.
Nickolay was the last to leave the office, and he closed the door behind him. He was going to go looking for Alice, but she was in the bathroom across the hall, cleaning the mirror.
“Fancy seeing you here,” he said, folding his arms and leaning his shoulder against the doorframe.
Alice bit her lip before smiling, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I was just cleaning the bathroom. Didn’t even realize you all were here. Is something going on?”
“Just some friends talking about our investment interests. No big deal.”
The lie came easily, but he didn’t like that he couldn’t be honest with her. Maybe one day, if things kept developing like they had, he’d sit her down and tell her the truth, but until then, he didn’t want the darkness of his world to reach her. Alice was sweet and good. If he told her the truth about his mafia life too soon, she might run from him. But if he waited until she was in love with him, he might be able to get her to understand that this life gave him wealth and power that he needed to provide for his son. Maybe for her too, someday.
