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“Sir, I’m not exactly field agent material. I sit in front of a computer all day. I wouldn’t have the first clue how to be a spy, or plant, or whatever you guys are calling it these days.”
His eyes hardened, a flicker of something that sent a chill up my spine was there one second and gone the next.
“I’m going to level with you here, Smith. Brass has had a hard-on for these guys for a long time, but we’ve never been able to get close enough to put them away. Now, thanks to you, we have a way to put one of our own on the inside.”
He reached for a file folder on the corner of his desk. “We’ve been trying to go after the president’s new bride, but her brother has the entire Mexican government in his back pocket, just like his old man. We’d been spinning our wheels trying to come up with another way in until we got a tip that their newly appointed vice president”—he shuffled around a few papers—“a Mikolaj Kowalczyk a.k.a. Hunter is involved with the Polish Mafia out of Chicago.”
Oh, hell. He wasn’t seriously suggesting I become involved with the Mafia. Was he? Because that was the type of assignment that got agents killed. Agents with undercover experience. Not computers geeks like me.
The folder sounded like the bang of a gavel, making me jump in my seat as it landed in roughly the same spot as he’d picked it up from.
“Since we can’t connect the club to the Mexican cartel, we’ll have to tie them to the drugs flowing through Chicago. Either way, brass wants them out of the picture.” He waved me off with his hand. “Now, go find me something I can use. I don’t care what you have to do, just get it done. Hell, Smith, you might even have my job by the time this thing is over.”
The throaty growl of bike engines answered the question of who my brother thought I had with me. When I told Ryder where I was going, I specifically told him I needed to come alone. I should have known he’d see it as leaving a brother behind, a rule of his that had earned him my loyalty. Ryder might not have had a reason to be suspicious of Piotr, but he knew who my father was, and a little of our history.
Piotr might be blood, but his loyalty shifted depending on his own self-interests. His excitement over the club coming to back me up could only mean he wished them harm. They had become a thread in the woven fabric of Piotr’s plan because I’d failed to account for Ryder’s Boy Scout tendencies. A thread that I would snip at the first opportunity.
He gave me a demented grin over the top of our sister’s head before turning to swing open the door. It almost made me change my stance on killing him. Father may have passed down his lack of feeling, but we differed when it came to killing. He viewed it as a sport, getting off on shocking people with his garish displays, hence his nickname, The Butcher. For me, killing was a decision born of necessity. If it was warranted, I preferred a more clean and precise method that wouldn’t bring about any backlash.
Another thing my father thrived on was the attention his antics brought him. Something my brother obviously got from him, since Piotr was preening like a peacock as everyone filed through the door, making an utter ass out of himself.
“Welcome, welcome. Oh, my, who do we have here?” He grabbed Valentina’s hand and placed a kiss on top of it. “If my brother had told me they made bikers that looked like you I might have been tempted to get one.”
Despite being raised by the same brutal man, my brother was more pretentious snob than Mafia killer. Not that he wasn’t capable of it, but he didn’t enjoy getting his hands dirty. A series of mind games, followed by lying back and watching the results of his handiwork, were more his forte. Though, if the vein in Ryder’s neck were any indication, there might be an old-fashioned brawl in Piotr’s future.
“Unless taking a heel to the balls has suddenly become your thing, I’d advise you to stick with your usual drab socialites.”
Beast stood in the entryway with his arms crossed over his massive chest, adding, “And god help you if you get blood on her shoes. Those things are expensive to replace.”
Valentina smirked as my brother dropped her hand as if she had leprosy, while Ryder tried to cover his snicker by coughing into his hand.
My brother did a double take as he stared up at Beast, his mouth hanging open. Most people reacted that way the first time they saw him. He had the body of a professional wrestler with the height of an NBA player. Normally, he wore a smile to soften the severity of his dark hair and thick beard, but wearing a scowl, as he was now, he looked downright sinister.
Tweak, in typical fashion, didn’t waste any time in noticing my sister standing beside Piotr. His dick must have some sort of pussy sonar because if there was an attractive woman within a hundred-mile radius, he’d find her and hit on her. Women always fell for it too. Well, everyone except for Valentina, but I’d already decided she was the exception to every rule.
“How did his ass”—he swung his dark eyes my way—“end up with a beauty like you for a sister?”
My hope that she would be like Valentina died a quick death when she batted her eyelashes at him. Why that was universal girl code for you can hit it was still a mystery to me, but I’d seen it happen too many times. Especially now that I’d been promoted to VP. However, he was shit out of luck today. He’d have to find another place to get his cock wet.
Cannon slid between Bea and Tweak, winking at me as he tucked a cigarette behind his ear. “Tweak, you’re crazy. The family resemblance is clear as day.”
Piotr took one look at Cannon’s torn denim jacket, gaudy gold rings, and visible prison tats, and curled his lip. My brother was accustomed to saying whatever he liked because of who our father was, and I could practically hear the insults brewing in that small-minded brain of his. With Cannon’s lack of impulse control, if Piotr opened his big mouth things would take an ugly turn before I could even find out what my brother wanted.
“You put out feelers across every corner of the underworld that you needed to see me. Well, here I am. Let’s get this over with, shall we? You don’t want me here any more than I want to be here.”
Piotr smiled. It was no doubt meant to be reassuring, but it was more like an angler fish luring its prey in with something shiny. Thanks to my insomnia, and the National Geographic Channel, I knew all about the predators of the animal world. My brother had conveniently forgotten that he only played at being a monster, while I was born one. It might be time I reminded him.
His smile wilted and his skin paled as I let the front I put on for the world melt away. My sister’s breath caught, and I knew she was seeing our father stare back at her through my eyes.
Piotr tried to recover his earlier bravado, but his voice rose an octave as he said, “I have something to show you in Father’s office.”
He could have picked any room in the house for our meeting, but I knew he’d strategically chosen that one. Piotr wanted to watch me spiral while he sat there all calm, cool, and collected. Another mind game. He forgot I could walk into the room where I confronted our father, a room I’d barely escaped the last time I was here, and feel nothing.
The dark wood paneling that had been covered in droplets of my blood the last I saw it still lined the lower half of the hallway. Pristine white paint covered the upper half of the walls with gold sconces in between the paintings of our ancestors. A line of pale blue eyes followed our progress down the hall, and it was no less creepy now than when I was a child.
Stepping into my father’s office, I saw not much had changed in here either. If it weren’t for the massive desk, you could easily mistake this room for an old-fashioned gentleman’s club with its rich leather chairs, dark wood furnishings, floor to ceiling bookshelves, and fireplace.
Piotr walked around the desk and looked quite at home as he plopped down in Father’s leather chair. He even looked like him with his legs crossed, reclined back, surveying his domain as his two shadows stood with their arms folded in front of them. All he was missing was the cruel sneer and deadened eyes.
