Ultimate Vengeance (Wanted Men Book 4) (48 page)

But, after this latest debacle, why would she stay?

He cast his gaze around, unable to deal with that right now. The atmosphere was black, as it should be because this moment was their darkest yet. He was never more thankful to have everyone in the same room. The girls had arrived some time ago and were now silent support. Eva was a controlled mess where she paced in front of a brooding Gabriel.

Alek slowly turned back to peer out the wide window next to the exit that showcased the back driveway where their private ambulance was parked. He and Maks had been standing side-by-side for the past thirty minutes. “This is the second man to go down because of me, Maks,” he said quietly, unable to keep from voicing what he imagined everyone was thinking. “Two in one week.”

“Markus’s sitch really didn’t have anything to do with you, brother. Sergei had eyes on him. He probably could have taken him out at any point that night. The fuck just bid his time so Markus’s death, like the others, would make an impact. You heard him; the point was to start a war with Lucian. Again, nothing to do with you.” He turned his head. The shadows swirling in those silver eyes of his were fierce and ripe with fear. “But the man in there? Yeah. He’s in there because of you. He took that slug to the chest for you. Just the same way you’d have taken one for him. The same way I’d have taken one for Micha. The same way Gabriel would have taken one for V. You get my point? You’re his kid, man. That’s how he sees you. Of course, he was going to do what he could to prevent you leaving him. I just can’t believe he made it by Dmitri. I think Vasily broke his jaw.”

They were quiet for a minute while Alek attempted to hold onto his balls and not turn into a weeping wreck. If Vasily’s daughter could keep it together, he damn well could, too.

“How did you know to come?” he asked, wanting the distraction just as much as he wanted his curiosity assuaged.

“Anton called Micha and choked out that the front door had just blown up in his face. We were packing the cars.” Sydney came over and offered Maks coffee. He shook his head without looking at her. But he was aware of her because his tattooed hand came up and his thumb delivered a gentle stroke to her cheek. She raised the cup to Alek, who also refused. After she had left, Maks went on. “We put a call in to Nika’s brother—he’s been on stand-by all week. V stayed back and waited for Caleb and a dozen of their boys in leather to descend.” He looked to the swinging doors. “Tegan was on her way to the house. She just finished a shift and had agreed to come over. Thank fuck she was close. With her and Micha helping…” His jaw rippled. “Micha should be where Yuri is in life, you know,” he said, the comment coming out of left field. “I’ve held him back.”

Alek got it because his thoughts were jumping, too. “Micha is living his life exactly how he wants to,” he assured. “Just like Dmitri is.” Vasily’s byki was just outside the door, sitting in a chair someone had brought him. He hadn’t moved in the last hour. Alek had seen Quan go out and try to talk to him, but he’d soon drifted away with a pat on the guy’s shoulder when he got no response.

The sound of some heavy-ass boots and gently tinkling chains came from the hallway. Welcoming more distraction, Alek turned, noting the footsteps pause halfway, then only one set continuing. No concern came after Anton, who stood just inside the doorway, re-holstered his gun.

Caleb Paynne, Nika’s brother and the vice-president of the Obsidian Devils MC, joined them in the next second. When Eva saw the dark-hair bruiser she’d grown up with in Seattle, she rushed over and was taken up in a big embrace that was nothing but comfort.

The biker released her after a long minute of quiet reassurances that came out more as gruff but affectionate orders to stay positive. His dark eyes came to Alek. The tinkle had been his wallet chain because it made the same musical sound as he came over and offered a sympathetic hand-clasp and back-slapping hug.

“Uh, I brought some company.” He swiped a big hand over his jaw, suddenly looking pensive as he nodded to the hallway. “He’s been worried as fuck and I, uh…” He looked at Eva. “Yeah, I get that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have overstepped.”

Alek frowned until he realized who Caleb had to be speaking of. It took him a moment before he recognized he wasn’t feeling quite as vicious as he’d have expected. He met Sacha’s eyes and could see she hadn’t put two-and-two together yet.

“Bring him in,” he murmured, watching her closely. “She’ll be happy to see him.”

Caleb didn’t go out but gave a sharp whistle. The thuds were immediate as the two in the hall started moving. Sacha watched with only a vague interest…until the attorney came in with Vex. She drew in a sharp breath, her eyes flying to Alek as he walked over to Justin.

Seeing as he was the host, he put out his hand and took a second to notice the guy was dressed casually in clothes like the ones Vincente usually wore. He didn’t look like a lawyer today. In fact, the casual dress made him blend with Vex and Caleb. Had he been wearing an ODMC vest, Alek might have…

This isn’t trouble compared to where I’ve been.

Justin’s words from the convention center echoed through Alek’s head, and the pieces fell into place. The fucking guy was a former member of his brother’s club. Now
that
explained the arrogant attitude.

“I respect you showing up here. To me, that means Sacha and Lekzi are more important to you than your balls.”

Justin took his hand. “In a situation like the one I was just told about, yes, the ladies take precedence.” He was angry but controlling it. “I’m sorry your uncle was injured.”

“Thank you.”

With as much friendliness as he could muster, he patted Sacha’s friend on the shoulder and moved aside. As the attorney took Sacha up in the same kind of hug Caleb had just given Eva, Alek met his woman’s eyes and released the last vestiges of resentment he’d been harboring for the time he’d missed with Lekzi. It became as simple as focusing on everything ahead of them, rather than what was behind them.

Back to the swinging doors his attention went, and the ten-minute reprieve from the anxiety gnawing through his guts was over. He blinked when Eva passed in front of him, her nails tapping against each other in a nervous habit she had. She was pale, her eyes were puffy, and the tension lines bracketing her mouth wobbled every few seconds as if she was trying not to break down.

“Mother. Fuck,” Maks breathed as he stared at his phone, his eyes wide. “What the hell is he doing?”

“Who?” Gabriel asked tiredly as if he didn’t want to deal with anymore.

“Vlad the Impaler incarnate.”

Maks passed the phone around—to the men only—and when it came to Alek, his jaw locked up as he looked at the ten-second movie clip that played over and over on a loop. It was his cousin, impaled on a twenty-foot spike that was stuck in the ground in the front of Lucian’s Southampton home. Sergei would twitch and then go limp, making it clear he was still alive. Because the place was secluded, the grisly sight wouldn’t be seen by the general population, but still. Holy fuck.

“I’m no longer worried Fane will kill him too quickly,” Maks muttered as he took the phone back.

Almost as if it were planned, everyone’s phones started vibrating at once. Apparently, Maks wasn’t the only one who’d gotten the gif, and reaction to the torture of Vasily’s nephew was coming in from their people. Then, questions started trickling in from powerful Bratvas based in Houston, Chicago, Miami, L.A., Montreal, Toronto, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, Madrid…the list went on and on.

Lucian Fane was sending a broad and deadly message to even the darkest corners of the organized crime world. But what was it? A warning not to fuck with the Fanes? Or was he informing them that he’d lost his goddamn mind?

“He has every right,” Alek said as Sacha came over to give him a warm hug. She had no clue what he’d just seen, so it had to have been appreciation for him not kicking her friend out. “Sergei needs to suffer for what he did,” he added, accepting a kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He pressed his lips to her hair as Gabriel agreed.

“Same. Markus deserves—”

“Markus deserves to be alive,” Eva interrupted. Her voice was raspy in her exhaustion, but the suppressed anger burned through. There was a hardness in her eyes that had never been there before. “So does my mother. But they’re not, and all because of an incident they had nothing to do with. If I also lose my father to that man…”

Alek didn’t think she was aware of it, but Gabriel sure as fuck was when she winced, and her hand went down to rub across the underside of her belly.

She laughed in a watery burst. “Do you want to hear something stupid?” she asked her husband. “I’m wondering if this was how Stefano felt after Adrianna was killed?”

“He hasn’t
been
killed,” Maks growled with a steely glare.

Eva met that glare head on. “If he dies, I will want someone to pay for it. For the first time in my life, I get it. I totally get this need for vengeance that I’ve never understood. Not even when those people took my mother. But now? I’m identifying with this thing that lives inside all of you. If my dad dies not even a year after they took my mom, what will I do with that fire burning my chest? How will I get past what Sergei has taken from me?”

“He hasn’t
been
taken,” Maks said louder. The note of pure agony that weaved into his voice had Sydney sliding the tray of sandwiches she’d just brought in from the kitchen onto a low table. She gave up on seeing to everyone and tucked herself into Maksim’s side.

“You’re not hearing me, Maksim!” Eva snapped as she lifted a shaking arm and pointed an onyx-pained fingernail at the door. “If Tegan walks out of there and tells me my time with him is up already, I’m going to want someone to pay for that but he’s already as good as dead! Who will I make suffer then?
Who?
”

“No one,” V murmured from his stance by the window. “You’ll learn to live with it the same way we have.” He drew Nika around from his back and wrapped her up against his chest. “And you’ll forgive Lucian for leaving you hanging over the pit, the same way we’ve forgiven Lore.”

Because Lorenzo had been the one to kill Nika’s abusive husband, and in effect, steal from Nika and V the satisfaction of ending the man who’d caused her so much physical and emotional torment. Some of it because of Sergei.

Something passed between the girls when Nika met Eva’s eyes over V’s shoulder. When they turned those determined stares to Sacha and Sydney, and the two held them without faltering, Alek was stunned by what he was seeing. He could practically feel the new bond form. A bond so strong and dangerous it nearly made the air snap around them.

What if the ladies who held the most influential positions within the families were no longer content to linger in the background, oblivious to their partners’ world? Shit. In an operation as big as the Moretti family that would be meaningful. But if the women got organized and pulled in with the Tarasov Bratva while allowing Eva’s new need for vengeance to grow…

Vasily Tarasov’s daughter and company would be unstoppable.

Striding out of the automatic doors, Vasily squinted against the steady drizzle that forever seemed to be falling when he landed at SeaTac. It didn’t bother him in the least. Made him feel good.

“You know I don’t like this,” Dmitri grumbled.

“I do know that. You tell me so every five weeks, and it does not change anything. Go. I’ll call you shortly.” He didn’t wait for a response but nodded at another of his men and took the key he offered. “Is Olin on duty?”

“Yes. I tried to call, but he didn’t answer. When he gets in touch, I will tell him you’re on your way.”

“Very good.” Vasily ducked into the car he used when in Seattle and drove away, leaving the boys to head to their hotel. He would have felt more comfortable if they were staying at Gabriel and Alek’s place, but if they checked into the Crown Jewel without him, Gabriel would be all over them like a dog with a bone, and there would go Vasily’s privacy.

He smiled, something he did often when he first arrived for these mini-vacations. This was the only time anticipation and a feeling he might consider a form of happiness overtook the hollow ache he lived with. Though calling it happiness might be stretching it because he’d lived with the real feeling for a time, and this wasn’t it.

But it was close. Because he was going to see her in the next few minutes. He’d watch his kitten through the window of her dress shop, and he would yearn for her. He would burn alive for this entire weekend that he set aside to be with her—without her knowledge—yet he would come back in another five weeks, without fail, to go through the agony all over again.

His phone rang as he took his exit off I-5. The Bluetooth picked it up. It was Olin, one of his most trusted.

Within seconds, Vasily was pulling to the side of the road as Olin’s words flew like shrapnel through his brain.

Kathryn. Crying. Driving. Strange car. Accident. Explosion. Fireball.

He sat in his car, his seatbelt strapped across his still chest, what was left of his heart shredding with the screams of a thousand agonies. This visit wouldn’t be like the ones he’d been making to Seattle for the last twenty-three years. He wouldn’t be parking and settling in with his disguise firmly in place. He wouldn’t be moaning in pain at the sight of her slight body and soft blonde hair, his fingers itching to touch as he watched with fascination her smile and laugh as she spoke to a customer. He wouldn’t be struggling to remain in place when she passed by his car on her way to the deli on the corner to buy a salad that would consist of only lettuce and cucumbers. So often, when he’d see she was on the phone, he’d opened the window a crack so he could hear her musical voice, usually tainted with a sad, wistful note that led him to believe she was talking to their daughter.