Chapter Thirteen
Miles
Scorched Earth.
That’s what the fuck is going to happen.
Watching my future wife throw herself into her mother’s arms as her heart breaks is devastating.
I understand more than I care to admit. When my mom called earlier, I felt her warmth, and I needed her comfort.
She gave me that added strength to handle this crisis.
She’s always been the quiet solace for all of us.
“We’ll be back. Don’t let anyone in. If anyone comes here that is not on the approved list, be ready to end them,” I warn the security. “No failure will be tolerated.”
“Yes, Mr. Ivanov.” I know it’s Emiliano’s house, but it’s my woman, and I just killed for her. I plan to do a lot more for her.
There was a war about to take place, and I won’t lose.
We have twenty men available and could have another twenty ready within hours, but it wouldn’t be enough if Novak activated his street thugs.
In order to coordinate, we head to my home where I have access to my advanced computer systems. My father and I can do a lot while Kyros and his team of men can track down his lackeys and keep tabs on his crew.
“We need to do this financially, Miles, and you know it.” I pressed my lips together.
“Yes, Father. It seems history repeats itself. I need to dispose of my enemy in more than one way.” He and I head to work with our computers, logging in with untraceable software and the latest malware and work to hack into Novak’s systems.
The man is a dinosaur. He’s only about ten years older than my father, but he acts like he’s in his eighties.
All his security files are running on old-school McAfee.
I was hacking that before I was potty trained.
It’s like he’s not even trying. I wonder if he’s still running Windows 10.
I try not to laugh at the old tech. It’s no wonder we were able to get to the cabin so easily.
He’s smart about some of the tech because it keeps me from hacking his cameras, but I have drones for that. My small stealthy bird drones are out on his property. Uncle Boomer loves that tech. It has become his favorite toy I’ve created. It’s one of my hobbies.
Within hours, we know where everyone in his family is and where the old bastard is located.
He thought he could run after learning my fiancée was safe.
Tomorrow his credit cards won’t work, then his belongings will be repossessed—day by day, he will lose everything.
Only when he’s at his lowest will I put my blade through his heart while I stare him in the eyes and let him know why.
I return to my in-laws with Kyros, and take my beautiful woman by the hand. “Are you ready to go home?”
She tilts her head and her pretty lips part. “I thought you said we are going to Steeleville.”
“We are, but we need to pack, and I need some time alone with you. Does that bother you?”
“No, of course not, Miles.” She turns her killer sunshine smile on me, making my heart quicken and my length grow.
“Good, I just need to hold you.” We leave her family for the time being. I need her all to myself. Kyros holds the door open to my vehicle and drives us back so I have a chance to cradle my wife. “I love you so much, Elsa. I need you to know that. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“I know that.” I rub her cheek, hating that she has purple bruise on her soft skin. I’m so damn pissed that I want to bring Brodsky back to life and kill him again. She flinches and that hurts.
“I don’t want you to ever be afraid of me.”
She takes my hand and places it back on her face.
“I’m not. I swear, Miles. You’re my peace.
” I close my eyes and press my forehead to hers.
“Honestly, I was worried about the touching thing, but I’m not anymore.
” I fiercely kiss her lips, but then I remember the bruising.
It doesn’t seem to bother her as much as before, but now that the adrenaline’s worn off, it’s a little rough.
She groans, so I back off. “I’m sorry, love.”
“I’m not. I need your kisses. The pain only reminds me that I’m alive.”
“I’ve got something else to show you how alive you are,” I growl. She giggles when I lift her onto my lap, letting her feel my stiffness.
“Please. I need you, Miles.” As soon as we get inside, I take her to our room where we shower off the day and make slow, passionate love. The way I devour every inch of her, she should have no doubts left about my love or desire.
By morning, we move our entire family down to Steeleville where they will be completely safe.
****
The next week had been nothing but planning for our wedding while the Vegas world learned that Novak suddenly took his own life.
It’s the strangest thing. Reports believe it’s because he was going bankrupt, but others believe it was because he was diagnosed with an uncurable cancer and wanted to take the easy out.
No one questioned his death when the news was so abysmal, and he’d lost so much money online gambling.
Who knew the man had an addiction to sports betting that went back a decade?
I did, since I made it up with actual receipts.
It’s amazing what you can do when you use your gifts for revenge.
Of course, I also planted the fake cancer report for good measure.
In reality, it’s quite a different story.
Four days ago…
“It’s good of you to see me,” I say, entering his property unannounced and unseen.
“Don’t bother hitting that button. It doesn’t work.
” I can see his hand under the desk where his emergency switch is located.
It’s really entertaining to see the color drain from a man’s face when he realizes that he’s face-to-face with the man he betrayed.
“What do you want?” he stammers.
“You tried to kill my woman.” I remain calm and collected when I want to snap his neck.
He throws up his hands and shakes his head. “I didn’t do anything. It was all Jacob Brodsky,” he exclaimed, trying to save himself, but nothing could do that now.
“Yes, who happens to be your illegitimate child.”
“How did you come to that realization?” After Elsa said she’d seen Novak at school, I wondered why he was there on occasion, I checked the student roster. His son graduated three years before Elsa did, so it didn’t take long before I found out which kid he went to see.
“I’ve got the right people, and besides, after looking at that fucker, it was obvious he has your fucking crooked-ass nose. To think I assumed it was broken in a fight. You’re just one ugly son of a bitch.”
“Yeah, you sent him after her all those years ago, and now he’s paid the price.” From the look in his cold, beady eyes, he couldn’t deny it if he tried. “Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”
Forgoing the denials, he shrugs and says, “It took you so long to figure out he was related.”
“We didn’t know anything about the little shit and his attack on Elsa.
She wanted the memory to be washed away.
See, some women don’t want to deal with the gross feeling that they were almost violated by someone they trusted.
She was fortunate that he hadn’t gotten to what he planned, but it was because she was trained and not isolated. ”
He slammed his fist down. “She wasn’t even raped. She threw a fit, and my son paid for it.”
“Really? He touched her, put his mouth on her, and he nearly got what he wanted, but she escaped his grasp. Seconds more, and he would have been buried years ago.”
“Now, let’s have a drink together before I finish what you started.”
I pour a drink for each of us with the laced bottle and hand it to him. Of course, my people brought it in to match the one he had. It was his favorite and he was an avid drinker, so he quickly downed the first glass. “Damn. Save some for the rest of us.”
“If you’re going to kill me, I might as well get wasted first.” He swirls his glass and grunts his disgust.
“I’m not going to kill you…yet.”
He takes another large gulp down. I hide my smirk as I noticed the slow shake of his hand. This time, the drugs are affecting him.
“What did you do to me?” he asked as his body weakens.
“Nothing. You should see these.” I set out his bank records and then his medical records.
“What the fuck?”
“See I don’t need to kill you, Novak. You’re already on the way out the door, and you’re broke as fuck. Soon, you’ll have nothing, and you’re rotting from the inside out, which I could have told you without the tests.”
“You bastard. Did you come here to gloat?” he asks.
“Duh. What the fuck did you think? I don’t even have to lay a finger on you, even though I know you laid your hands on my woman.
You struck her, and I could suffocate your fucking ass right now and no one would know.
” Although I’m not exactly telling the whole truth, it’s fun to watch him.
Slowly, he loses it. His breathing becomes shallow as the meds work overtime.
“You’re a bastard.”
“I can take these back.”
“No, these are mine. I don’t even know how you got access to them.” Seriously, did this man know nothing about me? He might have gotten tests done, but the results were accidentally switched at the hospital.
Anyway, he tugged at his tie and then poured himself another glass and drank it as if to quench the thirst. He falls back on the chair, and I watch as he slowly dies.
With precision, I switch the bottles, making sure to slide it into his hands, getting those necessary fingerprints.
Then I pull out the prescription bottle of pills and add his fingerprints to those too, spreading out the necessary amount.
I know how many were used and how many should roughly be in his system.
I snuck out the same way I came in and disposed of my fake print gloves. Using only back roads and my fellow Riders, I returned to Steeleville and my family.
It’s been a wonderful vacation.