CHAPTER THIRTY ASHTON
CHAPTER THIRTY
ASHTON
Nicolai Worthing was a smug prick. That was my opinion when we’d first met, and it remained today.
We went in. He was already outside his vehicle.
His men were spread out. He’d picked a place where he would be vulnerable if we chose to take him out then and there.
But I didn’t believe that. He’d never let himself be as open as he was.
I had no doubt he had a sniper set up somewhere.
Because of that, I had sent Avery a text to come.
He was an hour out, so we stalled as long as we could. We couldn’t stall any longer.
As we got out of our vehicle, our men spreading, I got a text.
Avery: Ten minutes out.
I almost whistled. He must’ve been speeding and beyond to make that time, but it was Avery.
I tucked my phone back in and walked the distance toward Nicolai.
He grew up in privilege, and he dressed like it. Three-piece suit. He probably got his shoes shipped direct from Italy, and he had a smarmy look with his hair combed to one side. I’m sure females thought he was attractive with his boxy-looking face, but I just saw a punk when he looked at me.
He was still smirking as I approached. There was a single flicker of emotion when he noticed Trace was staying back. I’d be the one leading this meeting.
“Ashton.”
“Punk.” I grunted.
Irritation flared over his face, tightening his features, but he covered it almost right away. Not as quick as I would’ve assumed. That told me he was slipping a little from the hold he thought he had.
“You walk into a meeting and insult me?”
“Save it.” I started walking around him.
He and Trace didn’t know each other, but we did.
I knew his cousin—not Justin, another cousin.
I’d done coke off her stomach at one point, and Vivianna had spilled a lot of secrets about her various cousins.
Nicolai had never been mentioned, not because she didn’t know him but because he’d been an afterthought.
How he’d sprung up with so much power and how quick it had happened, I had doubts about whether he was the real front man or if there was someone behind him.
“I know you. You forget that,” I added.
His mouth went into a flat line. Yeah. He hadn’t forgotten.
“I assumed this meeting would be done with both you and Trace West.”
“No. He’s given me the reins here.” I stepped closer to him, getting into his space. “You know, since it was me that your men tried to kill. Since it was me that killed your men instead.”
“I never gave them an order to do that.”
I moved back, studying him. “So who did?”
His mouth tightened again. There was a little tic right behind his eye. It pulsed before he blinked, and it was gone. “I’ll be doing an investigation into who sent that order, but I reached out. I put myself at the disadvantage to show you that I did not send those men.”
My phone buzzed again.
Avery: Two minutes out.
“I have a theory that you’re not as vulnerable as you’re making us think, but we showed up because while you apparently haven’t got a fucking clue, we do know who sent the order to your men.”
He went still.
He really didn’t know, and that tic was back. He was pissed.
“The orders came from someone in your family.”
His eyes narrowed. “You kidnapped one of my men and held him for questioning.”
I almost laughed. Fucking Jake Worthing. “That’s right. He probably went to the hospital and got treated, for the very minimal rough handling that might’ve been done to him?”
“He got checked out, yes.” Nicolai wasn’t amused. He wasn’t showing any emotion, but I knew him. Could read him.
He was so pissed.
He thought he could control Trace. He knew he couldn’t with me.
“You’re saying because I questioned one of yours, it’s okay that you sent three men to kill me?
” I stepped right into his face, leaning in, purposely making him uncomfortable.
“After you killed three of my uncles, my grandfather, and Trace’s uncle?
Eye for an eye, right? That means we’re due for way more than just three of your men. ”
I wanted to flick him in the forehead. I wanted to, so badly. It would’ve been a humiliating insult, but I couldn’t. However he got where he was, Nicolai held too much power.
He was holding firm, staring right back at me, seething but holding his ground.
I narrowed my eyes, cocking my head to the side. What the hell? Let’s go with my theory here. “How’d you get where you are today?”
“What do you mean?”
“You. I mean, you.” I sneered at him. “I know you were a nothing in your family’s business, and now look at you. Head of the family, or is it someone else?”
He tensed, his face schooling in concrete. “Tread carefully, Ashton. I also know you.”
He knew nothing that I was scared of him knowing about me. I liked fucking people up. I liked being cruel. I was also smarter than people thought, and I loved that people didn’t know how to read me.
Except Molly. She could read me.
“You got someone else behind you? Pulling the strings? Or is it really you? You this hard-ass Mafia head? Did you really order those hits on us? Or was it someone else?”
A new shift came over. I felt it, felt his true weasel self showing, but he laughed at me. His tone was hard, his eyes rageful. “I ordered the hits against your family, and I loved it.”
I reacted swiftly, bringing my gun up and putting it against his temple.
He froze.
I didn’t. I moved in even closer, staring down at him.
There was a burst of activity behind us. Shouts. Threats.
“Say it again.” I said it softly. Taunting. I took the safety off. “Say it again, how much you enjoyed issuing the order to kill my family.”
He looked away, staring beyond me.
Fucking coward.
I pressed my gun harder, clenching my teeth. “Say it again, dipshit. Say. It. Again.”
A presence moved up behind us. I knew it was Trace before he spoke.
“I’m not here for Ashton,” he said.
Nicolai sucked in a breath, just slightly, but I heard it. I felt it.
I started laughing. “He’s here to double down.”
“You called this meeting for what purpose?”
Nicolai swallowed. “I told you—”
“He didn’t give the latest order, Trace. The one that sent those three men after me. That’s what he’s going to say. But dumbass.” I angled my head over his so I could look him in the eyes, moving the gun to the side, but still right against his head. “We already knew that. It’s why we came here.”
Nicolai’s eyes were chilled.
I grinned. “You wish you could redo that order, don’t you? But send a special team after me. Right?”
He didn’t answer that, looking at Trace. “Can you get your psychopathic pet off me? A man can only stand so long with a gun to his head before he makes an order that’s going to involve a bloodbath.”
Trace was quiet.
So was I.
Then, a gunshot rang out not far from us.
Nicolai cursed, jerking before looking at me.
I held still. My phone buzzed. “Something tells me that wasn’t my man going down.”
Nicolai exploded with curses, but he couldn’t shake me. I was on him, my gun against his head. He tried moving left; I was there, blocking him.
“Get off me!” He shoved me back.
I went, but my gun remained up, pointing at him. I took a shooting stance. “Tell me how much you enjoyed giving the orders against my family again. Do it. Forget the last three men. I want to hear about the first orders you made.”
Nicolai’s eyes were wild. He had shifted. He couldn’t hide any longer, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted in there. I wanted to be so far in his head that I would haunt his every thought.
Trace was lapping up this opportunity too. He was better at the psychological stuff.
Me, I just saw a weasel killer and wanted to snuff him out.
“I want the ceasefire to continue.” Nicolai was making a concerted effort to keep in control, but he was sweating. The restraint was costing him. “Until we know who killed my cousin.”
“And Kelly,” Trace said.
Nicolai stiffened.
I narrowed my eyes. He’d forgotten about the girl.
Trace’s voice went low. “And Kelly too. She was loved by someone in our camp.”
“Of course. Justin loved her. She would’ve been family one day.”
I snorted at that.
Nicolai sent me a dark look.
“Somehow I doubt that.” I put the safety on, seeing our work was done here.
We saw him. He wanted to keep the ceasefire in place, and I’d rattled him enough. In my eyes, he was a coward. I was sure Trace would have a whole different take on him, one that was more convincing and more intellectual, but I didn’t care. I was going to kill Nicolai Worthing one day.
I couldn’t wait for that day.
“The ceasefire will continue, but if there’s one more aggression, we’ll stop waiting.”
Nicolai stared at Trace before dipping his head in a brief nod. “Thank you.” He glared at me before he went to his vehicle. His men moved immediately, swarming him.
They all were in their cars and speeding away within seconds.
“Tell me that gunshot was ours?” Trace looked at me.
I checked my phone.
Avery: His man is down. Orders?
I called him. “Is he alive?”
“He is. I have his gun packed up.”
I slid my eyes to Trace, seeing him cursing and shaking his head. “Bring him in. Take him to the downtown warehouse.”
“On it.”
“You serious?” Trace asked as I put my phone away. “Who’d you call in?”
“Avery.”
He swore again but took in a deep breath. He was aware how good Avery was. “He had a man out there?”
“Sniper, or I’m guessing from the distance. Avery didn’t specifically say he was a sniper.”
Trace’s eyes closed for a respite before he shook his head. “We just agreed on the ceasefire, and one of our men took out one of his right after?”
“No.”
“What? Yes!”
“No. It was in the middle of negotiations. The gunshot happened before you both agreed on the continued ceasefire.”
Trace rolled his eyes, but I was right, and he knew it.
I was grinning, enjoying this moment. I got one over him, my genius analyst best friend. He flicked his eyes upward again but gave me a half grin back. “You’re such a cocky shit.”
“I’m a cocky shit that’s right.”
Trace nodded, and his whole demeanor shifted.
I knew this look. He was moving into the mulling phase, where he was pulling up all the information he had taken in from our interaction, and he was sifting through it.
He was a computer, bringing everything up on the screen so it could get studied and grouped in the right category.
“This ceasefire doesn’t make sense.”
I grunted. Now he was getting it.
“He wasn’t worried about Kelly. He forgot about Kelly. He was only worried about who killed Justin ... or was he? I couldn’t read him when he mentioned Justin. But it’s like he’s more worried about the ceasefire than anything else.”
I was figuring that too.
Trace kept on. “You kidnapped one of his cousins. You killed three of his men. You just had his sniper taken out, and he is still insisting on the ceasefire. Why? That makes no sense in our world.”
The answer came to me, and it was glaringly obvious. “Yeah, it does.”
Trace looked my way.
“He’s planning something else, and he needs time. We’re giving him that time.”
“There’s no ceasefire then.”
“Exactly.”
We shared a look.
“That means we can hit him back.”
I smiled. “Finally.”
He grinned back. “It also means he has no idea we already took his cousins.”
Crispin and Penn. General dickheads, but yeah. Nicolai left without saying one word, so he had no clue.
“His sniper isn’t dead. We got that man, too, and his gun.”
It was a good coup for us.
Trace nodded. “We need a big hit.”
“We need to find out why he wants a ceasefire so damned much.” I remembered something else. “We still need to take care of Marco and Remmi.”
His grin vanished. “Let’s handle the sniper first.”