Chapter Forty-Six Tiernan
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
TIERNAN
“If you’re here to kill me, do it now, Koshchei. Long speeches have never been our style.”
Alex spoke coldly, and in Russian. I hadn’t heard Russian in so long I almost convinced myself I forgot it.
I set my gun down on his desk, pulling out a dull knife from my pocket, running the pad of my finger over the blade. “You wound me, Lyosha. Thought you’d want to catch up.”
He licked the corner of his bleeding lip, staring at me with those arctic eyes that watched me being raped and tortured. Starved to near death and dipped into ice water.
“I kept tabs on you over the years. I know everything there is to know,” Alex said matter-of-factly. “I’ve no use to catch up with you. I know your life better than you do.”
One corner of my mouth tilted. “Is that so?”
“It is.” He sprawled in his seat regally.
“I know, for instance, that you recently got married. That you married her for territory, alliance, and to drag the Camorra into our war.” His pack-a-day voice was toneless.
“I know you weren’t planning to fall in love, but that it happened, anyway.
She was already in your system that first night, when she put a bullet in your shoulder. ”
My smirk didn’t waver, but alarm bells began blaring in my ears.
How the fuck did he know that? It was a very specific piece of information. One I hadn’t shared with another soul.
Alex continued, cracking his neck. “I know your father is barely functioning. He never forgave himself for what happened to you and your sister. He is letting you lead the operation, but you wish you had an equal, an adviser, someone to strategize with. Fintan is still struggling with alcohol and gambling. He’s a decent guy, but useless.
I know Tierney is chummy with SSA Tom Rothwell.
You should take care of that. Once he sinks his teeth into something, it’s impossible to shake him off. ”
My pulse drummed against the side of my neck. Lyosha knew things that could ruin us completely, and he just…sat on this shit? Impossible.
How did he get access to all of this information? There was a mole inside us. I needed to find it. If it wasn’t too late.
“I have friends in every snake pit, Tiernan.” He studied my face with amusement. “Yours included. Hungry dogs are never loyal.”
“My soldiers are well rewarded.”
“Monetarily, perhaps.” He arched a golden, thick brow. “But there is darkness, depravation only betrayal can feed. This is what I tap into when I find my spies. People who want to see the world burn.”
Instead of confirming or denying his words, I drawled, “Seems like you’ve been busy writing my biography. I love meeting fans.”
“It’s not admiration if you know the person intimately. I loved you like a brother, Tiernan.”
“Yeah? Well, you treated me like the family pet.” I spat on the floor.
“No, my father did. Igor was never good at letting go of grudges. May I remind you, Tyrone killed my own mother when I was a few weeks old.”
“I was reminded of that every day for fourteen years.”
Alex stared at me indifferently, as though I was a petulant child.
“Don’t pretend to be so calm.” I stepped toward him, aiming the blade of my knife at the center of his neck. “I killed your father. Your pakhan. I kept his skull as a souvenir. Neither of us is here to reminisce about the good old days.”
“I’m aware you killed my father. I was the one to direct him straight into your path. He wasn’t supposed to be at the gentlemen’s club you caught him in.”
I stopped rolling the tip of the blade over his skin, scowling. “Liar.”
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out. Fintan’s name flashed across the screen. I sent him to voicemail.
Alex shook his head. “Got a hot tip you were going to wait for him in the back alley of the club, where you knew he’d exit to avoid heat.”
But his version of things seemed as logical as any. Igor wasn’t supposed to be in New York that weekend. He had the feds crawling up his ass, breathing down his neck. I remembered my surprise when I realized I could off him that night, instead of next year, like I’d planned.
I arched an eyebrow. “And you just let it happen?”
Alex shrugged. “Igor was my father, not my dad.”
“And?”
“On top of that, he was also a shit pakhan. Lethal combination,” he finished.
“It was time I took his place. The Bratva was falling apart. I spent the last few months trying to undo decades of damage in Moscow. The gulag in Siberia is gone now. Dismantled. I freed all the prisoners.” Pause.
“Other than Olga. I killed that bitch myself. Never liked her.”
A stone rolled off my heart at his words. I’d dreamed of going back there one day and doing it myself.
“Igor betted on all the wrong people. Formed alliances with toothless old dogs. He made us weak and vulnerable. And he didn’t play nice with the feds, which landed us in a world of pain,” Alex groused.
That wasn’t news to me. I just didn’t think Alex was that much of a sick bastard to actually lead his father to slaughter.
“You brought reinforcements from Russia,” I pointed out.
“I did,” Alex confirmed. “But not to take you out. I needed them to train my new soldiers. I wasn’t gonna come for you, Tiernan,” he said, voice as even and calm as though we were discussing the weather. “Not to kill you, anyway. I wanted to clear things up and go our separate ways.”
Fintan was calling. Again.
I killed the call. Again.
Beyond the door, I heard Camorra and Irish soldiers discussing finding a stash of M16s and depth charges.
Why would the Russians need depth charges?
“Eliminate cargo ships carrying drugs for competitors,” Alex read my mind.
I almost smiled. We used to read each other’s minds all the time.
“You wanna tell me you knew all this shit about my life, yet you had no idea I was coming for your ass today?” I tucked the knife into my pocket. I wasn’t going to draw out his death. He didn’t do anything to me. It was his dad I had beef with.
“Oh, I knew. I just didn’t think you’d be such a cunt that you’d throw a grenade into my van. Especially after the betrayal at the gulag.” He almost pouted. “I’m a little hurt. All puns intended.” He jerked his chin to his broken arm.
“You’re telling me my slaughtering dozens of your men was your plan all along?” One corner of my mouth kicked upward in amusement.
“You killed low-ranking men. New recruits. Nobodies. Haven’t you noticed they didn’t give you much of a fight?
” He tilted his head. “By the way, Jeremie and Slava have been waiting in the concealed underground bunker with some of our infantry fellas. They should be greeting your soldiers in…” He tried flicking his gaze to his Rolex, before remembering he was handcuffed. “Now.”
A forceful blow sounded from downstairs. Shouts in Russian and Italian erupted. We got lit up by heavy machine guns by the sound of it. I heard the thuds of men falling to the floor. Achilles cursed in Italian. A hand grenade exploded.
Alex chuckled. “Never gets old.”
I shook my head. I always admired Alex’s shrewdness. In another life, we’d still be friends.
He could’ve killed me. He had every opportunity to do it today. He had the upper hand. Knew he was being ambushed.
“You let me kill twenty of your soldiers?” I shook my head.
Alex jerked his healthy shoulder. “You needed to get it out of your system. And I knew I could take out you and those Italian fuckers, if need be. Besides.” A sly grin marred his face wickedly.
“I needed to get rid of Igor, and a Julius Caesar–style assassination would’ve made taking over incredibly difficult, as you can imagine. ”
Mother. Fucking. Fucker.
That was a level of sly I could only aspire to.
Finally, I let myself grin, shaking my head. “You’re a bastard.”
Alex shrugged. “Eh, well, better than being a traitor.”
“I didn’t want to be,” I offered honestly. “It was either that or death.”
“I would’ve died for you back then,” he said seriously. “You were the family I chose. I’d have done anything for you, if you just asked.”
I clutched my jaw in my fist to stop myself from apologizing, because I knew he was telling the truth, and still, no part of me—past or present—was willing to run the risk of telling him my real plans.
It was what it was. All rebirths required a death.
My sacrifice was my friendship with the person I considered my brother.
Still, I couldn’t see myself taking Alex’s life, in the same way I couldn’t see myself doing it to Tierney or Fintan. No matter how much time had passed, he was still my brother.
“Well, unzip me so we can sort this shit out,” Alex grumbled. “My arm’s killing me.”
I pulled my knife out and rounded his chair, slicing the zip tie between his wrists.
He stood up and staggered to his desk, where I grabbed his arm and helped relocate it.
Alex tore his dress shirt off his chest, wrapping it around his shoulder to create a makeshift sling around his arm.
He had an identical tattoo, the same as mine, on his shoulder.
Oderint Dum Metuant.
We got it together with Tierney when we were fourteen. The night before she and I ran away.
My phone buzzed. Fintan again.
I looked up at Alex. “We need to wrap it up quickly.”
He was busy tending to his arm. “You blew up my vans, killed my soldiers, stole my ammo, and slaughtered my pakhan. Give me your best offer and I’ll see if it’s good enough to keep you alive. I have my own reputation to uphold.”
“My best offer is not to put a bullet in your head,” I said generously. “Your father stole our childhood, our innocence, our family, our mother. I’m not budging an inch. It’s a matter of principle.”
Downstairs, there was a pause between shooting, the clinks and clanks of magazines changing echoing through the hanger.
Alex looked up. “I am sorry, you know.”
“Wasn’t your fault.”
“Doesn’t make me any less sorry.”