16. Chapter Sixteen #2
I leant forward until we were face to face, making him look at me dead in the eyes.
“Understand something, Mr Delacourt. No matter how big or tough you think you are, you are nothing compared to the Bratva. Our reach is infinite. We have people everywhere, some even within your own organisation. You get in our way and you and everyone in your little club will be killed in the most horrific way imaginable. And I have a very vivid imagination. Do I make myself clear?”
“Y-yes,” he groaned.
“Excellent.” It was so much easier when they understood the gravity of the situation.
I stood to my full height, finally taking my foot off his chest. He gulped in a huge breath of air and curled up on his side, moaning in pain.
“It is a shame we could not do business. One of the few things we do not tolerate is disrespect, and you had that in abundance. Perhaps you can use this as a lesson for next time.”
“How are things going?” I asked Aleksandr through the phone as I sped through the streets of downtown New York.
He grunted, the typical response my brother gave for pretty much everything. “The same. There’s still no word on Father or Dominik. It’s like they literally just disappeared into thin air. Any luck on your side?”
“None.” I switched lanes and took a right turn, my hands gliding over the wheel. “None of my facial recognition programs have picked up anything. Thousands of possibilities, but that’s about it.”
“Do you think it’s possible they’ve left the country?”
“No. I’ve got all our contacts in the airports on high alert for him, and he doesn’t own a private plane. He could try to hire one but I have that flagged. If anyone tries to charter a plane matching his description, I’ll be notified.”
“Then where the fuck is he?” Aleksandr growled. Something clattered over the phone, most likely my brother kicking or hitting something out of sheer frustration. Then a light, feminine voice started yelling at him in Spanish. Drea.
"Eja de romper mierda. Acabo de limpiar el piso, imbécil!" Stop breaking shit! I just cleaned the floor, asshole!
"Es mi casa maldita, yo romperé todo lo que quiero romper!“ It’s my goddamn house. I’ll break anything I want to break! He yelled back in Spanish.
"?Quieres dormir fuera?! Di un puto mundo más." You want to sleep outside?! Say one more fucking word.
My brother grumbled under his breath, “You can’t make me sleep outside, crazy woman.”
"?Que ha sido eso?!“ What was that?!
“Nothing!” he growled.
"Eso es lo que pense.“ That’s what I fucking thought.
I laughed, the entire conversation amusing the absolute fuck out of me. “She’s a feisty one, isn’t she?”
“You don’t even know the half of it, mladshiy brat, little brother .”
“You sound happy though. Apart from all the screaming, that is.”
“I am happy. Well, as happy as I can be, given everything that’s been going on lately. How did the meetings with prospective clients go?”
I gave him a run down on everything. I’d only had time to meet with two of them so far.
Alex Delacourt and Max Ines. Alex was not someone we would ever work with, now or in the future, but Max was.
He was respectful, didn’t try to step out of place or dictate to me how things should be done and didn’t seem like the type that would ever rat out his suppliers.
“Alright, so we’ll organise an order for Max and Alex is out. What about the other three?”
I drove into the underground parking lot of the apartment complex and parked the car, but I kept the engine running. “I haven’t had a chance to sit down with them yet, but I’ll do it some time over the next few days.”
“Hustle on that. I need you back here in three days.”
“What for?”
“You really need me to remind you?”
I frowned. What could he be talking about? Then it hit me.
“Oh.” Guilt smothered me.
“Don’t feel guilty,” he said instantly. My brother knew me too well. “There’s been so much shit going on lately. I’m not surprised you forgot. You only need to be here for the night, then you can go back to Tatiana the following morning.”
“Of course I’ll be there.”
Even though he told me not to feel guilty, I still did.
What kind of son forgot his own mother’s birthday?
It had become a family tradition to spend her birthday together.
We all sat around eating junk food and watching all of her favourite TV shows.
It would be the first time in seven years my father was not there.
The tradition didn’t start until after he got back from his killing spree.
“I know you’ll be nervous to leave Tatiana—”
“No, no, it’s fine,” I cut in. “Things have progressed and we actually have a plan set in motion to catch Franco and some of his men. It’s not set to go down for another week, so I have time.
There’s nothing Tatiana can do until then, so timing wise, it’s actually kind of perfect.
She’ll just be preparing for classes and working at the café.
Nothing too dangerous that requires a bodyguard. ”
“I’m sorry, I thought I just heard you say she’s working at a café?”
“I did. That’s what I said.”
“Tatiana?”
“Yes.”
“Tatiana Andreeva ?”
“Is there another Tatiana you know that I’m not aware of? Yes, fucking Tatiana Andreeva.”
A beat of silence…then full on laughter. “You’re joking.”
“Shut the fuck up before I fly down there and knock your teeth out,” I growled. “She’s going at it on her own and that deserves some fucking respect. I’m proud of her and—”
“Calm down, calm down. I’m sorry for offending your woman. It was a knee-jerk reaction. Picturing her in a café making coffee and serving people? Come on, I’m sure even you laughed at that image.”
“No, I fucking didn’t.”
Liar .
“Uh-huh. Okay.” He fucking knew I was full of shit.
“Was there anything else you wanted? Or has your mission been accomplished now that you’ve pissed me off?”
“Mission accomplished. I’ll see you in three days.”
“Actually, before you go, is Drea there?”
“Why?” he asked suspiciously.
“I just need to ask her something. Girl advice, you know?”
I knew my brother well enough to know he was narrowing his eyes.
“Just put her on the fucking phone, Zander.”
“Fine. Malyshka! Here, Nikolai wants to talk to you.”
Rustling came through the phone, then I heard her voice.
“Hey. What’s going on?”
“Do you want to chuck me on speaker so Aleksandr can hear me too?”
“Okay. There you go. What’s up?”
“Aleksandr called you a crazy woman and said you couldn’t make him sleep outside.”
“Hey!” Aleksandr shouted.
“Oh, really?” Drea drawled. “What else did he say?”
“Shut your mouth, Nikolai!” he yelled, his voice slowly getting softer and softer with each word, like the phone was moving further away from him. “Drea, you get back here and give me that phone!”
I laughed and hung up. That’s what you get for making fun of my woman.
Drea was definitely a “no nonsense” kind of woman. The type that didn’t put up with any crap from her partner, even if he was five times the size of her.
I hoped she did make his ass sleep outside. Ahhh, what a sight that would be.
I turned off the engine and got out of the car, stretching my body with a groan.
The day had been a long and tedious one, and it was only 2 p.m. It was partly my fault, though.
I had tried to cram so much into such a short amount of time that I’d been moving non stop since I woke up that morning.
But I was determined to succeed and finish the plan I’d come up with late last night, and nothing was going to fucking stop me.
I opened the trunk and stared inside, hands on my hips. I only had an hour before I had to go and pick up Tatiana. How the fuck am I going to do this?