Chapter Seventeen
Exhaling slowly through my nose, I watched her blinking dot on my screen, still very aware she was on the top floor of the parking garage across the street from me. She’d been there for the last three hours.
Earlier, I arrived at Oasis fully prepared to avoid Dominique as she wished, like I’d been doing since the snowstorm. The last thing I expected—wanted—was for her to be racing. That was the last thing she needed to be doing. I didn’t give a fuck how ready she thought she was.
I knew her.
I knew my clover.
She wasn’t ready to get behind the wheel.
The second the cars shot off the starting line, I knew she was going to get swept away in memories of the crash. Racing triggered it. I knew it would. I watched her on my phone, and when she stalled about halfway through, I left Oasis and headed for her, trailing behind her for the last two hours before she finally made her way to the parking garage.
I always had my eyes on her. There wasn’t a second that passed when I didn’t know where she was or who she was with. She may not want me in her life, but I would always watch over her.
I would not stop—I couldn’t stop—even if I wanted to.
She was mine to protect.
That would never change, regardless of her hatred for me.
“Fuck,” I muttered, my eyes never leaving the blinking yellow dot on my screen.
Blindly, I leaned over, popping open the glove box before grabbing my emergency pack of cigs.
The box was light in my hands, but I knew the heavy burden it held. My mother’s addiction was one of the darker parts of my childhood. When nicotine couldn’t numb her, she moved to alcohol, and then, eventually, hard drugs. I didn’t start smoking until I was forced into the Bratva, working directly under Kavi. He wanted to make sure that my brother’s debt was paid, and so, he kept a close eye on me, watching me do things people have nightmares about. He made me his weapon, and I had no choice but to follow through with each order he gave. To cope with the bloodshed, I needed something to calm my nerves.
Sex only made me think of Dominique, so fucking a random woman never helped.
Alcohol made me feel like a monster, stirring the demon inside me that came from my mother.
But cigarettes? After that first inhale, I felt like I could breathe for the first time in years.
I only smoked when I intended on taking a life, and that wasn’t the case right now. For fuck”s sake, though, I needed to breathe. I needed to clear my head. I needed Dominique to drive back to Sullie’s, slip on my fucking t-shirt, and go to sleep.
Then, and only then, would I be able to go back to my home and get some fucking rest.
As I sat there watching her dot, a pack of cigarettes in hand, my other cell phone began ringing. Without a second glance at the small box, I tossed them back into the glove box and answered.
“Cain.”
“You find her?” Jer’s voice on the other end of the line was filled with anxiety.
I refused to give in to the scoff in my throat. “Found her a while ago, Jer,” I told him, looking up from the screen to the top of the parking garage, catching a glimpse of her yellow Mazda.
“Is she—”
“She’s fine,” I said, cutting him off. “I told Lee the second I found her.”
He was quiet for a moment. “How did you find her?”
“Took the route of the race,” I told him, lying through my teeth.
“Right,” he muttered.
“How’s Ivan?” I asked, needing to the change the fucking subject.
“He woke up around six. Dom and I questioned him, and he gave us a few names, but they aren’t high ranking members,” he explained, sounding frustrated.
“I’ll get more out of him,” I vowed.
In the background, I heard Casey yell for him. At the sound of her voice, another question popped up. “How’s Casey?”
“Craving lasagna and mint chocolate chip ice cream,” he answered, disgusted.
I blinked. “Together?”
He grunted. “Yes.”
“Jesus,” I mumbled my eyes falling back down to the screen to find the yellow dot slowly moving. Instinctively, I shut off my headlights before my eyes shot to the exit of the garage, waiting. “How did the race go?”
“Good. Leon got a new toy, and Dontell brought in twenty grand.”
I found a swell of pride rising in my chest. Leon may be the best, but Dontell was damn good—just like me. A sense of brotherhood had fallen over us since I arrived last fall, and I knew that nothing would keep me from losing it. Jer continued talking, reverting to Ivan and the pointless shit he admitted. These were things I already knew, thing I’d already told everyone.
Ivan was a smart man; he knew that giving up the location of Kavi would be his ending. If we didn’t kill him, the Bratva would for his betrayal. Loyalty wasn’t something that came free in the Bratva. It came with a fucking price, and if you broke that loyalty, your soul was payment.
Looking back on it, I still don’t know how I managed to get out of there. Those days were a bit hazy to me, and the only thing that wasn’t lost in the haze was the letter I’d written to Dominique. I couldn’t show up back in Detroit, not with the Bratva on my back. I didn’t want to put her in danger, but I would have done anything to see her. She was all I thought about; pushing her away was the worst mistake of my life, and years later, I was still paying for it.
She never answered the letter. Or maybe it never arrived.
By the time I’d sent the fucking thing, she was probably off somewhere else.
“Do you think Kavi could’ve fed to another country?” Jer asked, breaking my thoughts.
“No,” I told him. “Kavi has enemies all over the world. The safest place for him is either in Russia or the US.”
Jer grunted before he sighed. “This is all so fucked.”
“How’s the deal with the Langston brothers?” I asked. Denver Langston had agreed to hide Mafia and Oasis’ products during the winter, but spring was nearly here, and Hallow Ranch needed to be fully functioning. We were running out of time.
“Mason assured me things were okay, but Denver is getting impatient,” Jer answered. “I can’t blame the man. He has his own shit to deal with.”
I hummed in agreement. “I can work on finding another location but moving it again might draw attention.”
Jeremy was silent for a moment. “Maybe that will bring Kavi out of hiding.”
“But he doesn’t know what we have,” I countered.
“No, he does. My brother-in-law assured me of that while you were away.”
“Fuck,” I bit off, dropping my head back against the headrest. A second later, an idea popped into my head, and my stomach tightened. My eyes fell to the dot on the screen as I thought of her green eyes and shining hair.
There was only one thing left—one more option.
Kavi was a patient man, and when he was being hunted, he knew exactly where and how long to hide. He was stubborn bastard and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind he knew that we killed Victor and now had Ivan. Ivan was always in the know of Kavi’s whereabouts; that was something that never changed—even years after me getting out of the hellhole.
I bit down, grinding my teeth as hard as I could as the answer shot to the tip of my tongue.
For Nik.
Do it for her.
“I have a theory,” I admitted, breaking the silence.
“I’m all fucking ears.”
“We’ve had Ivan for over sixteen hours, and you would have to be a fucking idiot to think Kavi doesn’t know by now.”
“Right…”
“We have his second in command—someone who knows where all his hideouts are. Kavi doesn’t want to be found, and he’s going to run to the one place we don’t want to go. I could—”
“—out of the fucking question,” the Oasis leader growled, cutting me off.
“Jer.”
“No, Cain. You just got back from Russia. There’s no fucking way I’m sending you into Devils Den.”
The word hung in the air, filled with horrors and darkness. Devils Den was a place shrouded in darkness, a place where pain was born.
I’d only been in there twice.
Once for the Bratva, on the hunt for someone Kavi needed to make an example of. The second time I was there, I was looking for my brother— and the last thing I expected to find was his boss—waiting for me. This place was also connected to the sex trafficking rings the FBI was working on shutting down—with the help of Collin Stevens. They’d struck a deal when Collin took over the Mafia to keep him out of prison.
“I’ve been there before,” I told him softly. “I can handle it.”
Jer sighed. “Dontell and Leon aren’t going to like this—I’m already in deep shit with them as it is.”
My eyes lifted to the empty street. There was tension within Oasis, and it needed to go away. I needed to talk to them tomorrow—set shit straight. “Just let one of them punch you, and they’ll get over it.”
He chuckled quietly. “Funny, Nikki told me the same thing earlier.”
A lump formed in my throat.
Choosing to ignore that, I focused on Kavi. “Let me go—I’ve only been with Oasis for a short time, and I was Bratva for longer. I have connections there. I’ll bring him back, and we can finally fucking end this. Going to Russia was just the first step. You know that. It needed to happen.”
“Cain—”
“I’ve made a shit ton of mistakes in my life, I’ve ruined friendships, broken the trust of some of the most important people in my fucking life, Jer. Please, let me do this. Let me make everything right.”
“You are a part of this family, Cain. You don’t need to do anything to earn your place in it,” he said, reading me instantly.
I looked back down to my clover’s dot, my heart pounding against my chest. “Yes, I do.”
“And if you die in the fucking process?” he shot back, anger building in his voice. “What then, huh?”
I would die for something that mattered, something I believed in…
For her.
“That’s not going to happen,” I told him. Hell, I didn’t know if it would or not. All I knew was I had to try something—I had to protect the family I’d found.
Even if that meant walking back into hell.
We ended the phone call after I convinced Jer to bring it to the rest of the members for a vote. When Dominique’s Mazda emerged, she took a right turn, heading away from me. Sighing, I turned my car back on, put it into gear, and followed her.
She drove quietly through town, and I was able to stay close behind her due to the fact she’d never seen this car before. It was one I’d stolen from Kavi. He was trying to get his men to look how to drive—how to race. It was a wasted effort. Xander and I killed the trainee drivers and took the cars without a so much as a blink.
When she made a wrong turn, heading in the opposite direction of Sullie’s, my heart raced.
When she passed the turn to head to Dontell’s house, I bit off a curse.
When she got on the interstate, I was about to lose my mind.
She wasn’t going to Sullie’s.
She was going to my house.
Fuck.
I flew by the ramp to get on the interstate, shifting before I increased speed. I had to get there before her.
“Damn,” I muttered, my brows coming together as I flew through a couple of red lights. My eyes glanced at her tracker and, sure enough, she was still heading in the direction of my house. She’d only been there once, a few weeks ago, with Mina. They came to pick up something for Dontell, I think? I couldn’t remember. The only thing I could focus on that day was Dominique being in my house—her infecting my house with her vanilla scent.
Looking back up to the street, my hand tightened on the steering wheel as I flew through the sleeping streets of St. Louis.
Once I was out of the Soulard, I made a turn, taking the back way to my house. I passed a small grocery store, my engine echoing through the night, and a few seconds later, red and blue lights were in my rearview mirror.
Biting off another curse, I blindly hit the screen on my other phone and put it to my ear before shifting again.
Leon answered on the second ring. “Torrance.”
“I need Amara to get her uniforms to back off,” I practically growled as I took a hard turn, my tires screeching.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asked, his voice alert now.
“Was making sure Dominique made it back to Sullie’s, and she decided to head to my house.”
“Fuck.”
I changed lanes and looked in the mirror again. Two more squad cars were behind me now, trailing far behind me. They’d never catch me, but the last thing I needed was for them to follow me to my fucking house.
“Get Amara to call them off,” I pushed out through my teeth, racing through another intersection.
In the background, I heard some movement and Leon calling his detective. “Butterfly, I need you.” A second later, she was on the phone.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Got three of your uniforms chasing after me, Amara. Get them off my back,” I ordered.
“Cain—”
“For Ni—Dominique. Please. I’m going after her.” I checked the screen again, she was getting close to the exit. I was beating her by a minute. Sixty seconds wasn’t enough time. With that thought, my jaw tightened, and I increased speed.
“Right,” she murmured, and then the phone was back with Leon.
“She’s calling them now.”
“Thank you,” I said, meaning it. I took another turn onto the street that was a straight shot to my neighborhood. My blood pumped through my veins as my engine roared. I shifted once more and then, I felt like I was flying. “Jesus, this car has power,” I muttered.
“What are you driving?”
“One of Kavi’s. The Dark Horse.”
Lee chuckled. “Lucky son of bitch.”
In the background, I heard Amara yell, “Tell him to slow down. He’s going over a hundred in a fucking school zone!”
Leon responded, “It’s two in the morning, Amara.”
“I don’t give a shit! That’s too fast!”
No such thing.
My eyes flicked up to the mirror to find the police cars backing off before I looked to Dominique’s dot. She was taking the exit. “Thanks for the help,” I said as I hung up.
A minute later, I turned onto my street and slowed the car as I reached for my garage door opener.
Thirty seconds after that, I was in the garage, the door closing behind me. I unfolded myself out of the vehicle, heading inside, locked up my office, and headed to my room. There, I took off my clothes and donned a pair of black sweats. It needed to appear as if I’d been in bed this whole time instead of stalking her—worrying about her. I ran my fingers through my hair and bit down as I watched her dot stop in front of my house.
I waited, watching her.
A few minutes later, her dot moved from the street up my driveway. I went over to the small desk in my room and pressed the on button on the laptop, bringing it to life and unlocking it. She was on my porch now, staring at my doorbell as if it would kill her. My eyes narrowed as I zoomed in, noting the way her bottom lip was trembling.
For fuck’s sake—
“Come on, baby,” I murmured. “Ring the doorbell.”
She didn’t. Instead, she stood there and cried. I watched as long as I could before my patience snapped.
“Fuck this shit,” I muttered as I stormed through my house, heading straight for the door. Without a second thought, I yanked the damn thing open, and she jumped back, letting out a yelp.
Our eyes met as I ordered, “Get inside, Nik. Now.”
Evidence that she’d been crying for some time was all over her face, her skin splotchy, her eyes puffy. She opened her mouth and closed it before opening it again. “Don’t call me that.”
My spine straightened and, suddenly, my hand shot out, grabbing the back of her neck and pulling her to me as I bared my teeth. “I’ll call you whatever the hell I want. You got that?”
Her hands were on my bare chest, sending shock waves through me as she tried to push me away. Her fingers were on top of the blacked out Bratva mark, reminding me why I would never—ever—be good enough for her. “Cain—”
I cut her off with a growl as I pulled her inside, turning us so my back was against the door before I let her go. She staggered back, her chest heaving as her eyes widened. I raised my finger to her. “Don’t you fucking dare come to my house in the middle of the damn night and cry on my fucking porch, do you understand me?”
“I was just—”
“Fucking torture watching you cry,” I continued, not giving a damn about what she had to say. Her mouth closed as I flicked the lock on the door and pulled out my phone, setting the security system. When I looked back to her, those green eyes weren’t on my face.
They were on my chest—on the tattoo.
“I’ve had a hell of a day,” she whispered, tears shining in her eyes.
I didn’t say anything. I knew about the day she had. She found out the truth about me—my involvement with the Bratva. It was something I never wanted her to know, but that was wishful thinking. It was inevitable, and it was killing me.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” she pressed, her voice cracking.
My eyes scanned her again, taking in every tiny detail about her before we started this conversation. Her hair was in a messy bun, strays hanging around her face. She was dressed in light-washed jeans and an oversized Nickelback shirt, her checked Vans on her feet.
When I met her eyes, I spoke. “What do you want me to say?”
She flinched and looked away from me, shaking her head. “I found out that the man I grew up with—my childhood best friend—was in the fucking Russian Mafia, and you have nothing to say?” When she looked back to me, the hurt was still there, but it was clouded by anger.
“It wasn’t something I went around bragging about, Dominique,” I told her, trying to keep my voice level. I was all over the place, and having her in my home, after touching me, had the power to cause me to snap.
“You didn’t tell me,” she shot back.
I cocked my head to the side. “I’m sorry, baby. When did you want me to find the time to tell you exactly? Before Oasis, the last time I saw you, I was telling you to stay out of the street racing world at The Pit.”
I would’ve told her everything if she’d gotten my letter and at least responded to the fucking thing.
I would’ve told her every fucking thing.
She jerked back, and I realized my mistake.
Fuck.
“What did you just call me?” she breathed.
I took a step towards her. “You heard me.”
“I—I—”
“What the hell are you doing here? It’s late. You should be sleeping,” I pressed on, my muscles tense as need pulsed through me, my gut twisting.
I needed to get her out of my house before I did something stupid.
Something very, very stupid.