Chapter Twenty
“You”re out of your damn mind,” Mina snapped, shaking her head.
Arms folded over my chest, I stared at her from the corner of Dontell’s kitchen. “It’s the only way,” I said calmly.
“Cain,” Amara called. I looked left to find the detective sitting at the bar, a steaming cup of coffee resting in her hands. “I don’t think you know—”
“I’ve been there before. I can survive it again,” I told her and everyone else in the room.
I looked across the kitchen to Lee and Dontell. “I only came here this morning to make sure that this tension between you two and Jer disappears,” I explained.
Lee’s jaw tightened and Dontell looked at Mina.
I continued, “The last thing we fucking need is to fall apart from the inside. I told Jer not to tell you about me going to Russia because I knew you two would’ve wanted to come.”
“And that was a bad thing?” Dontell quipped.
“Getting Ivan was my idea,” I said, looking over to Lee. “I’ve fucked up so much in my life, and I needed to do something right. Now, that opportunity is here again, and I have to take it.”
“No,” Mina said, her voice firm. “You don’t need to be the fucking hero, Cain. We can take down Kavi together—as a family.”
My throat tightened. “I’m the best man for the job.”
“Cain,” Lee began, his voice low. “You have nothing to prove. You don’t have to continue working for something you already have.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Forgiveness,” he simply said.
He held my stare, both of us unmoving as the room around us grew quiet. There was so much history between Lee and me, so much distrust and pain, and yet?
“What did you just say to me?” The question was barely a whisper.
Leon Torrance’s forgiveness was something I’d never thought I’d get, no matter how close we grew. I just assumed it would be a dark part of our past, and we would never speak of it. Hell, we hadn’t since before Christmas.
“You did what you had to do for the people you cared about,” he surmised, walking around the island, heading directly for Amara. Her eyes followed him, and when he was beside her, she tipped her head back as his arm went around her. “You did what I would’ve done, Cain. I can’t fault you for that.”
A noise came from the other side of the kitchen, and I found Mina covering her mouth with her hand. Dontell’s eyes were on Leon, shining with disbelief.
Glad to know I wasn’t the only one surprised. “We don’t have to do this right now,” I told Lee.
“Why? Because it isn’t the right time?” he shot back, moving from Amara. “It will never be the right time, Cain. Did you fuck me over? Yeah. I thought I found a fucking brother inside, someone who was going to come back to Houston with me.”
A lump formed in my throat. “You have no idea how badly I wanted to,” I found myself saying, my voice unsteady. Leon was more of a brother than Xander had ever been. I betrayed him to help Xander because, back then, I was foolish enough to think that blood was thicker than water.
That was the biggest lie I’d ever told myself, and years later, I was still paying for it.
Leon looked at me then, the look in his eyes the same as when he looked at Jer or Dontell. “I was a fucking dick to you when you showed up a few months ago—”
“You had every right to be, Lee,” I reminded him in a swift cut off.
He shook his head. “I didn’t.”
Behind him, Amara wiped her cheek, hiding a tear that had fallen.
I gave in. “If you want to do this, we can step outside.” It was more of an offer than anything else.
“If you want that, then let’s go, but I’m willing to do this right here—in front of our family,” he told me, coming around the island.
Our family.
He came to stand in front of me. “You and me, we’re cut from the same cloth. I think you know that by know.”
I huffed through my nose as a short chuckle appeared in my chest. Wasn’t that the fucking truth.
“The night of Nikki’s accident, I tried to stop you from saving her,” he continued, and all humor left my body, my spin snapping straight as my muscles tensed. “That was a mistake, but you have to know why I did it.”
He looked down as if he needed to collect himself and when he looked back up to me, memories from our prison cell flashed before my eyes. “I stopped you because I didn’t want you getting hurt, Donovan.”
A whimper sounded from somewhere in the room, but I didn’t have to look. I knew it was Mina. The Torrance family had endured a lot of healing over the last few months, and the pain between Leon and I was the final steppingstone, it seemed.
“I had to,” I told him, not breaking eye contact.
He nodded once. “Know that, but the fact remains. I didn’t want you getting hurt because I care about you—you’re family, Cain.” He held his hand out. “You’ve never stopped being family.”
My eyes dropped to his hand, and I brought mine up. He pulled me in for a hug, and we slapped each other on the backs. “Family,” I promised as I stepped back.
“Great,” Dontell interjected. “Now that’s done, we can return to the issue at hand.” His dark eyes slid to me. “There’s no way in fuck that you’re going into the Devils Den on your own.”
“Especially not without Collin’s permission,” Mina added.
My brow furrowed. “I don’t work for Collin.”
Lee went back to Amara and gave me a look. “If you want to get technical, we do.”
Mina bit the inside of her cheek. “Please don’t say that. If that’s true, then you three are members of the Mafia.”
Dontell, Lee, and I also shared a look.
Amara leaned forward, burying her head in her hands. “Jesus, are you telling me I’m in love with a mafia street racer?”
Mina shook her head and looked outside. “My fucking brother is in the Mafia, and I had to fucking falling for his best friend, move into his damn house, and…” She continued mumbling to herself, cursing.
“I don’t work for Collin Stevens,” I stressed. “That’s my brother’s shit. Not mine.”
“Oasis is an ally of the Italian Mafia. That’s all,” Lee confirmed.
“Ally my ass,” Dontell muttered, going to Mina. He grabbed her hand, and when she looked at him, he said something to her, his voice too low for me to hear. A second later, she turned to the island and braced her hands on it. She pinned me in place with her hard gaze.
“You aren’t going.”
I gave her a small smile. “Sorry, Mina. I am.”
“Not you’re not,” Lee stated.
“Agreed,” Dontell added.
Amara just stared at me, studying me with narrowed eyes. “When you said that you’ve been there before, what were you doing?”
“Twice. Once for Kavi, the second time I was looking for my brother. I found Collin instead.”
“Did you want to go the first time?” the detective pressed.
“Fuck no,” I nearly spat. “I’d heard about that place when I was driving for The Pit in Detroit, and when I was Bratva, I couldn’t believe Kavi was sending me there.”
“What the fuck is The Pit’s involvement with Devils Den?” Dontell clipped.
“All I know is the drugs I ran down to Texas with two other drivers were stolen from Kavi’s supply, which happened to come from Devils Den,” I explained. The drug run that got me landed in prison while my brother got into debt with Kavi was stolen from him. Then, Kavi sent his men into the prison and forced me to make a deal.
Xander died, or I worked off his debt.
Shortly after that, Xander landed himself if prison for gambling. That’s when Collin came to him.
“Wait,” Mina said, her brows pinched together. “If Devils Den is where the big players hang out, then why isn’t Collin involved?”
“Collin Stevens may be a twisted fuck, but he isn’t totally evil, sis,” Lee told her, folding his arms over his chest. “The former Don of the Mafia, Romano, was well known in Devils Den.”
“My brother-in-law never knew about Romano’s activity within the Devils Den until he was dead. We discovered that horrible place during the FBI investigation,” Jer explained.
We all turned to find him at the front door, calmly shutting hit behind Casey, her belly more swollen than the last time I’d seen her. My eyes dropped to her computer bag, and when they landed on her face again, she was pushing her glasses up her nose.
“Thought we were meeting at Oasis,” Dontell called out, coming to stand by Lee.
Jer and Casey walked across the living room, his hand on her back as he said, “This isn’t a meeting.”
“Then what is it?” Lee asked, an edge to his voice.
He was still upset with Jer.
I pushed off the counter and approached them. Casey gave me a smile. “Sup, Tony Stark.”
My lips tugged up on one side. “Casey.”
Casey was the best hacker in FBI history. Her brain was almost as big as mine. Almost.
“Tony Stark?” Amara parroted, looking at Mina in question.
Casey brushed past me as she explained. “Cain sends his time building engines when he has the brains to build a super-suit.”
“Honey, don’t go around saying that shit,” Jer warned. “He’ll get kidnapped by Garner.”
Casey waved him off as he set up her computer. “My boss has no interest in military weapons.” She looked over her shoulder to me. “I have an update on Thad Bunker.”
I was instantly on alert.
Thad Bunker was the owner of the car I’d seen watching the loft the night of the snow storm a few months ago. Sullie gave the plates to Casey, and we found out he was an investment banker from Chicago. He’d been missing for some time now.
“And?” I pressed stepping close. My eyes scanned over her laptop screen, quickly reading the report. I bit off a curse and stepped back, running a hand through my hair.
I looked to Jer, and he gave me a single nod.
“What is it?” Mina asked.
Casey quickly explained that Thad was murdered. His body was found in an alley in Chicago with his eyes gouged out. Thad Bunker wasn’t just some investment banker. He’d worked with Sullie last year—on Kay’s bakery. His body was dumped behind it. It wasn’t a random murder.
This was fucking message from Kavi—to Oasis and Collin.
“Is Kay good?” Dontell asked as I pulled out my phone, sending a quick text to Nik.
Me: Stay at the loft.
Clover: What’s wrong?
The time for secrets was over. I finally had my clover girl, and I’d be damned if I let anything come between us again.
Me: I’ll explain everything later. Stay, baby.
Not even a second later, I got a response.
Clover: Okay, Cain.
“She’s okay. Her employees are a little shaken up, but she closed the bakery for the time being.”
“Sullie? Dom?” Lee asked.
Jer’s features darkened. “They’re making some calls.”
“Calls?” Amara asked.
“Ever since I took over The Crew, some of Sullie’s old allies stepped back,” Jer told her and then looked to Lee and Dontell. “He’s…persuading them to reconsider.”
“Fuck,” Dontell muttered. “New York?”
Jer nodded.
“Chicago?” Lee asked.
“We never lost Chicago,” he told us.
“Then who is he on the phone with?”
Jer’s eyes snapped to me. “Detroit.”
What?
“What?” I asked, my eyes widening a bit.
“Sullie and Ryan used to be close,” Jer told me.
Ryan basically ran The Pit back in the day. When I’d started going, he was stepping down. “Holy shit.”
“What’s Collin doing?” Lee asked.
Jer looked over to him. “He’s with Ivan.”
“Let’s ride,” I said, heading towards the door. I didn’t have to look back to know the boys were following me.
Kavi was playing cards we didn’t even know he fucking had.
Ivan’s screams could be heard from outside the building as I unfolded myself from the Dark Horse, shutting the door. Leon looked over his R-35 to me. “You got your cigarettes?”
My jaw tightened. “I don’t need one to kill this son of bitch.”
Another car door shut behind us, and I heard Jer’s voice. “Oh, he’s not asking for you, Cain.”
Dontell appeared on the other side of my car. “Stevens might need one.”
I looked back up to the old, crumbling building as another scream from Ivan echoed throughout the morning air. “Then yeah, I got some.”
We headed inside, Leon and Jer trailing behind Dontell and me. They were discussing something about shipping, and when we entered, the conversation faded away.
Months ago, Victor was hanging in the same spot Ivan was currently in, and we were cutting his skin off. It was the day the guys saw my covered Bratva tattoo for the first time.
“Ivan,” Collin scolded from the center of the room. “Ivan, Ivan, Ivan.”
As I moved closer, I saw Collin picking up a blade from his table, holding it in the air to inspect. “I like to think I’ve been a decent host, have I not? I did give you some water yesterday.”
A gargled sound came from the older man. Ivan wasn’t like Kavi. He was foolish enough to think he was untouchable in Russia. Kavi usually did all the traveling, bringing a team of men with him while Ivan stayed behind. While Kavi was trying to run his empire, Ivan was getting his dick wet and stuffing his face. He was out of shape, and his age was catching up to him.
“Dontell,” the Mafia King called. “If you would be so kind as to lower our guest to the ground.”
Dontell shot us a look before he went to the wall and, as the chain lowered, I moved around to Collin’s left, my eyes never leaving Ivan’s. His face was drenched in sweat, but free of any new bruises or cuts. There was a thick piece of duct tape over his mouth. My eyes scanned the rest of him. He was still in his suit and shoes, the only thing missing, his tie. My eyes flicked over to the table to find two of the tools were covered in blood already.
“Now,” Collin sighed, stepping up to Ivan and yanking his head up by his hair, ”was or was I not a gracious host to you, Ivan?”
The Russian’s eyes were red rimmed, his pupils blown. I widened my stance and crossed my arms, grinding my teeth. Jer stepped up behind his brother-in-law, murmuring something. Collin nodded once, his eyes still on Ivan. “Answer my question, Ivan,” he demanded calmly, his voice taunting. “Was I a good host to you?”
I saw a flash of metal and a second later, the blade in Collin’s hand was against Ivan’s ear. With his other hand, the Mafia boss ripped the tape from Ivan’s mouth.
The man’s mouth opened instantly as Collin stepped to the side just in time. Ivan spit something out of his mouth, his spit bloody, and then, he vomited—violently. My eyes dropped to the concrete floor, my stomach twisting.
“Fucking hell,” Leon muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Jer’s eyes never left Ivan’s, and when I looked over to Dontell, he looked—impressed. My eyes went back to Ivan—more specifically, his bound hands above his head.
That explained the bloody tools.
Taking a deep breath through my nose, I looked to the three fingers on the ground in the middle of pool of bloody vomit.
“You ready to talk now, or do I have to feed you again?” Jer asked.
My head snapped to the Oasis leader at the same time Dontell and Leon’s did. “You did that?”
Collin chuckled darkly. “Jeremy is…creative.”
“I’ll fucking say,” Dontell muttered.
Jer ignored us all. “You still fucking hungry, Ivan?”
Ivan shook his head, fear in his eyes as the mess dripped off his chin. My upper lip curled at the sight. What a piece of shit.
“I don’t know where he is,” the man breathed out through a series of coughs.
I stepped up then. “Oh, but you do. Don’t you, old friend?” I bit off, growling at the end.
Ivan lifted his head as best he could, his eyes flashing when he registered it was me. A sinister smirk formed on my face, knowing he hated that I’d escaped the Bratva.
“Traitor.”
“Prisoner,” I corrected as I stepped closer.
The man smiled, revealing his crooked teeth. “No, my boy, you weren’t a prisoner. You were payment.”
A cold, dark anger slide down my back, coming around my front and swirling in my gut before surrounding my heart. My arms slowly fell from me as the rest of the room faded away.
Years.
I’d lost years to the Bratva. Precious fucking time. Time I could’ve spent with Nik—I could’ve been happy. Whole.
One second, I was standing in front of Ivan, and then next, I was on top of him, grabbing the loose chain and wrapping it around his neck. I held it tight with one as the other punched him over and over. I heard the men call out for me, but I didn’t care.
All I could see was Dominique’s face that night at The Pit and her face last night when I told her I loved her.
I’d always fucking loved her.
I was just too stupid to admit it to myself.
I was loyal to the wrong person, and it landed me in different forms of prison—away from her.
Eventually, I decided Ivan wasn’t bleeding enough. I wrapped the excess chain around my fist. He was staring up at me, fear consuming his eyes as I raised my fist. “I was never loyal to Bratva,” I seethed, leaning down over him. “Vie kontse kontsov rosa zagoritsya, yi ya boudou tem, kto zazzet etu chertovu spichku.”
The rose will burn in the end, and I”ll be the one lighting the fucking match.
“Cain!”
Before I could bring down my fist, I was pulled from him, but I fought. My blood lust had taken over, and I wanted nothing more than to see Ivan die. I wanted all of them to die. I was seeing red, fighting the men holding me back as I cursed the man on the ground in Russian, threating his family.
“That’s enough, Cain,” Lee barked in my ear.
“Calm down,” Dontell from the other side of me.
“Never,” I promised, straining against their holds.
Ivan was looking at me with wide eyes as Collin and Jer stood above him. More words came from me then, a dark vow. “When I find him, I’ll make sure he knows that you failed him. That you couldn’t even defend his precious, pathetic empire in Russia. That you fucked his wife and got her pregnant while he was in Europe with me, hunting down men you wanted dead.”
Ivan sat up suddenly. “You know—”
“And when he meets you in hell, you can deal with his wrath,” I spat.
Ivan’s mouth closed as Jer walked over to the wall. A few seconds later, Ivan was hoisted up again and, slowly, the boys let go of me. Chest heaving, I remained where I was as they walked around me. Collin watched me with curiosity, his head tilted slightly.
“I’m beginning to think I recruited the wrong brother,” he mused, clearly entertained.
My eyes shot to him. “No, you didn’t.”
His eyes flashed. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because you’re the reason Xander finally feels like he has a fucking purpose in this life,” I told him truthfully.
Collin’s brows slowly came together. “I see.”
I was done with that conversation. I didn’t want to talk about Xander. Fuck, I didn’t even want to talk about Kavi. I wanted to get the fuck out of here and race to Nik, to be with her before I had to leave—again.
“We know Kavi is in the Devils Den,” I stated, looking back to Ivan. Of course, the man was too worn down to hide his reaction.
Suddenly, that Bratva confidence shattered, and as the pieces fell down to the ground, Ivan started pleading for mercy. “Don’t. He’s just a greedy man,” he tried to reason with us, his accent thicker now. “I—I can convince him to leave the States—to leave the Italians and Oasis alone.”
“Too late,” Collin said calmly. “Your boss has made quite the mess.”
Ivan shook his head quickly. “No, I can. He’s compelled by greed. He doesn’t—I don’t even know why he wants to have power over here. Truly. He just wanted was what Romano had.”
“You mean what I have,” the Mafia King corrected him darkly.
“I’m sure if you just give him what he actually wants, he’ll give up the trading routes and trafficking. You can have all of that, Mr. Stevens!” he cried out, desperation consuming him now.
What Kavi didn’t know was the trafficking Romano used to be in control of was being shut down by Collin and the FBI. Both the Mafia and Oasis want nothing to do with flesh trading. We were happy to focus our energy on other products—and it was way more lucrative.
“I don’t negotiate with people who threaten the people I care about,” Collin stated, stepping up to Ivan, pressing the tip of the blade against Ivan’s mid-section. “And I definitely don’t show mercy to people who threaten my wife.” Those words came out as a low growl as Collin shoved the knife into Ivan, the man letting out a scream of agony.
Once the blade was inside, Collin looked at me. “I hear you’ve volunteered to go.”
I nodded.
“You aren’t going alone,” he told me, turning to grab another blade as Jer watched Ivan.
Dontell grunted from my side. “Fucking right about that.”
“But we can’t send in Oasis’ top racers, boys,” Jer added. “You’d be targeted. We have a lot of enemies.”
“I have a lot of enemies,” Collin said, turning to face us again. “We’ve been over this. Oasis is in this—”
“Because you’re not just a business partner—you’re family, Stevens,” Jer cut him off. He looked over where Leon stood, then back to where Dontell was standing. “We knew what we were getting into when we signed on with you. Let’s not have a repeat of that conversation. It isn’t needed. What’s done is done.”
We all grunted in agreement. There was no changing the past, only the future by protecting what we had in the present.
Ivan started crying, and Leon let out a growl of annoyance. Then he walked over, grabbed more tape and slapped it over the man’s mouth. “Shut the fuck up,” he ordered.
“I can handle myself,” I told them, circling back to Devils Den.
“Oh, I’m well aware of that,” the Mafia King chuckled, stabbing Ivan with a second blade. A muffled grunt came from the man as he thrashed in his chains. We all watched as blood began to soak his shirt.
“Look, it’s been a long morning. We’ll continue this at Oasis later, yeah?” Jeremy said.
I nodded.
Good.
I needed to tell Nik first anyways.
Collin, Jer, and Dontell stayed behind to finish off Ivan while Leon and I headed out. Once we were in front of our cars, he spoke. “You go in there alone and something happens, what are we going to do?”
I turned to him, pulling out a cig and lighting it. It wasn’t for Ivan; it was for the fucking morning I’d had. He watched me as I took a long drag. “I can handle myself,” I repeated for what felt like the hundredth time today.
“I know you can, but that doesn’t fucking mean you have to,” he clipped. He looked away for a moment, his eyes on the trees in the distance. “I’ll come with you.”
“Absolutely not,” I shot back, smoking coming from my nostrils.
He looked back to me. “Give me one fucking reason why not.”
I dropped the cig on the ground and held up three fingers. “I’ll give you three: your sister, your niece, and your detective.” Leon’s face hardened, but that didn’t stop me. “You have a fucking life here, one that you just got back. There’s not a chance in hell I’m getting in the way of that.”
“And what about you, Cain?” he asked, his voice low. “What about the life you have here?”
My mind immediately went to silk hair and green eyes. I remained silent because I didn’t have an answer for him. He shook his head, muttering something under his breath before getting his car. His engine roared to life as I got into my car.
He was gone before I even looked in the rearview mirror.
As I drove back to her, weaving through the St. Louis traffic, my heart was pounding. Last night had been one of the best nights of my life, and I couldn’t wait to have more with her. When I got to the bar, I parked in the alley beside her Mazda and climbed the stairs.
I didn’t bother knocking, using the key I’d gotten months ago to let myself in.
The last thing I expected to hear was Nik moaning from the bedroom.