Chapter 27
27
Elise
“ I gor’s been in town the whole time.” I’m sitting in the armchair by the fireplace, amber flames crackling and roaring within. The heat is soothing but not enough to keep me from shivering. “Watching, waiting…”
“He’s done waiting,” Oliver replies.
The four of us sit in the living room, fresh coffee and herbal tea in our mugs. I should eat, but my appetite is nowhere to be found.
“Are the twins okay?” I ask, looking at James.
“Yeah, they’re over at Janice’s place for now,” he says. “Our crew checks in with us on an hourly basis. All good.”
“For now,” Oliver mutters, running a hand through his blonde hair then shaking his head in dismay. “We need a diversion to get the girls out of Igor’s line of fire. You know he’s got eyes on Janice’s house,” he says and looks at James. “We need to move all of them to one of our safehouses.”
“Tori is on her way in from Boulder,” Roman says, checking his phone. “She’s down with whatever we decide to do.”
“What about law enforcement?” I ask. “The sheriff. Maybe it’s time we call the feds, too.”
“It’s an option, just not a reliable one,” James sighs deeply. “The sheriff doesn’t have enough resources to assist us, and I’m not sure we can trust the state troopers or the feds to get involved without more evidence of Igor’s involvement. Right now, we’ve got two dead bodies and two on the run, seemingly unconnected and impossible to identify.”
“We couldn’t get a hit on them in any of the databases,” Oliver says, grimly confirming what I had already suspected.
“The Bratva men abandon their identities the minute they join the family,” I tell the guys. “No fingerprints, no dental documentation, no Social Security number or bank account. Nothing. They become ghosts.”
James starts pacing across the living room. “I should reach out to Lev Konstantinov.”
“Why would you do that?” I gasp. “For all we know, he ordered the whole thing.”
“Think about it,” he says. “Do you really believe he’d handle things this way? Make you feel unsafe, torment you before he kills you? Elise, from what you’ve said, Lev was like a father to you. You left because you found out that Igor killed your parents. I don’t remember a single mention of Lev’s involvement anywhere.”
“He must’ve known,” I whisper.
“His own son was stealing from him, Elise. Do you really think Lev would approve your parents getting killed just so Igor could cover his ass? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Igor is his biological son. Lev wouldn’t execute his own child.”
“Something doesn’t click here,” Roman says, agreeing with James. “Kara’s been timid in her approach as well. If the Konstantinov Bratva really wanted you dead, I reckon you would be dead already. There’s a missing piece here, Elise, and I think Lev Konstantinov might be the guy to shed some light on what it is.”
“Igor gave you twenty-four hours before he’ll have the entire Chicago Bratva kill all of you for harboring me,” I say, bursting into tears. “I have a hard time believing that Igor could make such a massive threat without Lev’s blessing.”
James rushes to my side. He takes me in his arms and showers me with soft kisses until the anxiety fades if only for a few minutes. “I need you to take deep breaths for me. We have to focus on not letting that happen and moving forward.”
They’re willing to fight tooth and nail for me, for us. I must do the same. I take deep breaths, inhaling his cologne and memorizing his scent before slowly pulling myself out of his embrace. I stand up and walk over to the window.
“I’m trying to do that, I swear. So what are the next steps?”
“First things first, we have to get you and the girls out of Igor’s reach,” Oliver says.
“They’re watching this house and Janice’s,” Roman adds. “It will require a diversion or two. That’s where Tori and the incoming crew will play a key part.”
“Incoming crew?”
Roman gives me a wry smile. “We put the word out that we’re dealing with the Russian mob. We’ve got all of our reserve agents coming in from Boulder and the neighboring cities. Former Army buddies are jumping into the game as well. They’re all good, reliable men.”
“Oh, wow.”
“Just because we’re retired doesn’t mean we don’t have one another’s backs when times get tough,” James says. “I told you, Elise, we’re seeing this through to the end, one way or another. But Oliver is right. We have to get you, Janice, and the twins someplace safe and out of Igor’s reach while we liaise with the authorities and get a line on Kara and Lev.”
“What’s the plan, exactly?” I ask and exhale sharply. “You can’t just hide me away.”
“You’re carrying our unborn child,” Roman replies. “It’s precisely what we’re doing.”
“We’ve got a few good ideas. We know the area better than the Konstantinovs ever will,” Oliver assures me. “We can get you and the twins out of here without Igor picking up on it, but you need to get that evidence for us. The feds will want something concrete against that fucker and we’ll need some solid bargaining chips with his father.”
“We’re covering every base here,” James says. “It’s going to get messy and uncomfortable. The farther away you and my daughters are from what’s about to unravel, the better our chances against the Konstantinovs, whether it’s just Igor or his whole family.”
Lang comes into the living room with his laptop. “We got an update from the sheriff. They’re investigating our agents’ murders. I provided them with all the raw security footage, so they’ve got Igor on camera outside the door, but the mist was too thick. It obscured several key angles, and what little footage we have of him by the gate is grainy. It’s not enough for the DA to charge him with anything except maybe trespassing on private property.”
“That’s not even worth pursuing, dammit,” James says.
“It gets a tad worse,” Lang says with a sigh. “As we suspected, there’s no ID or usable evidence from the hitmen at Candy’s either.”
“I told you they’re ghosts,” I reply, shuddering as I think about the Bratva men who once made me feel safe whenever they were around. “You’re not going to find anything useful.”
“What about the other Konstantinov movements?” Roman asks Lang.
He checks his laptop. “Kara wasn’t spotted by any traffic cams outside of this district. There’s a chance she’s still in town or somewhere nearby.”
“Lev?” James asks.
“Last seen yesterday boarding a private jet in Chicago. Destination unknown.”
“And Andrei?” I cut in. “He’s the youngest of Lev’s children.”
“I believe he was with his father,” Lang says. “Our sources mentioned a young man matching his description among Lev’s companions.”
I don’t know how to feel about that. It’s like the whole Konstantinov clan is on the move now. “What about my brother?” I ask. “Any news on Michael? I haven’t been able to reach him on his phone. I haven’t spoken to him since last week.”
“No sign of him yet. He’d been posting on social media daily, but he went quiet a couple of days ago. I checked the Reddit thread, too, he didn’t post anything there either,” Lang tells me.
“It could be that he’s simply being quiet as a precaution,” James says, trying to reassure me. “Something’s clearly going on within the family, and Mike could be caught in the middle.”
“We need to get him out of there. I don’t think he’s safe anymore,” I say with a trembling voice.
“You don’t know that for sure yet,” Roman replies. “We’ll reach out to our intelligence buddies in Chicago and see if we can get a discreet line on him but, in the meantime, we need to focus on keeping you and our family safe.”
I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Roman’s right: Something doesn’t add up. I want to blame Lev, but I can’t. And Kara… what is she doing here? The more I think about it, the more I’m beginning to think that Kara might be my way back into the family—if only to speak to Lev myself.
It’s risky, but it might help us avoid any bloodshed.