33. Nik
Slowly, I approach the gate. My car comes to a stop, and I swipe my card to continue down the road toward the warehouse. Four a.m. crept up way too soon.
I didn’t want to come home. In fact, I demanded that Salvatore stay at the office until EV contacted us. However, Luka agreed there was nothing we could do but wait for proof of life and their demands. Begrudgingly, I came home to grab an hour or two nap before heading back to the city to wait.
The warehouse is dark, and there are only a few guards around. I walk over to the garage. Both cars are still gone; Frank’s currently organizing the retrieval of the one Luna took. I tilt my head back, looking at the stars, seeking out the moon like some lost puppy. I’m stunned by how much I’m feeling—all the emotions raging in me. I swallow the painful lump in my throat, hoping that no one’s been able to see just how much of a wreck I am.
I walk up the steps to the second floor, my mind turning over more thoughts of my mother. Did she escape a fate like what’s happening to Luna by leaving this life? This life of potential ransom. In Russia, the splinter groups that enjoy upending the Bratva strike often and hard––would she have eventually fallen victim to it? Maybe she was right to leave.
I freeze on the last step. The door to the apartment creaks, partially ajar. Shadows dance as the door sways in the kitchen lamp light.
I reach behind me and unholster my gun. Using the barrel, I push the door open, both hands tightly gripping my weapon. I shift left, then right, methodically moving through each portion of the apartment, checking all the small places for a potential threat. It’s how I was trained, to move deliberately and controlled.
Convinced I’m truly alone, I lower my gun, then close and lock the door. A bag of open popcorn sits on the counter. I scan over the traces of Luna in the kitchen while my mind fills in the blanks of the night.
In the living room, perched on the back of the couch, is one of her books. I walk over, then flip through the pages. My eyes linger on the spot with Luna’s bookmark.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.”
The quote is scrolled over a watercolor background, and I sneer at it. A laugh of disdain bubbles out of me. Luna has experienced nothing in her life aside from the fictional lives she lives in her books.
At the realization, blood roars in my ears and sends adrenaline racing through my body. I hurl the book into the window—a sharp thwop sounds and it falls to the floor. Guilt gnaws at me, and I move to recover it, smoothing it under my hand before I put it on the island.
Fists clenched at my sides, I stalk to the bedroom, itching for destruction. In the closet, fabric glides through my fingers. I snatch fistfuls of it, hangers cracking as clothes are ripped from where they hang. I yell, scream, and roar while ten-thousand-dollar suits fly across the room.
Eventually, I slump to the floor, my back hitting the bed rail as I face the open window—her open window.
She always has them open. I wonder if it’s her way of creating a sense of freedom in her otherwise caged world. Trees rustle in the wind, branches scratching the warehouse’s metal siding. It’s all I hear until I pass out.
“Their demands came through?” I ask, smashing through the office door in the morning.
Salvatore and Luka sit across from one another. I woke up plastered to the floor and barely had time to shower before Luka called with an update.
“Ye do still exist.” A deep brogue accent captures my attention, and my head snaps in its direction. Kieran.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
This is not the time for a social call from the Irish Mob. I raise my brows at Luka, who narrows his eyes at me. I don’t question him, ever, but I’m finding his judgment more than a little infuriating at the moment.
“I requested he be here,” he answers sternly.
“You’ve been briefed?” I ask Kieran.
“Aye.”
Luka stands, turning his computer monitor around to face the rest of us, and my stomach drops.
Enlarged on the screen is a photo of Luna tied to a metal chair. Her hair is wind blown, falling in front of her face. A scowl trumps the fear in the photo.
Good girl, Luna. Don’t let them break you.
As quickly as the pride swells in my chest, it abates when I see the blood dripping down her face. It’s hard to tell exactly where her injury is with her hair covering her.
“They’ve hurt her,” I growl through clenched teeth. When I get my hands on them …
“But she’s alive. Now, what of their demands?” Salvatore snaps.
Luka clicks off the photo and I close my eyes, committing it to memory.
His sigh has me giving him my full attention. He folds his arms, and his eyes glaze over with a faraway look as he says, “In exchange for Luna alive and unharmed, they request that the alliance between the Cosa Nostra and Bratva be dissolved, and all our shipments currently going to Salvatore are to be rerouted to them.”
I blink. The irony of dissolving our alliance to get Luna back—when she’s only in this position because of said alliance—is not lost on any of us at this moment.
“They require both parties to be in agreement for this transaction,” Luka finishes.
“Luna is aware of her position,” Salvatore says. “She does not expect rescue. She was prepped for this all her life. She will understand.”
Hold up.
“What are you saying, Sal?” I hiss his name disrespectfully.
“That she is not worth the demands being put on two powerful billion-dollar organizations. I am not willing to give up this alliance when I worked hard to institute it. The Cosa Nostra needs our share of the weapons. The Bratva needs our manpower to hold this city in the palm of its hand.”
“We were doing fine before your little alliance proposition,” I snap. “The Bratva needs no one.”
Salvatore lets out a disturbing chuckle that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. “Antonio proved otherwise, Nikolai.” He sighs. “I love my daughter, but she understands this life—despite her young schoolgirl act. She understands. We are fighting several drug cartels in the south and need those weapons. I will not concede my organization to anyone—including my own blood.”
I can’t decide if I’m impressed by his commitment to his organization, or if I want to plunge a knife into his heart—since it’s obvious he doesn’t need one.
“So that’s it? You’ll leave your daughter to be assaulted and eventually murdered? She’s my wife!”
Salvatore looks at me, coldness in his eyes. “I will be more than happy to provide another woman from the Cosa Nostra to uphold my end of the deal. But need I remind you, it was you who breached the contract—failing to keep her safe and guarded at all times.”
I turn to Luka, mouth open and ready to fight, but he discretely shakes his head.
When Salvatore exits the office, I can’t hold it in any longer. “He’s screwed up, right? You’re telling me you wouldn’t do everything in your power to help Kate, even if that meant dissolving the entire brotherhood?”
Luka’s nostrils flare at my mention of Kate. But it’s true—he’d give it all up if only to save her life. He loves her, and I?—
“We are not going to abandon Luna, hence why Kieran is here. I called him last night to explain our situation. The Irish Mob is willing to help since EV has its sights set on opening another chapter in Boston. They’re willing to work with us if we back them—if or when EV becomes a problem in their city.”
“Aye,” Kieran says. “Me men are waiting for instruction, and I come bearing good news.”
“Which would be what?” I ask. “How can you bring good news?”
“One of me men has been asked to sit on the Eight in the Boston chapter. They do not know he’s a Mob man.”
I’m losing patience because I’m not following. In fact, I’m pretty sure my brain is all mush at this point. “What the hell does that have to do with Luna?”
Luka chimes in, clearly annoyed at my morose behavior. “It means we know where Luna is.”
I freeze. “Where?”
“Off the coast of Brooklyn’s port, on a container ship,” Kieran interjects.
“And they just happened to tell your man this, no questions asked?”
“EV operates in groups of eight in every city, but each member of the Eight ties into the organization at a national level. They don’t have one leader like our organizations do. The national EV board is made up of forty men. They decide everything by a majority vote. But their membership grows by hundreds at a time—they’re not a small organization. The Mob has the ability to infiltrate the forty and stay ahead of them. So far, it’s been their policy to stay out of Mafia business and they avoid the drug cartels. They focus on obtaining women for their clients’ desired fetishes. These women aren’t always willing.”
I want to throw up. I don’t doubt they’d use Luna. Anyone in opposition to the Bratva or Cosa Nostra would love to hurt her—to degrade her.
“EV has been on our radar since Senator Hope last year. How are we just now hearing you’re entangled with them as well?” We don’t always talk to Kieran. Sometimes we go years without crossing paths. And even then, Luka mainly deals with him.
“Didn’t gather ye had any problems until late. It’d be better if ye had told us sooner.”
I look at Luka. “When can I go?” I’m done talking and ready to attack.
“They’ll expect an answer this afternoon. Salvatore won’t give them his stamp of approval,” Luka says, and I snarl. “So we need to be prepared to extract her as soon as EV is notified that their demands won’t be met. We’ll go in as informed as we can be, but there is a risk. We don’t know how many men they keep on the ship, or where they’re keeping Luna.”
I nod, and Kieran strides to the door. Looking back, he gives me a wink. “Working together again, lads. It’ll be grand.”
Once the door shuts, I turn to Luka. “Are we seriously going to stay aligned with Salvatore after this show of viciousness toward his own daughter?”
“Nikolai. Salvatore leads his own organization. It’s not for me to decide what he should or should not sacrifice for the Cosa Nostra. And we were the ones who broke the contract.” Luka sighs. “The demands requested seem trivial. EV must have known Salvatore wouldn’t accept. They want the Mafia out of their way in the city.
“I would still go to war for you, Nikolai … you and Luna,” he adds. He stares at me, hands tucked in his pants pockets.
Trust is the cornerstone of our brotherhood, and Luka’s unwavering loyalty to me, and me to him, empowers us.
“I—I feel things for her,” I confide in him. “Things I never thought I’d feel. I didn’t want this, and part of me wants to shove her away from all of it.”
He nods, a hand coming to my shoulder. “I understand. I wish I could protect Kate from it all, but she’s managed to convince me her life would be worse without me in it.” He snorts out a laugh.
“That’s what I’m worried about. I’m pretty sure Luna knows her life would be better without me in it.”
“Nikolai, if it wasn’t you Salvatore gave her to, it would’ve been someone else.”
I nod, mulling it over in my head before leaving the room. She wasn’t anyone’s to give away, but she’s mine to keep for as long as she’ll have me.
I’m going to get my wife.