Chapter 20
20
Adrian
I t was eerie to walk inside the home I’d spent the past twenty years in being so empty. There were no kids squealing and playing. No nannies rushing after the little ones. No members of the security team going here or there in a rush to follow someone’s orders or get to their next guarding shift.
It was so… silent. Eerily so.
Even Mrs. Judy, the woman who had been Darren and James’s nanny growing up, was missing, but she’d probably been instructed to go somewhere and hunker down until all of this was over. Or maybe she was at the hospital with the family. I hadn’t thought to ask after her, but I also wasn’t very close to her.
“This isn’t right,” I said quietly. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I sent a message off to Jaxon.
Adrian:
Where is our security team?
“Yeah,” Ivan agreed in a murmur, crossing his arms over his chest as he came to stand beside me. “Even though your family is at the hospital, where is your security personnel?”
I pushed my phone into my pocket and headed for the kitchen while I waited on Jaxon to reply since I wanted to see the scene for myself. With how empty the house was, I doubted anyone had cleaned it up. “That’s what I want to know. This place should never be unguarded, but there was no one at the door, no one at the gate, and there’s no one inside these walls.”
I stopped at the door to the kitchen, the smell of bleach bleeding through the closed door. Growling, I shoved it open, then stared at the pristine floors while I breathed in the overwhelming scent of bleach.
No one was in the fucking house, but someone had taken the time to clean this room up, more than likely to cover their own tracks. A glance at the camera in the corner showed it was busted, so it wouldn’t be recording anything else until it was replaced.
“Well, someone came to cover their tracks,” Ivan mused, looking around the room with a blank, bored expression on his face.
“Too fucking bad I already have their identity,” I growled, turning on my heel and heading for the stairs. Ivan was close on my heels as we ascended the staircase. When I pushed open my office door, I found everything just as I had left it, and I blew out a sigh of relief. If someone had come and fucked with my office, I might have blown the lid on my cool. I hated people fucking around in my personal space.
Ivan began to slowly prowl around my office, taking in my space as I sat behind my desk and booted up my laptop. Once it was on and I was logged in, I headed for my email, then opened up the encrypted file Jaxon sent me while we were in the car. Once it downloaded, I opened the PDF file, instantly locking onto Crane’s information.
Crane Westbrooke was twenty-four years old and had just recently been promoted to Captain by none other than James after much praise from his captain and Jaxon himself. On paper, the man was dedicated and loyal to the family.
Too bad it had all been a front because he was definitely a capable soldier and an asset to the family. His only other address besides his quarters here was his mother’s apartment over in Brooklyn. My phone vibrated just as I stood from my chair, ready to go pay his mother a visit. It was the most logical place to search for him first.
Men who were raised by their single mothers usually had a tie to them they couldn’t fathom breaking. And if that were true of Crane, it would be his downfall.
Slipping my phone from my pocket, I read Jaxon’s text.
Jaxon:
I ordered everyone but those I trust explicitly away from the house. There are still guards present. You just won’t see them, so long as they do their jobs correctly. But they have eyes on you.
Adrian:
Good.
I looked at Ivan. “You up for paying Crane’s mother a visit?” I asked him.
Ivan turned away from the window and smirked at me. “I get to terrorize some poor old lady? Fuck yes, kotik , I’m in.” I barked out a laugh. Grinning, he waved his hand toward the door. “Lead the way.”
* * *
Crane’s mother, Rebecca, lived in an older home that had been turned into small apartments. The floors were still that old pinewood flooring from early in the previous century, and they creaked with every step me and Ivan made. Apartment 2C was the last door on the second floor, and I swore when I knocked, I thought the damn door was just going to fall inward from how hard it rattled. I hadn’t even knocked that hard.
I doubted this building was up to code anymore.
The door opened after a moment, and a woman with warm brown eyes and curly graying hair looked up at me. Immediately, her eyes widened. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I, uh?—”
“I’m looking for your son,” I told her, cutting right to the chase. “Have you seen him?”
“I—I?—”
Ivan sighed impatiently and moved around me before shoving the door open further. Rebecca almost fell over, stumbling into the wall as Ivan entered the apartment. I followed him inside without a word, taking in the seventies-style kitchen and brick walls. Ivan whistled as he prowled into the living room, linking his hands behind his back like he had all the patience in the world.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he called, a teasing note to his voice. When Crane didn’t come out, Ivan laughed softly. “You can stay hidden, little mouse. I have a kitten all too ready to tug you out of your hiding spot if you don’t come to me.”
Still nothing. Ivan cocked his head to the side the slightest bit. I came to stand beside him. Apart from Rebecca’s sharp, panicked breaths, the apartment was silent. But then, we heard it—the opening of a window.
Without wasting a beat, I spun and rushed for the door off to the side of the living room. I shoved it open, finding Crane trying to climb out the window. Reaching forward, I gripped his ankle, wrapping my fingers tight around it, damn near crushing his bones. He turned his head, looking at me with wide, panicked eyes.
“Well, the way I look at it,” I said calmly, “you go out that window, you die because you fall to your death. Or you come with me, and you still die.” I stepped closer. “But I’m letting you know now, Crane, there’s no fucking actual option here. So come down willingly, or I will force you down.”
“They threatened my mother—” he choked out.
I shrugged. “I don’t fucking care,” I growled. “You should have come to the family. We would have put protection on her. But you chose the wrong fucking road.” I yanked him down from the window. He fell with an embarrassing squeak that abruptly went silent when his head smacked against the toilet. I nudged his side with my boot, then sighed. “You’re going to be a bitch to carry out of here,” I muttered.
Ivan suddenly gripped the back of my neck and stroked his thumb over my pulse. I relaxed into his hold. “Good job, kotik ,” he murmured. He pressed a kiss to my jaw. “Let’s get him out of here.”
Leaning down, I scooped Crane off the floor, then tossed him over my shoulder. Ivan flashed Rebecca a smile that was full of malice. “Say goodbye to your son, Rebecca. He turned on the Jacksons. I’m sure you know what that means for him.” He arched a brow at her when her lips trembled and tears began to fall down her cheeks. “I’m also sure you know what it means for you if you open your mouth about what happened here today, correct? Send the law after my man, and I’ll bring the entirety of Russia down on your head.”
With that, he held open the apartment door for me. And like a switch, his smile turned warm and friendly. “Have a good day, Mrs. Westbrooke. I hope we never have to see each other again.”
I snorted as I began my descent down the staircase. “Was that necessary?”
“I didn’t want to listen to her beg and plead for us to spare her pathetic fucking son,” he muttered. “I have a headache forming.”
I frowned at him once we were outside and dumping Crane into the backseat. Everyone minded their own business, knowing what happened to those in this neighborhood that didn’t. Besides, most of everyone here knew of James and his family, which meant they knew exactly who I was. “Are you okay?”
He sighed. “Nothing some Excedrin won’t fix,” he assured me. “Let’s go, kotik . We have a little rat to torture.”
Once we were in the car, I used the rope Mark tossed into the backseat to bind Crane’s wrists behind his back and tie his legs together. Once I was sure he was secure, I began to dig into my bag for headache meds. Ivan watched me with curiosity but kept his mouth shut. It was only when I pulled out my bottle of Excedrin that a small smile tilted his lips.
“Worried about me, kotik ?”
“Don’t be an asshole,” I muttered, shaking out two pills and handing them over. He tossed them into his mouth and dry-swallowed them. I screwed the lid back onto the bottle, then tossed it back into my bag. A surprised gasp ripped from my lips when Ivan suddenly gripped my chin and yanked my head around to face him. Then, his lips were on mine, and I moaned softly, leaning into him.
“Thank you,” he murmured, his lips rubbing mine with each word. He opened his eyes, locking them on mine. “You continue to surprise me, kotik .”
A light flush crawled up my neck. Suddenly feeling nervous, I quietly asked, “You said I’m yours, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “I did, yes.”
I drew him close, letting him rest his head on my shoulder. He groaned and relaxed into my side, his eyes shutting. “Then, that means you’re mine, too,” I said softly. “So even though you’re the… dominant one in our relationship—” he snickered “—let me take care of you sometimes, too, yeah?”
He hummed, sinking deeper into my side, his hand coming down to curl around my thigh. Mark pulled off from the curb and into the light traffic on the street. “Sure, kotik . Mark, take us back to the Jackson estate. I think it’ll be perfect to repay this mother fucker in the same place he betrayed the family.”
“Yes, sir,” Mark answered.
I looked down at Ivan, roaming my eyes over his face. “I don’t feel so crazy when you’re next to me,” I blurted.
He barked out a surprised laugh. “That’s because I embrace my sanity, kotik . And one day, you will, too.”
I just hummed in response. He was probably right, but I wasn’t going to dwell on it.
The day I gave into my sanity would no doubt be the day I fell for him completely. I still hadn’t decided if giving into Ivan completely would be a good or bad thing.