Chapter 4
ALONZO
Hades snarls as Titus tries to get close to him.
Titus stops, but he doesn’t look away from the dog.
I don’t try to interfere. I need to see what Hades would do.
We don’t have a lot of time before we land, and we’ve spent a good chunk of the flight making our plans and pouring over what we can find on the Belovs.
Titus moves closer, his steps sure, but still cautious. Hades’s snarl doesn’t lower, but it doesn’t get higher either.
“Try giving him the command again so he knows I'm his friend,” Titus urges me.
“Hades, friend.”
Hades’s growling stops, but he doesn’t turn his head from Titus. Titus reaches into his pocket, the movement steady, until he pulls out a couple pieces of the deli meat the stewardess brought us earlier.
Titus tosses one of the meats to Hades, but it drops in front of the dog, who doesn’t even look at it, eyes still on the man throwing them. “Well, that’s a first,” Titus huffs. He nods at me to give another command.
“Hades, eat.” Hades looks at me but doesn’t glance at it. Damn it. Frustration grips me, but I remind myself this isn’t going to be easy. His trust in me is limited, and for the men with me, it’s nonexistent. “Hades, eat.” I point at the food.
We do it a couple more times before he finally seems to clue in to what I want. He gulps down the deli meat, looking at me expectantly. I nod at Titus, who tosses another one, and Hades once again stares at it, then at me. This time, he eats it on the first command. Progress.
“I’ll hold onto it so you’ll have to release him,” Titus tells me when we’re down to the last piece.
“You sure? He might attack you, and I don’t know if I can call him off.”
“He’s not going to bite me without a command or unless he feels I’m threatening him,” Titus reasons.
“Right now, I’m giving him something good, and I won’t stare straight at him.
Your woman trained him very well. He’s not an attack dog unless she told him to be.
Other times, he relies on his size and his snarling and teeth snapping to get the point across of how dangerous he is.
Release him, and we’ll see what happens. ”
“I don’t know if you’re stupid or brave,” Ivano mutters. “We’re in a fucking plane with a deadly dog that could kill you in seconds. We’ve heard of it happening.”
“I’ve worked with K9s for a long fucking time, so have some damn faith, would you?” Titus gripes. He holds out the deli meat, waiting patiently as I give Hades another command, while also saying friend and touching Titus’s hand myself.
It takes far longer for this one to sink in, but finally, Hades moves forward, sniffing the meat and then Titus’s hand. We collectively hold our breaths until Hades nudges his hand and takes the deli meat.
“Thank fuck,” Ivano breathes.
Titus spends the next few minutes working to gain Hades’s trust as much as he can, and I watch them, ready to step in. I’m not a trainer like Titus, but I know what to do. Though I’ve never had to deal with such a big dog before. Thank fuck I’m as big and strong as I am.
Eventually, Hades relaxes, and he allows Titus to pet and praise him. “I think we can make this work,” Titus says, clearly pleased. “What language of command does he know?”
“Fuck, I don’t know how many specifically, and if it’s only a few in each or all of them in each language. I’ve heard Rori talk to him in English, Spanish, German, and Czech. I’ve also heard her talk in French on the phone, but she hasn’t said anything to Hades in that language.”
His brow arches. “Impressive. All common languages, but the question is which ones she uses for what. I’ve heard of some trainers teaching their dogs control based on the language the command is given in.
English is just a basic command, but German or Czech is urgent, and you expect them to obey instantly and be ready for anything that might come next. ”
“Come to think of it, she also gave him a command in Russian once,” I say, a vague memory forming.
“It was just after I went back to get them from Amara’s salon when we were attacked.
It made Hades go on instant alert. But that was the first time I heard her say anything in Russian.
I just assumed that it was another language she knew with her family’s connection to the Belovs. ”
“It’d make sense she trained him in Russian if she is one,” one of the other soldiers, David, points out. “And if her father is the Bratva Butcher, then it’s got to be her native tongue.”
“I’ve never heard her speak with an accent,” the final man in the team, John, adds.
“She’s had years to get rid of it,” Ivano reminds them. “If she’s an assassin, then she has to have the skills to know how to make that happen. Eventually, it’s just normal.”
I want to tell them to shut the hell up, that I don’t want to hear them speculate about her, but what am I going to say?
They’re right. I didn’t notice any of it either.
Not a hint of Russian except when she gave that one sharp command, but I’ve also heard her speak fluent Spanish with Kida and even French once when someone called her.
All with their accents, so I just figured she had practiced to make sure that she was clear and concise.
Another flash of jealousy at the memory of listening to her talk so happily with the man on the other end.
There’s no point in dwelling on it now. I need to focus. Whoever called her, I’ll deal with it when I get her home. Where I’ll be telling her whatever she had with them is finished. She’s mine, and any other man who tries to get in my way is dead.
“Now that we know Hades isn’t going to eat our faces off, we need to finish planning,” Ivano states, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“I get that you want to get your woman back, but we need to really think about every angle here. This assassin that took her, are we sure the two of them aren’t working together and this isn’t a ruse to just get us there and take us out? ”
I want to scream Rori would never do that, but I also never thought I’d be in this situation in the first place, so I swallow it back.
“We have to plan for every possibility,” I manage. Barely.
They share a glance and then look back at me. It’s Titus who says the thing I know they’re all thinking about. “Are you going to be the one to take Rori out if it turns out she is involved in whatever Tatiana is doing or planning?”
I barely control my visceral reaction to the question. My entire being rebels at the idea that Rori is a willing participant in all of this. She wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t put Sienna—and I hope I’m on the list too—through all of this. Still, I know I have to consider it.
She’s a Russian assassin. She’s been trained for most of her life to hide who she is. To blend into situations. To be a weapon that no one realizes is there.
“I’ll do what I have to do.” It’s all I can say.
They share another look, but they don’t question me. They’re trusting I’ll keep to my word, but I know they’ll step up if they think I’m failing.
I can’t fail. Ever. I also have to figure out a way to make sure Rori is telling me the truth. That she isn’t trying to trick me. Again.
“Alright, then what’s the plan?” Titus asks.
Time to get my head in the game.
For the next couple of hours, we pore over everything we know. All information we can find on the Belovs, the floor plans of their homes and businesses that we can find that Urso and Zeno send me, and finally, I try to find out as much as I can on Rori’s father and any of his known associates.
“These fuckers are psychotic,” Titus remarks with a shake of his head.
“They’re fucking Russians. What did you expect?” David scoffs.
“Look, I like dogs, but I don’t fucking like the idea of going up against a fucking jaguar or fucking wolf. Why the fuck do they have these things?”
That makes me worried too. Handling people is one thing, but handling wild animals is something else entirely. The last thing I fucking want to worry about is getting in the house and coming face-to-face with a predator.
Especially one that could kill me before I could kill it.
“I’ve heard that the Belovs love that shit. They love setting their animals after their enemies to hunt them down like prey.”
Great. Just what we need.
“The only ones that have animals like that, though, are some of the brothers and uncles. From what I found, Timur and Simeon Belov don’t have any known animals, so we might be alright.
But if we’re heading to a possible wedding, who the fuck knows if the others won’t bring theirs? ” Ivano points out with a sigh.
“We keep our eyes out for the animals, but we also need to figure out how the hell we’re going to get in without being spotted,” I remind them.
“Are we sure this Tatiana one is going to actually bring Rori to the Belovs right away?” David asks.
“Timur Belov would be the one to have sent Tatiana after her, so he probably is expecting her to bring Rori there first thing. Especially if he wants to take her to task for being in New York in the first place.”
John gives me a nervous look but finally asks, “Do you think he’s going to kill her? Just get her out of the way?”
My jaw clenches, urgency to get to Rori burning. The thought of not getting there on time isn’t one I want to entertain for too long. Losing her might just tip me over the edge.
“Would he really do all of this just to kill her on the spot?” Titus reasons.
I latch on to that question like a lifeline.
“He sent an assassin to bring her back. If he wanted her dead, then he’d have had Tatiana kill her on the spot, not do all this shit,” Ivano chimes in.
“He probably wants to keep her close and under his thumb again,” I add, the entire thing spinning fast in my mind.
Maybe I’m trying to find the best way to rationalize it, but it also just makes sense.
“Think about it. He’s made an ally of this Bratva Butcher before.
It could be that he’s not willing to risk that or break off ties.
Especially if it’s the only way to keep them tied.
He’s married, so he can’t marry her himself, so now his son is the next best way. ”
“Especially if he plans to use her,” Titus adds, amused.
“Think about it. The Butcher is probably on his payroll too, but he’s also on the payroll of other Bratvas wherever they all might be.
He can’t be everywhere at once. Maybe this Belov asshole wants to have his own personal Butcher at his beck and call.
Up until now, he didn’t feel he needed to, but things are changing in California.
Different groups are fighting, and Zeno and Urso have uncovered that Belov is waging his own territorial wars.
Problem solved if he has an assassin that he can make-do his bidding on command.
Especially one as well-trained as Rori.”
“Are we sure that he doesn’t have Tatiana for that?” John reasons. “I mean, no offense, Alonzo, but Rori isn’t like her. She’s gotten soft over the years in comparison to the Chameleon. People are terrified of her, not Rori.”
He has a point, but I still want to punch him for daring to call Rori soft. The only soft spot she has is in all the right places when I’m holding her against me, deep inside her.
Damn it, no, I need to keep my head in the present.
“Rori hasn’t had to worry beyond her bounty hunting for years,” I force myself to remind them as calmly as I can.
“They let her be other than she had to tell them when one of their guys came on her radar, and she never went after them. It’s as far in as she has been since she was eighteen and allowed to leave.
She and Sienna met in college, and from what both of them have said, they had a pretty normal time. ”
And apparently, they also had a lot of sexual adventures that I’m not sure even Alessio knows about. Probably for the best, considering how jealous he is. Not that I’m much better. If I ever find out their names, I’ll kill them myself.
No matter how irrational that is.
“Even so, she’s not on Tatiana’s level. Why wouldn’t he just hire her or get her to agree to marry his son? With her on his side, he’d be unstoppable.”
“She probably told him to fuck off. You heard about how Ivan Morozov reacted, right? The way everyone is afraid of her? Trying to contain that and not lose your life? Timur’s not an idiot.”
“And it sounds like she’s just like the Butcher where she’s hired by anyone who needs her. It wouldn’t be smart to have her tied down to one family.”
“Especially if someone wants to take her out,” Titus agrees, easing forward.
“Rori, though, she’s not well-known. Think about it from how we would play it.
She marries Timur Belov’s only son—no one is going to look at her twice.
Especially not if they want her to start taking people out of the way. ”
My gut sinks at the realization. “She’d be a ghost of her own. If anyone thought it would come back to the Belovs, they would think it was someone they hired, not someone in their own ranks and home.”
“What do we know about this Simeon Belov? Is he like his father?”
“He keeps mostly off the radar,” Ivano replies after checking his notes. “What he does is mostly run things for his father, but we don’t have much else.”
“We need to find out more about him. Titus, get a hold of Urso and Zeno and have them dig more on him. I want to know what kind of man Rori is supposed to marry. Then, I want everything we can find on Timur Belov. Nothing left out.”
Titus nods, pulling out his phone.
“So what are we doing when we land?” John asks. “We can’t go in guns blazing.”
“I’ve already asked Zeno and Urso to find us a spot to lie low until we can figure out the next move. We’re going to need to carefully watch the Belovs to make sure we find Rori. We also need to keep an eye out for Tatiana. I don’t put it past her to have spies in every city.”
“She should have called herself the Boogeyman instead of Chameleon,” David mutters. “The last thing I want to see coming out of the shadows is her.”
I have to agree. Part of me, though, wants her to, because then I can get some answers. She’s an assassin, and I want to make her pay for taking Rori, for tricking us.
First, though, I need to be ready to grab the woman who means more to me than anything else in this world.
And it fucking terrifies me, but I don’t care. Aurora O’Brien/Rayea Antonova is mine and I’ll face a dangerous assassin to get to her. I just have to hope she won’t be the one holding the gun on me when I do.