Chapter 24
Georgi
I haven’t visited Rosie at her fortress, as she likes to fondly call it, since she upgraded the place.
The place used to be an office space. We all gave Rosie millions after she presented her plans, and she converted each floor to her liking.
The first floor is empty, high-tech cameras scanning every inch of it twenty-four seven. It’s also rigged with explosives. One press of a button and the entire eight-story building will fall in on itself, burying whoever’s inside.
We never enter that way.
As I walk through the empty underground parking area, dust tickles my nose. The guards stay outside because Rosie is fucking anal about who gets to enter her sacred space.
“Hi,” her voice comes over a speaker, echoing all around me. “This is a surprise. How do you feel?”
“I’m fine. Why haven’t you found Boris and Anton?”
She lets out a grumbling sound, then something crunches loudly, and I listen to her eating carrots. Or rocks.
It sounds like fucking rocks.
When I reach the wall where the entryway is hidden, I glare up at the camera. “Open.”
“Nope. You look pissed off, and I didn’t have dealing with a pissed off Georgi on my schedule for today.”
“Rosie!”
“Yyyeeessss?” Her chuckle fills the space. “Come on. You know what the password is.”
I force a smile on my face and blow her a kiss.
“Atta boy. Now that wasn’t so hard.” The wall shifts, and with a loud rumbling, it moves to reveal a hallway that’s filled with a blue light.
I stalk down it until I reach the elevator, and the doors open automatically. After I enter, beams scan over me while I’m taken to the fifth floor.
The only three people who have codes to enter are her father, Uncle Dario, our capo dei capi, Christiano, and Enzo.
Uncle Dario usually comes to help her when she has a huge job that needs two heads, and Christiano…well, him being our boss speaks for itself. Enzo is the one who controls the finances and how much Rosie gets to spend, but I know she gave him a code because she loves him.
We all keep our mouths shut when it comes to Rosie and Enzo, and none of us knows what the hell is going on between the two.
Once I reach the fifth floor, I walk through empty office space until I come to another hidden wall. It shifts, and I step into the final elevator, which takes me up to the top floor.
When the doors open, I’m met with a cold blast of air. The temperature is kept near freezing to prevent the servers and mainframes from overheating.
I glance over rows of black server racks, rising like towering steel columns, lights pulsing as information is processed.
Floor-to-ceiling monitors cover one wall, cycling through surveillance feeds, encrypted transactions and messages.
Massive curved screens are on at different workstations, some tracking cyber intrusions while others run facial recognition scans, countless faces flashing across the screens.
My eyes lock on the photos of Boris and Anton, who are in a grid with many other men and women, being tracked in real time.
I step onto raised flooring, which hides fiber optic cable lines, and walk to the center where Rosie’s command station is situated. She’s surrounded by screens, custom hardware, and enough processing power to cripple governments.
Honestly, this is our war room, built to keep the Cosa Nostra always three steps ahead.
“Give me a second,” Rosie mumbles, deep in thought while typing something on one of her many keyboards.
Her black hair is piled on top of her head, a pencil somehow keeping the rat’s nest together, and she’s wearing baggy pants and an oversized sweater.
There are snacks and cold drinks scattered everywhere, and I pick up a brown banana, throwing it in an overflowing trash can.
“Christ.” I wipe my hand off on my shirt, then glance over all the feeds showing every capo’s house and various businesses.
I see Christiano walking through a warehouse where crates of weapons I supplied to him are being readied to be shipped.
Augusto and his younger brother, Riccardo, are having a conversation in Augusto’s backyard. His wife, Yuki, is feeding koi. It actually looks peaceful, and I stare for a moment longer before I search for my building. It only shows the elevator, parking, and surrounding areas.
I refused to let Rosie put cameras in the apartments. She wasn’t happy but just had to deal.
“No. Put that down,” she suddenly says, then I hear Uncle Dario’s voice. “Come on, it’s just one cupcake.”
My eyes land on the screen, showing him in the kitchen of his penthouse with a box of twelve cupcakes open on the island.
Rosie lets out a chuckle. “It’s never just one, Dad. You need to watch your cholesterol, so put it down or I’m telling Mom.”
Uncle Dario makes a disgruntled sound.
“Busted,” I hear another voice before Tyrone, who’s like a grandfather to Rosie, comes into view. He shuts the box, then looks directly at the camera. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I’ll get rid of them.”
“Oh hell no! You’ll just take them to your place and scarf them all down. Put down that box and step away from it.” He sets down the box and holds up his hands. “Good. Now stop keeping me out of work.”
“Sorry,” Uncle Dario and Tyrone mumble before leaving the kitchen.
“How does it feel to be God?” I ask as I take a seat on one of the many chairs.
Rosie turns to me with a wide smile on her face, then lets out her best impression of a villain’s laugh. “I am the great and powerful Oz.” Then she schools her expression and gets serious. “But…I have nothing on Boris and Anton.”
She types a couple of keys, and information appears on the screen closest to me.
“The last time they were spotted was right before you called me and we found you.” She gestures at a grainy black-and-white photo. “This was taken at a traffic light, and then they vanish into thin air. Even the car is MIA.”
One of Boris’ guards is behind the steering wheel. I recognize him as the one who threatened to take my leg because I killed one of the idiots.
In the backseat are Boris and Anton. The photo is clear enough to make out the scratch marks Nina left on the fucker’s face.
“I’m sorry, Georgi,” Rosie says, drawing my attention to her.
“But I have a consolation prize for you.” She types again, and the next second, I’m looking at old photos of Boris and Anton before shit went down.
Them golfing, eating at a restaurant, and shaking hands.
It doesn’t tell me anything except that they’re close.
I check the other information, and a smile begins to tug at my mouth. “Are those bank accounts?”
“Yep, and I’ve already emptied them. Every last Euro is in a Swiss account under Nina’s name.”
When I grin at her, she gives me an excited look and asks, “I did good?”
“You did very good,” I praise her.
She widens her eyes at me. “I have more for you.”
She taps on the keyboard again, then photos of a much younger Nina appear.
“This is everything I could find on Nina and her daughter. I wanted to make sure you were safe with her.”
I stare at the innocent expression in Nina’s big brown eyes, and I realize it had to be taken before her life turned to shit.
“How old is she here?”
“Seventeen.” Rosie leans forward and points at Nina’s personal details.
Nina Pavlova.
I hate that fucking last name.
I learn her birthday is on February fifth, and Simi’s is July twenty-eight.
I pull my phone out and program the dates into my calendar so I don’t forget them.
Nina is twenty-seven. She was twenty-two when she got pregnant with Simi, and twenty-three when she gave birth.
I frown and glance at Rosie. “Are there no medical records of the birth?”
“None.” Rosie’s features tighten. “Which means someone did a very good job of erasing them, or Nina never gave birth in a hospital.”
Christ.
I feel the blood drain from my face. They forced her to deal with her miscarriages by herself, so they probably…
I shake my head as I get up and stalk to the tinted windows overlooking the Hudson River.
An alarm beeps through the air, and when I glance over my shoulder, Rosie mutters, “It’s Enzo. Ugh.”
Not wanting a front row seat to their weird relationship, I walk to the elevator door. “Let me know the instant you track either of those fuckers.”
“Will do.” As the doors open, Rosie calls out, “By the way, your bloodwork came back. Besides needing some magnesium, you’re in good shape. Glad to see there were no broken bones.”
I shake my head and let out a sigh. The words invasion of privacy do not exist to Rosie.
The doors slide shut, and when they open again on the fifth floor, I hear Enzo whistling as he comes from the other direction.
Walking toward him, I give him a chin lift.
“Good to see you, brother. How do you feel?” he asks as he stops to shake my hand and give me a hug that’s really just a shoulder bump. “You look better.”
“I feel better.”
“I would’ve checked in on you, but your Dad told us all to give you space.”
“I appreciate it. I’m just getting my girls settled, then things will return to normal.”
He raises an eyebrow at me. “Your girls?”
“Nina and Simi.”
“I know who you mean, I’m just surprised to hear you call them your girls. You’re a one-and-done kind of guy.”
I let out a sigh as I shrug. “That’s in the past. Nina is it for me so you can spread the word that everyone can prepare themselves to see her by my side at get-togethers.”
His head jerks back with surprise. “Fuck, that’s fast. It’s been…like a week or so.”
“Don’t care.” I begin to walk again and lift my hand in a wave. “I’ll see you around.”
“The poker game is at my place next week.”
Fuck, I forgot.
I stop dead in my tracks. “I might have to skip this one. I’ll let you know.”
“The others will be pissed if you’re not there. It’s tradition, and everyone is worried about you.”
“My life is a little up in the air right now. I said I’ll let you know.”
He nods, worry causing a frown to form on his forehead. “Okay. I’m here if you need anything.”
I lock eyes with him as I give him a chin lift. “Thanks, Enzo.”
We go our separate ways, and when I step into the second elevator and the doors shut, Rosie’s voice comes over the speaker.
“Don’t worry, Georgi. I’ll update the others that you’re doing okay, and they need to chill.
You take all the time you need. I’ll also slap Enzo up the head for pressuring you. ”
A smile widens over my face. “Thanks, sweetheart. You’re special people.”
“I know.” I think she forgets to let go of the button activating the speaker because I hear her snap, “Why do you have to be such an asshole, Enzo! You can see Georgi has a lot on his plate right now. The stupid poker games can wait.”
“When did you last clean this place?” I hear him ask.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rosie gasps. “I wasn’t done eating that chocolate. Enzo!”
The speaker goes silent, and I shake my head while I get my ass out of the building and whatever drama is between those two.