Chapter 29 Ronan
RONAN
Santos’ unfamiliar, cold behavior was putting me off. The minute he entered the lab, I could tell something was wrong. It wasn’t that he was so predictable, but I knew my brother inside and out. I could tell there was something lodged deep in his core, festering, and rotting him from within.
He was keeping something from me, as if we needed any more fucking problems on top of everything else.
No doubt he was likely feeling a lot of guilt and resentment for leaving, with the timing of the attack.
From that little outburst with Kane, it was safe to say he also blamed us for it.
I refused to live in a state of regret. I had too many people to worry about to ruminate over decisions I had already acted on.
I turned to Taylor before locking the tech team back in their secure little bat cave, before giving her one more instruction.
“Flores,” I said, and her eyebrows scrunched together in the middle as she waited for the rest. “It’s not as urgent as the attack, but when you get a chance, dig up what you can for me on that name, I think it’s a family of some sort? ”
Taylor let out an exaggerated laugh and stuck her hands on her hip in a display that was far too feminine for her personality.
“You boys are really asking for God’s work here today, aren’t you?
Sure, I'll look up one of the top ten most common Hispanic names in the history of history and tell you what I find,” she said in a sarcastic tone, rolling her eyes before muttering, “Fucking idiots,” under her breath and shutting the safe door to the lab.
It had been exactly three hours since the attack on our home, but it already felt like fifty without knowing what was happening to Cecilia.
I was trying not to self-destruct from the grief eating at me, so I did my best to keep moving forward.
Any little thing could lead me back to her, and I wasn’t going to miss a single detail this time.
I waited too long for Cecilia to return to me.
Losing her twice would surely destroy me.
Being without her was like catching on fire and dying from smoke inhalation instead. It was painful and all-consuming. It was suffocating, it was toxic and the burning ache inside me wouldn’t be extinguished until she was safe in my arms again.
Santos led the way into the fifth floor; Mateo and I flanked him as we made our way to the Hellmouth of our operation. The men tipped their heads down as we passed them, they said nothing, but I knew we would need to address them all before the day was over.
We needed to reassure them that retaliation was coming, and that security for our families was guaranteed.
But first, we had to get all of our information straight and figure out who we were retaliating against. I had a pretty good feeling the bitch that stabbed Cecilia with a fork knew more than she was letting on.
The fifth floor was a work of art, in my opinion.
We removed all the flooring and poured concrete down the same way we had done in the kennels.
It was a completely different atmosphere once the elevator doors opened you up into the level.
It was resemblant to a prison, nothing but six-foot by six-foot cells with a cot, a bucket to piss in, and a drain in the middle of each one.
For the blood.
If you somehow found yourself down here, it almost always meant your days were numbered.
This was the final resting place for the people who challenged or went against The Black Crow Brotherhood.
This is where we put our enemies down. If you pissed us off enough, we shoved you in a cell with someone else.
There was nothing like arguing about who gets to shit in the bucket and who gets the bed, to force you to see things a bit more clearly.
As it was, there hadn’t been a woman who had found herself down here in the almost seven years since we created our little organization. There had never been a need, every single syndicate organization we considered our enemy, overlooked the women around them.
They put collars around their neck, and they only served them for the purpose of breeding, or fucking.
It was misogynistic and idiotic, because some of my best men, were actually women.
Taylor Constance and Emory O’Connor were just two examples of powerful women we didn’t take for granted around here, but on every floor, you were guaranteed to find a bad bitch willing to take on the city, with or without us at their back.
There was a first time for everything and stabbing my girl in the middle of the night was definitely a surefire way to get you on my enemies list. I had a creeping suspicion this chick wasn’t as innocent as she had been playing us for, and we would get some answers today.
The soldiers who worked the fifth floor nodded their heads to us as we made our way past them and walked on, cell after cell, until we reached hers.
She was sitting on the cold concrete floor instead of using the cot, and there was an air to her that reminded me of Cecilia’s uncrackable strength.
Her upper lip curled up as she lifted her head to see who was walking toward her cell, and I had to admire her lack of fear.
She put on a hell of a show these last two months, but whoever the hell she was, had started to break through to the surface.
“Who are you?” I asked her, and her lip turned up in the corners.
“You’re not ready for the answer to that yet, Ronan Zerkos.
” Her thick accent wrapped around each word tightly like a boa constrictor ready for a meal.
She knew my name. That tidbit of information was something we made sure our captors wouldn’t know until it was safe to share with them.
It wasn’t possible that she knew my name, but yet here she was, saying it like we were old friends.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her, and she opened her arms to show the cell surrounding her, as she looked to her left and right.
“You know what I mean. I’m not stupid, I know you had something to do with the attack this morning.” I gripped the bars tight as I spat the words out at her.
“Oh. Was that today?” She clucked her tongue, “So sad I missed it.” She let out a dark chuckle as she stood up and made her way over to me. “I’ll have to catch the next one so I can make my way out of here.”
“If you had something to do with the death of my men, make no mistake bitch, you will die here. Tonight.” Her eyes widened in surprise.
She didn’t think I had it in me to hurt a woman, but she was wrong.
Maybe not with my own hands, but if she was responsible for the death of my men or for putting Cecilia in harm's way, then I would gladly put a bullet through her skull.
She entered this high-rise and we believed she was a victim, someone who needed to be saved, and someone who would help us save others. That’s where I was wrong. I could see now she was just another snake who slithered her way into our home and her scales were starting to show.
“You will find that killing me will not prove to be very beneficial to you Ronan.” She closed the distance between us with her cat-like gait and wrapped her thin fingers around the bars of her cell.
“Not while you have a rat, hiding in your crow’s nest.” She whispered, and then laughed loudly before turning her back on me.
“Susana Sokolov,” Santos said, holding his phone up in his hands with a dark smirk plastered over his face.
Gotcha.
Taylor always came through.
It was my turn to laugh now, but she didn’t turn around to look at me. She was clearly startled by her identity being revealed and needed a moment to compose herself.
“Susana, Oksana.” Mateo sang repeatedly as he walked around her cell, tormenting her. Dried blood was still coating his face from Santos’ hit, and God dammit he looked like the perfect lunatic.
“So, tell me. What were two Bratva princesses doing in a trafficking ring, playing the part of a captive?” I asked her, and she finally turned on her heels to look at me.
“The fun just got started my dear, I’m not going to spoil the ending.
” She laughed confidently, but she was close enough, so I reached my hand in the cell and gripped her throat between my fingers.
I squeezed tightly knowing that her oxygen was completely cut off, and her windpipe was on the verge of being crushed.
“Just kill her dude, we don’t need her. Let’s go pick her sister up at the hospital.” Mateo lied with a confidence that came natural to him. She didn’t know that her sister had been picked up by Daddy yet, and we were sure as shit going to use it to our advantage.
Santos cocked his gun behind my head, and I saw in my peripheral that it was aimed right in between her widened eyes. Daddy Sokolov trained her well, but not that well. I could smell the fear on her, and if she didn’t start talking soon, she was gonna be stenching up the whole floor.
Every minute that passed, was another minute that her monster of a father could use to hurt my girl. I could only hope they didn’t know what she meant to me yet; maybe it was better they thought she was a nobody. Being useless was safer than being desirable in our world.
“Wait. How can I be sure you’ll let me go if I tell you anything?” She asked, her composure crumbling away as her voice rasped from the pressure of my hands. I released her, realizing she wasn’t as tough as she was playing out to be.
“We won’t let you go. But if you give me what I need, I won’t let my friend here put you six feet under, for now.” I told her, watching the defeat consume her.
The whole level had gone silent, listening to our exchange and the audible click of Santos releasing the safety of the gun, caused all of the color to drain from her face.
“If I tell you, you might as well kill me. My father will do it himself if he finds out.” She said fearfully through the bars as she clutched them tightly.