Chapter 49 Ronan
RONAN
“You think I made the wrong call?” I asked Kane as we walked side by side out of the fifth floor.
“No. I think him coming would have been a big mistake,” We waited for the elevator, even though we were only going down two floors. We both stayed silent the whole time until finally I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“You knew this whole time how he felt about her?” I looked at him, wondering if he would lie to me too.
“I’m not oblivious like you. I could see the same pain in him that I was trying to hide myself,” he stared back at me, and even though I still had a lot to say about whatever the hell was going on with my brothers and Cecilia, he was still my family.
They both were. That was why Santos’ treachery cut so deep.
“No more lies. No more secrets,” I told him, and he nodded at me.
“Agreed,” he said right as the elevator opened up into the armory and just as I had asked, Ethan was already waiting for us.
“What are we doing?” He laughed out as he tossed a semi-automatic my way, and I couldn’t fight the smirk forming on my face as I caught it.
That was my favorite part about those bastards.
Ethan and Fletch were always down to ride, no matter what kind of hell we were marching into.
Except Fletcher only woke up from his medically induced coma less than twenty-four hours ago, and we owed that man a debt I didn’t know how we’d ever pay back.
“It’s a big ask, it’s Black Crow business, but it’s also personal,” I warned him, but he shrugged his shoulders and tossed another semi towards Kane.
“Please tell me we’re going after some Bratva dicks,” he jumped up and down like a boxer pumping himself up for the next round.
“They’ve got my girl again. I want to do it without bloodshed, but I also fully intend to be prepared for it.
” I looked at him and stuck my hand out to see where he stood, “I understand if you wanna sit this out.” He clasped my hand and gave out a howl that was Mateoesque in its own way and Kane himself grinned at his excitement.
I pulled the Kevlar vests out of the cabinets and passed them down, strapping on extra ammunition anywhere I could fit it on me. Grabbing a few pistols and knives each before we all made our way down.
“Taylor’s got a number for us,” Mateo said as he lifted up his phone to show me the text.
“For Sokolov?” I asked and he nodded. “Make the call, I’m not letting her spend one night away from here. Not again.”
Kane dialed and put the phone on speaker as soon as the elevator opened up to the lobby. My heart thundered with every single tone that sounded out until the click of the call connected.
“I was not expecting you so soon, Ronan Zerkos.” Allisher Sokolov’s slimy voice came out of the speaker.
“You have something that belongs to me. I have something that belongs to you. I figured we could do this clean Sokolov,” I mouthed, ‘let's go’ to the guys and we made our way to the parking garage where Hughes waited with an extremely over tied-up Susana.
He tisked loudly on the line before responding, “Yes, you do have something of mine. But it turns out, I don’t seem to have anything of yours.” I waived Hughes off as we piled into the car, and he began wrestling with the corpse of Senior.
“Cut the shit old man, I know you have my girl. I’m coming for her, so we can do this the easy way, or the bloody way.” I would unleash every layer of hell onto the Bratva if I didn’t have Cecilia in my arms again tonight.
“Ah, but that’s where you are wrong. She may have been your girl but she did not belong to you. I have returned her to her rightful owners now, no need to thank me. She made me a very rich man.” Sokolov elaborated calmly and Mateo snatched the phone from my hand.
“What did you do?” He yelled out, his composure completely gone while his emotions got the best of him.
Sokolov let out a hearty chuckle and Kane reached in the trunk of the Escalade and pulled Oksana up by the throat.
“Papachka!” She begged with a sob and the line went quiet.
“She is not my favorite daughter. Has she spilled all my secrets yet?” He asked flatly, like that was the only thing that mattered.
“But I’m betting an inch off my dick that she’s your prettiest one now,” Kane laughed out in a cold tone.
“You will pay for what you did to my eldest daughter, make no mistake about it.
I know where you live now. I will take your crows out one by one until there's nothing left but feathers to pluck off the ground.” I hung up, his threats were useless, and I no longer needed him if what he said about Cecilia was true.
“Should we go to the location on the phone?” Kane asked me.
“No, we follow the tracker. If we head for the meet up spot, we’ll likely put too much distance between us. We can’t risk the Cártel taking her out of the country.” He plugged his phone into the nav system in the car, and Ethan turned the ignition.
She was already more than an hour’s drive away and I had no idea how we’d wasted so much time. Every minute was a goddamn mile, and if I didn’t hurry, there was a chance we’d be going up against the Cártel.
Three men, against the most dangerous organization known to man. The odds weren’t in our favor, but I’d die tonight if it meant keeping her out of harm's way. The tracker moved at the same pace as we did and at this rate we would never catch up.
“If you don’t move faster, I'm taking over,” I warned Ethan and he let his foot get heavier on the gas, taking it up to ninety miles an hour on the speedometer.
My palms were sweating, every part of me was shaking in anticipation, and fear. If she had been with the Bratva that would have been an entirely different ball game, but now she was being hand-delivered to the same people she’d come to me seeking help to hide from.
I’d failed her.
I had no right to call her mine if I couldn’t even keep her safe.
Oksana was whining something awful in the back and my blood was boiling from the anxiety creeping through me. “Shut her up or toss her out. We have no need for her anymore,” I yelled back at Kane who made a dramatic shushing gesture with his fingers towards her.
“Are we going south?” Kane asked Ethan who nodded in response.
“Call Villalobos, maybe he’ll help,” he said, sounding hopeful.
But no, I didn’t want assistance from the same asshole who so easily hurt the girl I loved for so many years.
She may have trusted him, and I was a cruel bastard myself, but I didn’t trust that Villalobos was someone we could count on when it came to Cecilia.
His track record showed it, and until he proved me wrong, I didn’t need him around.
“We’re doing this alone. We just need to hurry, maybe we can intercept before she ends up in her uncle’s hands,” I told Kane and he didn’t bother arguing.
Finally, her tracker slowed down to a pace where we could catch up.
I didn’t have faith that the universe was on my side for once, but I had to believe that someone up there was looking out for me, maybe.
Or maybe someone down there. Who knew for sure?
People like us weren’t gifted with God’s grace and half the time it seemed like we were in competition with the Devil himself.
“Is she stopped?” Kane asked as he looked over my shoulder from the backseat.
“It looks that way, step on it E,” I told him, even though he was already going well over the speeding limit.
The excitement over the possibility of catching up to her before she was handed off to the Cártel was intensifying, and I could barely contain myself from stepping through the floorboards of the car and Fred Flinstoneing this bitch all the way to the location the GPS marked her at.
I’d get her back tonight.
Regardless of who tried to stand in my way.