Chapter Two
Dinah should have known that going to the Evil Fallen Bratva would have consequences, but she didn’t think it would be having fingers wrapped around her throat, cutting off her air supply. The man she’d seen in the corridor was looking at her like she was scum as he suddenly let go of her throat.
“When did Sergey approach?” he asked.
This confused her. Sergey? What?
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Getting her words out was a struggle. He let go of her neck long enough for her to speak, but then she cried out as he tightened his grip. Fear ran down her spine.
This man wasn’t thinking clearly, and she could only react. Her mother had always taught her to be ready, so she brought her knee up, taking the man off guard. While he was grabbing at his junk, she ran into her sitting room and got a fire-poking tool. She had never used it, but her mother had purchased it at some antique store. Dinah had been unable to say no to her, and now as she held the steel rod in her grip as the scarred man approached, she was ready to strike.
“Get the fuck out of my house, or I swear I will make you wish you had never been born.”
Only, she hadn’t been prepared for the gun suddenly pointed at her. Still, he could be a crap shot, and there was no way she was backing down from this. She held onto her poking tool and glared at him.
“I don’t know who you are, but I suggest you start talking.” She didn’t have a cell phone and there was no way to call for help. She wouldn’t risk hurting her neighbors.
“I start talking, why don’t you tell me what Sergey’s plan is?”
“I don’t know a Sergey.”
He loaded his weapon and she stared right at him. “You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you believe, but I can promise you, I do not work for any Sergey. I work at a beauty salon that specializes in hair, beauty, and spa treatments. My name is Dinah Evans, and I’ve been working there for five years, and I even started my schooling. I don’t know who you think I am, but look around, this is who I am. I have lived here my whole life. This is my mother’s home. I don’t know who you are.”
He kept looking at her. “You didn’t care about my scars,” he said, gritting his teeth.
She frowned. “All of this because I didn’t flinch?”
“Her mother was attacked,” Raine said.
Dinah turned to the doorway to see her friend and another guy wearing a leather jacket, who she could only assume was part of the Evil Fallen Bratva MC.
The man in front of her didn’t move a muscle. “I told you to stay back in the car.”
“Dude, you’ve got this all wrong. Dinah’s a professional hairstylist,” the other man said, lifting his cell phone.
Dinah continued to look at him, holding onto her poking tool, angry at Raine, infuriated with what was going on.
The man went closer to her attacker, and he averted his gaze long enough to look at what she assumed was an Internet search of her.
“Your mother was scarred?” he asked.
“Yeah, my mother was scarred, and trust me, I get it, and she taught me to never look on in pity or sadness. I simply acted the way my mother taught me. Trust me, I don’t feel any pity for you, now get the fuck out of my house.”
“Road, man, we’ve got to go,” the other man said.
Dinah stared at her attacker, who was clearly called Road. She didn’t stop holding her poker, and she waited, prepared in case he decided to attack her.
This was one weird night. It was odd to her, though, as she saw the moment the fight left her attacker when he lowered his gun.
“Your mother … she was scarred.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
There were pictures of the two of them in the newspaper. Her mother had been so proud of her accomplishments.
He didn’t move, even as the other man tried to leave.
“Road, come on, man.”
“Sarge, shut the fuck up and get out,” he said.
“Dinah, I am so sorry,” Raine said.
She didn’t lower her weapon but turned to glare at her friend. “Seriously, you want to apologize now? Why not when you called to lie to me? Do you have any idea how worried I was?”
“I know and I’m sorry.”
“Get out. They can take you home but you’re not staying here. Get out.”
Raine dropped her hands, then slowly turned away and left.
Dinah was done cleaning up her friend’s messes. She had been doing it for years, and now look where it had led. A man attempted to kill her. This kind of shit couldn’t be made up. They also made her cuss in her mother’s home, which her mother hated.
Raine and Sarge left her house, but Road stayed and kept staring at her.
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care. I don’t know who you are, or what you were hoping to find, but I hope we never see each other again. Get out.”
“How did your mother get scarred?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I should be calling the cops, getting your ass arrested and … thrown in jail. You attacked me in my own home.”
“Tell me why you’re not?” he asked.
She held onto her poker and glared at him. There was no way she was going to justify her actions to this … criminal.
Road smirked. “Because you know as I do, that no cops would come. Not if you mention the Evil Fallen Bratva MC.”
“I know the cops won’t come, not until they’re sure the threat is gone,” she said.
Memories of her mother assailed her, and it made her hate them as much as she hated the man that hurt her.
“Leave,” she said.
“I will leave, but there is something I want to say.” He turned to look at her fully and she waited. “Sergey Golubev.”
She glared at him and Road nodded.
“See you around,” he said.
****
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Brute asked, slamming his hands down on his desk.
“That Sergey is not known for sitting on his ass and waiting for the next time to attack. He’s been quiet for a few months, but we both know he wants to retaliate.” Road had been woken up this morning to Brute throwing a bucket of cold water on him. It hadn’t been the first time this had happened to him, and he doubted it would be the last.
This was Brute’s way of gaining his attention. It fucking sucked, but it worked. He was wide awake, and from the quick glance on the clock, he’d only been asleep for a couple of hours.
“So you think you would take the fight to him, right now?”
“The only time to take the fight to him is now!” Road was done waiting on his ass for the other person to strike, he needed action and he needed it right this second. Sergey may be busy dealing with the shit they caused six months ago, but it had been six months. He wanted to end this.
Brute glared across the table at him. “And you think we’re in a position to deal with the ramifications if we fail?”
“We won’t fail.”
“Why do you think that? Because we’ve got the grace of God, and I don’t know, luck on our side.”
Road gritted his teeth together. They had no such thing and he knew that. None of them had luck on their side. Taking out Sergey would be easy, no doubt about it. It was everything after the fact that they would fall on.
“Now, don’t give me the bullshit that I’ve gone soft or any of that shit because of Faith. Trust me, I’m weighing every option. Sergey will pay. We’ve been hitting many of his prominent businesses,” Brute said.
For the last six months, they’d been hitting Sergey’s income stream, affecting his relationships with fellow powerful criminal men. The death of Paul Butterworth was just the start. They hadn’t killed anyone else yet, but they had put a dent in some fortunes.
Road had to admit, his favorite was letting a shipment of girls free. There had been media coverage, so there was no way to allow for men to go and round them back up. He’d helped with this little detail.
While Road had been acquiring information for Sergey many years ago, before he’d been punished with a scarred face, he’d also been building contacts. Sergey made a lot of enemies. Road knew those enemies, and now that they were in the right place, he was able to make the calls to help with their cause, without being linked to it. That was another little detail they kept quiet.
If Sergey’s powerful allies realized who was behind all the bad luck that had befallen him, then the finger to point would be at them. As it was, no one knew what they were doing, and to the outside world, Sergey was throwing accusations without fire. He loved it, because it happened to be a game Sergey was most notorious for playing.
“Do you want to tell me what it was about this woman, Road? You don’t act like this, not for anything, and yet you were willing to go into an innocent woman’s house—”
“She’s not innocent,” he said, interrupting him.
Brute shook his head. “Not every woman you meet is going to cause you this kind of grief or pain. They’re not all enemies.”
“You’ve found something rare in Faith, I grant you that, Brute. But remember, I’ve seen what the bitches are like up close and personal. I know they are only after what they can ge t— more money, more powe r— and I wasn’t going to stand around and allow anything to happen to this club.”
Road got to his feet. He knew what he’d seen in Dinah Evan’s eyes. The name Sergey Golubev was a name she knew, but he had a feeling it was not for the reason he originally thought.
“Damn it, Road. Don’t go making waves. Not right now. I’m working on something.”
“You’re working on bringing a baby into this world. We know it won’t be long before Faith gives birth. We all know it, but … this is important. You can’t allow him to build his army back up. You just can’t.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Sergey Golubev will strike and he is going to kill us all if we lose this momentum. We need to attack.”
“And we will, but I’m not going to do it at the risk of losing men. Tank is close to being recovered.”
Road shook his head. “We shouldn’t be waiting on this. I know it, you know it, and everyone else knows it.”
“Look, Road—”
“Are we done?” he asked, interrupting for a second time, and seeing the anger flash in Brute’s eye. “Look, you know my thoughts and how I feel about this, and they’re not going to change. I know what we need to do, but then I’ve worked closely with Golubev, I know his strategy. If we don’t keep hitting, he’s going to rise up and come after us, and I don’t want that to happen. He needs to be crushed.”
“He will be.”
“Just so long as it doesn’t come at a cost of killing your wife and kid.” Road got to his feet. “I get it.”
“No, you don’t get it. Clearly, Golubev’s mentality has still rubbed off on you because you’re not seeing the bigger picture.”
“We’re done,” Road said.
Brute opened his mouth but there was a knock at the office door, and there was only one person with that playful knock. “I’ll see myself out.”
Road stepped past Faith, giving her a slight smile before heading toward the kitchen. Being woken up with water splashed on his face wasn’t ideal, and as he went to grab some coffee, he saw Tank in the kitchen, alone.
A lot of the brothers continued to struggle around Tank. The brother had changed a lot since his return. Road felt guilty for not being able to deal with the shit he dished out, but the truth was, after seeing Tank, everything had hit a little too close to home.
He wanted to reach out and touch his own face, but instead he went straight to the coffee machine.
“Not even a ‘good morning’?”
“No man should have to be able to think in the morning without his hit of caffeine.” He took a sip, and nearly spat it out. It tasted so bad, but it certainly had woken him up.
“What the fuck has Faith done to the coffee?” he asked.
“Not Faith, me ,” Tank said.
“Why the fuck are you making coffee?”
“Because you evil bastards didn’t offer, and in case you didn’t know, every time Faith made the coffee, it would make her sick, so now she doesn’t have to worry about it.”
Road hadn’t known it made her feel sick.
“So, I guess you better just enjoy it, or get used to making your own.”
It had woken him up, and he held his cup, about to go straight to his room, but instead decided to go to Tank. He sat down. Tank had a pile of pancakes on his plate, bacon, scrambled eggs, and what looked like a drizzle of maple syrup.
“You had Faith cook for you again?” he asked, about to steal a piece of bacon but getting his hand slapped in the process.
“This is not yours,” he said.
“Duly noted, but I don’t think Faith is going to be allowed to cook for me.”
“I heard what happened. You decided to do something stupid and I’ve only got one question for you. Was it worth it?” Tank asked. “You look like shit.”
“I always look like shit.”
Tank waved his fork back and forth. “You see, that’s where you’ve got it all wrong. Yeah, you’re not the pretty boy you once were, but you’re still intact. You’ve got your shit together. You’re strong.”
“Are you trying to date me?” Road asked.
“Do you know what it’s like to listen to a woman getting raped repeatedly, begging for them to stop, and being refused?”
Road didn’t know what to say.
“Or having your teeth removed, but before they do that, they crush them in your skull, so shards of teeth stay within the gums?”
Road didn’t need to ask about that. They knew Tank’s teeth had been removed through his torture, but a trip to the dentist and some X-rays had shown the extent of the damage. Tank had been through much mor e— a month of sheer tortur e— and it was only Brute taking Faith, and then handing her back to Sergey that had freed their man. They’d not been able to get to him.
It was why whenever Tank ate, he’d been in pain. Until he saw the dentist, he’d only been able to consume canned soup. Once Faith returned, she prepared his food, all fresh ingredients, and it seemed Brute and Faith treated Tank as their child.
“Don’t you want to make them all pay?”
“I do,” Tank said. “I want to stare into Sergey’s eyes as I take him apart, limb from limb. It’s why I’m studying my biology books, and I intend to learn some medicine. He is going to stay alive while I do it.”
“You’re hanging out with Igor,” Road said.
“He is the best biology instructor. We both know he will be able to help me get what I want.”
“And what is it you want?” Road asked.
“Sergey’s head. But I want him to know I’m removing body part by body part, as I take it.”