Chapter 22
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It’s macabre. It’s equal parts fucking disturbing and brilliant and I’m really, really damn glad that Pops is on our side as we watch the limousine carrying Petrov toward us rock and dip as it rolls over the bodies of the dead, laid out like fucked up paving stones.
“I don’t know if I should be disturbed or impressed,” Gallows mutters as he stares at the scene in front of us.
“Impressed son, always be impressed.” Pops slaps Gallows on the shoulder and the big man flinches slightly.
“Your people are fucked up, cousin.”
“I know. Isn't it great?” I grin.
The car rocks to a stop in front of my parents porch and a man with no neck and an alarmingly red face steps out and scuttles to the back passenger door.
If I cared more about these people I would tell him to book an appointment at the clinic, the man is a walking heart attack.
He throws open the door with a flourish and out steps the man who thinks he owns my daughter.
“I was unaware there would be a welcoming committee,” he says in the same accent as Roman’s yet somehow this one sounds smarmy.
He looks around at the DRMC all waiting to eyeball the man who has brought this shit down on our family.
Well, most of us. Niko, Tank and Chef are downstairs being treated for their wounds.
Everyone else got patched up and is running on adrenaline until this shit is done.
“What is it that you want, Petrov?” Marx barks, hiding the fact that he too, is still injured.
“Now, is this the way to do business? Standing out in the open, with all these ears surrounding us?” He gestures to the full force of the DRMC and none of us move a muscle. Fuck him. He wants to talk? Then talk.
Marx stares at him until Petrov’s hand twitches. That is all the tell he’s going to give us, but it’s enough to tell me that he’s nervous. And so he should be. He drove here over the bodies of men hired by him and his shitty business partners. Marx’s gaze catches mine and I nod once.
“Follow me.” Marx says, turning on his heel and leading Petrov into the house, heading for the dining room.
We all wait, lining the porch steps. I snarl at him as he moves past me.
Rhodie lunges at him causing Petrov to squeak and flinch and I know we’ve got him.
There isn't a thing this piece of shit can say or offer that will have him walking out of here alive. The only question I have is will Chewy be giving him special hospitality, or will he die in Momma’s dining chair?
The DRMC swallows him up as he walks into the house, and I know having so many of us at his back has him sweating.
It probably doesn't help that this whole time Damian has been smarting off. I don’t blame him, he was in the bunker protecting our most precious assets - women, children and the injured, so he probably has pent up adrenaline running through his giant body.
Entering the cozy dining room, full of flowers and placemats that Momma made herself, Marx sits with his back to the wall, the look on his face cold as he nods at the seat across from him.
Petrov smoothly sits, then crosses one leg over the other.
A snarl rumbles in my chest as I pull a chair out and take a seat, the rest of my brothers taking my lead.
The Keep Chapter stand behind Dex once all the seats have been filled, and Roman lets Sasha sit, his bandaged arm still oozing blood.
Roman takes a stand behind his husband, a bratva soldier on either side of him and I have to say I’m impressed at the show we have put on.
Petrov has brass balls if he thinks he and an overweight driver are tough enough to stare down the barrel of the DRMC and the Bartashev Bratva and make demands.
“This is the kind of hospitality a man like me is used to,” Petrov says, doing his best to seem unaffected.
“You aren’t getting what you came for, Petrov,” Marx replies cooly.
“I have paid good money for that product.” Petrov says, leaning back in his chair ignoring the growls of the men surrounding him.
“Take that up with your business associates,” I growl, unable to hold my tongue after his comment. Bree and Addy and Kit and Laney and Bee are not fucking product. They are our babies, our daughters, our fucking family.
“I think we both know after today they will no longer be associates of mine.” Petrov assesses Marx for a moment. “I have a new organization I would like to work with.”
Joy
Pressing a kiss to Kit’s head I lay her back down into her bed and cover her up.
I came in to cuddle her when even more men came downstairs for treatment.
Watching Sage work on the man who broke her heart almost had me crying alongside her.
These women, these strong, fierce women are everything I wish to be and so much more.
In order to do that I need to get my butt out there and take care of them while they take care of the injured, not hide in here with my girl like a big scaredy cat.
Blowing out a breath I pull my shoulders back and walk into the main room.
“I have a new organization I would like to work with.”
My head snaps toward the sound and my gaze lands on surveillance of the dining room that Chewy has blown up big for everyone to watch. Petrov, the man who has bought my daughter, sits there like he doesn't have a care in the world as he outlines wanting the DRMC to work with him.
“Do you know, that this house is built in a very interesting way?” Chewy says, looking at something on her phone.
“In fact, there are no real walls. Everything is slightly open. See here?” She says, holding her phone up.
“If you were to stand here you’d get a full uninterrupted view of the dining room.
” Looking at her little screen, she’s right.
There are alcoves on either side of the dining room that aren't closed off, but instead are accessible from the rooms on either side of the dining room.
“When the house was first built it was just a shell. So we sort of lived in the house and put up partitions where we thought made sense. The kids loved it when they were little. Called all those little notches and gaps to rooms their ‘shortcuts’,” Momma says from where she’s sitting with Mama Debs.
Chewy stares thoughtfully at Momma before she murmurs something to herself. “I’ll be back.” She leaves the room before looping around and standing in the same spot she just left. “Unless you want to come?”
“Me?” I squeak out, pointing to my chest.
“Yeah you. Lovely, Loyal, you can come too if you want.” Chewy shrugs and offers no further explanation.
“Ooohh, a secret mission,” Mira whispers. “Alas, I shall stay here and care for my wounded soldier. I’ll be able to get into his psyche. I can feel a book coming on.” She rummages in her top and Tank rolls his eyes at the other injured men.
“Have fun! I’m not going anywhere, I’ve had enough fun for one day," Blanche cackles as she and the rest of the Ol Ladies all wave to us.
“Chewy, where are we going?”
“To get rid of a problem, Lovely.”