Chapter 25 Stan #2
“You think a bunch of rich dicks are using the Albanians as a front?”
“I don’t think. I know. The Favaros were management. The Albanians are feet on the ground and their ties to Eastern Europe…” Luc shook his head. “Their trafficking links are extensive.
“These rich assholes are using their product. They came to power under our watch. They’re a problem we need to solve, Aidan.” When the other man turned his back on Luciu, my brother cleared his throat and changed tacks. “Did you know Graham Brackton’s dead?”
“Yes. Star informed me he was a Dead To Me target,” O’Donnelly prevaricated.
“You’ve heard of the ledger, I presume?”
For some reason, that had Aurora shuffling on her seat.
“Of course, I have. It’s Tinder for assassins and their clientele.”
“Hunter runs the ledger. Brackton’s name was on it.”
Aurora shifted again. I turned to her with a frown, but she wafted a hand at me. “This baby is destroying my spine.”
“‘The Don of the Camorra’ Hunter?”
“One and the same.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because the kill order came from inside the US.” Luciu released a heavy sigh. “Despite his lauded principles, Graham Brackton was an asshole with a penchant for screwing high-class hookers.” When O’Donnelly’s brows lifted, Luc steamrolled ahead. “He used our stable.”
“Why?”
“Because he trusted us and had since the early days.”
“How foolish of him.”
“Or smart. We never gave away his secret.”
“Only in death.”
“And shared it with a select few I trust.”
“Which is why you’re telling me now, and not when we meet with the Triads and The Forgotten Boys at the Summit?”
“Precisely. We had a brothel in Vegas once upon a time—”
“The Camorra or the Cosa Nostra?”
“Cosa Nostra. Admittedly, the location was purchased with Hunter’s help.”
“You two are such assholes. Getting him involved with that shit on his grandad’s turf.”
“Like you didn’t already know Hunter must have helped us pick that location, Rory.”
“You’re still pricks.”
“To worm my way into power, we had to shed this particular brothel, but it was business as usual for him. Brackton stopped visiting Vegas and instead headed into NYC to avail of our services.”
Leaning against the fender, O’Donnelly crossed his feet at the ankles. “What does this have to do with me?”
“Because I mean it when I say Brackton trusted us. He trusted the girls. He trusted we’d keep his custom locked up nice and tight, and he was right, until he was wrong.
“A blogger somehow picked up the story, but it went under the radar outside of conspiracy whackjobs. The night he died, President Devere and a Canadian billionaire called Clyde Korhonen visited Brackton’s penthouse in the city.
Our hooker witnessed the meeting. She was later killed.
The ledger didn’t arrange her hit. Nor did the perps make it look like an accident. ”
“You think they… the Albanians targeted her?”
“Considering the conversation she overheard, it’s likely. Whether it’s the Albanians or Devere and his ilk is something that requires further investigation. Personally, I think the Albanians are working for Devere, but you can posit your own theories once you’re apprised of all the facts.”
O’Donnelly straightened. “And what, precisely, did she overhear?”
“Aidan, Devere, Brackton, and Korhonen were aware of your plans. Our hooker said that they were unhappy with the idea of a sitting president having a mob-adjacent father—”
“Declan won’t be when my nephew’s in the Oval Office,” O’Donnelly reasoned.
I barked out a laugh. “Have to admire his audacity.”
“Don’t be pedantic. You know what I’m saying.” Luc pointed to the thumb drive. “Like I said, our escort overheard this discussion and told Rory about it. She also showed us a picture she’d taken. That’s on the USB, too.
“In the run-up to his death, the pair of them had argued over the hookers Devere and Korhonen brought with them for their ‘parties.’ They were underage girls. We’ve come to learn that the Albanians managed a brothel in Nolita, with Italian and Russian investors, that ran children for whale spenders. ”
“Sons of bitches,” O’Donnelly snarled. “What kinds of pictures are on here? The last thing I want to see is child porn.”
“How did I Told You So access those images?” I wondered out loud.
Rory shuffled in her seat. Again.
“The men with their respective partners and their dead bodies—”
“They killed the other hookers… the children, too?!”
“Yes. Ours died in a pileup. The other two weren’t American and had no papers. One of Rory’s people found them dumped in an alley. We had to push the NYPD for an investigation.
“We also documented the stable from the Nolita brothel as well as other warehouses they had tucked away in the city.”
“All underage, Luciu?”
O’Donnelly might have been a cold motherfucker, but even he appeared distressed by the prospect.
“Rory’s conferred with Rachel Laker on their situation. She’s helping them through the immigration process and has ways, via her charitable foundations, to get them the support they need. We have them holed up in one of our brothels—”
“You’re working them?!”
“Of course not,” our brother barked. “But they need places to sleep and eat and recuperate, dammit!”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply…” O’Donnelly rubbed the back of his neck as Luc grunted. “This is a mess.”
Because I felt the Five Points’ leader’s exasperation, I asked Rory, “You sure about sharing this?”
“Facts don’t lie.”
“I meant, shouldn’t we keep this in-house?”
“This is a city-wide issue. No one knew what the Albanians were running, and we need to stamp this bullshit out. We made an accord—our skin trade would never involve minors. We’ve enforced that in the two-bit gangs neighboring our turfs and stamped it out.
If we want all the factions to agree to declaring war on the Albanians, we had to share it. ”
“How did Hunter even access this information?”
“Ask him. I’m not a search engine.”
“In the offices, we found a list of regulars. That’s on the USB as well. This isn’t something we can sweep under the rug, Aidan. You must have heard about the attack on Dead To Me in Cancún.
“The Lobos Rojos have confirmed she was targeted by Albanians, so we can assume Devere and his cronies wanted to take out the person behind Brackton’s shooting—”
“Why you?”
“What?”
“Why did the Lobos Rojos contact you?”
It was my turn to fidget.
Rory’s expression turned glacial—she hadn’t appreciated finding out about my trip to Mexico via Luciu.
Some best friend, ratting me out to our sister like that.
“We’re allies.”
“I also heard that one of my captain’s siblings was kidnapped because of you,” O’Donnelly countered coolly.
“We were on the brink of informing you before we retrieved her. Then it was all hands on deck.”
“You should have told me anyway.” For the first time, that O’Donnelly temper sounded as if it had been sparked.
“You think the type of mess I just shared cleans itself up, Aidan? I was going to discuss it as soon as I had a chance, but this is more important.”
“This is nothing.”
“What if it isn’t?” Luciu asserted.
“If Brackton’s dead then—”
“What do you know about Anastasia Brackton?”
O’Donnelly frowned. “There isn’t much to know. They married six months after his first wife passed away in a car crash. She’s the mother of his heir.”
“She’s Russian. Her family name was Voronova.”
I turned to Rory. “This sounds like new intel. Why wasn’t I informed, dammit?”
She didn’t look up from her phone. “Passed it on earlier. Not my fault you were more interested in bitching about this meeting than learning what I’d found out.”
While I growled, Luc continued, “Voronov, of course, being the last name of the current Krestniy Otets—”
“They’re related?” At my brother’s nod, he hissed. “How the fuck did you find this out?”
“Aurora’s homeless network. They recognized Anastasia Brackton from the streets from way back when. She lived in poverty after arriving in the States. Still, somehow, Brackton, a man with an addiction for prostitutes, came across her.”
“She’s a plant.”
“Perhaps. She may have fled her family back in Moscow. We don’t know for sure. When she arrived here, she whored herself out, then she married a billionaire—that’s a massive leap.”
O’Donnelly cracked his knuckles. “Men will go to crazy lengths for a male heir. If she got pregnant while things were transitory, and the DNA backed it up, that could have accelerated the issue.”
Luc grimaced. “Fair point. His brat’s age would fit the timeline. If the Krestniy Otets has her ear or they’re close relations—”
“Fuck!”
“We tortured the man who kidnapped Kitty. He claimed that the Albanians and Italians were the front. But are you telling me the Bratva doesn’t have their claws dug in here somewhere?
If not, then whoever is behind the Albanians?
” Luc shook his head. “The money involved… it’s more than either group could handle on their own.
“This is more organized than you think, Aidan. You’re not the only one holding the strings. Something’s going down. You know it must be bad for Dead To Me to burn her alias.”
O’Donnelly pursed his lips.
“Someone like her doesn’t pull that kind of stunt for shits and giggles.”
“No.” O’Donnelly fell silent before he tucked the USB drive into his pocket. “Thank you for this. I assume the contents are new to Star?”
“Yes. The bulk of it. At least, Hunter believes so.”
“Good.”
“Aidan? Anastasia Brackton paid for the hit on her husband.”
The other man stilled. “The US-based hit?”
“Se.”
My brother let O’Donnelly process that info in silence. Eventually, he stated, “I’d heard the Bracktons were divorcing prior to his visit to a mortuary.”
“From whom?”
“That damn blogger—”
“I Told You So? They’re a problem.”
“You know who I’m talking about? Conor’s a fan.”
“I’m not. I’ve had Hunter trying to doxx her for months but no joy yet. As for the wife, we found out that there was a crippling prenup.”
“Making it more likely she paid for a hit.”
“Perhaps.”