Chapter 61
Chapter Sixty-One
Killain
Day three of no sleep. My body aches and my mind is restless.
When I get to the clubhouse, Tommy is standing by the front doors outside. He’s got a cigarette between his fingers, his glare menacing. There’s a new cut down the side of his face, jagged, likely from a blade that wasn’t sharp enough.
“What happened to you?” I ask, nodding to the cut.
“Nico Vidalia came around here looking for you. Fucking prick tried to get inside the club. I told him to wait outside. He threatened me. Knives were pulled. He’s tied up and waiting for you now.”
“Fucking perfect,” I mutter under my breath, pushing my way into the club and heading to the conference room. Sure enough, there’s Nico Vidalia strapped to a chair, looking furious.
“Well, finally he arrives.” Nico shakes his head, his tongue running over his teeth. “Your men ever heard of hospitality?”
I go and let him free. “They didn’t know who you were or what you wanted, and with the trouble that’s plaguing this city right now, my men act the way they should.
You don’t just come walking onto another person’s territory like you own it and demand to see them.
I don’t know how you do things overseas, but here there’s a certain level of respect to follow, and you would do well to remember that going forward. ”
“Everyone is uptight around here.”
“You think it’s smart coming around here,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “Figured you’d lay low, do what you need, and then leave the rest to me.”
“You’re not going to share your master plan? I thought we were friends.”
“Can’t keep a master plan if too many people know it.”
“I like working together. Romani people helping one another. Hopefully it will become an ongoing habit.” He gives me a sick grin, clapping me on the shoulder and striding out of the clubhouse.
Something about him always rubs me the wrong way. And someone like him always has something up their sleeve. Romani like to stick together until there’s something better lurking around the corner.
Tommy and Donal step into the room as soon as Nico’s gone.
“He’s worse than I thought,” Donal states, sinking down into the chair, cracking open a bottle of beer.
“We have eyes on him?” I ask.
“We do now,” Tommy replies as he hands me an open beer.
“Good,” I shoot back. “He’s working with the Russians.”
“How do you know?” Donal furrows his brows.
“A hunch.” I chug the beer.
That’s what I would do. I’d strike an offer too good to pass up. Then it hits me. Nico knew about what was going on here before I even bought Lily—before this mess happened.
“Shit,” I slam the empty beer bottle on the table.
“What?” Donal furrows his brows again.
“He’s been working with them all along.” I lean back in the chair. “Fuck.”
“Who is this fucker?”
“Remember the night you drove me and my insurance policy away from that abandoned building? He’s the man I bought her from.
I didn’t understand his obsession with having her or why me having her pissed him off that badly.
Now the pieces are falling together.” I look to him to see if he’s on the same page.
He nods. “He wasn’t trying to buy her for himself. He wanted her for someone else. The Russians. But why would the Russians not just take her themselves? Why drag someone from another continent, kidnap her, sell her off, just to come back?”
“Because Alessio had to be working with them first.” I shoot back. “Or they were trying to do the same as we did—save her and then hold her as leverage.”
“All seems a bit too much work,” Donal replies. “And a waste of money. Alessio has a baby about to pop any day now. Why not take her or the baby? That will get Alessio’s attention.”
“That’s where I’m stuck on too. At the very least, have both women hostage. That’s a big insurance policy.”
Then Donal blurts out with a laugh. “Unless the baby isn’t his and the Russians know it.”
It came out as a joke at first, but then we exchange a look as though he just put together the missing puzzle piece.
“The baby isn’t his,” we conclude together, both in a moment of silence as our brains wrap around what is a crazy yet plausible scenario.
“We don’t follow Nico. We follow the pregnant woman,” I finally say. “Find out everything about her. Have someone keep eyes on her. She’s the key to this. If she has any dealings with the Russians for whatever reason, she’ll be the one giving the Russians intel.”
He lets out a sigh. “Okay, but this doesn’t explain how Nico’s men are sneaking into our city.”
“Just make sure we have eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Do you have any further doubts about me, Killian?”
I smile. “I never doubted you, Donal. You were just a test.”
“A test means you doubted me.”
I laugh. “Oh no. I wasn’t the one who doubted you.”
“Then who?!”
“Your wife.”