Chapter 6 Valeri #3
“I just met her a few days ago, and she knows nothing about the Medvedev family.” I groan and lean against their island.
“I asked her where she wanted me to take her for her birthday, and she mentioned that she’s never been to Inferno.
I could tell she really wanted to go, and I couldn’t say no.
” I groan and ignore their amused faces. “What the hell am I going to do?”
“Invite us to come along so we can help,” Nina says, making Vasily laugh.
“You see what a smart woman I married?” He kisses her cheek, and I have to remind myself that this is the same brother I’ve seen gut a man on more than one occasion.
“She is very smart,” I agree, “but don’t you think it might freak Evie out to be bombarded by everyone?”
“We can be subtle,” Nina assures me.
“Since when?”
She laughs and smacks my arm. “I’m serious. We’ll just be there, with Volodya and Maddie of course.”
“Of course,” I say around a mouthful of food.
She ignores my sarcasm. “And we’ll just happen to run into you. I swear we won’t be invasive. We’ll give you your space. Won’t we?” She tilts her head to look up at Vasily.
He gives her a big smile and kisses her. “Absolutely.”
She doesn’t see the shit-eating grin he gives me.
My brothers have been teasing me about finding someone.
I admit I’ve given them hell about turning into big softies for their wives, but the truth is I love my sisters-in-law, and I’m thrilled they’re so happy.
I’m about to eat a huge fucking slice of humble pie, though, and I oddly don’t give a fuck.
“Hurry up and eat that,” Vasily says. “We need to get going.”
I shovel in the last of the food, putting my plate in the sink as I holler out in Russian, “Dmitri, come give me a hug goodbye!”
He comes running back to me with Ruslan right behind him. His hands are filled with building blocks, and the big smile on his face is infectious. I love being an uncle. I scoop him up again and tell him I love him and that I’ll be back to see him again soon.
“Maybe he’ll bring a friend next time,” Nina says, because her Russian is really getting damn good.
Vasily laughs and smacks her ass before lifting her up in a big hug.
I turn my back on them to give them some privacy and walk with Dmitri into the other room.
He shows me what he’s making with his blocks, and when his parents walk in a few minutes later, Nina’s hair is messed up and she’s as red as Evie gets. Vasily just looks smug.
“That’s fast even for you,” I tell him and then laugh at the look he gives me.
“Keep it up, little brother. You’re going to need my help Friday night to run interference.”
He’s not wrong. I’ve picked up a lot of women at that club, and my hope is that they’ll all stay home this weekend. I should’ve told Evie I’d take her somewhere else, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her no. Hopefully that won’t come back to bite me in the ass.
After we say our goodbyes, I follow Vasily down to his boathouse.
The sun has already set by the time we get on his boat and he steers us further out, but there’s still enough light for me to see the stretch of beach that I took Evie to.
The memory of her grinding against my cock makes my damn mouth water.
I’m going to have to rethink this whole no masturbation thing.
“I’m glad you met someone,” Vasily says, speeding the boat up while I sit in one of the chairs and stretch my legs out.
“Her dad hits her, and I’m going to have to kill him at some point.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. Nina wouldn’t let me kill her dad, even though I still say the bastard deserved it.”
“I have to ask permission?”
He laughs. “I’m just saying that she may never forgive you if you kill him. You can always hurt him, though. That’ll make you feel a little bit better.”
“Well, I’m definitely getting her the fuck out of there as soon as I think she’ll let me. Her dad is an abusive drunk, and his friend is a pervert who likes to hit on her. The only reason she’s still there is because I don’t want to terrify her by kidnapping her and bringing her to my place.”
“It worked for Volodya,” he says with a laugh.
“True.”
“Just don’t do anything crazy, and if you do decide to take him out, bring one of us with you.”
“I know I’m the youngest, but you’ve got to stop worrying about me so damn much.”
He smiles and ruffles my hair like he used to do when we were little. “Never going to happen, little brother.”
I find it impossible to be angry at my brothers, and they take full advantage of it. I do push his hand away, though, even if I am smiling when I do it.
“So tell me what’s going on tonight.”
“Volodya and some of the other guys are already there, watching for the shipment, and we have shooters on the rooftops to make sure no one else decides to join us.”
“Still no idea who it was that interfered?”
“Not yet.”
When we get closer to the docks, an old, rundown part of the city where you’re more likely to get stabbed in one of the back alleys than make it out unscathed, a wave of déjà vu hits me.
This is almost the exact same spot where I was shot last year.
Vasily slows the boat down, letting us drift closer as we both scan the area.
Most of the lights aren’t working, but there’s still enough of them to allow us to see the crates that are being unloaded from the one and only docked boat.
Vasily checks his phone. “Volodya’s men are unloading the shipment. He says everything looks good so far.”
Grabbing a pair of night vision binoculars, I scan the water around us, making sure there aren’t any other boats creeping around.
The water is clear, so I turn my attention back to land.
The boat is nearly unloaded, and as soon as it’s empty, I watch Volodya hand the dealer a large duffel bag stuffed full of money.
Once the boat leaves, I see movement near one of the vacant buildings on the right.
“Right side,” I tell Vasily. “Two men sneaking around the building.”
“Fuck,” Vasily growls, sending the message to Volodya as he steers us to the dock. As soon as we’re close enough, he tosses the rope to Ilya, who quickly ties us off. We step onto the dock as Volodya and his men take off running.
Grabbing my gun, I follow after them with Vasily right behind me while the others start piling the new weapons into the three black SUVs we have parked and ready to go.
Racing around the corner, I stop short when I see Volodya with a man pressed up against the building and a knife at his throat.
I recognize the blade. It’s a painful-looking thing with a serrated edge—my brother’s favorite and one I’ve seen him use to end many lives.
This sorry bastard is about to add his name to the list.
“The other guy took off,” Volodya says. “Nikolai and Oleg went after him.”
As if on cue, I see movement further down and soon they’re walking up with a man between them. His hands are already tied behind his back.
Vasily walks up to him as Oleg and Nikolai stop, letting the man fall to his knees. “Anyone else here tonight?”
“No, just us,” the man on the ground says. He’s trying to act like he’s not scared, but he definitely is. His wide eyes dart around, and he keeps looking at the blade pressed to his friend’s throat.
Vasily calls one of the shooters on the roof and asks him in Russian what’s going on. After he hangs up, he tells us that Volodya started running after them right as they were spotted and that there were only two men. Switching to English, he asks, “Who do you work for?”
“We don’t work for anyone,” the guy says like a real dumbass. “We were just coming down here to buy some drugs.”
The only person surprised when my brother pulls his gun out is the idiot on his knees.
The shot is quiet since he’s using a silencer, but even if it had been loud, no one in this part of the city is going to be calling the cops.
The guy against the wall groans when he looks over and sees the large hole in his friend’s head.
“Fuck, man,” he says in a shaky voice. “He was telling the truth.”
I laugh and shake my head at his stupidity. “We only need one of you to torture for information,” I explain to him because the guy obviously needs some help. “Unfortunately for you, you’re the only one left. This will go a lot easier for you if you start telling the truth.”
Oleg and Nikolai drag the body off to dump it in the ocean while I walk over to tie up the man’s hands. His neck is bloody because Volodya keeps his knives really fucking sharp, but it’s a superficial wound, and he won’t be dying anytime soon, no matter how much he may wish it.
“Heard about your girl,” Volodya says in Russian. “I’m looking forward to meeting her tomorrow night. Maddie’s going to be so excited.”
I look over at a grinning Vasily. “You two are like a couple of gossiping old ladies.”
They both laugh while the guy with his hands tied looks at us like we’re a bunch of psychos.
He’s not completely wrong. We drag him into the empty building and get to work.
Turns out they weren’t just there to buy drugs.
Evidently we have a motorcycle gang who thought it would be a good idea to steal some of our weapons.
I smack the bloody, beaten face to try and wake him back up. “Stay with me, John,” I tell him. “You can’t die just yet. You still haven’t told us where we can find them.”
He moans something incoherent as blood bubbles up from his mouth and then his whole body tenses.
“Fuck,” I say. “He’s having a heart attack.”
“Goddamn it,” Volodya mutters, pulling his knife from John’s thigh, but the man is too far gone to even feel it.
“I should’ve let the other guy live. It’s hard to detect a weak heart, though,” Vasily says in his own defense. “He’d looked healthy enough.”
“People don’t do enough cardio nowadays,” I say. “You gotta keep that heart healthy.”
When we drag him out, it’s after midnight, and all I can think about is Evie.
I wonder what she’s doing right now, and I decide on the spot that I’m going to pay her a surprise visit at the library.
A couple of the guys take the body from us to go weigh it down and dump it.
Looking down, I see blood on my hands and arms, but there’s just a little bit of blood splatter on my clothes, very easy to miss if you’re not looking for it.
I walk to the docks and lean down so I can scrub the blood off me.
When it’s washed off, I stand back up and face them, shaking my arms to get the water off.
“You can’t tell I just tortured a guy, right?”
My brothers look at me and laugh. “You’re going to have to tell her what you do,” Volodya says.
“I will, but not tonight.”
“Don’t wait too long before you spring it on her,” Vasily warns. “The sooner you know if she can handle it, the better.”
“She can handle it,” I tell them. I don’t add that she has no choice because I’m not letting her go. She’ll learn to be okay with it. She’ll have to.
Ilya and Nikolai take the boat back with Vasily while Volodya drives me back to get my car.
His ‘69 cherry-red Camaro is in pristine condition, and he laughs as he speeds down the road. Once on the highway, he weaves through traffic, getting us back to Vasily’s in record time.
Before he drops me off, he smacks my shoulder and says, “See you tomorrow night.”
“Don’t make me regret telling you.”
“You didn’t tell me, you little shit. I had to hear it first from Ilya and Nikolai and then from Vasily.” He raises a dark brow at me. “You might want to tell me something no one else knows before I start feeling left out.”
I sigh because even though he’s joking, there’s some truth to it. We’ve always been close, and I would have told my brothers about her myself if we hadn’t been ambushed at the diner.
“She works at the downtown library. She’s a night janitor.”
“She’s a hard worker,” he says, and I can hear the approval in his voice. “Marry her, Valeri.”
I laugh, but he doesn’t join in. “I’m being fucking serious. Is she sweet?”
“Very.”
“She’s nice and willing to work a job that most women would turn their noses up at, and she’s managed to catch your eye and keep it for longer than an hour. Remember how you told me Maddie was the woman for me because she was still breathing after being in my company for more than a day?”
“Yes,” I say with a laugh. “I still stand by that.”
“Yeah, well it’s the same thing with Evie. Women don’t make an impression on you. They never have. You fuck them and forget them. It’s been that way since your fucking balls dropped. This girl has, though. That means something.”
“Yeah, I know,” I tell him, opening the car door. “I’m going to go sneak into her work and see her.”
He laughs and drives off with a wave. I make a quick stop to grab a bouquet of pink roses from an all-night store and then head straight for the library.
It’s surprisingly easy to sneak into, and I add that to the list of reasons of why she needs to quit this job.
I’m just hitting the main area when I look over and see an older man watching me.
“You must be Jerry,” I say, giving him a friendly smile.
His eyes run over my tattoos and the roses I’m holding as he steps closer. “You must be the reason Evie is coming into work smiling.”
“I’m Valeri,” I say, holding out my hand. “And I’m glad she’s smiling.”
“Evie’s a good kid and one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met,” he says, pointing a finger at me. “And you may be younger and in way better shape than me, but I promise I will find a way to kill you if you hurt her.”
I smile at him and nod my head. Jerry is the only man to threaten my life and live to tell about it, but he’ll never know that. “She’s lucky to have you as a friend, and I will never hurt her, so you don’t need to worry about trying to kill me.”
He studies me for a second before deciding I’m telling the truth. Going back to his mop, he says, “She’s on the second floor tonight.”
“Thanks, Jerry,” I say, already walking to the stairs. I take them two at a time, eager to see my girl again.