24. Brander
24
brANDER
“Daddy.” Alice presses her lips together, bracing for the worst. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough.” He strides into the family room looking like he wants to take a bite out of somebody.
Lifesaver looks like he’s first on the hit list.
Until Peter directs his gaze back toward Alice. She’s still frozen in the doorway. “What’s this? You’re pregnant with triplets?”
“Daddy, it was a joke.”
“Didn’t sound like one to me. Who’s the father, Alice?”
He glares at Levi, who simply shakes his head, looking like he wants to laugh.
Alice struggles to find words. “Daddy?—”
Peter’s cold stare settles on me now, realization dawning on his face.
Match too.
“You three? I expected this sort of thing from you two.” Now Lifesaver. “But you .” His eyes turn a kind of green I’ve never seen them go before. They’re not plant-green anymore, but supernatural. Like the Wicked Witch of the West if she were a guy. That’s what Peter looks like when he turns to face Lifesaver. “So much for a fucking friend.”
Curse words sound unfamiliar in his mouth.
I guess I should get used to hearing them.
He tenses his jaw. “So this is why she hasn’t been home?”
I stand up. “Sir, we’ve been protecting her. Everything about the Bratva is true, and Alice’s life is in danger, as well as your own.”
Levi, tucked away in the corner, hides his smile.
I feel like ripping his smug lips from his face with my bare hands.
“You should’ve kept quiet,” Match says, “about the Bratva elimination. It’s a good idea, don’t get me wrong, but this is all happening because you announced it to the world.”
This piques Levi’s interest for some reason.
And now it’s Match’s turn to experience Wicked Wizard of the West.
Peter’s eyes feel ready to pierce through my soul.
“You’ve got some lip.”
“And they’ve been on your daughter’s,” I hear Match say under his breath.
“You’ll pay for this, all of you.” Peter’s jaw quivers, mouth salivating with anger. “How dare you assault my daughter?” He opens the question to all three of us, then proceeds to shake his head at Levi. “And you? You’re supposed to be her fiancé.”
“And you’re supposed to be her father .” Levi extends his hands in question. “Which is why it makes no sense to me that you never really seemed to care about the wedding, or why it didn’t take place.”
If there’s one thing notable about Levi, it’s that he’s got our backs on Peter being a shit father.
Levi strolls over to the calendar hanging from a pin on the corner wall. I like to jazz mine up, go with alternating themes every year to make the first day of every month exciting. Clearly the days for Peter just all merge into one. A pictureless calendar hangs askew on the wall, most days scribbled in with something, probably work related. Levi extends his finger and moves it across the dates until?—
“Aha.” He turns back to Peter. “Nothing. You didn’t even put it in the calendar.”
This is not a good day for Alice. Her eyebrows part, and sadness wells in her eyes. They fill up with tears and subtly, when she thinks nobody’s looking, she wipes them away.
“This is a work calendar,” Peter says.
“Are personal events not important to you?”
Peter doesn’t respond and crosses the room to Alice to wrap an arm around her.
Alice shakes it off. Then she sniffs and looks away.
“Ali, I’m so sorry about?—”
“You killed Mom.”
Levi’s jaw drops.
Must be news to him.
“I know, baby, I know.” Peter repeats the phrase multiple times like he understands what he’s done, and I believe him—I know he knows he fucked up—but it’s too late. His relationship with his daughter will never be the same again.
“You’re pregnant?” Peter’s voice hardens. “Triplets?!”
“No.” Alice’s voice is tiny. “But I am pregnant.”
“Who?” His jaw tenses. “Tell me now.”
“Daddy—”
“Who, baby?” He stands with his hands on his hips, eyes switching between myself, Match, and Lifesaver.
I’d like to see him throw a punch.
I could throw one right now and end this fucking thing, but I see the way Alice looks at her father. Even on bad terms, her undying love for him surfaces behind her pain-stricken eyes. Right now they’re overcast, layers of sadness and pain and hurt clouding over them, but that doesn’t mean that the light has snapped out completely.
We can’t hurt her.
But Peter can hurt us . Cancel us in minutes. He has the entire population of Vegas on his side. What do we have…?
He knows better than to ruin us, though.
He needs us.
“All three of them,” Alice declares. Amusement lights up Levi’s eyes, but not enough to alleviate the dark circles under them.
“What?” Peter snaps around.
“Brander, Match, and Lifesaver,” Levi says gleefully. “It turns out your daughter enjoys multiple partners all at once, isn’t that right, Alice?” He flashes her a revengeful grin. He could’ve kept his crusty lips shut, but something tells me this has something to do with revenge—with Alice never being in love with him.
“What?!”
“Daddy, you don’t understand.
“No, baby, you don’t understand.” He faces her, eyes sharp. “I have been trying to protect you all my life from people like them. They kill and deceive and run their own, illegal business away from government control. Do you know how dangerous that is?”
“And do you know?” Alice says, “how it feels to be told that you murdered to get where you are today? Or how it feels to one day have your reality flipped on its head? To put your trust in someone and twenty-two years later find out they’re a bad person. You lied to me. You told me Mom’s death was random.”
He freezes for a moment.
And I know exactly what’s running through his head.
He could say that we were lying, that we planted these thoughts in Alice’s head to pin her against her father. It’d be easy too—he was in the delivery room when she was born, and our paths only crossed with the girl a few short weeks ago in a club when she was on route to being shit-faced.
Who’s more trustworthy?
He’s been there every step of the way.
We drunkenly married her and tattooed our names to her ass cheek one night.
But I see the hesitation in Peter’s eyes. He’s mulling it over in his head. Lying might get his daughter back, but it won’t keep her safe. The Russians still want him dead. If Levi has abandoned his attempts to kidnap her, the syndicate will just release another man for the job. One with no emotional ties who will complete the job immediately.
She’ll be back in the strip club again, three strings away from being naked.
Peter will have no choice but to take the Bratva elimination plan out of his campaign, because he will no longer have us on his side.
It’s laughable how much he hates our guts.
But he needs us.
“I know” are the only two words that come out of his mouth. He doesn’t even attempt to touch her, hands and feet to himself like someone has stuck him in the naughty corner. His fists tighten upon glancing at Lifesaver, and something pulls at his lip.
Talk about fucking deception.
Peter can’t even be that butthurt.
A few weeks of marriage, sex, and falling in love is nothing on the twelve years Peter has been lying to Alice for.
“So, what’s the verdict then?” I fold my arms over my chest. It’s getting dark and I have leftover lasagna in the refrigerator back home that my stomach is starting to churn for.
“There is no verdict,” says Levi. “Everything is fucked.”
Peter turns to Alice. “What happened between you and Levi, then?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she murmurs.
“Yes,” Peter says. “We have lots to talk about later.”
Can’t imagine how much it stings, knowing that your childhood best friend has stuck his dick inside of your daughter and potentially got her knocked up.
“Look.” Lifesaver stands up. God, he looks bad. Almost as beat as Levi. His tanned complexion is no more. It’s like somebody has coated him in white paint and glossed a layer of grease over the top. Sweat beads down his brow. Maybe he caught the flu at the hospital.
Or maybe the guilt has caught up.
“This isn’t what you think it is,” he says.
“You mean it’s not just sex?” Levi asks.
Fucking fantastic.
Peter tightens his fists.
I flash the boy daggers. The father might be off-limits, but that doesn’t mean the ex is exempt too. He might’ve performed well the other night in the parking lot issuing Match a black eye, but for a Bratva wannabe who’s spent most of his days living in virtual reality through a computer screen, I doubt he knows much about combat.
I could finish the boy in seconds.
“I love her,” Lifesaver says. “We all do.”
“Love?” scoffs Peter. “You guys don’t know the first thing about love.”
“Like you’re such an expert,” Match says. “Lying to your daughter for God knows h?—”
“Alright!” Lifesaver says.
Man, he has lost the fucking plot. Normally it’s him wiggling his eyebrows and telling me to pack it in.
“Let’s just put our grievances aside for now,” continues Lifesaver, “and come up with some sort of plan to save the two of you.”
Peter tenses his jaw. “Who said anything about me needing your assistance?”
“I think it’s pretty fucking obvious, man,” laughs Match.
He needs to watch his language. Agitating Peter any more won’t bode well for any of us here. He glares at Match with those wicked eyes again, then me even though I haven’t even opened my mouth. Fair play to the man. His talents don’t just lie in being able to please an entire city. He’s good at scaring people, and right now, I’m fucking terrified. Two black eyes and a very pissed off father was the consequence last time when I was caught with another man’s daughter, and although I’m off the hook a little bit in this instance—consequences are more dire for Lifesaver—the anxious feelings resurface because once again, I’m reminded I’m not good enough for somebody’s daughter.
Peter doesn’t tell me that, but I see it in his eyes. A spot of confusion hits them every time he glances at me. With Match and Lifesaver he gets it—they’re good-looking men with straight smiles and good hair. Me? I have mismatched eyes and a face that looks part rhino.
So I should prove myself.
Prove that I’m worthy.
“I don’t need anybody’s assistance,” Peter says.
Get over the enlarged ego already.
“Look, man,” Match says. “We’re gonna have to reach some kind of agreement here if you want Alice’s life saved, and your own. These people are not gonna stop until you stop the campaign.”
“No.” Peter shakes his head. “They need to be gone.”
“So, there’s only one way to get what you want,” Lifesaver says.
Alice catches Peter’s eye and they share this father-daughter look that seems to reason him out for the time being. The jaw untenses and he eye-rolls upon turning back to face Lifesaver.
“Alright,” he says, “but as soon as this is all over, consider yourselves dead to me. All three of you. Law, you especially.”
A curt nod from Lifesaver seals the deal.
He’s holding it together, I know it.
Peter isn’t just some friend that he stumbled upon one day while grocery shopping. He’s the friend that saved him from having the most dreadful junior high experience, it sounds like. Lifesaver was the biology nerd who probably played with model first aid kits during recess instead of joining in with tag, and Peter was the popular dude who got everyone to like him, since he’s apparently always been good with people.
Lifey calls himself Lifesaver, but I suppose all those years ago, it was really Peter that saved him .
He pinches the bridge of his nose and looks away.
We have a lot of proving ourselves to do.
Lifesaver especially.
So we need to hustle.
“I can help,” Levi says.
Great. Just what we need. Alice’s cheating ex proposing another shit idea.
Alice narrows her eyes like she’s curious to hear what he has to say. “Go on.”
“We murder Vlad.”
“I think that part’s pretty obvious,” Match says.
Levi points to himself and grins. “You need me.”
I roll my eyes. “And why the fuck is that?”
“Because I’m loyal to the Bratva. I can bluff him.”
Bluff and Bratva are two words that don’t belong in the same sentence, unless that sentence is describing failure.
“How do you intend to bluff him?” I say.
Peter swoops his head around, intrigued as to what this guy has got to say.
It won’t be much.
Levi clasps his hands together. “He thinks I want into the Bratva and, to be honest, I’ve made that all pretty clear.”
I narrow my eyes. “Why do you want to join them?”
“I don’t anymore. But I’m just saying. This could work. I can tell him that Alice and I are back together.”
It’s not exactly music to my ears.
But if it saves Alice…
“Alice,” continues Levi, “I need you back in that strip club.”
“I beg your pardon?” Peter says. “You will not be taking my Alice to that sort of place.”
Finally something Moody Mayor and I can agree on.
“We have to. It’s part of the plan.” Levi turns to Alice. “I tell Vlad that we’re back together, and that you want full-time employment at the strip club. We both?—”
“Hey, hey!” Peter raises his hand.
Levi continues, “We both say we want to work for them. He might deny me, but he knows better than to refuse you when you put five thousand dollars into their bank in an hour .”
“Fucking hell, Alice,” Match says.
Peter folds his arms. “I’m sorry. Can we go back to the part where my daughter stripped for Russians?”
“Yes,” Match says, “we can, actually. It was Russians that kidnapped her in the first place. In fact, one wannabe Slavic is in the room with us right now.” Match’s eyes wander over to Levi.
“Let’s not focus on that at present,” I say. “The point is, the same thing could happen again, or worse, if we don’t act. I’m not fond of the idea either”—I squint at Levi—“but heading straight for the root problem and killing Vlad will ensure Alice’s safety.” I turn to Peter. “Your life and reputation too.”
Peter unclenches his jaw.
“Okay, so, where was I?” Levi scratches his chin.
Allowing a child to take the lead in a plan irks me. The boy deserves punishment for disrespecting Alice and trying (and failing) to kidnap her multiple times, yet here he stands commanding attention.
I drop my eyes to the floor.
He doesn’t get the satisfaction of winning mine.
“You three.” Levi eyes us all. “Our assassins. This is where you come in. I’ll lure Vlad alone downstairs away from the main room in Ursula and Hook. He’ll be in a good mood with the money waterfall Alice will be generating, and then all three of you attack. Three against one.” He extends his hands as if to welcome compliments. “He won’t stand a chance.”
I keep my eyes glued to the floor. Narrow them. I want to contradict the guy for all the shit he’s caused, but the plan sounds half decent. It would work. Three against one.
Alice will need to be stripping, though.
Someone’s gonna have to tie up my hands as we enter the building.
My fists have a mind of their own when it comes to other men gawping at my girl.
Especially when she’s dancing in lingerie.
Such performances are supposed to be for our eyes only.
I look up at the other two and meet their same cautious expressions. Lifesaver furls his lip, but the consistent eye contact and subtle head nod tells me he’s in.
Match, hands scratching his arms I can tell, is currently struggling with his ego.
If he’s not gonna rise as spokesperson, someone’s gonna have to.
“No,” Peter says. He shakes his head. “Al will be going nowhere near a brothel.”
“It’s not a brothel,” Levi says.
“Yes.” I stand, feet firmly planted in the ground. “Let’s do it.” Shaking off the death glare from Peter, I open my mouth and continue, “The sooner, the better. We take action tomorrow night. Alice?” I turn to her. “Are you okay with all this? If you say no, we’ll think of something else.”
“Yes, I can do it,” she says firmly.
Peter goes white.
“Okay then.” Match claps his hands. “Let’s do this.”
Peter walks into the living room looking lost, like he’s in a stranger’s home. His green eyes cut to Lifesaver. “Out.” Then to Levi and the rest of us. “All of you except Alice, before I change my mind.”
“Actually, that’s another thing.” Lifesaver stalls in the doorway. “I don’t think Alice is best here in the meantime. Russians know this area like the back of their hands. If they want to hunt Alice down, this place will be second on the list after the hospital. She’ll be safer at Brander’s place. It’s off the grid.”
“And let me guess? You two will be there too?” Peter says.
“To protect her,” Match says.
Peter kicks his feet against the floor, mouth opening and closing like he’s trying to find the right words. It’s like Sophie’s Choice.
“Fine.” He screws his lips into a ball. “Just for tonight.” He turns to Alice. “Tomorrow, baby, when this is all over, we have some talking to do. We can look at getting you an abortion.”