Chapter 6
ALEK
Isit down across from Andrei and wait for the meeting to start. The screen pops up, and there is Gray. It’s been over a month since I last saw him. I’ve officially been made a full partner in the Lucky Dice Casino. I’m aware Jimmy Duncan was killed in July. I don’t know who did it or why, and I don’t really care. As long as he’s gone, I’m okay with that.
The hacker messed up recently, and I’ve discovered a way to catch them. On the next screen is Pakhan Vladimir. He’s involved because the Russian Cardroom has also been hacked and had some issues.
“Okay, this is what we have so far. Tell them, Dmitri,” Andrei says.
“Lyric and Ainsley Duncan are Jimmy Duncan’s daughters. He had an affair with Clare before she was with Bronwyn, making them Lennon’s half siblings. Lyric is the hacker. Ainsley hires all the help. They talked Lennon into giving them the money to cover the costs. It started out as a revenge scheme against the men who sleep around and father kids but don’t care for them.”
“They are all against the family,” Vladimir says.
“Pakhan, I understand that, but Lennon is mine. She is becoming my wife, and I will pay penance. As for why they targeted the Lucky Dice, it was because Duncan told them Gray stole it from him,” Dmitri continues.
“But I didn’t.” Gray jumps in.
“I know. Lennon knows that now. She said she hasn’t been giving them money since Bronwyn cut her off.”
“Alek, we have something we want you to look at. It will explain why we took the action we did with Duncan. It needed to end,” Andrei says as Mikhail slides a flash drive over to me. I slip it into my pocket.
“I had to,” he says softly, but his voice is gruff and full of emotion, something he very rarely shows.
I’m sure I know what this is about. For years, we’ve suspected that Duncan was associated with the murder of my father. But could he have had something to do with Mikhail’s parents too?
We continue our meeting, sharing our thoughts about what Lennon and her sisters did. They are now wanted by the other organized crime families, not just for the hacking, but for creating the issues with the runners on opposing family properties. It’s as if they wanted a war to start between all of us. There is still a possibility it could happen. Every day is a battle to not go to war with the gangs trying to get into the gambling game too.
“This hacker, Lyric, hasn’t done any major damage, but the sister did by hiring the runners and making the complaints to the commission,” I tell them.
“Get them under control. I have to go,” Vladimir hangs up.
“I have a plan to catch this hacker. When we get her, I want to talk to her first,” I tell them. I’m fairly certain it’s my woman, and I’m going to pull a Dmitri and protect her if I can.
“Okay, let’s get ready for this wedding,” Andrei states, and we all stand up, except for Gray, who disconnects his call.
Hours later, I watch as one of my closest friends, a man like a brother to me, marries the woman he’s claimed. Lennon and he are very happy. When they look at each other, you can see the love they share. Their marriage might have started out for convenience to protect her, but it’s real. We all laugh when he throws her over his shoulder and takes off across the street to his home.
I head to mine, walking up around the corner to the next block, where my large house stands facing the Strip in the distance. I see the lights and wonder if Lyric is out there. Wonder what she’s doing, and if she’s moved on from me. I took her virginity, so that makes her mine.
I walk up to the gates and punch in the passcode to enter. I left the lights on so that Rurik, my dog, would know I was coming back. I also made sure the dog sitter knew I would be home for the weekend. I left our casino manager in charge. Plus, I have direct links to the security floor and cameras in my office.
As soon as I unlock the door and open it, Rurik is on me. He sniffs my legs and circles them. He’s been my companion for a couple of years now. After losing my parents like I did, and with the way I thought my life was headed, I wanted someone loyal to me. So I got Rurik. He is loyal, but he doesn’t warm my bed at night. That’s why I joined the club.
Rurik follows me to my bedroom, where I change into a pair of loose-fitting sweatpants and a nerdy T-shirt. People don’t see me like this, the real me. The man I want to be. Instead, I always project the clean-cut, suited up man. It’s how my father raised me before he died. He said how a man dressed projected how he wanted to be treated. So I dress in custom suits, showing a power I don’t always possess. Someday my woman will see me as I am.
Relaxed.
I make my way to my home office and my large desk. I look at the bank of monitors with feeds for the hotel. Everything seems to be going well with no issues. Mikhail is conducting deep dives into Lyric and Ainsley. They didn’t give me pictures of them, but I can imagine what my Lyric looks like as I dream of her every night.
I pull up the footage of the person using my badges and realize it could be her. She somehow padded herself under the uniform. She constantly keeps her head down and her hair covered. I notice her delicate fingers as she swipes the badge. She walks down the hallway, and I watch her play with something on her wrist before the cameras in the hall start acting up. I know she interfered with them so that when she got to the server room we wouldn’t see her using my thumbprint. But we recovered the footage. I’m sure she got my print from the glass I drank from that night. I remembered afterward that it was missing too.
I watch the video on a loop, trying to see if I missed anything. It took me months, and I had to do it myself, but I found the backdoor she installed. I had to physically go through each server and unplug each extra box. Our technicians had just touched each and then would look for our brandings or marking on them. She did her homework and was very thorough. It’s why Gray wants me to discuss her working for us. I don’t know if I can have my girl that close to everyone else and be okay with it. I want to tie her to my bed and never let her go.
The flash drive sits on my desk, and a small part of me doesn’t want to see it. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to open that wound again. I can’t. The last time it almost destroyed me. I send a quick text to the one person who can drag me out of my funk.
Me
I don’t want to know what’s on the flash drive.
G
I’ll call you back.
It’s one in the morning on the East Coast, but he’s still willing to be there for me.
The phone rings, and I don’t have to look to know who it is.
“Hello.” My accent is so thick right now.
“Hey, brat.” He calls me brother in Russian. “Let me video call you, and we can watch it together.”
“What about Erika?” Again, my accent is strong, but I can’t control it.
“She’s sleeping. It will be okay. I’m here for you.”
“Why?” I’ve always wondered this. Yes, we are friends, but he could have abandoned me, just like my father’s family did. My mother’s family was already gone.
“We are family.”
I accept his video call request without further comment.
“Load it up. I don’t have all night.” He jokes, but I know he’s serious too.
“I heard it’s a girl,” I say, commenting on his wife’s pregnancy. “How are you going to handle that?”
“I’m screwed. God is laughing down at me for being the punk I was with girls growing up. Fuck, I not only need to get another soldier from Andrei but also have Ley’s team on retainer all the time.”
I can’t stop the laugh that bursts from my chest. For the first time in my life, I want that. I want to know my baby is in my woman’s belly. That my life is going to go on. It hits me like a ton of bricks. A pain in my chest.
I need to find her.
“It only took one look at Erika for you to know?”
He chuckles. “Yeah. You think it’s happened to you, brat?”
“The woman who stole my badges.”
“Holy shit. That’s why you didn’t want me to go after her. She’s the hacker, isn’t she?” He pauses for a moment. “This is fucking hilarious. Your girl is giving you a run for your money.” He laughs hard and loud.
“What are you two laughing about down here?” Erika steps into frame behind him. Her voice is soft, carrying a hint of sleepiness.
“He’s the one laughing, not me,” I grumble.
“You started it with the girl talk.” Gray tries to deflect. “Okay, princess, I need to watch something with Alek. You go up to bed and relax. I’ll be up shortly.” He kisses her and rubs her growing belly.
“Night, Aleksei. Miss you.” She blows me a kiss.
“Hey, princess, don’t make me spank you,” Gray growls at her as he swats her butt. I turn away from the screen because I don’t want to intrude on their moment. “Only I get your kisses,” he tells her.
“Hey, hey, I don’t want your woman.” I defend myself.
A few seconds later, he coughs to get my attention. “Ready?”
“Yeah, let’s do this.” I’m glad for his and Erika’s distraction, but I hate that I’m going to taint the moment with this.
I click the link after I upload the flash drive onto my computer. A grainy image of Jimmy Duncan pops up on the screen. He’s disheveled and bleeding. I notice he’s missing fingers on his hands, and when the camera pans out, I see the damage to his legs and feet. He’s been worked over good.
“What did you do to earn the Irish’s trust?” the brigadier asks.
“I d-didn’t just have the I-I-Irish’s trust,” Duncan stutters.
“Who else?”
“B-B-Barone too.”
“What did you do for him?”
“Hits.” The word drops like a bomb. “N-Not like Bronwyn.”
“How so?”
He coughs and blood drips from his mouth. A sinister smile spreads across his face. “I’d hire thugs to do it.”
“Who did you take out?”
“Belyaev.” He takes a deep breath. “I hired an Irish soldier for the war, but Barone’s man wanted it done, something about no Russian dog was going to lay with a good Italian girl.” He coughs again. “Sokolov because he was getting too close to me. Killed him myself.” He laughs. “Wife was a hot piece of ass.”
The brigadier is pushed aside, and Mikhail is standing there. The camera goes black, and a gunshot rings out before the video ends. There's no proof of who shot him, but I know who did it.
“Your father was killed because of one of Barone’s men?” Gray says.
For years, I’ve heard the rumors about my father falling for an Italian woman, but I didn’t know if they were true. I try to focus on some of my last moments with him, but they are jumbled with the anger I feel.
“But which one?” I answer Gray.
“Take some time, brat, you’ll figure it out.”
“Okay.” We talk a bit more about the casino and then hang up.
I head downstairs to my bar, where I pour a generous glass of vodka before I step out the back. I opened all the sliders before I went up to my office. The cool November night invades the house. The pool is calm, with lights reflecting in it. I look out over the desert toward the Strip as I sip my drink. Memories flash through my mind of my father happy. A dark-haired, olive-skinned woman is in our kitchen. She was beautiful, younger than him, but not too young.