Chapter 10
LYRIC
The sun glints off my ring, and I can’t stop staring at it. My hands fidget with the necklace he also gave me. He married me to save me. He told me I was his. But he never told me he loved me. He says he’ll take care of me forever.
He never told me he loved me.
How can I be okay with this? I shouldn’t be, but I want him no matter what. I want to be with him, but I want his love too. I want him to care for me the way I care for him.
I love him. I’ve been in love with Aleksei for months now. He tells me he cares. He calls me beautiful, but he doesn’t say he loves me.
The computer next to me pings, and I look at the screen. There it is. I wanted to give him this to show him how much I love him. I see her picture on the screen. I know it’s her. She’s aged, but she still looks similar to what she did years ago. My eyes move to the woman next to her, and I can’t stop looking at her. I need to go see them. I want to confirm she is who I suspect before I tell Aleksei. But I can’t get out of here.
The ringing of the doorbell breaks me from my thoughts. I head downstairs. I don’t look at the security panel because I know it has to be one of my sisters or Sparrow. No one else can get to the house but them. I open the door, and I’m shocked.
“You married him.” Ainsley raises her voice and pushes past me.
Ainsley had not yet come to visit me since Mikhail took her under protection. Alek assured me she was fine. Pissed but fine.
“I had to in order to protect myself,” I answer.
“You got married to protect yourself.” She laughs. “You, the hopeless romantic. You love him, don’t you?” She advances on me and shakes my shoulders.
“I had to.” I can’t stop the tears.
She pulls me into her arms, and I start crying. I almost cried last night when he told me he’d take care of me always and forever. It took everything in me not to tell him I couldn’t do it.
“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault,” she says, and for the first time in a long time, I hear sincerity in her voice. I pull away and look at her. “I know he’s dead,” she informs me.
“Jimmy was bad. He killed people.”
“But did he deserve to die?” Her question gives me pause, and when I pull back, I look her in the eye.
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?” she asks as she releases me to walk further into the living room.
“Mikhail told you he killed him?” I realize the truth.
She pauses and turns back to me. “He did. He said Dmitri didn’t do it, but he did.”
“And that’s all?” I tip my head to the side, gaging her response. Should I tell her? Should I give her the truth finally?
“What else is there?”
“Come with me.”
I direct her to the stairs, and we head up to the office. I look at the monitors and see my husband walking around his office.
“Maybe he loves you too,” Ainsley says, and I turn toward her.
“Does Mikhail love you?”
“I don’t know. We just started. He’s taking one for the team.”
“How do you know that?”
“He told me.”
Damn, that’s harsh, but he did say that, so I can’t deny it.
“What do you want me to see?” she asks and moves to the computer, where I left the image up of Lena and her daughter.
“Wow! That woman looks almost like your husband.” Ainsley sits in my chair, and I nod.
I lean over and shrink the window. The next one that pops up is of a man. He’s in a suit, standing outside the casino everyone in town knows is owned by the Italians. They also have a betting room across town and a restaurant. The Barone family is more successful than the Bratva. It helps that their casino is linked to them, whereas the Bratva doesn’t have one. They just have the card room.
“Who is that man?”
“His name is Giovanni Costa. He hired Jimmy to kill Aleksei’s father.” I give it to her as straight as I can.
“What?”
“Jimmy was trying to earn money and make a name for himself, so he marketed himself as a man who could take care of problems. Some he handled on his own, most he would contract out.”
“Our father was a contract killer?” she asks, and I nod. “Who else?”
“I can’t tell you that part. It isn’t my story.” Mikhail should tell her.
“So Barone hired Jimmy to kill Aleksei’s father?”
“According to everything I’ve found, it wasn’t Barone. He didn’t know. I’m fairly certain if Barone had known, then Costa would be taking a cement bath.”
“I find it hard to believe Barone didn’t know when they are in the same organization.”
“Yes, there is that, but Lena is Barone’s sister. He put her in hiding right after the Bogdan was killed.”
“How did you find this all out? Did Alek ask you to do this?”
I look at the screens showing Aleksei moving around his office, then back to the computer monitors where Lena’s image is minimized.
“No, he didn’t ask. I did it as a gift to him. I wanted to help him find out who killed his father. I didn’t expect to find Lena or Daria.”
“So you hacked the Italians after we were told we couldn’t do that anymore.” She stands up fast and starts pacing the room. “We need to get you out of here. They will come, and it will start a war.”
“I didn’t hack Barone. I hacked into Jimmy’s files. I had most of them, but I found others. I then followed the money. It wasn’t easy to find Lena, but I kept at it. You know me.”
“We still need to get you out of here. What if Barone doesn’t ask questions first?”
I move to her. “I didn’t do anything with Barone. I only looked at Costa. I knew it was someone upset that Lena and the Bogdan were in a relationship. I put two and two together and figured it was her ex. I was right.”
“But?”
“I need to go see them. I need to confirm it’s real in person. I can’t stay here, but I don’t know how I’m going to do that without Aleksei finding out.”
She smiles, and it reminds me of the Joker or Cheshire cat. “I’m going out this afternoon. Come with me.”
“How?”
“I’ll tell Mikhail that I need sisterly time. Then when we are out, we can lose our babysitters and get gone like we used to do.”
It sounds so easy. Almost too easy, but I can’t pass up the chance to find out if it’s really Lena.
“Okay.”
Less than thirty minutes later, after I told Aleksei I would just ride along with Ainsley, we are heading out of the gated community. It hurts that we just got married and he’s already back to work. It’s as if our wedding meant nothing to him, but then I have to remind myself that he only married me to protect me. We aren’t like Dmitri and Lennon, who really love each other.
Ainsley directs her driver to one of the large outside malls and tells him to drop us off. Guards exit another car behind us and follow at a distance. We walk in and out of several businesses, taking our time, before we come to the one we will use to escape. Originally, Ainsley was going to stay back and try to distract them into going in another direction, but now she’s decided to run with me.
Ainsley tells the salesgirl that she needs to escape her abusive ex-boyfriend, who is stalking us and points at one of the guards. She plays it up, and the girl gives in and shows us the back exit. We grab some clothes and head for the dressing room, where we drop the items and rush for the back door. There is a car already waiting for us, and Ainsley smiles.
“I still have friends,” she says.
I look at the guy and then to her. Something doesn’t feel right. She looks around and pushes me into the car.
“Go. They’re coming,” she yells, and the car takes off, the door slamming closed as he accelerates.
I turn around and see Ainsley standing there, waving at me. I turn to the guy driving.
“Where are you taking me?”
He doesn’t answer right away. “I’m supposed to take you to a bus station out of town. But Ainsley doesn’t pay enough, so I got a better buyer.” He laughs, and I reach for the door handle, but there isn’t one.
He takes me around Vegas, heading toward Henderson, and finally to MacDonald Highlands. I know Barone has a place out here, but so do several others in the Italian mob. When he stops at a gate and buzzes, I’m still working out a way to get out of here. I only have one option. I carefully reach into my pocket and click my phone to dial Aleksei. He’s going to be so angry, and I worry he’ll say I’m too much and have me sent away to further protect me. However, I can’t worry about that now. I have to focus on getting out of this situation.
“Hello, lisichka,” he says at the same time that someone responds on the intercom. I thank everything holy that the timing was perfect, and my kidnapper didn’t hear Aleksei.
“Where are we?” I say loud enough that I hope Aleksei can hear me. “Why are you giving me to the Italians?”
“Like I said, your sister couldn’t pay as much as this guy could.” He laughs, and I cringe as I watch the gates open and he pulls through.
“Where are we?” I ask again.
“You’ll see.”
The front door opens and out walks Giovanni Costa. I recognize him from all the research I’ve been doing. Shit, I need Aleksei to know where I am.
“Is that Giovanni Costa?” I ask the guy.
“Yeah. Seems he wants you for a couple reasons. You’re the hacker everyone is looking for. He’s paying more than his boss, Barone, is right now. Something about he knows you’ve been digging into your father’s past and found out about a transaction they made together.”
I need to play dumb. I thought Aleksei said he was going to take care of all the families. So why does Barone still have a price on my head?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb, bitch. I know you and your sister are the ones who were giving all the families issues. Your sister hired me a couple times because I’m a runner for the Irish.”
“Please don’t do this.”
“Too late.”
He gets out of the car and comes around to my side to open my door. Costa walks up to me.
“Hello, Mrs. Belyaev, welcome to my home. You know why you are here.”
Costa is only about four inches taller than me. He has a head full of dark hair except for the gray at his temples. His dark brown eyes are wide set over his large nose. His body is on the bigger side but not from exercise, it’s more from overindulging in the food he eats. On initial thought, I decide to play dumb with him too.
“I have no idea why I’m here, but my husband will be upset when he finds out. I believe that Andrei and Barone came to an agreement about me.” I don’t know if it’s true, but I hope it will at least buy me time for Aleksei to get to me.
His fist comes flying at me before I can dodge it, and it slams into my face. I cry out as my body flies back into the side of the car, where I fall to the ground.
“Please don’t,” I beg as I look up.
His foot comes down hard on my hand, and I scream in pain as I cradle my hand to my chest. “Please stop.” My tears fall down my face.
“I’ll kill you, bitch, for digging into my past. Everything was perfect until Belyaev came around. I was going to marry Maddalena. She was supposed to be mine.” He knees me in the face against the car, and again, I cry out.
Costa stops and reaches down. He searches my pockets and finds the phone. His grin is worse than the Joker’s. It’s so sinister it makes my skin crawl.
“Hello, Belyaev, good luck finding us. She’ll be dead, like your father. I’ll teach her and others what happens when you go snooping.”
He throws the phone hard enough at the driveway pavement that shards of it fly at me. I cry harder, realizing Aleksei won’t ever find me. I’ll never see him again. I’ll never be able to tell him I love him. I’ll never know if he cares for me more than just someone to protect.
Alek
Iknew I shouldn’t have let her go. Now she’s in the hands of the same man who ordered the hit on my father. How she found him doesn’t surprise me.
“Bring me Ainsley,” I order into my phone when I dial Mikhail’s number.
“We are at the office. I have her here,” he says, and I storm out of my office.
I don’t bother with valet bringing my car around. Instead, I grab a taxi to Andrei’s offices over at Yelena’s and the Russian Cardroom. As soon as I get there, I walk around and enter through the back entrance, where I take the stairs up to the second-floor offices.
“I didn’t know he was going to take her there.” I hear Ainsley and kick open the door. It’s not completely latched, or I couldn’t do that. The guys have these doors set up as safe rooms.
“Where is my wife?” I yell into the room and take in the scene.
Mikhail has Ainsley on her back on the desk with his hand wrapped around her throat. Both of them turn to me. He has anger in his eyes, his jaw locked tight, and his body is coiled ready to pounce. Ainsley has tears in her eyes, and when Mikhail helps her sit up, she drops her head.
“Ainsley, I’m not playing around. Where is my wife?” I bark, and her body recoils.
“I swear, I didn’t know. He was supposed to take her out of town to a friend of mine’s place. They were going to hide her away.”
“Why would my wife want to get away from me? We just got married.”
“And you went to work. You also just married her because you had to. You’re taking one for the team,” she spits at me.
“I never said that.”
“You all pretty much did. You only married or are involved with us to protect us.” She pushes away from Mikhail. “You too.” She stands up and moves across the room. “Where is my sister?”
“Your friend took her to Giovanni Costa.”
“Damn son of a bitch. He was always a bit of a flake. How did Costa know Ric was researching him? She just found out about the hit and your family.”
“My family?”
Mikhail grabs Ainsley and sits at his desk. He pulls her down onto his lap and wraps his arms around her while he types away on his keyboard.
“Did you put the necklace on her?” he asks me, and I think over everything Ainsley said.
My wife thinks I married her just to protect her. I need to fix that as soon as I get her back. Because I will get her back. She also found a family I didn’t know I had. Lena?
“Aleksei?” Mikhail calls my name.
“What?”
“I have her.” He stands and looks over my shoulder to the men behind me. “Watch her. She isn’t to leave this building. Take her to my condo,” he orders his soldiers.
“No, I want to go. I caused this. Please, Mikhail.” She turns to him and begs.
“Fine.” He takes her hand, and we step out of the room.
“Let’s go.” Andrei stands there with more soldiers. “Dmitri isn’t coming. I’ve ordered him to stay with his wife.”
“Okay.” We head out the way I came in and down to the SUV parked in the alley. “What’s this about a family?” I ask Ainsley.
She scoffs. “Now you want to know. Lyric found your father’s girlfriend and her daughter. She looks a lot like you.” She pauses for a moment. “My sister loved you so much, she married you knowing you didn’t love her. I had to get her away before you really broke her. I thought she would be safe.”
“I won’t tell you my feelings as your sister gets to know them first. Where did she think your friend was taking her? She wasn’t running from me?”
“No, she wasn’t running. She thought we were going to Laughlin. You should’ve told her before about your feelings.”
Turning, I look out the window and watch as we head toward Henderson, where I know the Italians live. We don’t make it all the way there. Instead, Mikhail turns into an area housing large storage units and stops at the entrance.
“Barone, we are in your area,” Andrei says into the phone. “We had an agreement that Lyric Duncan-Belyaev was off limits.”
“We did,” he says, his voice on speaker for all of us to hear. “Why are you calling and in my area?”
“Your sister, Maddalena.”
“She left years ago.” I hear the bite in his tone. “You got a reason to bring her up?”
“Duncan told us he was hired to kill Belyaev.”
“I didn’t hire him. I didn’t kill Belyaev. I gave him my blessing to be with Lena.”
“No. Lyric found out it was Giovanni, and he has her here at your storage units. We are going in and getting her, just thought I’d let you know.”
“I’m on my way.”
“You’ll be too late. I have a husband upset his wife was beaten as he listened over the phone.”
“Fucking Giovanni. I’m still on my way.”
I jump out of the car and take off running. I saw the GPS. I know which building she’s in. I pull my father’s gun and shoot the guards as I come up on them. The old me, the one who was going to make a life for myself in the Bratva, boils to the surface. I’ll kill everyone who gets in the way between my wife and me. I didn’t marry her just to protect her. I married her because she is mine. Because I love her.
I love her.
The words roll through my head as I burst through the doors. I fire my gun, killing the few guards in the room. When I aim at Giovanni, I shoot his arm and watch as his gun falls to the ground. I go to shoot him in the leg so I can torture him the way he did my wife, but the gun clicks empty. I holster it as I advance on Giovanni. He’s standing over my wife, who is beaten. Her face bloody. Her hand clutched to her chest is broken. The fingers mangled. I reach down and grab the bat clutched in the dying Italian guard’s hands.
“You can’t hurt me. I’m an underboss.” He laughs.
I don’t care. I swing the bat at his head. His blood splatters, and as soon as he hits the ground, I slam the bat against his chest hard, knowing I’ve cracked some ribs.
“You took my beloved wife. I’ll kill you for touching her,” I yell as I continue hitting him with the bat. I beat him, over and over. I don’t see or feel anything but vengeance. He hurt my Lyric.
“Take her out.” Andrei’s voice breaks through the fog in my head, but I don’t stop. I hit Costa again and again until his chest cracks apart. I hear Lyric yelling my name, and I finally pull through the fog.
“Aleksei, please stop.”
I drop the bat and turn toward her. I wrap her in my arms.
“I love you,” I tell her as I kiss her, my bloody hands holding her face.
“I love you too,” she says softly, and I hold her to me.