Chapter 23
Bones
Chica loca blinked twice before turning to the side and vomiting up her hot wings all over the floor. Cricket sidestepped the mess and tried to help support her as she heaved, but Indigo wasn’t mentally in a place where she could accept comfort. The moment Cricket tried to touch her, she snarled at him like a wounded animal. “ Don’t touch me!” Everyone in the room was frozen in place, startled at the extreme reaction provoked by Riordan’s question, and facial expressions ranged from disgust to concern.
Except for Duke and me. We were concerned for her, of course we were, but I saw suspicion for the Russian written on Priest’s and Duke’s faces. I know my expression mirrored theirs. A grim resolve settled on my shoulders. There was no way we’d let Indigo come to harm.
“Ratched, get a mop. Bones, take Indigo into your office. Riordan, you can go with her. Everyone else, get the fuck out.” Los Cuervos leaped into action, Cricket looking torn. I know he wanted to comfort Indi, but she wasn’t in a place he could reach right now. Riordan’s companions were speaking with him quietly in Russian, probably about taking a guard with him.
I slipped my old metacarpal bone into my pocket and slowly approached Indigo with my hands visible. “ No te haré da?o, ?vale? Come with me, chica loca. It’s okay; you’re safe here.” I slowly wrapped a hand around her back and gently grasped her hip, supporting her as we walked across the common room. Riordan was arguing with Ivan in Russian while Priest quietly muttered in Duke’s ear, likely arguing that he should be present during any further discussions as VP of the Crows.
I left them to it, focusing on the girl in my arms. She seemed to gather herself slightly as we walked out of the common room and into the business side of the clubhouse. I had never taken Indigo into my office before. Frankly, there had been no need to until now, but she walked beside me as meekly as a child. It disturbed me to see her usually neon-bright light dimmed so harshly. She wasn’t even this out of sorts after Priest held her in the confessional.
I unlocked my office door and ushered Indigo in. Flicking on the light, I guided her to take a seat on the loveseat. Other than my desk, chair, and mini fridge, the loveseat was the only other piece of furniture in my small office. I sat opposite her on my chair, propping my elbows on my knees and studied her. She didn’t look good. Pale, sweaty, and shaking, Indi was truly rattled. I opened the mini fridge next to my desk and took a bottle of water, cracking the seal and handing it to her wordlessly. Indigo took a sip from the bottle, her hand trembling slightly.
We waited in stifling silence for the others to join us. Five agonizing minutes later, Duke stomped into the room followed by Riordan, Ivan, and, surprisingly enough, Priest. Priest closed the door and locked it behind him. I vacated my chair and joined chica loca on the loveseat. Duke sat in my chair, leaving Riordan and Ivan to shuffle to the opposite side of the small room. Priest leaned against the door like he was personally responsible for keeping it shut against the rest of the world.
In a surprisingly gentle voice, Duke spoke to Indigo. “Darlin’, I know you’re going through it right now. If it were up to me, you’d be wrapped up in cotton wool and watchin’ otters do cute shit on TV. Riordan wants to talk to you, but if you don’t want to hear him right now, I can make him leave. It’s up to you what happens. If you want to hear him, he’ll talk.” Duke shot a dark look at the Petrov heir. “But if you aren’t up to it now, he can leave. It’s one hundred percent your call.”
Indigo studied Duke’s expression as if there would be a test later. She took another sip of water, her hand shaking slightly less than it had before. Our girl was fucking tough, and she was gathering herself before our eyes.
“And them?” she asked, flicking her eyes to Ivan and Priest in succession.
A low growl rumbled from Duke, highlighting his frustration with the turn the night had taken. “Petrov insists his Vor , his second, remain with him as a security measure. And because Ivan’s already privy to the information he will disclose. Priest…well, that’s up to you too, darlin’. He’s the VP of Los Cuervos and knows about our…mission to help those who need us. Whether or not you want this information disclosed to him is up to you.”
Indigo looked at her feet as she considered Duke’s words and her current situation. I placed my arm around her shoulders, amazed at how small she seemed tucked into my side. Indigo had such a large presence; it was easy to forget how physically small she actually was. Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, she studied the face of every man in the room. I wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking for, but she must have found it. If anyone knew the potential consequences of what she was about to hear and confess, it was her. In this, I’d defer to her and let her lead, but I hoped that she was comfortable enough to trust us with whatever information Riordan was about to share.
“ Lisichka,” Riordan spoke, breaking the silence, “I will make any vow you deem necessary that I am not here to hurt you. Your reaction was enough to confirm my suspicions, and I swear on my mother’s life that I am not now, nor have I ever been, working with Roark Callahan.”
“ Don’t . ” Indigo’s voice was like a whip. “Don’t say his name anymore. I…just need a few minutes without hearing it.” Indi took a deep breath, gathering herself before our very eyes, and I was struck by a strange sense of pride. Our girl was obviously deeply damaged by her past and the time she spent with the Callahans, but she was still here. Still alive and still willing to fight. That kind of perseverance took fu ckin’ strength, and it was deeply admirable. I could only hope that if I were faced with similar circumstances, I could be as tenacious.
Indigo heaved a deep sigh. “It’s okay, President Duke. They can stay.” Turning her eyes to Riordan and Ivan, she said, “Tell me what you know, and I’ll tell you what I can. That’s the best I can offer.” She looked down at her feet, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth again. Tentatively, her eyes darted to Priest, who was standing as a silent sentinel at the door. “Try…try not to hate me more than you already do, okay?” The pleading note in her voice tugged at the heartstrings of each surly biker and hardened gangster in the room. Priest nodded once; eyes boring into Indi like he could pin her there with the weight of his gaze alone. He was about to get what he wanted: her story. I loved the man like a brother, but I kind of hoped he choked on it.
Indigo
“About twenty-six years ago, my father inherited his bratva from his father and was confirmed as the head of the American branch of the Russian syndicate.” Riordan sighed and shook his head as if this story was tiring to tell. “Things were volatile in Chicago at the time, and Mikhail, that’s my father, needed to forge new alliances while he established himself as pakhan . He was having difficulties with some of the smaller gangs stirring up trouble and was spending too much time and money putting out small fires. My father needed an alliance with the Callahan family. Their connections to the five families in New York and control of the Eastern Seaboard from Nova Scotia to Connecticut were very desirable, especially since a sizable portion of my father’s business required access to ports and corrupted customs officials.”
Priest scoffed. “You mean he needed ports for his cargo containers full of trafficking victims. Don’t try to make it palatable.”
“Yes, he wanted access to the Callahan-controlled ports for trafficking; people, guns, drugs, all of it. Callahan wanted to expand his market as well and benefited from the Petrov Midwest contacts, and together, they planned to push even farther westward. They sealed this alliance with marriage. My father married Seamus Callahan’s sister, Cara. Seamus was already married at the time, so his brother Roark married one of my aunts. Tatiana.” Riordan paused in his story, and I could feel his eyes boring into me. Bones looked back and forth between Riordan and me, and something must have clicked for him because he muttered, “ Dios mio . The eyes. I should have seen it before.”
Riordan nodded at Bones, then turned his attention back to me. “Tatiana married Roark, my father married Cara, and the alliance was secured. Business flourished and things settled down in Chicago. Things seemed good”—Riordan shrugged his shoulders—“or as good as they can be in a mafia lifestyle. Until Tatiana went missing, that is.”
“As interesting as this backstory is”—I interrupted—“it doesn’t explain what you want with me. I never met any Tatiana in the basement.”
“I’m getting there, lisichka .” Riordan and Ivan shared an indecipherable look. “Roark Callahan has long had a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness, but Seamus was generally able to keep a muzzle on him. When his sister went missing, my father began looking into her disappearance inconspicuously. He didn’t want to jeopardize the alliance and his newfound peace, but family is everything in the bratva, and he couldn’t stomach the idea of his sister vanishing without a trace. What I’m about to tell you now has not been confirmed; it’s based on rumor, intel from his spies within the Callahan organization, and stories pieced together years after the fact.”
I swallowed a sip of water from the bottle Bones gave me and worried my chapped bottom lip with my teeth. I didn’t have a good feeling about what Riordan was about to tell me.
“The rumor is that Roark caught his wife, Tatiana, having an affair with someone within their own ranks. No one was ever able to definitively pinpoint which man he believed slept with his wife. One day Tatiana was fine, seen out shopping with friends, and the next she was gone. The Callahans performed a search and spread the word through the underworld that she was missing and that there was a hefty reward for any knowledge of her whereabouts. Roark, who had a reputation for being unhinged, was uncharacteristically quiet about his missing wife when my father flew to Boston to help in the search for his sister. They looked for months with not so much as a hint of her location. He had many suspicions, but no proof that the Callahans had anything to do with her disappearance. Eventually, the Callahans gave up on their search, but my father never did. Without proof, however, he was forced to maintain the alliance between the two families.”
“So, what are you saying, exactly?” Priest asked from his position, leaning against the office door.
“Oh my Bob, you don’t think I’m Tatiana, do you? Am I like that Anastasia chick in the movie, who lost her memories and forgot she was a princess?” I keep telling everyone I’m like a badass version of a Disney princess, and no one wants to believe me! This explains so much , like why animals love me and why I’m so delightfully whimsical!
“No, Indigo. I think you’re her daughter.”
My jaw dropped. “What makes you think that? I mean, you don’t know anything about me at all other than what I look like when I kick ass in the ring and that I’m a phenomenal dancer.”
“Well, for one thing, you look remarkably like Tatiana. Eerily so. The first time I saw you in Allure dancing, I did a double take because I thought you were my aunt Natalya for a moment.”
Ivan saw my confusion and explained, “Natalya is Tatiana’s identical twin sister. Ri sent me down to fetch you that night so I could see you for myself, and it’s true. You look very much like a younger version of Natalya. You have the Petrov eyes.”
Nervously, I lick my lips. “I don’t know anything about my parents. Uncle Roark told me my mother was a prostitute who threw me away and left the moment I was born. He said she didn’t know who my father was.”
“That makes no sense,” Ivan interjected. “Why would the Beast of Boston raise some random whore’s baby? There has to be a reason he kept you, when he could have dropped you off at an orphanage or pawned you off on some other couple, or hell, even killed you. Why keep a baby?”
A very unhappy laugh escapes my lips before I can smush it back. “Oh, he had his reasons to keep me. And they weren’t out of the goodness of his sadistic black heart.” My eyes dart to assess the men in the room. Duke and Bones keep their faces carefully blank, knowing why Roark kept me. My eyes lingered on Priest for an extra moment, and I noticed that his face had taken on an ashen quality. He didn’t look good. Last, I turned my eyes to Riordan and Ivan.
They both looked grim but determined to find answers. “I’m sorry, but I never met or heard of anyone named Tatiana. I was kept on Uncle Roark’s compound my entire life unless I was given a job to do, and even then, I was escorted directly back to the basement. Uncle Roark had me trained to fight…to kill, but when I wasn’t training, I was Roark’s punching bag. Torturing me for sport was one of his favorite pastimes; you may think you know how evil he can be, but really you have no idea. It took me a lifetime, but I finally got away, and I’ve been running ever since. This is the longest I’ve ever stayed in one place and the first time I’ve felt like I may actually have a home.”
I turn to Priest, pleading with my eyes for him to believe me. “I’d never bring trouble to your door on purpose, I promise. I told President Duke that I should leave, that me being here wasn’t safe for your club.” Swallowing the bile that tried to creep its way up my throat at the thought of Uncle Roark unleashed upon Los Cuervos, I continued. “He said I could stay, that I’d be safe here. But if I need to, I can go. To keep everyone safe, I’d leave tonight.” I felt panic swirling just below the surface of my self-control. Slamming my mental doors closed, I mentally braced them against my demons. They chose the worst damn time to start acting up. I would rather never see an adorable otter again in my whole life than have a breakdown in front of all these men.
Riordan cleared his throat, gaining my attention as he crouched down in front of the loveseat, so we were at eye level. “Would you be comfortable taking a DNA test? We could definitively prove if you’re related to Tatiana in this way.”
“I’ve already done that.” Priest’s voice startled me. Bones and Duke didn’t look surprised at his admission, so I assumed this wasn’t news to them. I looked at Priest in question. He cleared his throat. “The night you kicked the shit out of Pyro, some of your hair was left behind. I needed to know if you had a record and gather any information on your past, so I had a contact with the police run you through their database. There were no hits.”
Ivan scoffed. “If she’s a Petrov, it wouldn’t show up in the national database. We make sure to keep the family off any databases, keeping our information secure. We can test your DNA at one of our own facilities to protect your privacy.”
I shook my head. “What would be the point? Even if I am her daughter, I have no idea what happened to her and wouldn’t even know where to start looking for answers other than Uncle Roark himself. I’d rather light myself on fire than ever be in the same room as that man again. Do you understand? I would literally rather die.”
“Don’t you want to know who you are?” Ivan asked gently. “If you’re Tatiana’s daughter, you’re a long-lost bratva printsessa . The brotherhood will look after you.”
I was instantly angry at his comment. My teeth curled back from my teeth as I slapped a hand to my chest. “I know who I fucking am, I don’t need a DNA test to tell me that. I’m a survivor, and if I’m a princess, it’s not of the freaking bratva . I learned at Uncle Roark’s knee that no one would ever save me. I saved myself, and I can look after myself. I don’t need the bratva for anything.”
Riordan shot Ivan a dark look and shifted his weight where he was still crouched in front of me on the loveseat. “Indi, there is no doubt in my mind that you are one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, and I don’t even know the details of your life with the Callahans. Tonight, I’m not here as an agent for the bratva. Tonight, I’m here as the son of a grieving man. My father lost his sister, and the past twenty-five years have been agony for him. We may never know what happened to Tatiana, but this… you may be a vital piece of the puzzle. My father is tenacious, and he’ll never give up on his quest to find out what happened to his sister and enacting revenge on the people responsible for her loss.” He reached out his tattooed hands and gently enfolded my own within his grasp. “Please, lisichka. If it turns out I’m wrong, and we share no relation, I promise to leave you in peace. ”
Putting aside my own feelings, of which there were many, I considered what Riordan was asking of me. A bit of hair, maybe some spit…that’s not too much to ask. My eyes drifted on their own accord to Priest who stood stiffly at the door. The pain and anger he was trying to suppress was leaking out of him, and it tugged at my heartstrings and made my tummy feel tight. I thought maybe I was psychic or something, or an emoticon or whatever they called it. When people could sense and react to other people’s emotions? Every time Priest got in his feelings, especially his growly, angry ones, I felt it.
It made me feel desperate to comfort him even though I knew he’d never accept comfort from the likes of me. I stole his one chance at revenge when I killed Hoodie Guy— Slyzec, I reminded myself—and I’d witnessed him wrestling with his guilt and anger every day since then. If Priest, Lorna, and Duke were still hurting two years after Ellis’s loss, it killed me to think that Mr. Riordan’s Dad had to feel like that for twenty-five years. I bet it made him the growliest of Guses.
“If I do this, I need certain guarantees from you first.” I cleared my throat and took a nervous sip of water.
Riordan released my hands and stood, walking to take his place next to Ivan. “Let’s hear it, then.”
I glanced at Bones and Duke before continuing. “First, no one outside this room knows about my connection to the Callahan family, and it has to stay that way. If Uncle Roark knew I was here, he’d rain down hellfire to get me back and punish anyone I cared about. That man is petty as fuck.”
Riordan nodded. “Absolutely. I haven’t even mentioned it to my father just in case I’m wrong about you.”
“Good. Also, you have to pinky swear here and now that you will never try to use me as a tool for leverage with the Callahans or for my skill set.”
“Uh”—Spike interrupted—“what exactly is your skill set?”
I glared at the lanky blond man, who held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, if you’re asking him to swear, I just think he should be clear on what he’s promising. The devil is in the details, after all.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was trained as a killer for the family, but not in a cool Black Widow kind of way. It was…” I searched for the right words, no t in the mood to go cannonball into that particular trauma pool. “I wasn’t the only killer the Callahans used, far from it, but as far as I’m aware I was the only one trained from childhood. My jobs were more like a game to Roark, seeing what I could survive. What I’d do to survive. Is that enough detail? Because to be real honest with you, I don’t want to go any deeper than that. You’ve already ruined my Otterly Adorable vibes, and I don’t feel like fighting with my demons tonight.”
Riordan’s mouth twitched in the corner like he was trying to smile at me, but just couldn’t manage it. “Are those your only two concerns?”
“Oh! I almost forgot. No, I have one more.” I fidgeted with my water bottle, suddenly nervous. “If…if I am Tatiana’s daughter, I want your guarantee that I won’t be strong-armed into your family or your family . I decide if I want to meet anyone. I decide if I want to have anything to do with any of you. I’ve spent my whole life as a captive, and I refuse to live like that again. Never again. ” My eyes were wide open and drilling holes into Riordan, willing him to understand that these three points were nonnegotiable. I placed my water bottle between the loveseat cushions and rose to stand before Riordan. My pinky was extended in offering.
A small smile tugged at Riordan’s lips. He stepped away from the wall and Ivan, meeting me in the middle of the office. Spike, Bones, Duke, and Priest stood as silent witnesses to this very important oath. “The bratva has their own killers, and no need to outsource more. I see no need to disclose your previous occupation to anyone. Your secrets are your own. I can only imagine what you think of us after a lifetime of suffering at the Callahan family’s hands, but the Petrov bratva isn’t afraid of strong women. My father would love to meet his niece if you are her, but he wouldn’t force you into our lifestyle. I hope in time we can build trust, and you will want to meet the rest of my family.” He offered his pinky, which curled around mine, sealing our deal. A collective sigh released from the men watching our exchange and a bit of the tension that was building in the air was released. We might not all be friends, and some of us may or may not be family, but tonight, we were united in our quest for answers and hopefully, eventually…healing.