29. Konstantin
KONSTANTIN
"Beatie!"
Rose's voice cuts through my heated debate with the hiring manager who claims he vetted every single one of these underage girls, and the horror in her voice cuts through me like a blade.
Beatie? Isn't that her sister?
Across the room, Rose all but tackles one of the girls at the bar and grabs her shoulder.
She shakes her, but the girl barely even reacts to being touched, never mind anything else.
Given how high all of these chicks are, it's no surprise, but the ragged gasp that comes from Rose urges me toward her.
"Rose?"
Her head lifts and she glances at me with tear-filled eyes. "What's going on? Why is she here?! What happened?" She turns back to the girl and cradles her face. "Beatie, what happened?"
I glance down at the call sheet in my hand and skim down the list.
This girl is on here as Lily, not Beatie.
A cold ball of dread forms in my gut and I'm rooted to the spot, unable to quite connect all the pieces in my mind because every pained noise from Rose keeps derailing them.
"Beatie?" Ethan appears at my elbow. "Isn't she supposed to be home and safe with her mother?"
What the fuck is going on?
A broken wail escapes Rose and it snaps me into action. I turn to Ethan and point past him to the skulking hiring manager. "I want the truth out of that bastard right now, you hear me? I don't care what it takes. I need every single detail about how the fuck any of these girls got here."
Ethan nods once and, after a sorrowful glance back at Rose, he storms across the room and grabs the hiring manager by the collar.
"Calvin." I face him. "Take Rose and Beatie back to the estate. Get the doctor to take a look at her and have an ambulance on standby."
"Got it."
"Rose?" I approach her cautiously and she only spares me a glance, more focused on trying to get any kind of information out of her sister.
"Beatie, please, talk to me sweetie. Please. Do you see me? Do you know who I am? It's me, okay? It's Rose!"
"Rose, Calvin is going to take her back home, okay?"
"I'm not leaving her!"
"I am not asking you to," I assure her quickly and I catch her flailing hand. She spins to face me, and my heart breaks from the utter horror in her eyes. "Go with her, Rose. I will be home as soon as I can."
"I don't understand," Rose whispers, then she grows distracted as Calvin scoops Beatie up into his arms and carries her limp form out of the club.
How the fuck did Beatie end up here, in my club of all fucking places?
There's no way this is a coincidence.
As I gaze around the club at a sea of faces and the rest of the underage girls, a sickening weight settles across my shoulders.
Someone's fucking with me.
I don't know who, how, or even why, but there's something going on here that I can't see.
Sneaking underage girls into my clubs puts me right in the crosshairs for cop involvement and I don't have the patience or the time to deal with that.
"Fuck…" Taking a deep breath, I get to work.
All of the remaining girls are taken to a nearby hospital for a full workup.
Every single one of them is as high as a kite, so I send some men to the supposed hostel they've been staying at.
Finding out who sold them drugs will be a step in the right direction. Ethan doesn't get much out of the hiring manager who maintains his innocence until Ethan threatens to cut his balls off.
He then admits he was paid to look the other way and didn't think anything of it, since such a thing is common in this line of work.
Common, yes, but not in my fucking establishment.
"I want Maxim brought to the house," I say to Ethan an hour later as we finally leave the club. "Send people to pick him up. No excuses."
"On it," Ethan replies. "This is fucked."
"Beyond fucked," I agree as we reach the car. "Rose's sister?" I pause, one hand on the roof. "Something really fucking weird is going on."
"Do you want Mathew as well?"
Mathew. The ever-present brother. "No. I just want Maxim. If anyone knows what is going on, it should be him."
"Alright—shit, hold on." Ethan suddenly lifts his phone to his ear and starts grunting as he listens to whoever is rapidly talking his ear off. "You've got to be kidding me. We'll be right there."
My stomach tightens once more and I groan, contemplating where I last left my antacids. "What is it?"
"General Zangier." Ethan stares at me over the roof of the car. "That tail we put on him? Just stopped him from boarding a plane to Cuba."
"Cuba? Why the fuck was he running?"
"Wanna go find out?"
I should, but getting home to help Rose with her sister is also a priority.
God knows what happened to that poor girl to end up in that state.
Normally, I wouldn't care.
Thousands of people enter that kind of state every day, and I make money off of it, but Beatie is important to Rose.
I've seen that in her eyes every single time she's talked about her.
I eye Ethan and squint. “You need to go and rest.”
“Fuck that,” Ethan snorts. “I’m fine. I’m drugged up. I’m stitched up. I’m fine, boss.”
"Fuck. I need to get home but… okay, we'll deal with Zangier first. That cunt was running, and I want to know why."
Fifteen minutes later, we arrive at the hotel where Ethan's team escorted a furious General Zangier.
His yells carry down the hall as we stride toward the door leading into the small side room, where the general paces between green chairs and an overturned table.
Pacing that stops the moment he sees me.
"Konstantin."
"I have very little time to stand here and listen to whatever excuse you have been building since you were dragged off that plane, so I will ask you one time and I want you to tell me the truth."
"Boss—" He starts to speak but shrinks back as I slowly stalk forward.
"I know you lied about Rose and Calvin. I know you attacked them and set them up. I know you tried to kiss my wife, not as some cover or test, but because you are a fucking scumbag!" Every word forces itself past my clenched teeth, laced in fury and hatred as I stalk toward him. "Tell me why."
"What? Are you crazy? I come to you with information and you believe… you believe some asshole—who wasn't even born in Russia, I might add. I'm trying to protect you, Konstantin. Unlike all the other snakes around you, I am trying to protect you!"
I give him one chance and he lies.
My fist slams into the side of his head and he stumbles back with a grunt, tripping over the leg of one of those chairs and falling to the ground.
I haul him back up with one hand firmly planted in his shirt and punch him again.
And again.
He goes back down on the fourth punch with blood pouring from his nose and a cut where the skin split against his cheekbone.
"Wait!" he cried out thickly around the blood in his mouth. "Think about what you're doing! About what they're making you do! You're falling for it, Konstantin! You're falling for it!"
I grab him by his collar and haul him back up onto unsteady feet. My fist stings and smarts from each blow.
"Tell. Me. Why."
"They're lying to you!" he shrieks out while trying to wrestle out of my grip. "After everything I've done for you? All the years by your side? You'd believe them over me?!"
"Yes," I snarl and I ball my hand into a fist, holding it aloft. "You have betrayed me and if you will not tell me why, then I will stand here and I will beat you within an inch of your life until you spit out your answers with each of your broken teeth."
"Okay!" Zangier wails and tries to cover his face. "Okay! I had no choice. You have to believe me, I had no choice!"
Disgust rolls through me in waves and I release him, letting him fall back down into the chair.
"You always have a choice." Beside me, Ethan moves closer with his furious glare locked on Zangier. "You chose to betray your pakhan."
"No!" Zangier grunts and tries to sit up. "I was… I am being blackmailed. I only went along with it to save you the shame!"
"Shame?" I repeat the word with a snarl. "What shame?"
"I…" Panting, Zangier sniffs and wipes some of the blood away from his face. "If people knew you hired someone like me…"
Irritation swells and I pull my gun from my belt, aiming it straight at Zangier's head. "You have not earned my time or my patience."
"They're blackmailing me!" he yells, holding his hands up in fear. "They… they found out I like them young."
"Young?" Ethan's brief moment of innocence dissolves into immediate disgust. "Oh my fucking god…"
"They found out and they've been blackmailing me to pass on intel and sway your decisions. I only did it so you wouldn't get into trouble!"
The fact that he tries to spin it onto me, as if his disgusting acts have any blowback onto me is infuriating, but the real answer remains hidden.
"Who!?" I roar and I surge forward, slamming my gun into his forehead and forcing him back into the chair. "Who did you sell my secrets to?!"
"Mathew," Zangier gasps out. "Rose's brother. Mathew."
A chill sweeps through my gut and I move half an inch back.
Relief sweeps across Zangier's face. "That's why I tried to kidnap her at the river.
I thought if I had her, I could use her to free myself from him.
That's… that's why I did it." He leans up into the space I've left and his beady eyes lock onto me.
"You have to help me. I've been trapped for months, boss. Months."
Mathew.
Rose's brother?
I glance at Ethan and he wears his surprise more openly on his face, but it quickly warps into disgust when Zangier reaches for me.
I step back once, lift my gun again and shoot him square between the eyes, then I put two bullets in his chest for good measure.
"Fuck," Ethan breathes out. "Mathew? Do you think he was telling the truth?"
I can't bring myself to answer, not until I've seen Rose.
"Take me home."