44. Chapter Forty-Four #2
“Ordinarily, I’d agree with you.” Sympathy flashed in his eyes. “But after all the trouble he’s caused Arturo, he’s also entitled to a piece.”
“You think I give a fuck about what that fucker is entitled to?” I was still pissed off about the role he played in Tatiana’s capture.
“He did help rescue us,” Lukyan pointed out.
“So?” The fact that he was part of the rescue party didn’t mean shit to me. I still wanted to see his head on a spike.
“So let the man have the kill. Tatiana is fine—”
“She was almost raped ,” I snarled. “By one of his men. If anyone is going to kill Franco, it’s going to be me .”
“I’m just saying—”
“Enough,” Aleksandr barked out. “Until he’s found, this conversation is pointless, so we’ll deal with it when the time comes. Onto the next issue. The final two MCs responsible for the attack on our home have been dealt with.”
“Have they?” Father drawled. “That’s disappointing. I would have liked to get in on that.”
“There could be minor repercussions from other charters, like Nikolai and Tatiana faced in New York from the Brotherhood. If there are, I’ll be sure to save you a few, Father.”
He nodded his head. “Much appreciated.”
“How were they handled?” I asked.
Drea chose to answer that one. “A few of the boys and I paid them a little visit. Don’t worry, I kept up with the theme of the whole ‘V’ on the forehead thing. Nice touch, by the way,” she winked.
“Thanks.”
Lukyan cleared his throat. “So, with the MCs gone and Dominik dead, that means the threat is over, right?”
I glanced at my father beside me. He hadn’t spoken about what happened exactly, but we all knew one thing. Their feud had finally come to end, with Father victorious.
Whether he planned to explain the specific details later on, I wasn’t sure, but for right now, the topic was off limits.
“The threat is far from over,” Father said ominously. “Talon is still out there.”
“But his island isn’t. Not anymore.” I could still picture it.
The flames, the screams, the smoke. Everything burning in the distance as we moved further and further away from the island, rowing to Mikhail’s submarine.
Apparently, Drea had ordered complete and total destruction.
Turns out, Aleksandr’s little cartel wife was just as protective and vindictive as the rest of us.
She wanted the whole place to burn to ash.
So, a few of the soldiers had been ordered to plant explosives on all of the buildings while they made the rescue, rigged to explode within thirty minutes.
She didn’t care about casualties because, in her opinion, none of them were innocent. I was inclined to agree. They all knew who their boss was. They all knew what took place on that island.
Whether they were a cook, a janitor or a soldier, they all contributed to the functionality of the island. They helped it thrive. When you worked for a man like Talon, no matter the job, your life was at risk. Either by his hand, or his enemies’.
“He’ll just build another one,” Father grunted. “He’s got unlimited resources. There will be another one up and running in a week.”
“But who would even attend?” Lukyan questioned.
“Word has already spread about what happened. It’s all over the news…
the missing politicians, the burning island in the middle of nowhere.
Even if he built another one, no one would trust that he could keep them safe.
He’s lost his entire client base. He’ll have to start over from scratch. ”
“He is not going to like that,” Drea frowned.
“Good,” Father blew out with an angry breath.
“He could be looking for retaliation,” Aleksandr pointed out. “Revenge for what we’ve done to him and his business.”
A dark, feral smile curled on my father’s lips. “I’m counting on it.”
“We should double the patrols around the house, in case he plans to attack,” Drea suggested.
Aleksandr nodded. “Good idea.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Lukyan said, rising to his feet.
“Before you leave, there’s something else we need to discuss.” Aleksandr held his gaze and Lukyan thumped back down into his seat.
“What did I do now?” he sighed.
“ You haven’t done anything—”
“For once,” I couldn’t help but add in.
Lukyan cut me an annoyed glare.
“It’s about your stalker,” Aleksandr finished.
Lukyan shrugged uncaringly. “What about her?”
“Did you know she was the one who sent the location of the island to Drea? Or that she was the sniper who saved you in the Arena?”
His eyes widened. “She was?” he breathed out in shock. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Because I didn’t order anyone up there.” A troubling look crossed Drea’s face. “Neither did Arturo, Mikhail or my brother.”
“Okay? I don’t get what the big deal is. If what you’re saying is true, it means she saved me, saved us .”
“The big deal is, the woman is highly-trained, highly skilled, has managed to sneak in and out of our property completely undetected, and we have no idea who the fuck she is. The big deal is that she is a massive, massive threat, and the moment she realises she can’t have you will be the moment everything changes. ”
Lukyan said nothing, his brows lowered in a deep frown.
“We need to find her and deal with her.” The underlying meaning in Aleksandr’s words were clear. “She’s following you . That means you’re the only one who can do it. You do whatever you need to do to find her, and you kill her. Understand?”
The room was silent for a moment until finally, Lukyan agreed. “Got it.”
“Good.” Aleksandr addressed a few more issues; where we sat with inventory, our new clients in New York, the progress of the new soldiers sent over from Russia.
Lukyan and I sat and listened, chiming in whenever we had anything to add.
Father said nothing. He just sat back and watched Aleksandr completely in his element.
If there was ever any doubt about Aleksandr being able to handle this job, it was all squashed at that moment.
After he was finished, Father spoke. “I will be going away for a few weeks. There’s something I have to do—”
“Does this ‘something’ have anything to do with a certain feisty red-head?” Lukyan sang, his face full of cheekiness.
Father’s head snapped to him so fast, I worried he’d break his neck, that dark, angry cloud hanging over him that had slowly started to diminish flaring straight back to life.
Aleksandr and I both groaned. You goddamn fucking idiot.
We all knew not to mention her to him. Anytime anybody did, his mood got even worse. Darker, more enraged.
Lukyan winced under Father’s terrifying glare, hunching his shoulder in to try and make himself smaller.
Now’s as good a time as any to share your news. It might distract Father long enough to save Lukyan’s life.
“Since we’re sharing news,” I coughed. “I have something to tell you all. I’m leaving.”
That did it.
Father’s gaze whipped to me and they all spoke overtop of one another.
Father: “What are you talking about?”
Aleksandr: “Where are you going?”
Lukyan: “Can I have your room?”
We all looked to him, giving him a deadpan stare.
“What?” he shrugged. “It’s not like it’s a surprise. Of course he’s leaving. As if he could live somewhere different than Tatiana.”
There he went again, being a complete idiot one minute and incredibly insightful the next.
Aleksandr leant forward, bracing his elbows on the desk. He frowned in concentration. “Tatiana can’t move here?”
“We spoke about it and she offered, but her classes have just started. Moving back means she has to pull out. I don’t want her to do that. This is something she’s been dreaming about for years. I don’t want to be the reason she can’t do it.”
Aleksandr’s jaw clenched. “I need you here, Nikolai.”
I smiled sadly. “Respectfully, Zander, there’s nothing you can say that will keep me here. She’s pregnant.”
“What?!” Lukyan shouted. “Already?! Damn, how strong are your swimmers?”
A mixture of emotions swirled in my brother's eyes: shock, bewilderment, happiness, defeat. He knew there was nothing on God’s green Earth that could keep me away from Tatiana then.
Of course I felt bad. We used to talk about this moment all the time when we were kids. The moment when Father would finally step down, and we would be in charge. Just eight and ten-year-old boys giggling under the blankets late at night about all the changes we were going to make.
Switching all of the passwords to “fart knuckles”. Making all of the soldiers wear capes. No more vegetables in the house. Idiotic changes, of course. But to two little kids, they were perfect.
“Oh my god! Congratulations!” Drea squealed, jumping up and down in her chair. “A baby! How exciting!”
“Two, actually.”
“Twins?” Aleksandr's eyes widened at the revelation.
I nodded.
He got to his feet and marched over to me. I thought he was going to hit me or something, but he hauled me up and hugged me so tightly, I choked. “Congratulations, little brother.”
It took a second for me to react, stunned that my usually un-affectionate big brother was embracing me. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back.
“Congratulations, son.” Father patted me on the shoulder.
“I wanna get in on this.” Not even a second later, Lukyan joined in, his arms encircling the three of us. “This is so nice,” he breathed dreamily.
Aleksandr grunted. “Get off me.”
“Andddd look at that, you ruined it, ya big grump.”
Laughing softly, I returned to my seat, the others following suit.
“Just because I’m leaving doesn’t mean I won’t still work.
I’ll coordinate with our new clients in New York and oversee the deliveries and payments.
Tatiana only plans to stay at FIT long enough to gain enough credits so that, when a spot opens up at a college here, she can transfer. ”
Aleksandr nodded. “So when do you leave?”
“Now.”