Chapter 17 - Avit
“I got you, you piece of shit.”
My head snapped toward Sienna. She sat beside me, furiously tapping on her laptop.
The past few days, she'd been…off. Snarkier.
Quieter. Dark circles forming under her eyes.
Yesterday, Wexler informed me that during one of her classes, she went off on a student who was harassing someone sitting next to her.
Then, she quickly excused herself and sat in the bathroom stall for the rest of the class.
Wexler knew she was crying because when he checked on her, he heard her sniffling.
This was affecting Sienna more than I wanted it to.
We kept getting dead-end leads, and outside of her classes, she barely left the office.
She studied here, worked here, hunted down the owner of that location here.
Every night, she fell asleep behind her laptop, and eventually, I brought in a small bed just so I could move her to something more comfortable.
After the pregnancy reveal, Mariya had called asking how she was doing. She’d mentioned Sienna wasn’t feeling well due to the heavy workload, of almost being done with her master’s, and guilt hit me again. I dragged her into this, but she was as stubborn as I was and refused to back down.
It was almost eleven now—her hair was tousled, falling limply over her shoulders, exhaustion carved into her features—and still, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“Who’s a piece of shit?” I asked.
“Oskar Mosav.”
Wait. What?
“Oskar owns the location? Are you sure?” My voice came out sharper than I expected.
Sienna shot me a deadly glare. “Of course I’m sure,” she snapped. “I’d bid my damn life on it.”
Oskar Mosav.
A fucking business tycoon.
A man with companies spread across the US.
A man who’d appeared out of nowhere five years ago and carved out an empire. We’d crossed paths at events. We'd always been polite towards each other, and as far as I knew, he had no personal beef with my brothers or the faction.
So why the hell was he buying goods stolen from us?
“I’m sorry, Sienna. Go ahead, tell me everything you found.”
She turned back to her laptop, but her muscles remained tense. She explained that Oskar had multiple illegal projects in Philly, all of them tied to one name I hadn’t expected to hear again—Giovanni Rinaldi. Without Rinaldi, the projects collapsed, and Oskar lost a shit ton of money.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered, leaning back as the pieces slammed together.
Of course.
Oskar stealing from us wasn’t random.
This was him trying to compensate for the losses he took—and his twisted version of revenge against our faction.
But Rinaldi had only been dead a couple of months. Oskar had been buying the products for over a year. Which only meant that he was fucking supplying our product to Rinaldi’s men. Son of a bitch.
“Is everything okay?” Sienna asked softly.
There was a softness to her in that moment. It was the first time in days she actually looked like…her.
“I'm fine,” I said evenly, though my anger simmered under my skin. “You did a great job. Now go to bed and rest. You earned it.”
She nodded, but the second she stood, she swayed. I shot up and caught her, cocooning her in my arms.
“Are you okay?” I asked, tenderly.
“I guess I pushed myself too hard,” she whispered.
“And I’m proud of you,” I said, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “But now it’s time for bed.”
I scooped her up. She didn’t protest, thank fuck, and I carried her to her room. I laid her down, then kicked off my shoes and got into bed beside her. She curled into me instantly, her head against my shoulder.
Now that we had a name, I knew it was only a matter of time before she’d say she was ready to leave. So whatever time I had left with her, I’d make damn sure it was good.
“Rest, angel. You deserve it.”
She fell asleep within minutes. I stayed another hour, letting the softness of her body take the edge off, before I finally slipped out of the bed and headed to my room.
The second the door shut behind me, the anger resurfaced and turned into fury, hitting me like a sledgehammer.
If fucking Oskar Mosav thought he could buy goods stolen from us and walk away untouched, he was out of his goddamn mind. The bastard wasn’t even on my radar to pull something like this. And the fact that I didn’t check our “allies” first made me pissed.
I swapped my dress clothes for black jeans, a T-shirt, and boots. I checked both guns strapped to my chest to ensure they were fully loaded, then threw on a leather jacket and slipped some lock-picking tools into my pocket, together with a black mask.
I texted Wexler and told him that I was leaving, but I didn’t wait for him to reach the house. I headed straight to my car, started the engine, and drove off with one place in mind.
I needed to dig deeper into Oskar, but there was no damn way I was letting Sienna grind herself into the ground for my war. From here on out, this part was mine.
Once I reached his location, I’d find something, anything, I could use as leverage. A secret. A weakness. A pressure point.
Something I could hold against him like a loaded gun.
Something that would make Oskar Mosav think twice before crossing us again.
Something that would make the bastard remember why the Safin Bratva is feared.
I parked two blocks away from the location, far enough to stay off any cameras, close enough to run if shit went sideways. I still had no idea what I was walking into.
I pulled on my mask, which covered my entire face, minus my eyes, and moved in silence, slipping on black leather gloves I always kept in the car. Every step was cautious, every sound around me catalogued. My gun stayed in my hand, safety off, finger ready.
When I got close enough, I dropped low behind a thick line of shrubs. The building looked like a warehouse. It was old, with steel sidings, a few lights flickering outside. But I didn't hear any movement coming from inside.
My eyes scanned the perimeter. Cameras were tucked high in the trees, another two mounted at the front entrance. The tech looked expensive and the wiring was clean, almost unnoticeable. Oskar hadn’t cheaped out; this was top-tier security.
So where the fuck were the guards?
Either they’d gone invisible…or someone wanted this place to look abandoned. Both options were shit.
Staying low, I circled wide to avoid the cameras and slipped through the back entrance after picking the lock. I almost expected to hear an alarm go off, but I didn't. However, that didn't mean there weren't silent alarms. And if that was the case, I needed to hurry the fuck up.
The downstairs opened into a large room with rows of cubicle-like sections branching off. At the far end, a staircase led up to what looked like private offices. If Oskar kept anything worth using against him, it would be up there.
And I was going to find it.
I ascended silently, scanning the layout. If I were Oskar, my office would be the furthest from the stairs, more bodies between me and a bullet. I headed straight for the door at the end of the corridor, picked the lock, and slipped inside.
I did a quick sweep with my penlight, and my attention snapped to the computer.
I slid into the chair and started working the keyboard. I just needed one usable file to drop onto the USB I brought along. Something that would gut Oskar. Something worth bleeding over.
I sat there for fifteen goddamn minutes with nothing to show for it. Every file was encrypted to hell. If I grabbed something useless—or worse, something booby-trapped—I’d blow the whole op.
There were still no sightings of guards, yet my instincts screamed at me.
Then, finally, a file opened.
Then I heard a noise.
Shit! Footsteps!
They were coming from right outside the door.
“Fuck,” I breathed silently.
I shut off the monitor with a slam of my finger and dove under the desk. I folded myself into its shadows, barely.
That was when my hand brushed something.
Small. Plastic. Sharp edges.
I strained my eyes.
A memory card.
My pulse raced. Jackpot.
I slipped it into my pocket just as the office door creaked open, and someone stepped inside.
“If I find whoever the fuck broke into this joint, they’re fucking dead,” a man snarled.
“Relax. The ladies said they’d wait until we get back,” another replied. “Can’t wait to sink your cock into that brunette, huh?”
“Did you see the tits on that broad?” the first one said. “I could get lost in those babies for a week.”
Idiots. I rolled my eyes, praying they’d hurry the hell up and get out.
“Looks like nobody’s up here. Let’s check the other rooms quickly.”
They really weren’t going to check the only hideable place in the office? Dumbasses.
They were almost at the door when a phone rang.
“Hello, Mr. Mosav,” the first man answered. “Yes, we’re on location.”
At least that confirmed Oskar owned the damn place.
“Okay, boss. Got it.”
“What did he want?” the second man asked.
“Boss wants me to grab a file from his computer.”
Fucking hell.
I inhaled slowly and eased the safety off my gun. If he found me, I was shooting first. I wasn’t planning on dying tonight. Not after Sienna warned me to stay away until we knew the setup. If I died here tonight, she'd live with that guilt forever. I couldn't do that to her.
Footsteps inched closer. I held my breath, finger ready on the trigger. I saw the tip of his boot…
Then suddenly, a high-pitched shriek sliced through the warehouse.
“Where the fuck is that coming from?” the second man groaned.
“I don’t care! Get to the security room and switch off the fucking system. Someone’s here, and if he wants a welcome party, let’s give him one!”
They bolted out, slamming the door behind them.
A moment later, the door opened again, the footsteps gentler, completely wrong for this hellhole.
“Avit…are you in here?” she whispered.
What the fuck? Sienna?
I scrambled out from under the desk. And there she was, standing in front of me like she hadn’t just walked into a death trap.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed.
“Saving your butt. Let’s go, you can be mad later.”
I grabbed her hand, fingers locking with hers.
“The cameras are on a loop,” she said breathlessly. “The only way they can kill that sound is to shut down the whole system, so we've got about fifteen minutes before everything reboots.”
Thank fuck. No live feed made our escape easier. And it seemed like only those two wastes-of-fucks were working tonight.
As we slipped down the stairs, I heard footsteps. I pulled Sienna behind some crates, my hand sliding to her neck. Her pulse hammered under my fingertips as a guard passed. She never took her eyes from mine. I’d thought I’d see fear in them, but I only saw determination.
As soon as the guard cleared and headed through the back door, we made our move and hurried out of the warehouse into the night toward the car.
And the second we were out of immediate danger, my anger tipped over the edge.
What she’d done was reckless! Insane! Dangerous! How the hell had she gotten here? Where the fuck was Wexler?
I tightened my grip on her hand, barely keeping myself controlled. She needed to understand something…
I was trained for this. She wasn’t. She should never have left the house without guards.
And as God was my witness, she was going to pay for this.
Not out of cruelty.
Out of fucking terror.
Because I would rather she hated me for the rest of her life than pull another stunt like this and end up dead.