Chapter 25 Tati #2
I walk the coffee over to them, and they pause their conversation to take the cup. Viktor tells Teddy to give him a second as he sets his cup down and takes me aside.
“I know all this is probably a little much for you to take in,” he says, “and I can’t blame you for being worried, but whatever happens today, I need to know that you’ll be safe in order for me to do the things I need to do.”
I don’t say anything. I just look at him, trying to understand. He rolls his eyes.
“Don’t look at me that way, Tanechka.”
“What way? I’m listening.”
He shakes his head as he looks away for a moment, over at everyone around us working to put together this plan of action that’s been set forth.
“He will never stop coming for us if we run,” he says as he looks back at me. “Never. And if he ever finds out about the baby…” He takes a breath. “It has to happen like this. There’s no other way.”
Oh, no. My eyes are starting to burn again. I bite my lip hard to keep the tears from coming. “Okay,” I tell him.
He studies my face for a moment, then, “Teddy’s committed to keeping you safe. Whatever he says to do, you do it. Do you understand, my love?”
I nod. I want to kiss him, wrap my arms around him one more time. He touches my face gently, tracing my jawline until he’s cupping my chin.
“I’ll be back. I promise.”
He’s promised. I guess… I guess that’s what I have to hang onto.
With that said, he turns back to the table and continues his conversation with Teddy. I watch for a few seconds, then I go back to the bedroom.
I can’t watch him leave. I’d rather see him when he comes back.
It started raining a little while ago. I’ve been trying not to watch the clock as I wait to see him walking through the door again.
The commotion outside this room has died down, so I guess everything is in place. At some point, I got Nicki’s journal and started reading from it to pass the time. In these pages, I’m finding that he truly was in a place of transition before he passed away.
He writes about talking to Marla about his thoughts and considering having a talk with Viktor.
He tried a few times, but he hadn’t been taken seriously.
I should probably be upset about that, but I’m not.
Viktor has been entirely committed to the brotherhood his whole life.
He wouldn’t have wanted to see Nicki starting to change right before his eyes.
And it all started with Sturov. My brother was in his twenties when he died. He’d be on his way to his thirties now had he lived. He had been doing the job since he was old enough to take the oath. What a journey he had.
And as I go on further into his writings, he was becoming more and more convinced that there was a way out for him. It’s crazy how he thought of it. Like a puzzle that needed to be solved.
That’s probably the privilege of being the child of a Pakhan talking. I know I’ve always believed I had options, even as my father tried to strip me of every single one of them by locking me away like a fairy tale princess.
There’s a soft knock at the door, and I look up to see Teddy standing in the open doorway. I close the book and offer a weak smile before greeting him with a “Hey.”
“Hey,” he says back. “How’re you holding up?”
“How do you think?” I scoff. He doesn’t say anything. He just stands there like a sentinel, arms crossed, the light outside the room shining off his bald head. “Couldn’t you send anyone at all with him? I mean… how could you let him do this alone?”
“I think you know the answer to that,” he says with a slight tilt of his head. “I mean, assuming you know him like I do, anyway. Nobody tells Viktor how to move when it comes to shit like this. If he thought backup was necessary, he would have asked.”
“You still could have offered.”
He leans a little toward me with a crooked smile. “Do you think he would have agreed with me if I did?”
I shake my head and sigh a little. “Point taken.”
He keeps his smile as he says, “You know the story of how I met Vik and your brother?” I shake my head.
“Nicki knocked over the bikes in front of our old club.” He chuckles softly at the memory.
“Little shit couldn’t have been older than fifteen at the time.
We happened to catch him doing it on the cameras.
And if you’ve ever heard the sound twenty-five Harleys make when they go down like dominoes…
you’d be ready to take heads too if one of yours happened to be in the bunch. ”
He sighs, his eyes glossing over as he remembers.
“So, we did what we do, you know? We rushed out of the club and chased him down. Well, he didn’t get far, let me tell you.
We caught him about half a mile up the road, and the only thing that saved his ass was that we realized he was just a kid.
I ended up hemming him up against a fence and threatening him, hoping to scare him. Sonofabitch spat in my face for it.”
I listen with rapt attention. “What did you do?”
“What do you think? I beat his ass. Figured that was the end of it. I was wrong. The next day, he showed up, black eye and bruised face. He walked right up to our bikes and knocked them right back down again. So, we chased him down and I beat his ass again. On the third day, Vik shows up. And now, Nicki’s shenanigans are everybody’s problem. ”
He walks into the bedroom and sits down on the bed next to me.
“See, we didn’t know who Nicki was. I mean, it’s not like there was any time for any introductions.
But the minute Vik showed up, we knew shit was about to get real.
And Vik? He had every right to make sure nobody walked out of the club alive, too.
I mean, it’s a rule as old as time. Nobody fucks with Bratva if they don’t want a war. That’s gospel.”
He pauses, pulling out a cigarette. “When Vik told us who he was and why he was there, I thought, shit, I’m fucked.
Never thought teaching some little shit respect was going to end up with a Russian Boss sending his top hitman to our doorstep.
” He lights the cigarette and takes a drag before continuing.
“Lucky for us, Vik wasn’t there to crack skulls.
All he wanted to know was what happened.
I guess your brother showing up at your house all beat up two days in a row sparked more curiosity than anger for him.
Turns out, Nicki was keeping his little adventure from your father.
See, he thought tangling with us would make him tough, give him something to brag about so that his Bratva brothers would look at him with some respect. ”
He takes another drag and chuckles, smoke tendrils escaping his lips.
“Stupid kid didn’t realize messing with bikers is an easy way to get yourself erased off the planet.
Fortunately for him, Vik and I understood the kind of thing that makes a kid like him do dumb shit like that.
I think we’ve all been there, to be honest.”
I smile. He talks about Nicki lovingly, and that’s so refreshing to hear. “So, what did you do?” I ask.
“Well, Vik and I came up with a plan,” he says. “We decided to go in together on teaching him how to get tough and how to take care of himself. In return, should Vik ever need the Red Devils for anything, or vice versa, we’ve got his back.”
He sits and smokes in silence for a moment, flicking the ashes on the floor.
“It’s been like that ever since. And let me tell you something that I know better than anybody.
Nobody fucks with your man, sweetheart. Anybody thinks about ruining his day, they are gonna pay for it.
If they’re lucky, all they’ll lose is their life.
” He nudges me playfully. “Our boy’s gonna be fine on his own. Trust me.”
I nod and smile back. If Teddy has confidence in him…
Shouting grabs our attention. Someone’s yelling something from the bar. “Lock and load!” I hear somebody yell.
Teddy tosses the cigarette onto the floor and crushes it under his boot. “Stay in here,” he says as he stands, pulling out the handgun in his belt. “Lock the door and don’t open it for anybody. You understand? If you don’t hear me on the other side, you don’t open it.”
I nod quickly and he’s gone, rushing out of the room and closing the door behind him. I get up and lock it quickly. I start looking around the room for an exit, and there isn’t one. The windows above me look like they’re sealed shut. Shit, shit, shit…
I grab the journal from its place on the bed as the unmistakable popping of muffled gunshots goes off somewhere in the club beyond the door. They decided to come here for us. I hope Viktor’s faith in Teddy isn’t misplaced.
Shouts, gunshots, fighting noises… It continues for too long. I sit on the floor and find that I’m shaking all over.
And then the door handle shakes. Fuck.
I look up at the lamp on the nightstand and a plan forms. I toss Nicki’s journal under the bed and get up to grab the lamp.
As soon as I get it in my hands, the room is filled with hard thuds as someone kicks the door.
Once, twice… Then the air splits with the sound of the door splintering as it bursts open.
I throw the lamp at the figure before it even registers.
He throws an arm up and it crashes into a million pieces across his forearm, but he doesn’t stop. Yanov charges at me, leather gloves covering my mouth as I struggle against him. He drags me out of the room and sparks are flying around us. The heavy smell of gunpowder fills the air.
Before I’m dragged out the back door, I see one of my father’s men attack Teddy, trying to wrestle the gun out of his hand… Teddy’s winning…
I bite Yanov’s hand, digging through the leather with all my might.
He yells and turns me loose, but only long enough to throw me out the back door.
I fall on my ass in the alley, and before I can get up, he grabs me and pulls me to my feet.
“Enough of this,” he mutters in Russian before clocking me across the jaw…