JETMIR
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Organs of the night.
It was an organization that had been kidnapping humans and butchering them like animals in order to harvest their organs. Atticus Popov and his daughter ran it before they were killed, and Enzo Marchetti became the head of it in order to dismantle it from the inside.
One little problem.
The head of the Triad was also running it from the sidelines and my wife was on their radar.
Any motherfucker who dared get anywhere near my wife would die a painful death. They didn’t know it, but I kept a close watch on Anya. Yes, it was because I was protective—fine, obsessed—but also because I wanted to ensure her safety.
Over the last three years, I’d been reducing the number of members of the Triad, one by one, but there were still way too many members in that fucking organization.
The latest member was someone who lived in Miami.
It was too close to my angel for comfort, so I followed the lead to a building right outside the city, with nobody and nothing to reach us for miles.
All around, silence hung heavy in the night air. Even the moon couldn’t seem to find the strength to shine through the cloud. Muted streetlights surrounded the area, making it hard to see for anyone who was unlucky enough to find themselves here.
I heard a shuffle and I whirled around, gun pointed at… my sister.
“Damn it, Elira! Do you have a death wish sneaking up on me like that?”
“What are you doing here?” she asked, watching me with a narrowed gaze.
“I’m working. What are you doing here?”
“I don’t like the idea of you here alone,” she said. The cloak of darkness afforded us a level of security.
“If I needed or wanted help, I would have called.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” she muttered. “If you needed help, you would already be so deep in shit, you wouldn’t be able to call.”
“God, you’re so annoying,” I retorted dryly.
“It’s a trait we share.” She tilted her chin in the direction of the area behind me. “What’s going on there?”
I kneeled and she mirrored the position. The area was surrounded by barbed wire.
“I think it belongs to the Triad,” I answered as I looked through my binoculars.
“What? Why?”
“I think they want Anya to get to me.”
I snapped photos of the men who roamed the area, then loaded the images into an app that Enzo Marchetti built, and one by one, their names flashed across the screen. They were all Chinese names, except for one.
“Please tell me you’re not doing business with them,” she demanded. When I remained silent, she let out a sigh. “And please tell me you have a plan.”
“I do have a plan,” I stated, my focus now on the men I’d profiled as I stored the information in the Cloud.
“You didn’t answer my first question.”
“You know, you’re an annoying sister to have.” I looked at her exasperatedly. “What was the question?”
“Are you doing business with them?”
“No, but I used to before the explosion in Albania where they tried to kill Anya."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Are you fucking mad? Nobody sane does business dealings with them.”
I shrugged. “I wanted to give them a chance. It was a simple gun shipment, but then he tried to kill us, so the business was off.”
“Why are they after Anya?” she demanded.
“To get to me, I presume.” I shook my head.
“The head of the Triad must have lost his goddamned mind,” she remarked. “Yeah, they’re scary, but surely they’re aware of the Tijuana and Volkov reputation?”
“There’s always someone who wants to be the bigger monster,” I grumbled, turning back to survey the area.
“Yeah, and someone who wants to save the day. Speaking of protectors, Raphael Santos keeps trying to hack into Albanian police and the Tijuana Cartel database. Clearly that man has a death wish too.”
I let out a sardonic breath.
“The man is determined to learn who’s behind the explosion and refuses to ask for help.”
My lips lifted into a smile.
Raphael Santos was stubborn. It was a family trait that Anya inherited.
I turned my head and met my sister’s eyes. “You’re never letting go of Anya, are you?”
“Never.”
“You love her that much?”
“I do.”
The answer was lame compared to what I actually felt for her. I was so fucking in love with her that I was terrified she would hate me forever because I was too crazy, too obsessed, and too much like other Tijuana men who coincidently hurt her mother two decades ago.
I wanted her to choose me and stay with me willingly. Until death do us part.
We watched each other silently, and something in my sister’s expression told me she understood. After all, we lived our childhood together. We learned who and what shaped us. We experienced the same fears and anxiety.
“We’re seriously fucked up, aren’t we?” she finally stated flatly.
Fuck, that anguish on her face was gutting me alive.
“Yeah.”
My jaw tightened and bitterness flickered in my chest, because there was really nothing else to say. We were the Volkovs. We were the Tijuanas. Two bloodlines that managed to wreak havoc and damage lives for decades. That was our legacy.
She tilted her head, thinking. “Ever wonder how we would have turned up if Kian hadn’t taken us?”
“No.” Yes.
“Kian tried… I guess,” she continued. “He wasn’t a father figure, but he protected us.”
“He stepped in. If he hadn’t, we’d be dead,” I said. “The rest doesn’t matter.”
I didn’t want to lend my own demons and fears to my twin. I wanted at least one of us to believe there was something good in us.
“Yeah, you’re right.” She studied me, her eyes scrutinizing me for any sign that I wasn’t being truthful. She wouldn’t find any.
“You’ve been different since you met Anya.”
I nodded. “She’s good for me.”
“Her family disagrees.” She snickered, but there was no bite to her words. “You’ll have to prove them wrong.”
“Oh, I will.” I rubbed my jaw, the stubble on it several days old. “And it will be tomorrow.” I glanced at my Patek Philippe wristwatch. “Or rather tonight.”
She let out an amused breath. “Okay, then. Ready to share your plan?”
“Yes.” Commotion followed, and we both returned to look at the parking lot where one lone figure moved around. “I’m going to kidnap Anya tonight. To keep her safe and to win her back.”
The shock of my statement rendered her silent while she stared at me dumbfounded. “Now, I need you to get a car that isn’t registered and wait for me before dawn outside the Santos manor.”
I didn’t have to wonder whether she would or not.