19. Viktor
VIKTOR
Alexei and I came back after another day of trying to find out who had placed that hit on Adrik. I had a vested interest in the matter because I hoped to also find out if that was the same sniper who took a shot at Wren.
But so far, nothing was helping. Every lead we had turned out to be nothing. No matter who we talked to, no one would own up to actually putting a hit on my brother.
“Why would I bother?” one of the Cartel bosses said when we were led to them. “If we killed him, there’s still how many more of you?”
That was true. If anyone wanted to overthrow the Volkov Bratva leadership, there would be a line to wait behind.
The throne went from father to son, and if that was done, it went to brothers.
I was fourth in line. Alexei, as a cousin, would be sixth.
When Gregori killed our grandfather, the throne went to Dmitri, the eldest son.
And since Adrik was an adult, he would take the throne once our father passed away, which shouldn’t be too much longer, according to the doctors.
“It makes me wonder what the fuck he’s trying to do,” Alexei said as I drove him back to his house after another long day of dead ends.
“Gregori?” I asked.
“Who the hell else?” he replied.
I shrugged.
“I can’t talk about him with Lev,” he said. “He gets too emotional and pissed off.”
“He does.” And I said that with love. Lev was very close to my father, and I knew that he was extra sensitive about Gregori even being on our radar. He loathed him. We all did.
“But he seems hooked on the idea that he’s trying to take the throne.”
“He’s not the only one who thinks that,” I reminded him.
“It’s fucking bullshit,” he protested. “To take out all four of you?” He shook his head.
“Until we can get a location on him and figure out who’d been handling things for him since we had Yusef Antonov killed…” He let out a deep breath as I pulled up at his house. “We’ll never know.”
“That’s why I’m glad that Adrik is open to letting Wren work for us. Maybe one of the agents who have been bought off can reveal something useful to us.”
He rolled his head on the headrest before getting out. “You think she’ll find anything?”
“Now that Trojan helped her get access to their inter-office messaging program, hopefully.” I left him with that and headed home to find my secret agent. My redhead.
I wasn’t surprised that she was still working hard.
A few days ago, before she’d hit one month of being mine, she asked Elena if she could bring a laptop with her to my house to continue working on finding whatever she could about the link between the corrupt agents and Gregori.
Armed with a laptop and all the access that Trojan could arrange for her, she would often work late into the night when I was too busy to be near her.
As I walked into the room now and began unbuttoning my shirt, I tilted my head as she shook her head. Seated at a small desk, she had the laptop open and the screen garishly bright against the darkness of the room.
“Have you moved at all in the last few hours?” I asked, familiar with how she’d lose track of time.
“No. I can’t.” She turned, though, working out the kinks in her neck. “Look.”
“What did you find?” I came toward her, setting my hands on the armrests of the chair she sat in. Hunched over like this, I partially covered her. Just because I could, and because I had a hunch that once she started talking, she wouldn’t stop, I kissed her cheek.
“Uh-huh.” She faced the screen without looking at me. Lifting her hand to pat my cheek, she nodded. “Later.”
I huffed, turning the chair until she faced me. Her red hair flung over her face with how swiftly I moved her, and she plucked a strand from her lips as she gasped.
“Later?” I taunted. I framed her face and kissed her with all the pent-up energy I’d had from missing her all day. I’d be fucked if she wasn’t here waiting for me in what was feeling like our home now. “You’re dismissing me?”
She kissed me back harder, and I swore I felt her lips curling up in a smile. “Yes, later.”
I grinned, looking down at her and loving the heat in her eyes. But something else lurked there too. Something serious.
Well, shit.
I have a later to look forward to with her.
It might not have seemed like a big deal, but the fact that she wouldn’t resist me anymore mattered. The way she anticipated our coming together implied that she was coming more to terms with her place of being with me, no one else.
The seriousness of her gaze got through the desire that was always simmering for her. “What’d you find?”
“More.”
I turned her chair back for her to show me on the laptop. “More what?”
“More of everything. More ties to this Gregori guy. More bribes being made to multiple agencies. More corruption.”
My gut tensed at the news of more evidence. This was what we wanted. This was exactly what I had been hoping she’d be able to find for us. Yet getting closer to finding a location on Gregori or finding new lieutenants of his to hit back at meant we were that much closer to full-out war.
“Trojan helped me get into the inter-office messaging.” She cringed slightly.
“I know I’ll be going to hell for this, but um, that was the landmine I was waiting to find.
And there’s just so many avenues to explore there.
I spent a long time seeing where else these bribes were going and what favors were being asked.
” She leaned back, brushing the back of her head against my chest as I leaned over her once more.
Running her hand through her hair, she touched her knuckles against me.
I had only just started unbuttoning my shirt, and even that skin-on-skin contact sizzled me all over.
“I don’t know everything about your Bratva, but from what I can see and who is being asked to interfere with even your legitimate businesses, this isn’t a game.
” She clicked through windows, showing images and correspondence of all the little fires that we’d been putting out lately.
Of the trouble our businesses were taking, and that was only half of it.
Most of our revenue came from the illegitimate businesses we operated, and those were being interfered with too.
“For the number of favors that have been asked…” She sighed. “It’s insane. This isn’t one man having a grudge against you or whatever. This is a concerted effort to dismantle and destroy all that you touch.”
I narrowed my eyes at the screen, trying to keep track of all that she gave me a preview of.
She was right. Even though I had yet to explain to her who Gregori was, she could see that he had his hands in many different avenues of interference and sabotage.
“He’s not messing around, and he’s using different aliases to cover his tracks, but this money is not only going to the FBI. The DEA, the prisons, CIA… Then there’s the lower levels. Officers and admins all through the state, county, and city departments.”
“He’s infiltrated all those agencies?” I asked after she flicked through a fast folder of receipts she was collecting.
“Mm-hmm.”
This really was becoming a war on multiple fronts.
“Some of these favors are just to look the other way, like some of these shipments and things like that. Others are being bribed in the courts, and that reeks of more corruption.”
For a while longer, she showed me more evidence of the widespread corruption she’d unearthed aside from all that Smithson was involved with.
It blew my mind how organized and thorough she was, truly knowing where to look and how to filter through databases.
It reminded me of how wise Elena was, and I found it funny that I’d brought another computer expert to the group.
“The messages and emails that link to the intermediaries are too hard to track. That’s what I’m still working on, because from what Elena has explained and from what I can see, Gregori isn’t personally paying off the whole western half of the country’s law enforcement.”
She turned to face me. “I’m stunned at how layered this web is, though. One or two corrupt individuals here or there, that makes sense. This is something else.”
“You’ve put a lot of time into this,” I said as she fully spun the chair to face me.
“I have. But I’m not looking for praise or awards. This shit has got to stop. An organized network like this is a threat to not just you and the Bratva but everyone. I thought that I’d be tracking Rico Johnson and following what kind of campaign fraud he was getting up to. But this is even worse.”
It was good to see she could still be her, that self-righteous do-gooder. I couldn’t have full faith that this meant she’d be on our side forever.
“I wanted to prepare a more organized report to show your brother. Adrik would need to see this for himself so hopefully he can, um, protect your assets. Not to borrow Elena’s motto, but the fewer details I know, the better.” She winced.
I leaned down to kiss her at the same time I urged her to stand.
“He will want to see all of this.”
Hearing her willingly plan to give him this information was a huge step forward as far as I was concerned.
Maybe spending time working alongside Elena had changed her views of all my Bratva brothers.
If my sister-in-law was being instrumental in getting Wren to see us as not-so-bad guys in comparison to the evilness of Gregori, then that was a win as far as I was concerned.
“But there’s no location for where Gregori is? No clues on who placed that hit on Adrik?” I held her close, hating how strained she looked from sitting at the computer for so long. “I am still assuming that whoever put a hit on him would’ve been the one to aim at you, too. Or in your direction.”
She shook her head. “No. There’s too many aliases and codes to crack so far, but the progress I’m making is hopeful.
” She kissed me, taking the initiative now as she began to further unbutton my shirt.
“And I’m hopeful that sticking around on my ‘stay’ you’ve insisted upon will give me the direction for whom I need to look out for as well. ”
She laid her lips against mine again, drugging me with her sweet hunger.
As I picked her up and carried her toward the shower with me, I realized once more that she could fit in so well with us. As another financial investigator. As our secret spy and agent.
But right now, I wanted to remind her of how well we fit together. United again with my cock deep inside her as we stood under the hot, steaming spray of a shower.