Chapter 17
Scarlett
“Told you this one was Ash,” Chet snorts, emerging from the crowd and stalking toward us with purpose. His face is a bloom of livid, unrestrained rage. Whatever Polina said to him in the parking lot has seemingly set him off.
The look Jonas throws him when Chet steps up beside him can only be summed up in a single word: triumph.
Ah. What’d you do, Kelly? Probably stirred Chet up, convinced him to do something stupid and risky.
If I were Jonas, that’s what I’d do. Rile Chet up and force him to make mistakes that’ll draw the family’s attention his way.
After all, it was Ernest who pulled the literal trigger on Pavel.
It’s Chet who took over Borisov Group and embezzled all the money.
I’m the boss, too, in my own circle. I get it. I try not to get my hands dirty.
Tonight is a horrible exception to that rule.
“Hai.” Ash laughs, and it’s ungodly and strange.
“Boku ga Ash desu.” He turns and throws his arms wide, addressing the entire room.
“Ash. My name is Ash. Just Ash!” He’s still laughing when Widow gets a hold of him, putting both of his hands on his friend’s face.
Ash is so beyond perplexed by that, he actually calms down in an instant.
“Hey, Just Ash. Take a deep breath for me.” Widow doesn’t move, not even when Ash puts his own hands on top of his and closes his eyes. If this were a proper moment for squeeing, I’d squee. Also, I am Scarlett Force and squeeing isn’t super on-brand for me. “Daijoubu desu ka?”
Ash forces his big, black eyes open.
“Kanashii,” he mumbles back, and Widow’s lips tighten.
Not with annoyance though. My loverboy’s face is all twisted up with compassion.
It’s an interaction that everybody sees, that makes Chet even more furious, that Jonas slurps up to use against us later.
He thinks this is our weakness when in reality it’s our strength.
“I know.” Widow drops his hands, forcing Ash to do the same. Adrian’s jaw is tight and his eyes are a pair of pirate’s coins, like plundered treasure. They shine with malice when he directs them over to Chet and Jonas. “But…uh…” Widow holds up three fingers. “San-pun…okane.”
Whatever that means, it calms Ash down substantially.
“Where is my son?” Chet demands, big white teeth gritted together. Hair perfect and blond and swooped. Pale blue suit jacket unbuttoned. Black tie with a pattern of blue diamonds. Blue eyes displaying his hatred for us in no uncertain terms. He isn’t going to try to hide it the way Jonas is.
What an impulsive fool.
“You must have some idea of where your son is if you’re asking us that question,” I reply cryptically, lifting both brows.
Chet laughs and rakes his fingers through his perfect hair, ruining it.
He casts a look over at Jonas and gets absolutely nothing in response.
Chet scoffs, like he’s disgusted with his partner.
Ash throws a cold-blooded look over his shoulder, a murderous moue on his handsome lips.
“You want to know where Cody is, do you?” Ash asks, miming a gun with his hand and pointing his finger-barrel up at the ceiling before pressing his fingertip to his temple. “Bang, bang.”
Chet allows those perverted lips of his to twist into something ugly, smug, and reckless.
He’s about to make a huge mistake here. Jonas knows it, moving into the crowd to speak with someone else. Smiling all the way. He’s distancing himself from Chet on purpose.
“Does Mr. Cramer know that your white-haired freak was the one to murder so many of his men? I could tell him. Or, you could keep this to yourself.” Chet reaches into his pocket and draws out a box, offering it out to Alexei. “I wanted to show my respects early, with a special wedding gift.”
Chet shakes the box at us. My new husband won’t take it.
But I will. It doesn’t matter what’s in it.
I accept the ‘gift’ and pull it close. It’s small.
Light. Could be an explosive but I don’t think Chet would risk being injured himself.
He’s too vain for that. Bohnes wouldn’t have let him bring something like that over here anyway.
I lift the lid off the box.
For a second, it feels like I’m looking at another shrivelled cock.
But it’s not. I very quickly realize this particular gift is a finger.
Also, it’s fresh. Well, frozen. Not rotten though.
It has a fingernail and a black wedding band encircling it like a snake. It is a snake. Matches my wedding ring.
I can’t be sure that this is Pavel Borisov’s finger.
But come on.
It tracks.
I try to put the lid back on the box, but Alexei stops me, reaching out and taking the finger.
We’re in a room absolutely packed with people mind you.
Soaring wood beams overhead. Cream-colored walls hung with oil paintings.
Multiple fireplaces with flickering orange flames.
It’s as picturesque as the crowd is grotesque.
“Papa,” Alexei whispers reverently, and then he removes the ice-cold metal ring from his father’s frozen finger. He places the digit back in the box, and then slips the ring over the latex on his own finger. He’s lost his aversion to germs briefly, savoring any last experience of his Papa.
Inadvertently, I believe Chet Senior did something nice by giving back Pavel’s ring.
And also his finger. His severed finger. They have Pavel’s corpse somewhere.
“If you want his body back, you’ll do the same with my son.
A trade.” Chet seems to think we’ll actually take this deal.
Jonas must’ve really worked on him to convince the guy to bring proof of Pavel’s murder into the same room as Burt.
It’s all intentional: Jonas wants Chet dead and blamed.
Chet probably thinks he has enough leverage on us that we’ll keep the finger and not say anything.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
“My father is gone,” Alexei murmurs reverently, taking the box from me and carefully tucking it inside his suit jacket. Holy shit. His dad’s finger. His dad’s goddamn finger. “This was only his temporary vessel. It’s also proof that the family will appreciate to prove he is, in fact, deceased.”
“If you show that to anyone else, I’ll let the worst of my men play around with your dad’s body, if you know what I mean.
” Chet’s mouth stretches strangely as he mentions necrophilia with the casual tones of a man discussing finances.
“Aren’t you also forgetting that we found Pierce Cranston in the McKenzie river?
” Another laugh from Chet as Widow goes disturbingly still.
It’s Ash’s turn to put a hand on his arm to calm him.
“You’re not showing that finger to anyone. ”
Chet flicks his eyes over to me, running them up and down my body in blatant threat and unforgettable hatred. He despises me. I flip him off with my upside-down cross tattoo.
“Your son tried to assault me. Failed at it. Look what happened to him. You’re fucked now.” I stop talking just as Bohnes leans in toward Chet in a way that’s totally inappropriate and very, very creepy. Way too close. Their faces are nearly touching.
“I want to offer my condolences and also let you know what your son’s final words were: my dad is going to—” Bohnes stops abruptly and shrugs.
His grin is pure maliciousness and his voice is breathy with excitement.
“That’s it. Those were his final words. My dad is going to— What?
What is his dad going to do? He didn’t get to finish, so I’m curious. ”
Chet just barely stops himself from lunging at Bohnes, jaw clenched and sweat pouring down the sides of his face. A man runs up behind him, slipping between Mr. Archer’s imposing bodyguards like it’s nothing. He whispers something into Chet’s ear just before his phone buzzes in his pocket.
Across the room, Jonas also removes his phone from his pocket.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Fuck yes. Please. I want to see them suffer. Karma in the form of the Crimson Crew.
“Oops.” I grab another champagne flute off a tray and lift it in Chet’s direction like I’m toasting the occasion. “Did we just steal back our own money? You’re lucky we had a girl to take care of that for us. Otherwise, we’d have done it the old-fashioned way.”
Both Jonas and Chet are unmoving, staring at their phones. They can see the transfers happening in real time with no way to stop them. Adorable. The expressions on their faces are so delicious that I could gobble them right up. A hot, pleased flush hits my chest and causes me to wet my lips.
Adrenaline. Triumph. Success.
Chet lifts disbelieving blue eyes to us, shaking but silent.
What can he do? Especially here. That money was Pavel’s in the first place.
Even admitting that he knows about the transfers is dangerous.
For his part, Jonas continues to smile, slipping his phone back in his pocket and laughing with a group of people I’ve never met and don’t care to.
“Something wrong?” I ask Chet, feigning concern as I sip my drink.
Chet ignores me and starts shoving his way through the crowd in Jonas’ direction. The mayor shakes him off when he approaches, rebuffing and rejecting him in front of everyone. Oh my God, this is brilliant. Better than I could’ve even planned for.
“Come, darling. We’ve wasted more than enough time on these apostates.” Alexei guides me away from the scene taking place on the dance floor and walks us in the direction of the restrooms.
My heart falls as I drain my glass, my joy and triumph draining away along with it.
Boons and burdens of leadership, am I right?
Polina.
I push open the door to the women’s restroom, making my way to the window as Ash begins to check the stalls, searching to see if anyone (Yua, especially) might still be in here. The housekeeper is gone.
“All clear,” he murmurs, voice strained.