Chapter 16 Jo
sixteen
Jo
“Are documents with a murder clause legally enforceable?” I frown, crossing my arms as I go back around the table and put my hands on West’s and Hayden’s shoulders. I need to reassure myself that they’re okay after seeing those assholes pointing guns at them.
“Maybe not in the courts of the country’s justice system,” Alexei shrugs, “but you should know that the Families take their binding agreements very seriously—Jo Gallagher.”
The Families, meaning the five head families of the East Coast crime syndicate.
Moretti.
Zhang.
Gallagher.
Vasiliev.
Kinoshita.
It doesn’t matter if they’re Yakuza, Mafia, or Triad.
The Families will have order.
“We will never fall into the ways of Mikhail,” Luka snaps. “We have plans. Legitimate business plans that will not include selling human beings.”
“Then there should be no issue with my deal.”
“Why now?” Kole crosses his arms. “It is the one thing I cannot figure out about you. All these years, following father’s every order.
All this time, going along with the hell he created.
Why, suddenly, are you switching sides? Why, after so many omegas have been lost, are you choosing now to make a stand? ”
He arches a brow. “Perhaps it is not just now that I am making a stand. Maybe it is just the first time anyone knows about it.”
“Holy fuck,” Illya gasps, realization dawning on his face. “It was you!”
“What was him?” Kole’s brows furrow as he looks between them.
Luka turns to him. “Before you were sent to Thornfield, there would be…random omegas that would go missing from shipments. Father would be furious, and order Alexei to investigate. But the blame would always fall on someone new,” he turns back toward Alexei, “because it was you who was actually releasing them to begin with, wasn’t it? ”
Alexei smirks, tilting his head at Kole.
“I was never stupid enough to release fifteen at one time, mind you.” He shifts so he is leaning forward in his seat, his elbows bracing on the table.
“I was never on board with the skin trade, but Mikhail did not care. That is when I started…making moves to remove him from power. I would frame men I knew to be loyal to him, making it seem like they sold the omegas for their own profits. Meanwhile, I was bringing on my own men and locating the ones that felt the same way I did. I couldn’t leave, because business would carry on as usual, and then no omegas could be saved.
” His eyes drift to Kole, and strangely, they soften just the tiniest bit.
“When he sold you to Thornfield in place of the omegas…I knew he had gone too far, and my five-year plan became a two-year, because I knew I had to get you out.”
Kole’s voice is hard. “Why? You do not care for me, you never have. You were merciless—”
“Because you were too soft, and you needed to survive!” For the first time, anguish shows on Alexei’s face.
“She made you too soft. And then she made me promise to keep you alive, and how was I supposed to do that if your father could kill you just as easily as he could look at you?
Why do you think I made you kill the man who murdered your mother?
You needed to seem useful to him. So I had to.
I had to be merciless, and I had to make you a weapon. So you could be used on him.
My mouth gapes open. Kole hasn’t told me much about Alexei, but from what I do know, this turns everything he thought he knew on its head.
Both Hayden and West tense, and I squeeze their shoulders before I move back over to the alpha who needs me.
“Why would you be in a position to promise my mother to keep me alive?” Kole asks, his voice more shaky than I’ve heard.
“I think you already know the answer to that, if you were listening to what your father was saying.”
“You loved her.”
Alexei sighs, leaning back and rubbing a hand over his face. “She was…is…the love of my life. The night…the night that she was killed…”
Kole stiffens, his body going rigid. My hands start to rub into his shoulders, a gentle purr rolling out of my chest. I want to be embarrassed, but I can’t be, not when it clearly helps my alpha so much.
Alexei continues. “She was going to run. She was never going to give you up to your father. The night she died, I was supposed to meet her and help the two of you escape. When I arrived, she had already been killed, but she was able to injure the assailant before she died. I recognized the man—he worked for your father’s enemies. But based on what he said before…”
“You think he hired him to kill Mama?”
“Why don’t you ask him?” Hayden speaks up, looking around the table and drawing surprised looks from the twins, Kole, and Alexei, as if they forgot we were here.
“I mean, he’s just in the other room, right?
If he doesn’t feel like talking, I know that my Fireball here has been itching to get some use out of her new blade. ”
Kole and Alexei look at each other briefly before glancing at the twins, and everyone nods once as they stand from the table and stride to the kitchen.
In the next five minutes, Mikhail Vasiliev is tied to the chair Kole was sitting in only moments before, a gag in his mouth, and his face red with rage. We’ve sent both Alexei’s and the twins’ men out of the room, leaving just me, the guys, Illya, Luka, and Alexei.
“We are going to ask you some questions, Father,” Kole says calmly. “And every time you do not answer, my omega will stab you somewhere that won’t kill you, but will be very, very painful.”
Oh, it’s like it’s Christmas.
“Is this another courtin’ present?” I ask, twirling the blade in my hand. “Gettin’ to help question the asshole responsible for your shitty childhood and so many omegas sufferin’?”
“If that is what you wish, lyubov' moya.” Kole takes my hand and presses a kiss to the back of it, then Illya removes the gag from Mikhail’s mouth.
He wastes no time screaming. “You fucking traitors! Damn pieces of shit! When I get my hands on you—” Luka snatches the gag from Illya and shoves it back into his mouth.
“We shall try again.” Alexei crosses his arms. “Perhaps we will ask the question first, and then take out the gag.”
“I coulda told you that.” I roll my eyes.
Kole smirks, shaking his head at me before turning back to his daddy. “I am going to ask you a question, and you will answer. Did you have anything to do with Mama’s death?”
Alexei removes the gag, and Mikhail grins maliciously.
I have a sinking feeling that I’m not going to like whatever he’s so excited to say.
“Of course I did, durak. She was a strain on my resources—the both of you. In fact, the man I hired was supposed to kill you too, but then Alexei showed up and ruined it all. Though…I suppose it worked out for the best. I had given up on you, but he made you useful to me again—ah!”
He cries out like a little bitch when I plunge my blade into his shoe, and I’m pretty sure I just severed his big toe.
Mikhail turns even more red as he curses up a storm, and Alexei stuffs the gag back into his mouth before turning to me with an exasperated expression.
“What?” I shrug, removing my knife from his shoe as I stand. At least the floor is tile so the blood won't stain. “That stabbin’ had nothin’ to do with whether he answered or not. It just so happened that I did not like his answer.”
“You can’t just stab him whenever he gives you an answer you don’t like.” Alexei crosses his arms, ignoring the muffled screams of Mikhail.
“I can if he’s insultin’ my alpha.” I lift my chin and match his stance. “Now, I don’t know what ‘durak’ means—”
“Fool, or idiot,” Kole mutters, staring at his father.
My lip peels back in a snarl. “Exactly. There’s nothin’ stoppin’ him from bein’ polite while he answers.
” My eyes narrow on the bastard. “Asshole thinks just because up until about ten minutes ago he was the head of the Russian Mafia, manners don’t matter.
I’ll tell you what, Dec doesn’t let his position turn him into a mannerless brute, that’s for damn sure. ”
“Manners are very important.” Hayden nods once, and Sam rolls his eyes.
“Really?”
“What?” he asks defensively. “They are.”
I grin, walking over to pat his head. “Good boy.”
He smirks. “Woof.”
Alexei, Luka, and Illya all give looks of utter confusion, while Sam huffs a breath, and Kole grins. West sighs, running a hand over his face. “Do you know how hard it is to keep all of your diagnoses to myself?”
“Oh, you can read mine off to me while I go down on Fireball,” Hayden winks, “that sounds like some kinky shit.”
Mikhail makes another enraged sound, and I turn away from Hayden, tilting my head at Mikhail. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is there somethin’ you want to share that won’t make me want to go for your other big toe next?” His face pales dramatically, and I arch a brow at him. “That’s what I thought.”
I cross my arms, twirling my knife again. “My turn. My biological daddy was Cian Gallagher. His last wife, Fiona—I mean, Dahlia—was murdered thirteen years ago in a home invasion in Highwater Creek, Georgia. Do you happen to know anythin’ about that?”
He shakes his head fervently before I can even reach for the gag. He seems scared enough of me that I don’t doubt he’s telling the truth. It was a bit of a long shot anyway.
I turn to face the rest of them. “So? I think that was the only question Sugar Bear had. Y’all got any questions before we kill him?”
“The document…” Illya trails off, glancing at Luka. “The one that gives everything to Alexei, it is really only if we are the ones to kill you?”
Alexei removes the gag.
“Fuck you, and fuck you!” He looks between the brothers, his face enraged. Now that I’m not the one questioning him, he seems to have found his edge again. “I knew you’d be the ones to kill me! I never should have trusted either of you, you no-good, dick-brained—”
The gag gets stuffed back in.
“I suppose we will have to see the document for ourselves.” Luka sighs, running a hand through his slicked-back hair. “Which is very inconvenient, considering we probably need to keep him alive to verify.”
“No,” Alexei says sternly, “he will not live another day. I will kill him.”
“And what if you are a liar, and the document really does leave everything to you?” Illya crosses his arms. “So you loved Nikolai’s mother—it does not mean we can trust you.”
“I will take a blood oath.”
The room stops breathing.
Even West, Hayden, and Sam, who have no idea what it means, can feel the weight of the words.
“What’s a blood oath?” West asks, shifting uncomfortably. “I mean, I get the implications, but…”
“It’s an agreement bound by blood, and is the most sacred form of loyalty among the Families.
” Kole states, eyeing Alexei warily. “If he breaks the blood oath, he is branded a traitor and marked for death by each of the Families. It surpasses even death, even if the one he is sworn to leaves the life.”
“You would make a blood oath to us?” Luka asks incredulously.
“Not to you.” Alexei shakes his head. “To Nikolai. I owe him at least that much.”
Kole blanches, taking a step back. “No, I—”
“Do it.” Luka surprises me.
“Why?” Kole looks between the three of them. “Why would you want him to make a blood oath to me?”
“Because it will give us what we want while allowing him the security to turn on us if he feels we are slipping into Mikhail’s ways.” Illya shrugs. “Not that we will, but I do not blame him. Not after he has sacrificed so much to change things.”
Kole’s eyes widen in panic. “Are you okay, Sugar Bear?” I frown, looking up at him.
He lets out a quiet breath before nodding once. “Yes. Fine. Do the blood oath, and then let us be done with it.”
Alexei wastes no time. He pulls a knife out of his boot, and with a few sure strokes, carves the initials “NV” into his hand. “I, Alexei Volkov, declare my unwavering and undying loyalty to Nikolai Vasiliev, Third Son to the Vasiliev Family.”
“Kole?” My voice is quiet but sure as I watch the rite I’ve only ever heard of be performed. “Do you accept his loyalty?”
“I do.” Kole’s voice is hard as he stares at Alexei. “Now, kill him, Bloodsworn.”
With that, Alexei grins, and we watch with varying degrees of morbid curiosity as he turns and stabs Mikhail Vasiliev in the heart.