Chapter 26
Sasha
This time I’d called the meeting of the family.
This time I’d asked… No, I’d demanded that everyone be there.
As soon as I climbed from the car, Bernie flanked my side. “How are you holding up, sir?”
“You don’t need to call me sir and you can take some time off, Bernie. I can take care of myself.”
“No can do, sir. I work for you now and anything I can do to help bring Ms. Rose back safely, I’m going to fucking do. Forgive my French.”
Grinning, I stared at Mikhail’s house as I ripped off my sunglasses. “You can curse all you want, my friend.” Danny had joined in the fray, also eager to get some payback for what had happened with Lainey.
“I’m sorry I failed you. It won’t happen again.”
Exhaling, I turned toward him. “You didn’t fail me at all. Someone else did.”
He looked relieved. The man had been carrying the burden for days. “Do you want me to go inside with you?”
“I think this is better handled alone. You don’t need the added fireworks.”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
Almost as soon as I knocked on the door Bristol answered it. She had a pained look on her face. “I’ve been worried sick about you.”
I allowed her the hug, even if I was stiff. My reaction had nothing to do with her. I felt betrayed, uncertain if my own brother had known the truth and had lied to me over the years. While I wanted to forgive my father and uncle, I didn’t think I had the capacity to do so.
At least not right now.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine and you’re not going to be fine until we get them back.” She pulled away, gripping both my arms. “Try and remember Mikhail is your cousin first, your Pakhan second.”
“Not according to him.”
“That’s bullshit. I’m sorry, but it is,” she insisted. “They’re outside on the deck. I refuse to have arguments in the house. Just go easy on them, Sasha. They’ve been through a lot as well.”
I wanted to argue with her, but what was the point? “My goal is to get the woman I love and my daughter back. I will do that.”
She squeezed my arm and for some insane reason, it felt almost like a goodbye.
I was the last one to the party. Both Nadia and my cousin Katya had joined us, Halle, Fallon, and Marissa as well. Bristol trailed behind me, taking her place on one of the barstools. I found it interesting that she was sitting at a distance from Mikhail.
So were the other wives and girlfriends.
We were a strange lot, yet we all had our own opinions. What surprised me the most was seeing my mother and Aunt Tatiana in attendance. While we’d long known the two women ruled the respective families, given our shift into legitimate business, they’d only attended family celebrations.
Obviously, they’d been made aware of why the meeting had been called.
I wouldn’t waste anyone’s time.
“Selena Martin, my deceased wife, was actually Natasha Antonova.” I waited as the bomb dropped, scanning the face of everyone in the group.
Only four knew what I was talking about.
Aunt Tatiana, Uncle Boris, and my mother and father.
The others were thoroughly confused. Although within seconds, Mikhail narrowed his eyes. “Why do I know that name, Pops?” he asked with grit in his voice.
“Yes, I’ve heard it as well,” Vissarian threw in.
“Then you’ve likely heard of the Petrov family as well.” I stood with my hands in my trouser pockets, trying my best to keep my shit together. I knew time was of the essence and from what I’d learned from my contacts, the plane had flown into Moscow six days before.
Since we hadn’t heard anything at all, no threats or any point of contact, my instinct told me that Uncle Yuri was hoping, if not planning for our arrival. It might just be me and Bernie, but that would be enough because it had to be.
“The three Bratva families controlling Russia many years ago.” Mikhail’s voice had a clear tone, one of authority and one that indicated that he was angry. “Two still hold great power today.”
But not with me.
“The Antonova family was all but crushed years ago.” Mikhail tried to lock eyes with his father, but was refused.
“Very good,” I told him. “The daughter Katerina was supposed to marry a member of the Dmitriyev family. Yuri Dmitriyev. That would have made the combined family the most powerful syndicate in the world. They would have controlled everything including the government, crushing the Petrovs in the process as Yuri and our grandfather before him had attempted for years. But someone didn’t want the union to happen.
Isn’t that right, Pops? You and Uncle Boris couldn’t allow the marriage to happen because you were already in opposition with your own brother. ”
“What the hell is Sasha getting at?” Kazimir asked, still as confused as Alexsey. But Mikhail and Vissarian were cluing in. They’d been children when taken from their homes and beds in the middle of the night, but they weren’t so small that they hadn’t known something terrible was going on.
And their lives were about to change.
“Are you going to tell them, Pops? Or should I?” I was calmer than I’d anticipated, only my rapid pulse giving away my rage.
“It’s not what you think, son.”
“Don’t lie to him any longer, Ivan,” my mother hissed. “He deserves to know the truth.”
“We all do, Mother. With all due respect. We all do,” I told her, now holding my breath.
The two former powerful and ruthless men remained quiet.
Mikhail slammed his fist on the table. “Tell us what the fuck is going on.”
Uncle Boris looked at my aunt lovingly, as if exposing the secret would end everything we’d known as a family.
Maybe it would.
Maybe the lies would finally tear us apart. That wasn’t of my concern. Not when the lives of two special people were at stake.
Yet my annoyance kicked in less than a minute later.
“You had Katerina Antonova killed.”
Silence.
“Didn’t you! That’s why Uncle Yuri decided there was a score to settle. Because you killed the woman that by marriage would have expanded his power and you would have been tossed aside. Isn’t that right?”
My father paled, a rarity. “You don’t understand, son.
While Yuri was older and had every right to take our father’s place as Pakhan, he also had bloodlust like we’d never seen.
He stuck a knife into our father in the middle of the night.
He was prepared to kill his own flesh and blood to keep us from taking what he believed belonged to him.
He had heinous plans to kill anyone who got in his way.
There was already a war going on. You’ve never experienced anything like the period of famine and the rampant murders.
People were dying on the street and all because of the wrong alliances made. ”
“So you killed Katerina Antonova in cold blood to protect all those around you?”
My father nodded. “It’s more complicated than that, but we did what we had to do. Yuri threatened our families when we tried to convince him that destroying all those around him wasn’t the right thing to do.”
Uncle Boris didn’t seem comfortable with his answer. They were still keeping secrets. Goddamn them to hell.
Mikhail exhaled. “Understandable, but you should have told us.”
“Mikhail is right and I do understand what you were trying to do. To a point. You were trying to protect the family. You took out the weak link or I should say the strongest possibility that my uncle, your brother could take control. What you didn’t expect was for her sister, Elena, to whisk Katerina’s child from the country and provide her with a new life.
A true commodity in the world of the Bratva.
” Now my voice held all the disdain in the world.
“Is that true, Papa?” Nadia asked.
He could only nod.
“You knew Selena was Katerina’s daughter because they looked so much alike. Yes? Uncle Boris?”
“Fine. Yes. We tried to stop you from getting involved with her, but it was too late.”
His answer made me laugh. “You believed she was here to try and destroy us.”
“At first,” Uncle Boris admitted. “Then we realized she had no idea what had happened to her mother.”
“Because her aunt allowed her to have a better life.” Just as my father and uncle had done for us.
“How could you, Daddy?” Katya asked, already in tears. “How could you keep that from Sasha? All these years he’d suffered. We’ve all suffered with him. Then the attack on this family and you knew all along Uncle Yuri would seek revenge.”
I hadn’t heard my cousin so furious before. It was chilling to hear.
Much like the truth had left me feeling cold and dead inside.
“This will end here,” Mikhail directed. “No more lies. If Yuri has Nina and Lainey, they are in danger. Yes?”
My dad simply nodded.
“Nina is now considered valuable property,” I continued.
“That’s why she was taken. Lainey will be nothing but collateral damage if the savages don’t try and sell her off to the highest bidder.
The man who’d tried to steal my child at her own birthday party was a soldier for the Antonova Bratva.
He was supposed to protect every family member including descendants.
Now we won’t know for certain since the O’Learys had him killed at our suggestion, but it’s my belief that he was lured into the Russian side of our family.
And why? To be a paid henchman since the Antonovas were attempting to regain power.
Or maybe someone from the Antonova organization sent him to collect the prized piece of property that could eventually bring them back into power. ”
“Son,” my dad started but I stopped him by raising my arm.
“Don’t, Dad. There’s almost nothing you can say to me that will make this right or acceptable. Do none of you realize that Emily was also a target? That a little girl who has nothing to do with the crazy Russians was almost kidnapped?”
“There is speculation the O’Shaughnessy family was working with our brother,” Uncle Boris said. “If that’s the case given Emily was O’Leary blood, she would have been considered another prize possession.”
He was stating facts as if doing so made what they’d done acceptable.