Chapter 44
forty-four
The funeral has wrecked me, but my conversation with Tomas has done far worse damage over the past week.
Everyone is looking to me for answers. Answers I don’t have.
There is so much to do on a daily basis that I barely have time to think about plotting revenge.
Right now, I am just trying to keep the snakes at bay.
Pakhan.
I am the motherfucking leader of one of the most powerful Bratva in the United States, but it all feels too fantastical. Too fake. As if it will come crashing down at any moment. The bastard never told me he made me his heir.
Fucker probably thought he’d live forever.
News flash, he hadn’t.
Now I am expected to seek revenge on his behalf.
Not that I have an aversion to seeking justice for his death, I planned on it long before the nuclear bomb dropped on my head.
Exhaling harshly, I quietly stalk down the lower passages that snake below McDonough’s toward where Seamus has set up an operational center for finding Bailey.
“The old witch herself,” my father mutters darkly as I walk into the room. He is staring at a picture of an older woman talking with Kiernan. Immediately, I recognize her as one of the women who worked for Elias. “Quite the social climber, that one. What did she say to you when you were talking?”
“Well, she knew who I was,” my brother Kiernan divulges. “She was asking about Bailey’s sale price. I thought she worked for Lina.”
“She does,” I speak up from behind them. The three men turn around surprised to see me standing in the doorway, peering over their shoulders. Being invisible gives me some pretty neat ninja skills over the years. “So does her ex-fiancé Drew.”
“And you know this because…” Kiernan lets the question hang in the air. I smile at him, the gesture not quite reaching my eyes. “Well, we know Drew works for Christian. His logo is on the side of the containers he was using to ship his cargo.”
“All right, that was a gimme,” Seamus laughs, lightening the mood.
I chuckle, but after the day I have had it comes out more wounded sounding than I would have liked.
Jesus, they have been working down here for the last two weeks trying to find her and where was I?
Trying to control an empire I have no business leading.
I run my gaze over the board. Shit, maybe they would have found her sooner if I was here helping.
“That woman.” I point at the picture of a woman I recognize. “And that one.” I point back to the tall woman my father calls an old witch. “Are the ones Elias placed in charge of strip clubs and brothels.”
“How progressive of him,” Kiernan drawls.
I chuckle darkly. “Elias believed that he’d have less trouble with a woman in charge than a man,” I elaborate. “Said that men think with their dicks, but a woman thinks with her bank account.”
My father laughs. “I’m putting that on a T-shirt,” he snorts, and I can’t help the laugh that follows. We spend another hour going back and forth on why Lina would take Bailey in the first place. Kiernan and Seamus believe that Bailey was set up long before she caught them in the alley.
Elias has a history with the two women that goes further back than any of us anticipated, and I dread the moment my brothers have to tell Bailey the truth about her mother. In a way, it would be a relief for her, but there is a darkness to that truth that will taint her forever.
It doesn’t matter. We are her family now.
Once we all decide on a course of action, we plan well into the wee hours of the morning.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I bring in Vas and Maxim to assist in our coordinated attack.
Me and my men hit Drew at Bailey’s old penthouse while the twins and father take out the brothel where we’ve learned Bailey is being kept.
Lina is smarter than her coconspirator.
Sarah Eriksen is dumb as a box of rocks. She led us straight to Bailey with her car GPS system backlog. My father told me he always takes those out of every vehicle he and his men use. They are easy to hack and easy to subpoena in a court of law.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur to my brothers as we leave the confines of the room to head upstairs for a few hours of sleep before the raid.
“For what?” Kiernan asks, perplexed.
“I should have been here with you sooner,” I admit sadly. “Bailey is important to you and maybe, if I had tried to help sooner, she would have been back here already.”
Seamus, the hugging hippie that he is, wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me tight to his side.
“You,” he emphasizes. “Have nothing to apologize for. We know your pain and how hard it is to lose someone you love. The gala was one big fuckup after another. It is our fault we didn’t do better research on the attendees or on Lina.
Our gut told us not to take her down there, but we ignored it.
Plus, I don’t think we could have stopped her from going even if we tried. ”
Kiernan snorts. “She probably would have climbed out the window and gone anyway,” he points out, eyes dancing with amusement.
“Bailey wanted to save her friend. There was no stopping her once she put her mind to it. No matter how well we tried to dissuade her.” He nudges my shoulder and winks obscenely.
Oh gross.
“I think I threw up in my mouth a little.”
The twins laugh merrily, and I find myself joining in. God, it feels good to laugh and let go. I haven’t done that since Matthias is shot. Family has a way of healing you no matter how deep into the darkness you sink.
The building is easy enough to clear out with our fire department contact who slips door to door, warning everyone of a possible hazardous leak. Each floor only holds two penthouse style condos and the one across from Bailey’s is thankfully vacant.
Looking down, I double check the safety on my Smith & Wesson M&P, making sure it is off, before giving Vas the go ahead. There are only four of us. We don’t need an entire contingent of men for two measly people who are a threat less than zero.
Maxim is posed in front of the door, his gun aimed at the lock, waiting.
Vas counts down quietly from three. The man barely reaches one before Maxim shoots out the door and Leon kicks it in.
The three men create a barrier around me with Vas taking point at the head of their little ‘V’ shape safety net.
It is frustrating going from being the protected and constantly guarded wife of a mafia boss to being the protected and guarded mafia boss. It’s like nothing has changed besides my nameplate.
Oh, I should get one of those.
Wood breaks, followed by a shrill scream that rends the air.
“What the fuck?” That is Drew, Bailey’s ex-fiancé. I recognize his voice from the schmoozing he did at the gala when he found out my last name was Ward. Matthias had me revert to my maiden name, which was easy enough since I never officially changed my last name when I was forced to marry him.
No papers or ID.
Mark is currently working on that for me just to make things easier. I doubt they will be real, but that doesn’t matter. As long as I have something, that is what I need.
“Oh, I could have lived without seeing this,” I grumble, scrunching my nose up at the two naked bodies before me. We interrupted sexy time.
Gag.
None of the men look happy about it, either.
“Okay, let’s get this over with so I can stop having to look at the Amityville horror show before me.”
The girl, Sophia, I believe is her name, sniffs the air like she is miffed I insinuated she is ugly.
I don’t want to insinuate anything.
So, I straight out tell her.
Vas and my men laugh. She doesn’t. Neither does Drew, who looks like he is about to wet the bedsheets.
Tilting my head, I bring my gaze to him as I study him. He isn’t anything special. Average height. Average size. He reminds me more of an underdeveloped college freshman than a man. Then again, I could say that about anyone if I compare them to the hulking muscle standing around me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” It might sound demanding and strong if his voice didn’t waver like a little bitch.
“I want you to tell me about the money you’ve been shipping from the Middle East for Christian Ward.” Might as well get right to the chase.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, bitch.”
A low growl permeates the room and Drew’s eyes widen as my men take a threatening step toward him, their lips raised in a snarl. They don’t like him insulting their new boss.
“Do you know who I am?”
Taking his eyes off the surrounding men, he sneers. “I’ve heard about you,” he spits. “Christian Ward’s little whore.”
I smile at him, my eyes lighting up as I let out a small giggle.
Then I aim my gun and pull the trigger.
The girl behind him screams, jumping back as Drew howls in pain, clawing at his exploded kneecap.
The two men behind me share a quick glance, their eyebrows raised in surprise.
That’s right men, there’s a new Ava Dashkov in town. And she’s the fastest draw in the west.
I really need to get out of my head more.
Once his screams die down, I step forward, gun aimed at his other kneecap.
“My name is Avaleigh Dashkov,” I inform him calmly.
His eyes widen at my last name, no doubt understanding the power behind it.
The violence. “I’m the new boss in town and when I ask you a question, I expect you to answer.
So, let’s try again, shall we? Tell me about the money you’ve been shipping from the Middle East for Christian. ”
Without hesitating he curls his lips up in disgust, shoots me a hostile scowl, and hisses, “Fuck you.”
He screams.
The girl screams.
There goes the other kneecap.
“I could do this all day, Drew,” I tell him, shrugging a shoulder. “You either tell me what you want me to know, or the next bullet hits those family jewels.”
Crickets.
“Okay then…” I aim my gun, finger pulling at the trigger when he cries out for me to stop.