Chapter 5
Dmitri
Having the Irish on our side changes everything.
They have bodies, money, and the kind of reach you can’t buy overnight.
“This is Owen. He’s the one who got into contact with Luca’s cousin in New York City,” Sean says introducing one of his men to me as a large group of us occupy the conference room at my office.
I nod to Owen. He has the calm eyes of a man who never touches a gun because he doesn’t have to.
According to Sean, Owen is his information man. The person who digs around where others can’t reach and finds out things that no one else is supposed to. “How did that conversation go?”
“It was productive,” Owen replies with a half-smile.
“She gave me some names of the Italians over here that I looked into, and I’ve uncovered their information man.
Aldo. He’s the one who registers the shell companies and cleans the paper after,” Owen says.
“Everything dirty runs through his hands first.”
“If anyone has proof, it’s him,” Cara says as she stands next to me.
Owen nods. “Probably on a laptop. Or a drive. He’ll keep it close to him, so it’ll be at his residence most likely.”
“If you managed to find out all of that, I can only assume that you already found his address,” I reply as I lift an eyebrow at him.
Owen’s grin broadens. “Well, of course. Problem is, his girlfriend Erica practically lives there. Hard to slip in and out with her always home.”
“Won’t we need him, though?” Sean asks from the other side of the table. “He’ll have all the passwords we would need to break into his devices.”
Owen rubs his jaw in thought. “You could storm his place and force him to give you access, but you’ll still have the girlfriend there as a witness. She’s innocent. Are you willing to kill her just for being there?”
I grind my teeth, wishing that this could be easier. Not only do we have to capture this guy and force him to give up his password, but now, we also have a needy girlfriend to deal with.
“Do they seem close?” Cara asks Owen.
Owen shrugs. “I scrubbed through all of her social media. There’re a lot of flowery posts about getting through ups and downs and how he treats her like a queen. It feels a little manufactured, though. I’d guess that she’s more interested in his money.”
Cara turns to me. “What if she was coaxed out of the apartment by someone?”
I narrow my eyes. “What do you mean?”
Cara shrugs. “Is Andrei around? If anyone can lure a woman out of her boyfriend’s apartment to spend her time elsewhere, it’s probably him.”
“You’re insinuating that my best friend is a manwhore,” I tell her, amusement flickering in my chest.
“If the shoe fits,” Cara replies as a smile teases at her lips.
“Alright, what if we split into teams?” I say as I address all my men and the Irish in the room.
“If Andrei can lure the girlfriend away from the apartment while Aldo is out, one team can break into the apartment to grab his things, while the other team tracks down Aldo and captures him. We can meet and force him to give us access to the files. No civilians hurt. No bodies left. We get in, we get the devices, and we disappear.”
Sean nods after a moment and looks around at his men. “Any problem with that?”
His men shake their heads.
I glance at my own guys, who nod that they’re on board. “I’ll bring in my friend and catch him up to speed, while you guys track down Aldo to see where he’s at.”
“On it,” Owen says as he clasps his hands together eagerly before sitting down at the table to type away on his laptop.
“I didn’t realize how much it helps to have techy guys involved in operations like these,” Cara comments to me.
“You can find out just about anything online nowadays. Helps to have someone who knows the ins and outs of it,” I tell her before lifting my phone. “Let me see if I can bring Andrei in.”
Cara nods and drifts toward her father like she’s testing thin ice. She still seems stiff around him, but at least they’re talking. Deep down I know Sean cares about her, even if he hasn’t shown it.
I tap on Andrei’s contact before pressing my phone against my ear, listening to it ring a few times before he picks up.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“I need your help with something today,” I tell him.
“Is it going to get me killed?”
“It shouldn’t,” I say, hearing him lightly chuckle. “I need you to charm a woman out of her boyfriend’s apartment for an hour.”
“Wait, what?”
“It’s a long story, but we need to break into her boyfriend’s apartment to grab some things when she’s not there,” I explain to him. “If you could lure her away so that she doesn’t get caught in the crossfire, that would be great.”
“What the hell, Dmitri?” Andrei laughs. “You couldn’t just give me a normal task like beating someone’s ass who owes you money?”
I grin at that. “This is what I need help with. Are you down or should I go find another handsome bastard?”
“Well, it doesn’t sound like you could handle this job,” Andrei says, making me roll my eyes. “Where should I meet you?”
“My office. Quickly,” I tell him before hanging up the phone.
We’re on a tight schedule.
After hours of tracking and waiting, our window finally opens.
Aldo leaves the building with his head down and his phone glued to his ear. Erica stays behind on the balcony with her ring light, taking photos.
We have maybe forty minutes. An hour if we’re lucky.
I decide to lead the team breaking into the apartment. Sean seems to have faith in Finn, one of his highly skilled men, to lead the team that’ll kidnap Aldo and take him to the antique shop, so I just have Isaak and Denis go with that team to assist.
We split up into three vehicles, two teams in two vans, and Andrei drives his own car to the apartment.
Since we probably won’t run into any danger and her father is with us too, I let Cara stick with me on my team. She should be part of this. I just want her to be safe.
Even if this should be clean, nothing is clean anymore.
Our van trails Andrei before parking across the street from the apartment building. We watch him walk inside and disappear from sight. Whether or not this is successful depends on how loyal Erica is to her boyfriend.
“Hopefully, your guy is right about Aldo’s devices being stored here,” I tell Sean as he sits on the bench across from me in the back of the van.
“Would you keep your secrets at your office where anyone can find them?” Sean points out.
“If I had a safe there,” I reply.
“Well, we know where to look next if we can’t find anything here,” Sean replies.
I check the time on my watch, my knee threatening to bounce in anticipation. If Andrei can’t pull this off, I don’t know how we’re going to approach it. We might have to break in with masks on and tie her up so that Aldo can find her later.
That complicates things more than they already are, though. As if we need that. After seeing Cara as a captive, I don’t wish that on my worst enemy, or Aldo’s girlfriend.
“Look!” Mark says from the front seat.
We crowd around his seat so that we can look through the side window. Sure enough, Andrei walks out of the apartment building with Erica holding his arm and laughing.
“That son of a bitch,” I mutter with a crooked grin on my face.
Cara smiles in amusement. “He pulled it off. Let’s go.”
Our team quickly crosses the street and heads into the building, going up to Unit 302 on the third floor. Mark steps up and picks the lock on the door with ease before we go inside, carefully sweeping the area to make sure no one else is around and that there are no cameras.
We don’t need any surprises.
“Look for laptops, desktops, extra phones, flash drives,” I say as we all split up to check every room in the apartment.
Cara heads down a hallway with Mark to check the bedrooms.
Sean and I check each room in search of an office.
“Bathroom. Laundry room,” Sean mutters as he throws open doors around the apartment.
“Pantry,” I say before shouting across the apartment. “You guys find anything?”
“Not yet!”
I share a frustrated look with Sean before pausing at the sight of a closed door connected to the living room. “Have you checked that one yet?”
Sean shakes his head before crossing the living room with me. He tries the door handle, only for it to not budge. “Why would he lock a random door in his apartment unless there was something to hide?”
“Even from his girlfriend,” I point out.
“I have a lockpick somewhere,” Sean says as he digs into the pockets of his slacks. He pulls one out of his wallet and works on the lock until it clicks open.
I push open the door, and my eyes widen. “Holy shit.”
It isn’t some modern, clean office. This guy has stuff everywhere. Maps of the city on the walls. Blueprints of different buildings. Photos of people caught on security footage. Multiple file cabinets behind his desk, which has documents spread across it.
“All he’s missing is some thumbtacks and string,” I mutter.
“No kidding,” Sean replies as he inspects the maps.
I start opening filing cabinets, seeing a variety of names and places written on the tabs of the folders. My brow furrows in concentration as I flip through them, looking for anything that jumps out at me.
“Where did that shooting take place that almost killed you? The Wynn, yeah?” Sean asks as I move to another filing cabinet.
“Yeah, why?”
“This is a map of that area,” Sean tells me, making me pause and look his way. He gestures to one of the maps before pointing at one building. “That’s the Wynn.”
“Jesus,” I mutter as I walk over to him, my eyes scanning the entire map. “Are those red dots?”
We both lean closer, staring at two red dots on two other buildings across the street from the Wynn. Realization hits me like a punch to the stomach.
“The snipers. That’s where the fucking snipers were stationed,” I say confidently. “The fucking Italians were behind the shooting.”
“I told you it wasn’t me,” Sean replies with a pointed look. “Why would I have put Cara in that kind of danger?”
“I thought you didn’t care who got hurt.”
Sean rolls his eyes at me. “Let’s keep looking around. I don’t even see a laptop in here.”
He’s right. There isn’t a desktop computer or a laptop.
Sean starts snapping photos with his phone of the maps, dots, faces, labels, fast and methodical.
“He must have his electronics stored at another location,” I reply as I venture back over to the filing cabinets. “This is where he wants to play detective and spy.”
“He’s definitely been keeping an eye on both of us,” Sean tells me as he gestures to two photos of each of us caught on some sort of surveillance camera.
“Creepy,” I mutter before diving back into the folders. There has to be something of interest in one of these cabinets. I’m about to close the one I’m rifling through and move on to the next when I see a name on a folder in the very back.
Mikhail.
Ice floods my veins as I stare at his name, my heartbeat jolting to a stop.
No.
“What is it?” Sean asks, noticing my frozen state.
“Mikhail,” I say before finally forcing myself to grab the folder out of the back. I pull it out of the cabinet and lay it on the desk on top of all the other strewn out documents, my hands almost feeling numb.
Sean moves to my side, remaining quiet as I flip open the folder.
A few pictures of Mikhail and his men taken while he was walking through the city stare back up at me. They were totally oblivious. It must have been when he first arrived.
I push the pictures aside and glance over a profile written about Mikhail. Information about who he is, where he lives, and all the things that he owns and does as Pakhan. Or did.
The Council swore that he went back to Russia, but I know my friend. If he was alive, he would’ve sent some sort of word to me.
“These pictures were taken the day that he was supposed to meet with me about buying the casino,” Sean says as he points to the date stamp on the back of the pictures.
I exhale slowly as I keep flipping through the contents in the folder. “There’s information about the deal in here. They must’ve found out about the meeting.”
“Bastards,” Sean grits out.
Both of us go still when I flip over the last document. At the bottom of the pile is another picture of Mikhail.
My hand cramps around the folder so hard the paper creases.
For a second, I can’t hear anything but the blood rushing in my ears.
Mikhail is dead on the ground in a goddamn alleyway with a bullet wound in his forehead along with several of his guys.
“Fuck,” I breathe out sharply as I look away from the picture, my stomach churning so hard that I almost throw up. I finally get a grip so I can take a few photos for proof I might need later.
“Ferro killed him,” Sean says. “And he tried to pin it on me.”
Cara shows up in the doorway at that moment, concern immediately filling her eyes. “What happened? What did you find?”
I shake my head. “I’ve seen enough. We got what we needed.”
We’re not playing defense anymore. I’m going to hit Ferro where it hurts. Money. Men. Legacy.
And this time, I’m not asking the Council for permission.
Before Cara can say anything, Mark appears behind her with his phone pressed against his ear. “Bad news. The other team lost Aldo. He took off on foot and ditched them. We should go before he shows up here and realizes what we were looking at.”
I don’t want to be in this room anymore, and I don’t want to look at the contents in that folder.
They killed my friend. They shot him and his guards in the middle of the day and did who knows what with their bodies.
And the Bratva lied to me and everyone else when they said that he was back in Russia!
Who the fuck can I trust?
“I’m sorry.” Cara hugs me around my waist, squeezing me tightly until I can breathe again.
She must’ve seen the photo and put two and two together. I haven’t told her much about Mikhail, but she’s probably figured out how much the Pakhan meant to me.
“I should’ve known it was Paolo. I spent all this time blaming the Irish, your father,” I murmur, my sadness and rage colliding.
“You’ll avenge him. You’ll get your chance,” Cara promises me.
I look down at her, my lungs devoid of air. I do want revenge for my friend, but what I want the most is to keep Cara safe from a monster like Ferro. I already failed once before.
I won’t fail again, because now I know exactly who I’m hunting.