45. Arsen
45
ARSEN
Two floppy heads of hair peek at me over the staircase railing. The moment they see me looking back, they duck behind the half-wall with little squeals.
“You two should be in bed,” their mother snaps. Lena is as disheveled as I’ve ever seen her, but that’s on being woken up in the middle of the night to a house fire.
She rolls her eyes and gives me a wan smile. “With only the one bedroom, the kids aren’t sleeping very well.”
“Lena,” Boris growls. He wraps an arm around his wife’s back, but I can see the warning in it. “The pakhan has been very generous in offering us this safehouse.”
“As he should.” Her thin veneer of politeness disintegrates instantly. “Our home was destroyed because of one of his men. Someone who was supposed to be your brother! The children could have been burned alive!”
As it does all too often these days, the image of Nina’s mangled car seat flashes in my mind.
“Lena—!”
“It’s okay, Boris.” I wave him off and turn to his stern-faced wife. “Lena, you have every right to be angry. I’m angry, too. Jasper will pay for what he put your family through.”
Her anger slips, and I can see the pain behind it. The fear. “What kind of Bratva man resorts to something as cowardly as killing a family in their beds?”
The kind who gets kicked out of the Bratva and has nowhere else to go.
I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible for the warpath Jasper has been on. The same night he set fire to Boris’s home, my first distillery was also trashed.
It seems like too much destruction for one man to carry out alone. Then again, I’ve seen Jasper when he’s on a bender. No sleep, endless energy…
“A man who will be dealt with,” I assure her. “He won’t get away with this.”
“But why us?” she cries. “Boris was always on good terms with Jasper. He came over for dinner. I made him spaghetti, for God’s sake!”
Boris hugs her to his side. “You should go upstairs, Lena. Put the children to bed.”
There’s another chorus of giggles from the stairwell as the children realize we haven’t forgotten about them.
Lena’s eyes narrow on her husband as she presses into his side. She leans into his ear, voice low, but I still hear every word. “… want my house back, Boris. Your pakhan has a duty to protect his men and their families.”
Boris murmurs something back to her that I don’t hear. Whatever it is, she doesn’t seem pleased as she slinks up the stairs.
The moment she disappears, he turns to me. “Forgive me, pakhan . It’s been a long night.”
“She feared for her children’s lives. I’ll forgive her almost anything.”
“She is grateful for?—”
I hold up my hand and he falls silent. “I have a team of men working on restoring your house. When you move back in, you’ll have twenty-four-hour security, at least until Jasper is found.”
“That’s… Thank you, pakhan .”
“I take care of my people, Boris,” I grit out.
I try to, at least.
“I don’t understand why any of this happened.” Boris looks to the staircase as though he’s worried his wife is still listening in. “Lena was right: Jasper and I were always on friendly terms.”
“He’s trying to sow doubt in the ranks. I don’t think he expected to be caught on your security camera.”
If the alliance with Enzo wasn’t so new, I might mention that Jasper is trying to pin this string of destruction on the Italians. As it is, I don’t want to do him any favors.
“I heard one of the warehouses was attacked this morning. Was that him, too?”
I tense up. It’s never a good thing when information circulates too freely. “Where did you hear that?”
“From Vasily.”
I take a breath. Vasily, at least, is a Bratva brother. “Be careful who you swap stories with, Boris. We can’t afford to have untrustworthy information percolate around our organization.”
“Of course, sir.” I rise to my feet and he follows suit. “Whatever you need, don’t hesitate to ask.”
I clap him on the back. “For right now, just take care of your family.”
I’ll admit, it’s not the kind of sentiment I’d have left him with a few years ago. But times have changed. I’ve never been more aware of just how important family is. Especially when the stakes are this high.
As I walk down the street to my new car, I pull out my phone and check the live security feed from Laila’s studio. It’s one of the many security upgrades that have made her being at the studio without me even halfway bearable.
She’s conducting a yoga session for a small group of veterans. I recognize several of them from her launch party, including the barista from next door, Carrie.
As the session winds to a close, Laila’s eyes flit to the camera again and again. It’s almost like she knows I’m watching.
The moment her class clears out, she picks up her phone. I’m smiling as I answer mine. “Hey, you.”
“Stalking me again?”
“I enjoy watching you work.”
Even through the footage, I see her blush. “You don’t have to worry. Everything is fine here. Gedeon’s like one of those stone guardian statues. I don’t even think he takes restroom breaks. The boys even have a motion detector set up outside the door.”
I get behind the wheel and start the engine. “If you’re done, I’ll swing by and pick you up.”
“That’s okay. Gedeon can take?—”
“I’m already on my way.”
She sighs, smiling as she shakes her head at the camera. “See you soon.”
Twenty minutes later, her smile is gone as she’s escorted from the studio with a guard flanking her on either side. Gedeon takes up the rear, looking up and down the sidewalk like he expects gunfire to erupt at any second.
Laila breaks away from them in the last stretch and throws herself into the passenger seat, slamming the door before any of them can touch it. “Annoying.”
“What you call ‘annoying,’ I call ‘safety.’”
“It’s overkill.” She makes a show of pointing out each of the dozen bodyguards watching us pull away from the curb. “Carrie is convinced I’m some kind of European princess on the lam. I couldn’t even tell her the truth because, somehow, the truth is even more bizarre.”
“Your American accent is killer.”
She scowls. “I don’t like drawing attention to myself, Arsen.”
“Then stay home and conduct your yoga classes virtually until the Jasper situation has been contained.”
That was my idea, and I maintain that it’s flawless.
She huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. “Fine, I’ll take Seal Team Six.”
“Atta girl.”
With a final sigh, she turns in her seat to look over at me. “I know I’m being a brat. You had a lot worse to deal with today than some overzealous guards. How are Boris and his family doing?”
“Lena is pissed, but who could blame her? Jasper came for her children.” I tighten my grip on the wheel, imagining that I’m wrapping my fingers around Jasper’s scrawny throat. “But at least they’re safe now.”
“Still no trace of him?”
“None yet. I have all my best men searching. There’s no way Jasper is conducting blatant attacks like this and evading capture all on his own.”
She frowns. “Meaning what?”
“I think he’s working with someone.”
“But… who?”
My gaze teeters towards her. “That’s the question. The fact I have no clue means it’s probably someone hiding in plain sight.”
She rests her hand onto my leg as she thinks, absently massaging my thigh. She has no idea how much that one small gesture helps.
Suddenly, she squeezes hard. “Wait. You don’t mean— It can’t be Enzo, can it?”
I’m not sure whether I like that she’s beginning to think like she was Bratva born and bred.
“I have to consider all the possibilities. No matter how unpleasant they might be.”
“He’s our friend.”
“He’s an ally,” I correct. “And allies can turn into enemies easier than you think.”
“Guilia would never allow it,” she insists. “You and Enzo may be allies, but Guilia and I are friends. Real friends. She wouldn’t lie to me, and Enzo wouldn’t lie to her. There’s no way.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m inclined to agree,” I admit. “I don’t think Enzo has anything to do with this. I’m not entirely writing him off, but he stands to lose too much by working against me. Or, in any case, he loves his family too much.”
She sighs with obvious relief. “Good. I’m glad we cleared that up.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that Jasper isn’t working in isolation,” I muse out loud.
Laila clutches my leg again. “You’ll find him. This will all be over soon.”
I hope she’s right.
But I can’t help thinking that, if I’d turned Jasper away that day he showed up on my doorstep asking for another chance, this never would’ve started at all.