Chapter 15 – Tristan
Chapter Fifteen
Tristan
“You had no fucking right to claim her when I told you that she was not yours to claim!” Aidan roared.
The need to have eyes, my eyes, on Kali was overwhelming. It was an inexplicable need to be near her and a need to make sure she was safe. When she got shot the first night we met, I could have easily laid waste to that entire neighborhood, my rage was so great. The fact that I had to exercise extreme control to not go to her since I left her apartment was not lost on me, or any of the wolves for that matter. They have seen me struggling to stay focused over the past week and are concerned. Whether it was a concern for me or for Kali was more than clear after Aidan’s little speech.
We were in the SUV, Cyrus driving, with Aidan in the front passenger seat, and I sat in the back, headed to intercept the Russians who had finally moved to detain my ward for outstanding debt, according to Luka. Granted, they had no idea who she was to me. Anyone would think that I should cut them some slack. And those same people would be very fucking wrong.
In their minds, they were simply collecting a debt. We all knew what that meant. Either they would farm her out to their brothels or farm out her children, her daughters and her son. Although time was of the essence, we couldn’t go in there as immortals, so we were going in as the Italian mafia Godfather.
Our focus should be on the upcoming meeting with the Russians, but Aidan refuses to let go of his grievance over me and Kali mating.
“She is my fucking mate,” I told the asshole for what felt like the hundredth time in the past few hours since he started this shit. “That’s all the right I need irrespective of whatever shit you guys have going on with her. She is mine! And I would fucking kill anyone who tried taking her away from me.” I thumped my chest, letting him know that was a fucking promise.
“Owen will be here by tomorrow,” Aidan warned.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” I drawled.
“He would have been here sooner if he didn’t have to settle some dispute breaking out in the Pack.”
“I don’t know why you think I would give a fuck what Owen’s schedule is,” I muttered, more than pissed that he wouldn’t stop bitching about my and Kali’s relationship. I was already getting shit about our relationship from Kali herself.
“What you did was irresponsible, selfish, and just plain wrong!” Aidan continued to argue during our journey to the Russian club.
“Let me see how you behave when you meet your mate,” I muttered. “Let’s see how fucking honorable you will be then.”
“I certainly wouldn’t have mated with her against her will.” Aidan didn’t bother keeping the bitterness from his voice.
I wanted to off the fucker for that, but I had to remember that he had protected and guarded Alexi for centuries without complaint. Asshole. “I have never touched Kali without her enthusiastic agreement.”
The thought of my having sex with Kali always set Aidan off on another tangent, where his Scottish accent made him almost incoherent, and it was another five minutes before I could get a word in.
“Coming to this woman’s aid and taking responsibility for her is a bad idea.” I deliberately changed the subject because we were never going to agree about my relationship with Kali. And I have no intention of giving her up.
“You’re not getting out of your responsibility,” Aidan said adamantly. “Alexi needed you to do your part and protect this woman. You have been in Vegas more than a week, and you haven’t made any attempt to do your duty.”
“Do you really think that I am the best person for this?” It was my turn to show my bitterness at being forced on this errand. “Come on, Aidan, even you have to acknowledge that this is bullshit. Besides, Luka has been taking care of her. She doesn’t need me.”
“If Luka was doing such a great job of it, your ward and her children wouldn’t be in the hands of brutal criminals now. And for the last fucking time, this is what Alexi wanted!” Aidan was determined to be an ass about this.
“I am under attack constantly now, and if the recent attempt is anything to go by, this woman will be in even more danger by having an association with me.”
“You should have dealt with those assholes long ago,” Aidan growled. “You know who the Regiment leaders are, but you like pissing around with the men they send instead of dealing with them. This is not fucking entertaining anymore!”
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” I said calmly, trying to ratchet down the argument that was going nowhere. “You watched over Kali and me during our dates, and you weren’t this opposed to us. What the fuck changed?”
“I didn’t know you were going to fucking claim her!” Aidan roared, showing that my attempts to de-escalate weren’t working.
“We’re here,” Cyrus announced, having successfully avoided being dragged into the argument between Aidan and me.
Our arguing must be getting old for him, since Aidan and I had been having some version of this same damn argument from the night I met Kali. We have had numerous dates since, and he still can’t get over this.
I wasted no time in exiting the car. One more word of dissent from Aidan, and I might just torch his ass.
As the Godfather of the largest crime organization ever unified under one leader, my name alone would instill fear in any other crime family—that was, any sane crime family—and would have gained me immediate access into their establishment. However, the Russians were more like mindless crime fanatics, who only cared about gaining more money, more power, and more dominance over anything and everyone that wasn’t them. They were damn unpredictable and might decide to attack instead of exercising some caution. So, I didn’t bother giving my name as I stepped into their club.
Our knowledge of where the woman and her children were being held in the club was aided by our heightened senses of smell and hearing. We had no need to ask for directions.
The sheer size of Aidan at six-foot-nine, who accompanied me while Cyrus remained with the car, had the Russian guards at the front of the club stepping back in caution. In fact, everything about us would have warned them that we were dangerous predators. If it wasn’t our size or the custom-made, dark Tom Ford suits on our frames, it would be our immortal aura that warned caution. Humans unconsciously heeded without us having to say a word. Our strength, our abilities, and our powered biology leaked through in our every movement, lending a fluidity and effortlessness while walking that humans would find impossible to ignore.
Everything about us screamed predator .
As soon as we crossed the threshold of the already crowded nightclub, I felt the eyes of the Odessa mafia members and even heard a hushed, “ Il Carnefice .”
I didn’t react to the fear I heard in their voice or even when that one recognition turned into a warning among the Russian guards.
As the new Godfather, especially one so young, I was a bit of a novelty to the other crime organizations anyway, but they all knew about me. Feared me. Or usually did. With the Russians, I couldn’t be sure how they would react. However, I didn’t particularly care either way. I wanted this dealt with tonight.
As soon as I secured the woman and her children, I could get back to my curvy brown beauty, who is mysterious and obstinate and gives me all kind of hell. Everything about her fascinates me.
“You don’t pay your debts, Carlo.” The hard, accented voice of what I would guess was an enforcer for the Russians taunted a sandy-headed man, who was kneeling at the big Russian’s feet when Aidan and I silently stepped into a dark back room of the club.
The Russians didn’t stop our progress from the entrance, the bar, lounge, and dance floor areas that were on the ground floor, nor did they stop us up a collection of stairways, corridors, and past various closed-door rooms, which served as offices and VIP sections of the club: gambling and brothel rooms, and private rooms overlooking the club, all on the upper floors. We did, however, acquire two more men every few feet into the club. We entered a closed back room with about twenty-odd men trailing behind us.
The room was a large open space with a smaller bar but manned by a bartender and waitress, who seemed to be watching the proceedings in the room instead of doing their jobs. There was also a group of eight men standing around another older man who was sitting in a black leather armchair in a raised section of the room. Clearly their leader needed the architecture of the room to help him feel in-charge. On one side of the room were three large sectional sofas with an array of scantily clad women, who looked drugged or drunk with their glassy eyes and fake smiles.
One of the men, who had followed us into the room, swiftly crossed over to the older Russian sitting on his makeshift throne and whispered in the leader’s ear, completely unaware that I could hear him as clearly as if he was standing next to me. “Boss, Il Carnefice is here.”
The older man looked shocked at first, and then when he met my gaze, all color leaked from his face. I guess he was seeing my blood-red irises, my translucent skin, and my predator aura, which warned fuckers that I was a purebred killer. I hadn’t bothered with my custom contact lens tonight. I wasn’t in the socializing or compromising frame of mind. Even before I was turned into a vampire, my reputation as a killer had this effect on men in our world. Being a vampire certainly ratcheted up the fear exponentially, and in my current mood, these fuckers had better take heed.
In response to the threat, the older man was almost frantic in his demand for more men in the room. Within seconds, another group of men entered the room. I would have laughed if I was prone to such things. Only Kali could get that kind of reaction from me.
Meanwhile, Carlo was openly crying as if expecting a bullet to the head at any moment. Instead, the enforcer grabbed him by his throat and lifted him to his feet until he was standing on the tip of his toes. The massively muscled enforcer had to be about six-three and at least five inches taller than Carlo, who was an unhealthy-looking slender, average-height man.
Ignoring that pathetic display of power by the enforcer and their leader, I looked about the room for the woman I came here to collect. Until the moment that I sighted the woman I’m supposed to protect—huddled in a corner with two girls who looked like teenagers and a little boy, who was probably less than ten years old—I hadn’t given a thought to what she would look like, her age, or even her ethnicity. However, I couldn’t help but notice now.
Although I could only see the right side of her face, what I could see was that her frailty and wan pallor belied her troubled life. However, despite the pain and difficulty life had thrown her way, the forty- or fifty-something African American woman was still incredibly beautiful and looked vaguely familiar. I remember a time in a similar situation with an African American woman and her child. I remember thinking that woman was beautiful… Wait, she suddenly turned her head and looked directly at me. Could this be the same woman? The child she had then would be a woman now. I couldn’t be wrong about this.
Her skin was the same exotic dark chocolate that made it difficult to pinpoint her age with any precision. However, there were visible scars on her exposed arms, her fingernails were short and chipped, her once jet-black hair seemed over processed and lacked any luster, and her eyes were filled with fear. It was the look of fear that sealed her identity. Yes, I knew this woman. It boggled my mind that Papa had somehow found her and put her back in my care.
The two men, their guns visible, standing on either side of her and the children may have something to do with her fear.
Her children, on the other hand, looked almost bored with the proceedings. They looked up at us when we walked in but seemed unconcerned. Given the Russians practice of enforced slavery, I found their lack of concern woefully naive.
“I was coming to make the payment in the morning, Mirko,” Carlo wheezed through the chokehold around his scrawny neck. “I swear.” Carlo’s sniffles and whimpers of fear were almost embarrassing to watch.
“Well,” Mirko drawled, “it’s all right then.” He visibly tightened his hold on Carlo’s neck while wearing a diabolical grin.
Carlo looked up at him with almost childlike hope even as he grimaced with pain.
Mirko seemed to enjoy his momentary power for a few more seconds before setting Carlo back on his feet, holding him steady by his shoulders, and then finally patting his shoulders almost affectionately.
“Not to worry, Carlo.” Mirko grinned and looked at my ward and her children. “I consider your debt paid in full. I don’t need the woman though. She’s used up inventory, but I will take the girls and the boy.”
“What!” my ward shrieked in a weak voice. “No, my children don’t belong to him,” she said bravely.
The two girls finally looked afraid. They huddled together and hugged their brother between them.
Mirko laughed darkly, seeming to really get off on the fear he had evoked.
Impatient with having to listen and watch this crap when I had better things to do, I moved farther into the room, deliberately moving into Mirko’s line of sight, but I kept my gaze on the old man.
Aidan moved with me in a protective manner as if he feared someone might attack me.
“Back the fuck up,” I told him telepathically. He knew damn well that I hated being seen as if I can’t protect myself. The bastard was doing it deliberately to piss me off. “Keep an eye on my charges, instead.”
“Who the hell are you?” Mirko finally noticed my presence in the room. Hell, if he had been one of my capos, I would have killed him right then and there for such lack of awareness and for not knowing who the fuck I was.
“Be quiet!” their leader ordered fearfully. “Signor Milano, we had no idea you wished to see me.”
It was said as a statement. However, there was a clear question in his voice. Fucker was terrified that he had missed some communication from me.
“What is this fucker’s name?” I asked Aidan telepathically.
“Boris Rublev,” Aidan instantly replied.
I might not like the fact that Aidan insisted on inserting himself in my life, but the fucker came in handy. He packed a lot of useless information in that big brain of his.
“Boris, I am here for the woman and her children,” I told him coolly. “Release them to me.”
Mirko pointed his gun at my head, clearly still jacked up on his own self-importance. “The only thing that will be released to you is my bullet into your fucking head.”
Even before he could take his next breath, I had, in barely a blink of the human’s eyes, grabbed the hand that held the gun, snapped his hand in three places in quick succession, and used his finger to pull the trigger of his gun.
Falling to his knees, Mirko squealed in an unholy sound of pain that played like music to my ears. He was slobbering, whimpering, and writhing on the floor as if all that thrashing about could ever ease that kind of pain. Yeah, the fucker had shot himself in the gut, and now he would bleed out on the floor.
What was even more telling was the lack of response by Mirko’s men. It seemed that Mirko was the only Russian in the room stupid enough to attack an unknown foe. They all better be fucking grateful I’m feeling less volatile after my nights with Kali.
“Never point a gun at me,” I said calmly, already bored with having to deal with this petty shit. Ignoring the still-sobbing Mirko, I turned to Boris. “Now, are you going to release the woman and children, or do I have to break a few more of your men?”
“They owe us more than half a million dollars,” he spattered and whined. “Someone has got…” Boris’ whiny words stopped abruptly as a loud commotion came from outside the entrance to the room, followed with a man sailing headfirst through the entrance and a sea of men blocking the way, and therefore creating a clear path.
“Mirko, you sick sonofabitch, you had better not have touched my family,” a familiar feminine voice growled.
The breath left my body, and I was rendered speechless at the surprising sight of her vibrant, avenging presence. She was dressed very similarly to the first night I met her, except for her footwear. Her feminine figure was encased in form-fitting black pants, her uniform SWAT shirt and jacket, and some no-nonsense boots on her feet. I didn’t immediately react to the incredibility of my mate, my mate who is not bulletproof, walking into a room of armed men. I was too fucking stunned. This was the third time since I’d met her that she was in a situation that threatened her life. Sure, one was my fault, but the rest was all her.
Cazzo , I muttered under my breath.
“Get that woman out of here!” Boris yelled, scowling at his men and looking embarrassed that a mere woman had overpowered them.
“I will leave when I get my family,” Kali muttered determinedly. And then she seemed to take in the occupants of the room, first glaring at Boris, then looking at Mirko still whimpering as he nursed his hand, and then she stared at Aidan. It was clear that she recognized him, at least to me it did, but then she swiftly looked away, and her gaze then fell on me. She sucked in a shocked breath.
It was as if time stood still and there was no air to breathe. She peered at me with bluish-gray eyes one moment before they glowed to a sparkling silver.
I felt suddenly ice cold as a feeling of déjà vu assailed me. I had seen those eyes before. That certainty came in a blink. If I was prone to excessive emotions, the shock of recognition, on top of what she already meant to me, would have brought me to my knees.
So, make that four times since I met her that her life has been in jeopardy. As if I didn’t have enough shit to deal with, it looked like my mate was one of those women who attracted danger like fucking honey attracted bees.
And before she could say another word, Boris decided that it was time that he call me by the name that most of the underworld feared.
“Il Carnefice , please accept my apologies for these interruptions.” Boris continued to glare at his men. “Get her out of here!” he shouted impatiently.
A few men made as if to rush Kali, but she whipped out a Sig Sauer in one hand, which she pointed at Boris, and had her badge in the other hand. “Make one step toward me… Not only will grandpa get it, but I will arrest your asses,” she drawled.
My lips twitched in amusement. And that fast, she flipped my black mood.
“Kali!” the two girls shrieked as they barreled toward my mate. The boy wasn’t far behind. He, too, shouted her name as he ran to her. Soon, all three children were hanging onto Kali with determined grips, seriously undermining her ability to defend herself if Boris’ men decided to attack her.
“Look, lady, I don’t know who the fuck you are, and I don’t care to know,” Boris said coldly. “That woman and children will be turned over to Il Carnefice .”
“Not as long as I live and breathe,” Kali warned belligerently.
Boris grinned, his yellow teeth appearing more prominent with his glee as he pointed toward me. “You have an issue with the woman and children being detained, take it up with him.”
Kali wasted no time in turning and glaring at me. But she didn’t reserve the glare for me. She fixed her rage on Aidan as well. “You’re running with criminals now?”
Nah, hell no! I want her attention on me and only me.
“Calling me a criminal is like calling the devil a naughty boy,” I drawled, determined to make her address me.
She sauntered over to Aidan with the children still clutched tightly against her. “So, he’s the new Godfather, right?” She deliberately turned her back to me while addressing Aidan. “He’s the same guy making all those bloody statements and mercilessly eliminating rival crime syndicates, or are you doing that for him?”
“I don’t need anyone to make statements for me,” I drawled, finding her attempts to try pretend that we didn’t know each other, that we didn’t know each other intimately, quite amusing.
“He’s an international criminal, Aidan,” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “So, you’re proud to be working for scum?”
Aidan frowned. “Kali, there is no need to be disrespectful. Besides, I’m not the one sleeping with him.” The disapproval in his voice couldn’t have been more pronounced.
“But I didn’t know that he is scum.” Her lips curled in distaste.
Aidan looked worriedly at me over her head, but there was no need for him to worry that I would get pissed with her. I was too entertained by her for that.
She swung her head around to look at me since I had deliberately moved to stand directly behind her.
I grinned and gave her a slow wink.
She scowled even darker before turning to Aidan. “So, this is what you’re into since?—?”
Aidan interrupted her very interesting question. “Perhaps it would be prudent to get your mother and siblings out of here.”
I immediately suspected that his interruption was tied to the information he was keeping from me. Yup, I’m going to beat his ass as soon as we get out of here. I hated that he knew shit about my mate that I didn’t have a clue about.
“We came because we heard that your family was in trouble, not to harm them as you seem to be thinking,” Aidan told her while looking over at me as if to gauge my reaction to their little interplay.
Hell, that was the most words I’d ever heard him string together to anyone who wasn’t a Petrov or a wolf. Again, the puzzle of what kind of being she could possibly be, and of what she was to the wolves—because it was more than clear that there was a connection—all eluded me. It annoyed the fuck out of me that Kali didn’t, nor any of the wolves, trust me enough to tell me.
“So, your new Godfather wants my sisters for his harem?” she sneered, still addressing Aidan and not me.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I just loved her over-the-top outrage. “I’m not into children, but I wouldn’t mind having you in my harem,” I said lazily. I found her determination to pretend that, less than twelve hours ago, I wasn’t buried so deep in her that it was impossible to tell where either of us began or ended entirely amusing. It was even more fascinating how she was pretending as if I couldn’t feel and smell her arousal for me even as she spat venom at me. And of course, she could feel how much I wanted her as well.
“Please tell your boss that my family is not interested in his harem or his help,” she muttered.
“Where the hell are you getting this shit?” I growled. Okay, so I wasn’t finding having to look at the back of her head all that fun anymore. I hated being deprived of the view of her beautiful face.
Meanwhile, the other occupants of the room were swiveling their heads between Kali, me, and Aidan as if they were watching an enthralling tennis match.
Aidan sighed. “You were taught better than this, Kali.”
It was my turn to frown at him. What the fuck was he talking about? He was talking to her as if she was his little sister, or niece, or some damn relative, and he was admonishing her behavior. Was that it? Was she a wolf? But why was she drinking blood? Why did I not scent an inner beast? She didn’t have the aura of a shapeshifter. She had the aura of a vampire or dhampir. This was a mystery that, before this night was out, someone was going to fucking spill. Kali or Aidan, I didn’t give a shit who. However, I really hoped it was Kali. I wanted her to trust me with all her secrets.
I certainly didn’t have any left.