38. Nikolai
Nikolai
I guide her off the floor and back into the chair across from my desk. I lean against the desk with my arms crossed and watch her.
“Keep talking.”
Her eyes are unfocused. She’s somewhere else.
“Gabby. I need to know all of it.”
She looks at me, but she’s not the same Gabby from last night. This is a woman barely holding on.
“My father was connected,” she says. “Not like you. Smaller. But he had relationships. Favors owed. Matteo Castellano was the son of the don’s younger brother. My father wanted money and protection.” Her voice is flat. “I was the payment for my father’s advancement in the organization.”
Daughters are currency in our world. They shouldn’t be, but that’s reality.
“I was eighteen. I didn’t have a choice. You didn’t say no to my father.” She exhales slowly through her nose. “Matteo was twenty-five years older than me. I was his third wife. The first two died in accidents.”
My jaw tightens. I keep my face still. She doesn’t have to fill in the details. I already know.
She looks at her hands again. “He had a temper. His goal was an heir.”
She told me she’d never had an orgasm. I understood what she endured. I swallow my rage.
“Go on.”
“I saw things. I heard things. I kept my head down and paid attention.” She pulls in a breath. “When I realized I had enough to put him away, I went to the FBI.”
And now I understand the identity Pasha couldn’t trace.
“An agent named Greg Jones. He’d been building a case for two years, and he had almost nothing.
I had everything.” Her voice doesn’t waver.
“When I found out I was pregnant, I told Greg I needed out. I provided the evidence needed to put several of them away.” She pauses. “Matteo was supposed to go away, too.”
“Supposed to.”
“Car bomb. He exploded right in front of me.”
I stare at her.
“I was injured, but Greg was there. He pulled me out, got me to a different city. I had a new name and federal protection.”
The silence stretches.
“Matteo never knew I was pregnant. No one knew.” Her eyes find mine. “Luke is his son. He looks like him, but he’s mine.”
I stand up and go to the window because I need a minute to process what she’s just told me.
“We’ve been in the witness protection program for five years,” she murmurs. “I kept running, but I exited six months ago to make a life for Luke.”
Everything she’s done is to keep her son safe.
The pieces lock into place. “The white roses.”
“Matteo used to send them after he hurt me. I found one on my car. And someone sent them to the casino. I thought it was you.”
“Not me, Gabby.”
“I should have told you.”
“He found you,” I say.
“His family. Matteo is dead. I watched him die.”
She’s staring at me with devastated eyes, waiting for me to react. I cross the room and bend down in front of her chair. Eye level, so she can’t misread what I’m about to say.
“I am going to get him back.” Every word is deliberate. “Luke is coming home. This is not a promise I’m making to make you feel better.”
Her chin trembles, and she bites her lower lip to stop it.
“Once he’s home, I will find everyone involved. The men who touched him. The ones who planned it. The one who gave the order.” I hold her gaze. “They will all die.”
She doesn’t flinch or tell me to let the authorities handle it. She looks me in the eye and nods.
“Lvitsa,” I say.
“You said that before. What does it mean?”
“Lioness. You are my lioness, Gabriella.”
She inhales. “I have to get my baby back, Nikolai.”
I stand. “Tell me about the Castellano family. The Vegas operation. What do you know?”
She shakes her head slowly. “I didn’t know they were here. I swear to you. The family I knew operated out of New York and New Jersey. Atlantic City. Some presence in Miami.” She pauses. “I didn’t know they had this kind of reach out here. I never would have come to Vegas if I had known.”
“The man in the park,” she whispers. “The mugging. The roses. They were never about you.”
“No.”
She closes her eyes. I watch her work through it. It’s been more than an hour, and I have my men everywhere. I assumed it was the Italians. I was right. I just had the wrong family. I’ll have answers soon.
“Go upstairs,” I tell her quietly. “Rest. You’ll need to be ready for Luke when I bring him home.”
She gets to her feet and sways. I steady her with a hand at her elbow. “I’ll be in his room,” she whispers.
I watch the door close behind her.
Then, I turn and pick up my phone.
I work for the next five hours straight. Pasha leads the interrogations. My casino security runs the men from the therapy-center footage through facial recognition and cross-checks them against Matteo Castellano’s known associates.
The house moves around me. Pasha sends Olga and Mila to one of our safe houses in Utah. Galina is at the hospital, keeping me updated on Kylie and Carson. Guards cycle in and out. Irina appears with food I don’t touch.
I’m watching the security feed from my desk when the first SUV rolls through, then the second, and then a third right behind it.
I’m moving toward the front of the house when the first SUV doors open. Sergei climbs out with his best friend and right-hand man, Kirill.
“Nikolai.”
“Sergei.”
We don’t embrace. He grips my shoulder once, hard. I return the gesture, and that’s enough. That’s always been enough between us.
“Sofia sends her love,” Sergei says. “If this is prolonged, I’ll send for her and the boys.”
“It won’t be,” I say without a hint of doubt.
Maksim and Lila emerge from the second SUV. Maksim throws an arm around the back of my neck. “We’ll get him back,” he says.
“Where is she?” Lila asks.
“Upstairs.”
“I’ll show you.” Irina leads her upstairs.
Right now, Gabby needs someone I can’t be. Someone softer. Someone who knows how to sit with another person’s fear without trying to eliminate it. Someone who can understand the emotions she’s experiencing.
Damien, Maksim’s right-hand man, emerges from the passenger seat. “Nikolai.”
“Damien.”
My cousins, Andrei and Roman, arrive shortly after. Both are men I trust with my life, which is not something I can say about many people. I have called in everyone. And they have dropped everything to come.
“Come in,” I say.
I bring everyone into the study. Irina appears with a tray of sandwiches and coffee, then slips out.
The room is too full. Too many large men carrying too much tension. I retreat behind the desk, putting some distance between me and them. The pressure builds in my head. I can’t afford to lose control right now.
Sergei stands at the window with his arms crossed. Maksim leans against the bookshelf. Andrei and Roman position themselves near the door, blocking the exit on instinct.
“Tell me what you know,” Sergei says.
“Not enough yet.” I check my phone. “Pasha is on his way back. He’s handling the interrogations.”
Sergei’s expression doesn’t change. “Italian?”
“Yes. But not the family I’ve been dealing with.”
Maksim’s head comes up. “Different family?”
I tell them who Gabriella is.
“Shit,” Sergei mutters. “I remember when that happened. They blamed us.”
The door opens, and Pasha walks in. He looks like hell. There’s something dark on his sleeve. Blood, most likely. His knuckles are bruised. He scans the room, acknowledging everyone with a nod.
“Close the door,” I say.
Roman closes it.
Pasha pulls out his phone.
“Matteo Castellano is behind it,” Pasha says.
The room falls silent.
Gabby’s words replay in my head. I watched him die.
“He’s alive,” I say, the final piece falling into place.
Sergei curses under his breath.
Pasha looks at me. “He had someone on the inside of the FBI operation. They tipped him off forty-eight hours before the takedown. The body they recovered was someone else.” He pauses.
“He’s been in Italy for five years. Lying low.
Letting the dust settle while his wife’s evidence put half his family away. ”
“She didn’t know he was alive,” I say. “She thinks she’s been running from the family.”
“What changed?” Maksim asks.
Pasha picks up the thread. “He came to Vegas a couple of months ago. Rebuilding credibility after his wife put several members of the organization away. He wants back in, but he can’t return to the East Coast without exposing that he’s alive. So, he came here.”
I continue listening as my mind races.
“He started following her as soon as he recognized her. The mugging was an attempt to get her identification and confirm who she was. The roses were personal. He was fucking with her.”
“And then he saw Luke,” I say.
Pasha meets my eyes. “The boy looks just like him, Nik. There’s no mistaking it.”
My thumb and forefinger press together.
“Does he intend to hurt Luke?”
“Not according to the plan. He wants to present his heir to the don and secure his position in the family. Then, he plans to send him to Italy to be trained in the organization until he comes of age.”
“Fuck.” The word tears out of me. I can’t even fathom what Gabby is experiencing. I slap the desk. “Motherfucker!”
“Has he already gotten him out of the country?” Sergei asks.
My thumb and finger rub faster. My breath turns shallow. Pasha looks directly at me and slowly shakes his head. “Not yet. Your men cast a wide net. Moving that fast bought us time.”
“I have to tell her.” I push away from the desk. “Pasha, get me a fucking location.”
“You know I will.”
I look toward the ceiling, toward where Gabby is waiting upstairs.
I promised her I would bring Luke home.
Now I know who I have to kill to keep that promise.