Chapter 15 Maxim
MAXIM
Thursday morning dawns with blue sky and bitter wind. It cuts through me like the slice of a blade as I stand on the balcony of my new apartment overlooking the city. Hot coffee warms my throat as I drink quickly to prevent the chill in the air from robbing my drink of its warmth.
I’m tired. This past week has been draining. Killing Hector was a highlight, but we’ve stalled in our investigation. Everything we know about the second bastard, Vinnie, is limited. New York City is a big place to hide.
I drink as my mind runs through every detail that bastard dribbled from his lips before he died.
Apologies for the women he harmed and killed.
Anger at getting caught. He even begged in the end, as if I would forget what he took from me and the pain he caused the people I care about.
None of my girls will rest until Vinnie is found.
None of my guys will either since everyone is working double on security detail.
I fight back a yawn, but before I make it back inside, Rex steps out onto the balcony to join me. “We’ve got something.”
“On?”
“Vinnie.”
“What?”
“An address. Stu’s bringing the car around.”
“Shit.”
“Bad timing?” Rex gazes at me, his brows furrowed. “Want me to handle it?”
“I was going to spend time with Hollie today, but this is too important.”
“How is she?”
“She accepted the ring last night. And dinner was… good, I thought. Until she went to the restroom. When she came back, she was different.”
Rex’s head tilts as the wind cuts through his hairline. “Do you regret what you did?”
“No. Killing her goes against everything I stand for. I just…” Shaking my head, I drain my coffee in one gulp.
“It gets to me how she looks at me, and I don’t understand why.
I like listening to her, even when she’s angry.
I like her music. At the bar where we originally met, she caught my eye so quickly.
Now she looks at me like…” Trailing off, my heart squeezes as if a fist has reached up from my guts and ensnared it.
“She looks at me like my mom used to look at my dad.”
“You’re not like him,” Rex cuts in immediately. “The fact that she’s alive proves that.”
“Does it?” With a final glance, I head back into the apartment. I’m met by warmth that chases away the bitter sting of the December wind within seconds as I walk toward Hollie’s room. Ideally, I’d like to speak to her before I leave.
My soft knocks on her door go unanswered, so, daringly, I turn the handle and ease my way inside.
She’s asleep. Her curtains hang closed over the window, but a sliver of light escapes through a crack and illuminates her face on the pillow.
With the bruise fading from her cheek, Hollie almost looks like her old self.
Both her arms wrap around the pillow she’s sleeping on and one leg appears cocked upward under the blanket, bent at the knee.
The blanket itself pools at her waist, giving me a glimpse of her bare back.
I should leave, but something keeps me there.
Admiration.
Concern.
A lick of desire.
Walking forward slowly, I pick up the end of the blanket and very gently cover her back up. She sighs and shifts against the pillow, tightening her arms a fraction, but she doesn’t wake. She sleeps on, as peaceful as a baby.
That comforts me.
If she were at the point of no return, she wouldn’t find sleep here with me.
All I can do is hope that in time, she will understand.
Leaving her room, I softly close the door and meet Rex back in the lounge. “Stay with her. I’ll send Toto up. You both need to stick to her like glue, understand?”
Rex nods. “What are you concerned about?”
“My father. He called last night but I didn’t answer. If he’s about to make a move, I want her protected.”
“Understood.”
Stu and I arrive at Vinnie’s apartment forty minutes later. It’s small for an apartment, on the ground floor of a shabby block with cracked windows, peeling railings, and a front door that’s not seen a lick of paint since its installation.
“He lives here?” Stu looks up and down the street. “This is on the edge of our territory. One block over and you’re eating with the Irish.”
“You think there’s a connection?” I ask as we approach the door.
Stu shrugs. “Nah. Last I heard from your father’s men is that the Italians are the biggest aggressors right now. The Irish have a lot of infighting to keep them busy.”
“That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have run with my girls.”
“Sure.” Stu leans heavily on the door and within a few seconds, the lock splinters free. “But it does mean they don’t want your eyes prying too close while they fight out their own promotions.”
“Hm.” Inside, we’re greeted with the sour stink of off milk and out-of-date meat. The source is the fridge. Judging by the piled-up mail that complains as we push inside and the lack of warmth within the apartment, Vinnie hasn’t been home in a while.
“Vinnie?” Stu takes the stairs two at a time.
The clatter of doors being kicked open rings through the apartment while I inspect the lower floor with my gun clasped tightly in my hands.
There’s no sign of him. The lounge, kitchen, and downstairs bathroom are empty. The back door leads to a backyard covered in untouched snow barring a few bird footprints and the pawprints of a local cat. Stu’s footsteps thunder back down the stairs and he jogs into the kitchen.
“Place is empty, Boss.”
“Figures. Bring a team in. I want this place picked apart until I know what color of underwear that bastard is wearing.”
Two hours later, Vinnie’s home is picked apart by the best team of investigators I have on hand.
They’ve found more than I ever have and with it comes some semblance of the truth.
Vinnie Antonva is really Vinnie Tetnova.
The Tetnovas are a small family that presumably died out five years ago during a bloody territorial war between my family and another prominent Russian family, greedy for power.
They challenged my father for power and lost spectacularly.
So did all the other families that chose to back them.
My father cleared them all out like bad garbage, but it seems he missed one.
“You think this is revenge?” Stu leans against the kitchen counter, flicking through a gross scrapbook discovered under the floorboards. “He was tailing these girls for some time.”
“Revenge against me?” I shake my head. “Unless one of them told him, I don’t see how he’d know I’m so involved with the girls. The way I see it, he’s pissed that his family line was wiped out and buddied up with Hector to take out his anger on the only part of our world he had access to. My girls.”
My stomach flips at the sheer number of pictures of the girls at Plumme. Even more alarming are the pictures of Zoe and her son. I send a quick text to her guards to ensure they don’t leave her hospital room and check in with the men watching her son and mother. All are safe.
“What about these?” Stu flicks the page. Pictures from three of our other clubs, Rhinestone, Marigold, and Revenge, fill the page. “More targets?”
I drag my hand down my face, pressing my fingertips into my aching muscles. “Shit. You think he’d target someone else?”
“Fuck knows. I don’t understand the mind of someone pulling sick shit like this. He’s either running cause we popped Hector, or he’s oblivious and our girls were a trial run.”
“Alright. I’ll call Rex. We’ll double the weight at all of those clubs and our two others.”
“You’re spreading us thin. Igor’s going to start asking questions.”
“And?” I meet his gaze. “You want me to abandon them?”
“Not at all. I’m just warning you. Your father isn’t going to care about two dead dancers.”
“Yeah, well, he’s never had his priorities right.” As if he heard us, my phone lights up with his face and name as he calls. “Fuck. Alright, wrap up here and see if we can find out if Vinnie had ties to anyone other than Hector.”
“Got it.”
Outside, the wind picks up as I walk into the street and answer. “What?”
“About time,” Dad snaps down the line. “Any longer and war would have broken out while I tracked down why my son can’t answer his phone.”
“I’m busy.”
“With what?”
“Club business.”
“Supply issue?”
Of course his concern is the drugs, not the girls. “Something like that. I’m sorting it out. What’s up?”
“Have you come to your senses yet?” Something rustles in the background. “Is that bitch dead?”
“You mean my wife?”
“Don’t give me that,” he snaps. “You know you spat in Zak’s face by marrying some slut and not his daughter?”
“Zak and I both know his daughter isn’t interested in me, Dad. That was your deal.”
“A deal I worked hard for!”
“So what? Now you have to pay the man a decent cut rather than us tying the knot. It’s not an unsolvable problem.”
“Do you have any idea what it’s going to cost us?” Igor snaps. “Millions that could have been saved with two words from you.”
“You’re pissed. I get it. But Hollie stays.”
“Why?”
“Dad. She’s my wife. End of discussion. Unless you want to talk about what the fuck you did to her in the car? You might be the Pakhan, but that won’t stop me from kicking your ass for hurting her.”
“Is that a threat?”
“You taught me well, Dad. I don’t make threats.”
“I was saving you from making a mistake.”
“Fuck off,” I snap, anger igniting inside me. “I told you how things were and you went behind my back and tried to murder her. I’m sure it’s reached your ears who her father is.”
A deep sigh rushes against my ear. “Yes.”
“You know he wouldn’t have stopped until you were behind bars. So if anything, I’ve saved you. And you'd better crawl to her for forgiveness.”
The line goes dead. Lowering my phone, I stare at the blank screen. Hollie’s father, being a retired police chief, is all sorts of dangerous for career criminals like us. If anything happens to her, no bribery in the world will be enough.
Speaking of, Hollie’s number flashes up on my phone a second later and I answer as calmly as I can.
“Hello?”
“Maxim?”
“Mhm. Unless you’re not looking for me, in which case you called the wrong number.”
“No, I am. Sorry, you just sound… different.”
“It’s cold. I’m tired. What’s wrong?”
Hollie pauses, then her warm voice rises once more. “I want to spend some time with my mom tomorrow.”
“I see nothing wrong with that.”
“Just the two of us.”
“I’m not invited. Got it.”
“No, Maxim. I mean… without the guards. They’re smothering, okay? Tiffany won’t stop asking questions, and I don’t want my mom to do the same, y’know? I want to pretend things are normal. Plus, if she notices, then my dad will too.”
She makes a good point, but leaving her unprotected is out of the question.
I study a passing car making its way down the snow-covered street.
Choosing to trust her is a huge step. For all I know, this is some plan for her to escape or slip her mother the truth that could start her father digging into my life.
“Maxim?” Hope lifts her voice and my heart skips a beat.
“I’ll see what I can do. Go. See your mother. You won’t even know the guards are there.”