Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Tristan
Sleep never came that night, and as I held my woman in my arms, I wondered if it would ever come back again.
By the time four-thirty rolled around, I reluctantly lowered her onto the mattress and left the warmth of her body for my office.
Still wearing yesterday’s shirt and now-rumpled black pants, I paced in front of my computer.
Ella needs me, but I need to go out and find Cole.
A call with Matt and Nate- realizing they were also both awake, made us quickly set a meeting in thirty minutes at the office.
Finding Cole cannot wait for sunrise. I need it now, or I will lose my mind while Ella is walking with a target on her back.
My Ella. My sweet, innocent, kind, smart, stubborn Ella, who does not deserve a drop of this violence. My men were already watching my gates, and I had, as she had consented to it, inserted a surveillance app tracker in her phone. She would be safe here, where no one could get to her.
Checking on her before leaving, I leave a note on the empty pillow next to her spread of long black hair, inviting me to run my fingers through it. Those silky strands I want to see every morning of my existence.
I’m taking care of everything.
Do not leave the house.
I’ll see you in a few hours sweetheart.
T.
I wanted to write more. Tell her that I’m not just falling for her.
I have fallen. Hard, irreversibly fallen.
Love had never been on my radar, and yet, watching her get undone here, in my home, after giving me her trust, her acceptance of my twisted ways, even after being the target of a threat because of me, she’s still there, searching for my closeness, unyielding to the invisible pull between us.
I love you, Ella, I should have written.
But would she reciprocate? Or would I be living in a cage of my own making?
Could Ella love me in the same mad depth, in the same obsessive, consuming, under-the-skin kind of affection?
Or was her presence here proof that yes, she was exactly in the same cage as I was?
Both of us holding on to the lock, making sure we would stay there, forever.
“I…” My hand brushes her temple, and she squirms like a cat in the sun, her eyelids opening to meet mine for a brief instant.
Those dark eyes. Hypnotic. Seeing right through my armor and my false composure.
I love you. The words stay stuck in my throat, their sound unfamiliar, frightening with honesty. Can she feel it, though?
Can she sense its unconditionality through my actions?
Today, when I come back after taking care of Cole, I will tell her.
That I fought for us. That there is nothing in the world that could keep us apart.
That all along, all those years, I had been waiting for her, and that our long agony is now over.
Almost. Shutting my eyes, I turn, storming out to escape her aura calling me back to her side.
With one last security check of all the openings in the house, I turn on the camera and set it to live on my phone, making sure I can see her sleeping even while I drive.
There. She will not be able to go anywhere without me knowing.
She is safe. Right? Safe. I need to relax. I need to breathe.
Twenty minutes flow by as I arrive at my office, all the door codes changed, three of my new security staff already there, guarding the elevator and the main door along with the other exits.
Matt works in mysterious ways, and I am not even going to ask where he found those guys in such a short time.
Empty, the building is like a ghost town, deserted of life; the usual concierge, Ronny, was sent home since I am not having anyone take any risk after the threat we received.
The elevator sends me up to the thirty-second floor, and I rush out of it, directly into my office.
The place I used to find refuge in, where my mind was clearer, able to wage war against enemies and business opponents with a clear mind, is now a knot of thoughts.
I could have gone straight to Cole, but I needed one thing before.
Sliding my photograph aside and opening my vault, I type the code I recently changed to Ella and I first meeting in this very same place.
The date, along with her birthday, the whole thing typed backward, because sentimentality has to stop somewhere.
A knock makes me tense. The Glock in front of me, waiting patiently in the safe, tells me to grip it.
And I do, because nowhere is safe now. The door swings open, and a half-amused Nate with his hands in the air stares back at me.
“Easy, I have a kid, you know.” Without a word, I put the Glock down, tucking it into the back holster I have just set in place. Matt follows behind Nate, his face stern and waiting for orders, locked in.
“Cole Vodianov sent us a death threat,” I recall, as I grab the craft envelope I came to get. “I’m going to go to him tonight and give him this.”
“What’s that?”
“The one thing he has always wanted to hide.”
“If you tell me you knew something and didn’t do shit about it…”
“I am just a citizen, Nate,” I huff. “Not a cop. Not the justice system.”
“It better not have anything to do with trafficking or…”
“It is a report of all the money laundering he did for various politicians, members of Congress, and senators. Things a lot of people would like to see disappear, and if it so happens that they become aware of it, they would be quite determined to make him disappear.”
“And if he does not back down after you threaten him with it?”
“Then things will turn a different way for Cole, and I am afraid his legacy will stop with him.”
“Tristan,” Nate warns, trying to reason with me.
Only, does he not know that a madman cannot be tamed?
Cole Vodianov has been poisoning our lives since I was born.
It was all business games until he targeted Ella.
My Ella. And I do not just see red now. I see guts, and cartilage, and liters of blood, and torn flesh.
Fate. Just like his family did to my family.
I never wanted to become like my father, but circumstances are twisting my hand.
“You will go back home to Maddie, and you will take over all of this if anything happens to me. Along with Ella. She is home, and I asked for you to come tonight so you could look me in the eye and give me your word to take care of her.”
“Tristan, I won’t. This isn’t…”
“Your word. I need it.”
“You…”
“Shit, Nate, we don’t have much time,” I cut him off.
“Okay, okay. I’ll do it, all of it. I’ll take care of her, but I am coming with you to Cole’s.”
“No. And that is not your big brother talking. That’s your boss.”
“Then I will quit and help you either way.”
“You guys are done, or?” Matt cuts in. “We really need to get going before they find us.”
“You stay. End of discussion. Maddie needs a father.” Nate groans and shakes his head, but at least I have won the vital argument. Cannot have a dead brother. I can do a lot of things, but this isn't one of them.
“How will I know you are all right?”
“I’ll call you. Please go home now.”
“You really won’t let me win this.”
“Not this time.” Turning on his heel, he gets out of the office, anger weighing on his shoulders. We did not say goodbye. Because it would mean that it could happen, and I am trying to stay positive. Now that he is gone, I can get to the ugly part.
“You are not going to let Cole out with it, right?” Matt asks, one brow up, calling on my bullshit.
“No.”
“Why meet him, then? Why the bullshit blackmail?”
“Because I needed Nate to give me his word and understand what was about to happen, even if things go more violent than I let on. Killing was always out of the picture.”
“Why go all the way, then? Why now?”
“Because I have never had a reason to do it. Killing for money is not worth it, especially when you can beat your opponent in so many other ways. Now it’s different.”
“Different?”
“If you had a wife, would you kill a man who threatened her with a target on her back?” He scoffs, then his face turns blank, emotionless, as if the thought of it could not even be a possibility.
“I would, and I’d sleep like a baby after.”
“Thought so.” I wave my hand at him. “You can still back down.”
“And let you go by yourself?” He scoffs. “Like hell I would. You do know I’ve been to Iraq.”
“They will be expecting us.”
“And we will make sure to be extremely polite guests, then.” I nod, the weight of his life heavy on my shoulders.
We change into tactical gear in the adjoining security room: black Kevlar vests, reinforced gloves, hidden comms, holsters strapped tight, trading polished shoes and tailored shirts for equipment that does not forgive hesitation.
I check my phone. A sleepy Ella, curled on her side in my sheets, is still there.
I let out an exhale. Focus. Both of us, alone, with no other security or men, because when you are about to commit a crime, you keep it, well, I would say, in the family, but for this once, I will say you keep it to the bare minimum.
Matt and I. With his veteran experience, that should be enough to have my back.
And still, I will admit, I would have gone by myself without batting an eye.
With our Glocks in our holsters and the vault shut, I make a mental note to erase my presence on the building cameras and my phone’s GPS.
And if a cousin of Cole or an uncle comes after me, I will give them the same treatment, although I am sure they would shut their mouths after using the piece of blackmail I have on them.
A family name is a brand, and I am sure it matters more to them than avenging a piece of crap like Cole.
Especially knowing all the warring around in their family to become the heir, pretty sure some of them would almost thank me for it.
“Ready?” I ask Matt after removing a speck of dust from my shoulder.