Chapter 19

Viktor

“It feels funny,” Nick protested, but gave in and let me swab the inside of his cheek. I sealed the swab into its vial and handed it over to Bela, who nodded his goodbye and walked out with it.

“How long until we see results?” Emma asked, looking intrigued.

“Three days,” I replied calmly. “We’ll run a search against all known DNA databases. If he has living relatives besides you, this will find them.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“So what’s on the menu for the rest of the day?” I asked, brushing some stray hairs behind her ear. Now that we had kissed, I couldn’t stop touching her. She didn’t seem to mind at all. Quite the contrary, in fact. Right now, her eyelids had dipped like those of a cat being petted.

“I uh… those interviews. Cleaning out the rest of the office. Do you think your computer guy will be done soon?”

“I’ll be seeing him in an hour. I’ll find out how far along he is.” It was a little strange that Alexei was taking quite so long. Either he was having trouble finding the information, or there was so much, that verifying it was taking a long time.

It had been a rough night. Doc had actually gone to the hospital, and though he had survived along with Mischa, neither one of them would be going back to work anytime soon. It would take Doc at least a month to heal his burst eardrums. Mischa’s concussion had been bad enough to cause brain swelling, he was out of the woods, but not yet out of the hospital.

“I may not be around much until tonight,” I said apologetically to the both of them. “I have the matter at my club to attend to, as well as investigating some things about Charles.” Primarily, if we could get our fingers into his bank accounts, like dear, wicked, little Emma had suggested.

“I understand. If you call ahead, I’ll try and have something for you to eat when you get back.” Nick came to lean on her, and she slid her hand down to his shoulder.

“Thank you. Call me if you find out anything that might be important.” I trusted her instincts on that.

She was amazing. I wished I had somehow known her before this. Known the truth about her, and about what her uncle was doing to her. If only I could have approached her and convinced her from the truth, instead of what happened.

But I would live with the regret instead. It was a fitting punishment for what I had done. And if I could earn her forgiveness and her trust, perhaps there could be something real between us.

It was sentimental, and unlike me. I had avoided entanglements with women that were more than strictly casual. They could be very dangerous to the women involved, and also created a point of vulnerability for me should my lover be attacked. But right now, I didn’t care.

Every time I played that kiss back in my mind, I craved more. Far, far more. But if I thought about that too much, a lot of blood would leave my brain and I wouldn’t be functional for dealing with business.

“All right, you two, I’m off. I’ll call you,” I said, moving toward the door to grab my things and head out. I did it far more reluctantly than I wanted to let on. Even though this place belonged to my enemy, Emma and her boy gave it such warmth that leaving was like exiting a warm bed on a freezing day.

Outside, it had switched back to typical Los Angeles weather, warm sun, stinging smog and the stink of the city. I hated that smell, but at least it was no longer raining like Seattle in late autumn. I drove my car out of the garage and into traffic, which was thick and chaotic at noon.

I had time in the stop-and-go traffic, so I put my phone on speaker and dialed Anatoly. “Tolya! I’m on my way to Alexei. Any word on the bombing?”

“Well, we got the other bomb off, and got that asshole to talk.” He sounded tired. Not a surprise, the x-ray had revealed two cracked ribs from the stabbing attempt. Stab-proof vests only had so much padding, and the would-be assassin had put his whole body into it.

“What did he say?”

“Lots of swearing, at least until we threatened to leave him there again. Then he cracked.” He hesitated.

“Well?” I demanded as I inched my coupe forward. “Is it Igor?”

“Sofia. They described her. So yes, Igor made that call.”

“So now he’s trying to kill us.” Kill me. It made sense, his grudge was personal, and once my organization was headless, it would be that much easier to kill off the rest and take over my territory. “Fine. If he wants a war, he has it. Tell my men to go on the hunt. Bring in as many of Igor’s men as we can get their hands on. Sofia too, if you can manage it.”

“Why do you think he’s turned like this?” He sounded a little breathless. Probably still in pain with his ribs. “Why now?”

“I’m not sure. But I’m going to find out.”

Igor had reasons for his grudge. I was the one who had reported him for embezzling from my father. I was also the one who had left him with the limp that now required a cane—though he had asked for it by attacking me. But in the end, he had disgraced himself, and betrayed my friendship. He only believed that I had betrayed him because he had foolishly expected me to break my oaths to my family and the organization for him.

He had been wrong. And he had stewed along in a cold war with me ever since. Playing a chess game with city assets, properties, territory. Coming to my club with veiled threats and smug insinuations. Teasing me with the idea that he knew something about Leon’s death, and then vanishing.

And then trying to bomb my club.

“Do you ever regret this?” Tolya asked me quietly. “This enmity.”

I sighed. “Our lives would be infinitely easier if everyone actually got along and did not trouble one another. In this case, our lives would be easier just from him still being an ally. But he chose to betray us, Tolya. Igor didn’t accidentally steal all that money from my father.”

A long pause. “I know. I just miss the old days sometimes.”

“Those were easier times overall.” Back when my father had been alive, back when I had simply been his best enforcer, and not had the whole thing balanced on my shoulders. Many praised me as being a better leader than even my father, but when I thought about what it cost me and others, I sometimes felt very tired. “Look, I need copies of some correspondence from Igor. I know there are some of his threatening letters in my office.”

“Sure, I’ll dig them up and have someone bring them over to Alexei’s. They’ll be waiting for you.”

“Good. I have a letter with no signature, and I want to compare the handwriting.” And if I was right, it would change everything about this matter with Graves.

“What is it?”

I drove forward again, ignoring the idiot trying to edge into my lane with three feet of clearance. He honked loudly and I ignored him. I couldn’t have given him the finger through the polarized glass anyway.

“There’s a chance that Igor and Graves have been working together in some capacity.”

It sank in fast. “You’re fucking kidding me,” Tolya growled. “But that could mean—”

“I know.” I licked my lips, my hands white-knuckled on the wheel. I had to focus hard on driving carefully as adrenaline washed through my system. “It may well mean that he had a hand in my brother’s murder, too.”

“Fuck.” He sounded even more breathless now. “And because you caught him stealing.”

“That’s right. I’m starting to wonder if the friend I knew was just an act.” I felt just a twinge of sadness at that. It was easier to believe that Igor had been acting than to believe that I had once had a true friend that changed somehow.

“Well, you’re right,” Tolya grumped finally. “If he had a hand in killing Leon, he was never your friend. Never mine either.”

“Yeah.” I suddenly hated this whole conversation. “I need to focus on driving in this damn mess. Find me some of those letters from Igor. I’ll be by the club later.”

“Got it.”

When he’d signed off, I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Something had definitely set Igor off, and it hadn’t been anything I had done.

Dimitri. He would know, if anyone did.

I left a message on his service, letting him know that there had been an incident at the club and that I needed to talk to him. He had an ear to the ground everywhere, and probably already knew what the incident had been even though we’d managed to hush up the dancefloor incident.

I just hoped he called me back soon.

***

Alexei was working in one of the converted warehouses we kept near the Santa Monica docks. He had converted it into a computer nerve center. It was strategically located to keep an eye on Igor, but right now only some of his subordinates would be doing that duty.

I heard barking as I walked up to the door and smiled a little. Apparently, the new puppy was a hit with the whole team. Alexei remained the heart of my Bratva, just as I held its mind and purpose. Perhaps I should have sent someone a bit harder-hearted to do the dog trick. But if it made them happy to have a dog around, and it didn’t distract too much, why not? Maybe she would grow into a decent guard dog.

Then I wondered if I was going soft. Doting on Nick, letting my intel men have an office puppy, having soft feelings for a woman that went beyond wanting to fuck her. My objectivity was crucial, I couldn’t do my job without it.

But there was a difference between objectivity and being a hard, humorless bastard. That had been what Igor had been, back before he’d betrayed us and turned into the cruelly sadistic ass he was today. It probably hadn’t helped his mental health to be so rigid. And it showed how ‘cruel’ lurked in the shadows behind ‘rigid’.

I was a soldier in a street war. We of the organization had our honor, even if Igor had forgotten that. Cruelty was the worst, the sickest self-indulgence a human was capable of. Taking pleasure in others’ suffering was for men like Igor, not for me.

A man could be a warrior and still have a heart. Perhaps it was even essential.

Or maybe I’m being sentimental after all, I thought as I let myself in and walked into Alexei’s current nerve center.

Immediately a bundle of blonde fur scrambled up to me, yapping in greeting. She half-collapsed into a play-bow, wiggling her entire behind.

“Ah, hello.” I patted her on the head, then stepped over her and walked down the aisle between cubicles. “Alexei!”

“Back office, boss!” he called. I walked that direction with the puppy trailing after me, jumping to try and get my attention.

I wonder if Nick would like a dog. He certainly seems responsible enough for one.

Alexei’s desk spanned an entire wall, a gathering of big flatscreen monitors clustered on the wall behind it. Some had text, some images, a few streamed live video. The largest one sat dead center on the surface of the desk. Alexei’s keyboard was in front of it, the desktop was full of open text files. A folder sat next to the keyboard with my name on it.

Alexei stood with his back to the monitors to greet me. He kicked a smallish rubber squeaky-ball for the puppy—Mila, that was her name—who went scrambling down the corridor after it. “I’ve gotten everything off the laptop and that thumb drive. I managed to run some searches on some of the information too.” He handed me the folder. “That has a copy of the full report, along with those letters you wanted.”

“I see. Good. Give me the short version.”

“Charles Graves has been working with some kind of underworld interests here in Los Angeles for decades. I haven’t tracked down who, yet, but I do know that he’s been doing a lot of shady shit for almost as long as I’ve been alive.”

My eyebrows went up. “Go on.”

“He’s still making payments to someone for a double murder he had committed over twenty years ago. Apparently, the hitman has been blackmailing him the whole time.”

I felt my gut tighten. “Double murder?”

“Yeah.” His smile faded slightly. He took a deep breath before going on. “It’s Dr. Martinez’s parents, Viktor. He had their car sabotaged.”

It felt like a punch in the gut. The first thing that went through my head at the news was how was I going to tell her? It would break her heart again, to learn that her uncle had been behind her parents’ deaths.

I kept my voice even, but I felt sick. “I see. You’re certain?”

“Yeah. It’s one of the few regular email correspondences he gets, and I have been able to link it up to his bank expenditures.” He showed me both on that big central screen.

“I wish I could say I was completely surprised, but I am not. After he abandoned his niece and great-nephew, especially.”

“That poor woman.” He ran his hand back through his hair, and then kicked the ball for the pup again. I watched the cute little creature run after it in an awkward game of fetch. I knew he was doing it because he hated giving this news, and I guessed it was healthier than diving into alcohol.

His mind, however, stayed sharp. “But the thing I don’t get is, why take her and her sister in after that?”

“To get his hands on the whole inheritance, for one.” But of course, it was never that simple. I could tell. Graves had to care for those two at least a little. Maybe most of his kindness and indulgence had been guilt, and trying to goldwash his conscience with cash and good deeds. But he had still murdered his own brother and his sister-in-law and made orphans of two innocent girls.

The heart speaks, but money speaks louder. And saving one’s own cowardly skin speaks loudest of all.

“Disgusting,” I muttered. “And men like this call us criminals.”

Yet I didn’t judge myself as much better right that moment. I had kidnapped Emma and her boy. I had threatened them. I was still compelling their cooperation, though at this point it took little compulsion.

I am not the man she deserves.The thought came unbidden, startling me—but it was painfully true. Still, I pushed it aside for later consideration. Right now, I was still wondering how I was going to bring her such terrible news.

“I’m just left wondering who in the world has been blackmailing him this whole time. Whoever they are either did the hit themselves or supplied the hitter.” Alexei looked pretty disgusted himself. When the puppy came back, he paused to rub her belly before throwing the ball again.

“If we can figure out who did that, it’s another potential lead to finding the bastard.” Unless, of course, he’d run from the blackmail as well. “Or perhaps…”

No. It has to be a coincidence.

“What is it?” Alexei asked, noticing the shift in my expression.

“What if the blackmailer couldn’t reach Graves once he ran? What if he found out who was responsible for Graves running and wanted revenge?”

I was thinking of Igor. I was thinking of his gloating, dangling supposed secrets about Leon’s murder in front of me. I was thinking of his sudden, apparently unprovoked attempt on my life. The timing was right.

“Find out who is sending those blackmail letters,” I said sharply.

“You think it’s Igor, don’t you?” As usual Alexei caught on fast. He was young, not stupid.

Mila was crying and scratching at his leg. He scooped the blonde bundle up and petted her soothingly until she stopped wiggling and laid her head on his chest.

“I do,” I muttered. “And if that is true, then Igor is just as responsible for my brother’s murder as Graves is.”