Chapter 21

Chapter 21Viktor“Do you want to tell me why you’re waking me up at five in the fucking morning, Boris?” I growled as he walked into my office. He looked sleepy and, again, a little drunk, but it was well after hours this time and I had too many other things on my mind.“I figured you’d want to hear this face to face. Once you left, on the way to dumping off those two guys we grabbed, one of the guys got scared again and started talking. Thing is, what he told me was so crazy that I had to check it out, find some proof, before I brought it to you.”I lifted an eyebrow, then gestured to the seat across from my desk. A full mug of coffee was already waiting for him, I was halfway through my own. He grasped his gratefully and took a long swallow.“That’s proactive of you. So what was this odd assertion, and what did you find out about it?”“The auction lady. The one you’re fucking.”“Olivia. And mind your tone when you speak about her.”“Mind my tone? Look. That woman, the one you’re claiming you don’t have a serious thing with? She has a son with your eyes.”“I’ve claimed no such thing, and I am fully aware of the boy.”He blinked in surprise and went quiet.“She confirmed that her son is mine herself, Boris. Please tell me you didn’t get me up this early for that.”“No.” He rubbed his face awkwardly. “But it’s a concern. A lot of what I dug up is real goddamn concerning. See…you need to know who your Olivia’s been associating with. For years, since she was a kid, in fact.”My brows drew together, sudden concern giving my brain a clarity the caffeine hadn’t managed yet. “What?”“El Luchador. Otherwise known as Luis Burgos Gutierrez. You know, the guy who tried to have you killed today? She’s best friends with his sister, Anna. Roommates in college. Has him over at her apartment regularly. Sends your son on playdates with his niece. That close.”My heart was starting to pound. I focused on calming myself, but all the deep breathing in the world couldn’t stem that sudden rush of adrenaline.“Isn’t it obvious? You accused me of fucking some woman who is in with the Puerto Ricans, and now it turns out you’re actually doing that!” He started breathing heavily, his face darkening. “And God knows how much she’s told them about you, or how much she’s manipulated you for them.”“She’s never pried into my personal affairs,” I said mildly, half-absently, finding myself praying that this whole thing was some kind of horribly ironic coincidence. Yes, we were dealing with a mole, but Olivia had gone out of her way to avoid asking for any specifics about what I did, hadn’t she?But then I caught myself.The auction.Yes, news of it had been public, but my name hadn’t been attached to it. So how had El Luchador and his group learned that I would be there in person?She didn’t need to pry into my affairs to pass on information about that.I set my coffee mug down, mind racing. Boris watched, a strange look of guilt on his face. “Look, I know you like the girl, but—”“Quiet,” I snapped, propping my head on one hand as I struggled to focus. She risked her life and future safety of her son—our son—to get me out of that situation. Or did she simply do that to get further in under my guard?Olivia didn’t seem to have a manipulative bone in her body. And if she had been manipulating me all along why had she vanished for the better part of four years.But maybe it was circumstantial. Maybe she hadn’t planned from the start to get to me, but made opportunistic moves now that I’d willingly waltzed back into her life.Or maybe she didn’t know anything about this at all.“You’re absolutely sure of this?”“I had one of our computer guys dig up their social media.” He handed over some printed photos, and my heart sank.Olivia with Anna and my son. Olivia at a barbecue with Anna and Luis. Warm, friendly, hugging like family. I wasn’t sure how I envisioned him. He’d managed to keep a low profile for years, but he just looked like a regular guy.El Luchador—Luis, the man who had just nearly had me killed, hoisting my son onto his shoulders while Olivia, grinning, planted a friendly kiss on his cheek.I felt my blood start to boil.“Look, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news—” Boris started, but I shot him a look that silenced him. Fear flickered in his eyes.“I agree with you that this can’t be a coincidence,” I said carefully. “I’ll let you know once I’ve decided on a course of action.”“You’re not going to just kill the bitch for shilling you?”I suddenly and purely wanted to kill Boris for talking about my woman in that way. I barely managed to restrain myself, but he must have seen the anger in my eyes because he set down his coffee and looked ready to bolt from his chair.“No,” I said in a wintry tone. “I will investigate her involvement with the Pueblo and with Luis. Once I am certain, I will act accordingly. But I’m not going to run off like Othello on someone else’s say-so.”“Even me?” He looked hurt as well as nervous now.“Even you. The woman is defenseless and the mother of my child. I will not do anything to harm her unless I am left with no choice.”He closed his eyes and shook his head, and when his eyes opened again, I saw something unexpected.Anger.“I can’t believe you,” he snapped. “I brought you hard evidence that this woman’s been making a fool of you all along, rubbing shoulders with people who want you dead!”“The second part is certainly true,” I said, reining in my growing anger as best I could. “The first, I do not know yet. She’s shown no signs—”“She’s betrayed you, Viktor! God, will you just stop thinking with your cock for five seconds?”I took in a deep, solid breath through my nose and fought to remain calm. “When have you known me to act rashly? I am not thinking with my cock. You, however, are acting on emotions and alcohol. Again.”“I’m trying to help you!”There was frustration in his voice, but I was quickly losing patience for his disrespect. “Boris.”He shook his head, interrupting me. “She is playing you, Viktor. She set up acting the damsel in distress today to make herself look innocent to you.”“I don’t know that yet. And I won’t act on a maybe.”“Jesus. I’m going to have to get the other lieutenants together and talk this over with them. You’re clearly compromised, Viktor. You’ve got hard evidence she’s in with the enemy and you’re still defending her, that fucking whore. Suka blyat!”My breathing hitched. I had never wanted to punch him more in my life. I raised my hand instinctively, but then I stopped. Hearing the disrespectful language he was using about my woman was like a knife through my heart. But Boris was loyal, any threat to me was a threat to him too. Was I just shooting the messenger? Boris had done a lot of odd things lately, but this… I couldn’t ignore the evidence simply because I was losing trust in my right-hand man. What he showed me was irrefutable, if possibly not the entire story.I picked up my mug, considered it for a moment, and then placed it back down with a heavy thud untouched.“I will look further into this.”“Viktor! Are you serious—”I stood up abruptly, and he stopped.“I will look further into this,” I repeated, “and in the meanwhile, I will be cutting off all contact with her until I’m satisfied with what I find.”He huffed and rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s something, at least,” he snorted, disgust on his face as he stood. “But don’t think I’m kidding when I say the men are going to seriously question your suitability to lead if you don’t deal with this shit decisively.”I held back my anger just a little longer. “Boris?”“Yes, boss?”I did not like the sarcasm in his voice.“Do not contact me in any way. Do not talk to me. Do not call me. Do not show your face around me.”The sneer on his lips deepened, but he pressed them together and didn’t speak.“If I walk into the room, you walk out. If you must tell me something, you find a messenger to deliver the information. Your disrespect offends me. Your lack of trust in my ability, your lack of control, emotional and alcohol induced, offends me. You’re slipping. You will make yourself scarce until I tell you otherwise. Do I make myself clear?”His face flickered with a multitude of angry emotions, but he didn’t speak.He simply turned his back on me and walked out.***It took a few hours to verify Boris’s research on Olivia. Every image of her with Luis or his sister added to the burden of tension, disbelief, and anger that weighed me down. Boris seemed to think I should shoot her, the mother of my child. I wasn’t going to do that. But at the same time, I couldn’t dismiss all of this as a coincidence either.My computer guy had managed to hack Olivia’s social media accounts, as I looked at her private messages with Anna, I noticed that nothing ever came up about Luis or what he did. Either they were being very discreet, or neither one knew about Luis’s criminal connections.Was that even possible?No. Not with the war on. Maybe she knew both of us before there was trouble between us, but that didn’t keep Luis from using her against me now.There was only one thing to be done about this until I figured out how to handle it long term. I had to break off contact with Olivia for now. I hated the whole idea of it, but I hated the idea that she might be pressed into watching me, or deceiving me, or both, even more. I couldn’t afford to look weak or a fool in front of my men. Boris was already threatening to call a meeting on me and try to get me voted out, temporarily or permanently.He had seemed so angry. Like I had committed some unforgivable sin by becoming involved with the mother of my child. Old school Bratva may have foresworn family, but that was not the way now. But whatever his feelings were, and whatever his reasons for them, I wasn’t going to put up with Boris challenging me. Especially not with all his recent screw-ups.I finished my research and poured myself a double Scotch before even trying to pick up the phone. I needed to do this calmly, without accusations or reproach. I didn’t want to hurt her any more than I had to.I had already drained the tumbler, chewed up all the ice and swallowed it, and started scrolling my phone pointlessly by the time I finally managed to push myself into making the call. The whole time, there was an ache in my chest that I didn’t want to think about.Olivia answered after one ring. “Hi!” she said, sounding bright, cheerful, and totally oblivious to what was coming. My stomach knotted with guilt, but I set my jaw and plowed on.“Hello, Olivia. We need to talk, and I’m afraid I don’t have time or ability to do so in person right now.” I paused, hearing the falter in her breath.“Oh?”“Olivia…understand that I am not doing this because I want to. But right now, I have to be very careful. And right now, that means keeping away from you and Michael.”She gasped, a pained sound that made me wince. “What? Why?”“Various parties have learned of our association. Some may even have learned that Michael is my son. I have men after me right now, and I do not want to lead them to you.”It wasn’t even half of the truth, but I prayed it would be enough to sound realistic—either to stop her from getting suspicious that I was on to her if she wasdeceiving me, or to minimize any hurt I might cause her if she wasn’t.But when her protest came, it was one I hadn’t expected.“If they know about me, it’s already too late. They know where I work. They can probably figure out where I live. And…and there’s more, Viktor. There’s something I wanted to tell you, I tried to tell you before you left—”“I’m listening.” I wanted to hold out hope that there was some explanation that would make all of this all right. But right now, dealing with a mole, plots against my life, and hard evidence that Olivia was close with Luis and his family, I had no choice but to distance myself.“My best friend, Anna, the one I grew up alongside. Her brother Luis, he’s…”Wait a second. Was she confessing?“Go on.”“He knew the man who killed your friend, the one in the hospital. I mean, he wasn’t a friend friend, they knew each other at school, but—” her words were running into each other, and she paused to take a breath. “Yesterday, I was at Anna’s house and… I don’t know. There was another man there and he seemed really scary… I—we—”“What is it?” I tried to sound reassuring, I wanted her more than anything to finish her sentence. To see what it was that she wished to tell me. Would she lie? Try to throw me off scent?“I think Luis’s friends might be involved with those guys who came after you at the auction house.” She sighed shakily.“His friends… Luis. Someone you’ve known for years.” I couldn’t keep my skepticism at bay any longer. Was she trying to manipulate me? “And your best friend Anna is his sister. But somehow, neither of you knew this?”She could sense something was wrong. “No, we didn’t. We—we don’t, really. But after yesterday, I…”“After yesterday, what?” I wanted to believe that she didn’t know. But Boris’s warning rang in my head. Was I being objective enough? Or did my growing feelings for her addle me?Many strong men have fallen because of the machinations of a woman, my boy. I could practically hear Mischka in my head. You have a cooler head than most, but don’t think you’re immune.And Boris, threatening to call a meeting against me with all the lieutenants, calling me unfit to lead. As if his own screw-ups had never happened. As if I was the one over the line. What a wonderful best friend he’d turned out to be lately. But just because he was being a bastard didn’t mean he didn’t have a point. What if the others saw it too?“Yesterday, there was a man with him,” Olivia continued, her voice shaky and quiet. “He threatened me, Viktor. He started questioning me. Luis and Anna were both telling him that I was just a family friend, but he kept after me until he was dragged out.” Her voice got shakier.Sincere, or a brilliant actress?“How could you know this man your whole life and not know that he leads the local Pueblo? He’s not just associating with people who threatened me. The man is a rival crime lord.”She stopped breathing for a good five seconds. “He’s what? Who? Luis?”“Surely you can’t be that naive?” She didn’t immediately respond, and my chest was constricting, my heart getting colder every second. She genuinely sounded shocked, but there was no way that she could have not known what was going on. “I hope you understand how this all doesn’t quite add up, Olivia.”“I didn’t know,” she all but whispered. “He’s a good guy, Viktor, I—I don’t know. I’ve only ever known him as a good guy.”“Now you’re trying to defend my enemy.”“No, I—”“I find it very suspicious that you knew nothing, and somehow coincidentally ended up close with them while getting close to me while they’re also trying to kill me.”“I…” She trailed off, her breathing fast and shaky now. “Look, I know how it sounds, but neither Anna nor I had any idea. He kept it all away from us. Don’t you have to do the exact same with some of your friends? Don’t you see how it’s possible?”That sounded almost reasonable, but she had no idea of the life I had led, despite the stories I had told her. She was simply too alien to my world. “You’re the only person I’ve gotten close to outside of the Bratvafor well over a decade,” I said flatly. “I haven’t taken the risk.”“Oh,” she breathed. “Viktor…I really didn’t know. I don’t know what else to say, I… I need you to believe me.”“I want to believe you,” I admitted. “But if you understand how this sounds, you know I’m not just walking away for your safety. I’m walking away for mine as well. Until this matter is resolved, I can’t contact you. Maybe not even then.”I heard sobs in her breath now. Tears on the way. It made my chest hurt even worse. “But…you and I…Michael…”“I know.” I braced myself as she started weeping quietly. “I don’t want this either. But I have no choice. I won’t take the risk.” I had to end this now, or it was going to get emotional. I didn’t want to fight with her, and I couldn’t stand to hear her cry. “Goodbye, Olivia.”I hung up on her protest and sat back in my office chair like I’d just been punched in the chest, knowing I had hurt her terribly but had no way to avoid it. Either she was too dangerous for me to be around, or I was too dangerous for her to be around. Possibly, both.Until I won this damned war, I had no way of learning the truth.