Chapter 23 - Max

The following day I had a message from my brother saying he had new information for me, and there were some things we needed to discuss that couldn’t be said in front of Brooke, so I hauled my ass out of bed and got on the road as dawn was breaking.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could trust Brooke. I just didn’t want to upset her. She liked to think she wanted more excitement in her life, but it was better to take things slow. I didn’t know what to expect last night, and my feelings had been dinged a bit when she was disappointed in my dinner surprise, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and take her along instead of calling her guard to take her home.

And Dima nearly got blasted to dust by an exploding building right in front of her. That was a lot of excitement for anyone, and way too much for someone who hadn’t grown up around such things. It had all worked out, and as great as last night had ended up, Brooke still wasn’t settling in like I hoped.

After a month together, I wanted to give her more freedom, maybe even be a normal couple, whatever in the hell that was, but she seemed as determined as ever to break free from me. As if I didn’t snap to the fact she was scouring the house for a phone after I fell asleep.

I hadn’t heard anything about Luca from any of my contacts who were keeping their eyes on him, and he hadn’t shown his face since his meltdown on that talk show a couple weeks back. His public relations team was probably making him lay low before his next big film premiere, but just because he wasn’t around didn’t mean his fixation on Brooke was over.

More and more, I wished I’d just found a way to get rid of him in college, but in my mind, he was just a garden-variety asshole back then, not the psychotic pervert he’d proven himself to be today. If I went around ridding the world of plain old assholes, the population would drop far too dramatically.

After I picked up Max, we drove around the city, scoping out the area we were trying to establish. At first, we went up and down part of the vast shoreline enjoying the view and discussing property values. I was pleased with the house I’d chosen, not just because Brooke clearly loved it, but because it was only going to soar in value. Not that I was thinking about selling any time soon. On the contrary, I could picture myself settling down there.

Lev had found his place up in San Francisco, the first of us to permanently leave the Los Angeles area. It was a quick flight so we still saw him for major gatherings, but he had missed out on a lot of impromptu family dinners. He’d confided he was worried that Aleks and Katie’s daughter might not be as close with their new baby when it arrived, but I assured him that was hogwash and encouraged him to either buy a plane of his own or consider mine on call for whenever he wanted it.

Now, I wondered the same things, finding myself about to laugh out loud at such thoughts. But the idea of having a family with Brooke was worming its way into my being and taking hold. Wherever that happened to be, we had to stay together, which meant keeping her safe from lunatics.

“So, tell me this big news you dragged me out of bed for,” I said as we settled in at a deli for lunch.

Dima grew serious and put down his sandwich. “Okay, so we thought dealing with the cartel was going to be rough. It turns out they’re not interested in us, not really. As long as we don’t get involved with their business down at the border, they’re willing to keep the peace.”

“I have no interest in what they do at the border,” I said. “So why go to the trouble of demolishing that warehouse? Just their idea of a joke?”

Dima shook his head, pulling out his phone to show me some surveillance photos. “It’s a new Italian group, fresh from Venice.”

I coughed, my coffee nearly spewing across the table. “Fuck,” I said. “Northern Italian, like someone else I’ve been having trouble with.”

“Do you think so? Would he have called in backup?”

“I want to know how he even learned we moved down here. I had that info on lock, bought the house with a corporation that Aleks doesn’t even know about yet.”

My stomach sank, remembering how powerful Luca was. That level of fame and fortune came with perks, and finding out things he shouldn’t be able to could have been one of them. The untouchable bastard probably had just about as much access to information as I did, if he wanted it badly enough. And I knew how badly he wanted Brooke. I swore and shoved my half-finished sandwich away. My appetite was gone. This was bad.

“Let’s do some sleuthing before we jump to conclusions,” Dima suggested. “If this intel is good, I think I know where this new organization might be headquartered.”

We hopped back in my car and drove to a neighborhood with a good mix of small businesses, schools, and community involvement. The kind of place that wouldn’t appreciate a heavy-handed criminal outfit coming in and trying to take over.

After chatting with a few local bar and restaurant owners, I was convinced. Sure enough, within the last week, they’d started being harassed by thugs wanting protection money. It put my mind at ease a fraction, because it could have just been a coincidence. A new group trying to gain control, and not there to stalk Brooke for Luca.

“You’ve always hated coincidences,” Dima reminded me when I shared that opinion.

“Yeah, I know,” I sighed. “I’ve never been one for wishful thinking, either.”

We kept talking to people, getting further into the neighborhood's outskirts where we heard even more disgruntled rumblings. News of some Russians poking around must have gotten back to our new objects of scrutiny, because as we were leaving one bar in a lonely, rundown part of town, we got jumped by two big guys with baseball bats, of all things.

I took a pretty good hit on the shoulder, just because I was caught off guard. Dima was behind me and was able to duck the other one’s blow, whipping out his gun and cracking him in the side of the head with it. The man’s head must have been made of cement because he only blinked off the shock and barreled forward to take my brother down at the knees.

I hurled off an insult in Italian, pretty much the only words I knew in that language, and the one who’d managed to hit me snarled in rage, answering something I couldn’t understand. But at least I’d determined where they were from, if not who they were working for.

These idiots had to be armed, and just weren’t using lethal force because they didn’t quite understand who they were working with. As I took my gun out, I heard a vicious cracking sound behind me, turning just long enough to see that the other guy had somehow gotten the upper hand on Dima, and was smashing his elbow into the middle of my brother’s back.

No time to wince, I turned back to see a fist flying toward my face. Shifting in time to not get a broken nose, the boulder of a hand scraped the side of my jaw, hurting plenty but not doing any real damage. These fuckers were huge, and absolutely fearless. I’d have had a grudging respect if the pain in my jaw didn’t piss me off so bad.

“Enough,” I shouted. The click of my gun froze them. “Bad idea,” I said when the one still grappling with Dima rolled away and reached for one of his own.

“We can’t kill them here, too many people around,” Dima said, somewhat breathless.

“We can kill them somewhere else after we get answers,” I said.

My words were meant to scare them shitless, but I really just wanted information. However, these two were like machines, with no sense of self-preservation. The one I had my gun trained on did a roundhouse kick aimed for my hand. I swept it out of the way, but then they were off in a blur, surprisingly fast for how bulky they were.

“Shit,” Dima said, more impressed than angry. “Please don’t say we’re running.”

I was pissed, but he’d had the wind knocked out him and was in no shape to put up a good chase. “They’re probably just muscle anyway,” I said, letting my anger go for the moment. “We don’t really need to beat the shit out of them to know who they’re working for.”

“You’re probably right,” he agreed. “Who’d have thought that weaselly actor could cause so much trouble.”

We headed back to the hotel he was staying at so I could make sure he didn’t have any broken ribs. I wanted to let the swelling on the side of my face go down before heading home so it wouldn’t alarm Brooke, too. Like any time after a fight, with a good or bad outcome, Dima was in a rip-roaring good mood. He wasn’t likely to start something, but he never backed down, and he’d go until the bitter end for any of us.

He insisted on getting a massage at the hotel’s spa since his back hurt, and instead of teasing the shit out of him, I decided I may as well get one, too. It shouldn’t have been surprising how much tension I had in my shoulders. After our massages, Dima insisted on drinks in his suite while we went over what we should do about this new problem.

Of course, we had a few too many and ended up way off track. I was close with all my brothers, but Dima and I always got along remarkably well, always forming alliances against our sometimes-tyrannical older brothers, Aleks and Lev.

“Ah, hell,” I said, noticing the time. “I don’t know how I’m going to make it home.”

“Nah, don’t go yet. Just stay for dinner. They grill a mean filet in the restaurant downstairs,” he said eagerly.

I shook my head. “You already ruined my anniversary. I’m going home to have dinner with my wife again.”

Laughing in shocked disbelief, he gave me a long look. “It was a one-month anniversary. Who even does that except maybe high school kids? You’re in way too deep, man. Way too deep.”

I clapped him on the shoulder and got up, ignoring his jibes. “You just haven’t found the right woman who makes you want to dive in yet.”