Chapter Eleven

Venus

After briefing Bohannon on situation, Piston called Ice at Bones MC. Ice was Cain's son. He and his brother, Cyclone, had taken over the club when Cain had decided to concentrate on running ExFil. Ice had spoken with Mama, and she and Pops had agreed to come to Kiss of Death and take tracker out of my shoulder. Every tech guy in all five clubs was headed in our direction to study chip in every way they could before Mama took it out. We didn't tell Gio. Giovanni Romano could suck my dick.

I'd taken my contacts out with no intention of ever wearing them again. I'd get new ones of no-tech variety. For now, especially since I needed to throw everyone off, I decided to get rid of pink and adopt less noticeable look. And, da . It took day and a half to strip my hair of all dye. I finally gave up and matched my hair color as best I could with yet another product. Came close to shaving it all off, but Piston helped me after that. Apparently, man likes how my hair tickles his balls when I ride him. Who knew?

At end of second day, everyone was in place with proper equipment and stood around me with scanners and computers and other gizmos and gadgets. I might use some of Giovanni's tech, but tech savvy I was not. Not only had club officers showed up, but Suzie and Zora as well. Suzie's husband, Stunner, was Bones MC's new enforcer while Zora was Data's wife.

Of all people working on this, I thought I trusted Suzie most. Not because she was more trustworthy or anything -- she was only one, other than Alexi's wife, Merrily, who had ever bested Giovanni. Merrily had done it right under his nose, while bastard had been actively trying to keep her out.

Suzie had done it for fun.

"It looks pretty straightforward." Byte pushed his glasses up his nose as he stared at computer screen while Crush waved some kind of wand over my shoulder. "Kinda old and not terribly sophisticated. I'm not seeing anything dangerous." They'd quickly confirmed what I suspected and found the chip in my left arm. It was small and not very noticeable, but once I knew about tracker, I knew where it had to be. Just to be sure, they'd scanned my whole body, including CT imaging Mama had managed to have taken at a friend's clinic. I hadn't yet told her who I was, but once all pink was gone, it was painfully obvious we were related.

"I agree." Suzie had been pushed by Giovanni to do her graduate work at MIT. After a couple hitches involving a hit put on her and Stunner by a jealous crazy student, she'd graduated with honors and promptly went to work for Giovanni. Being Cain's daughter, she knew how to keep a secret, even from Giovanni Romano. She glanced up at Mama. "The battery in the chip should be about halfway through its lifespan or less, if you have the timeline right. Still shouldn't be hard to remove and dispose of however you see fit."

"Will it still work once it's out of her body?" Piston hadn't spoken much while I was poked and prodded, but he never once left my side. Now that they were close to making decision whether or not to go ahead with removal, he was hovering and asking questions.

"As long as it's not damaged, yes." Suzie gave me a small but friendly smile.

"Good," was all Piston offered.

After that, Mama took me to exam room. Bohannon's club doc had a small office set up for routine injuries, but Mama was going to remove tracker once tech guys gave go ahead. Now, I waited with Piston while Mama got prepped.

"I swear to God, Jo, it's like lookin' at you when we first met." Pops scrubbed a hand over his face, shaking his head slightly like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He didn't even try to hide what he was thinking.

Mama was different. Mama had studied me covertly for the first day, staying in background while guys took all kinds of digital images. I had no idea exactly what they were talking about or meaning of all terms and phrases, because they weren't important to me. The only thing I wanted to know was how difficult would it be to remove and how much down time I would need.

"Who are you, girl?" Mama marched up to me, demanding an answer. "You're too old to be Kurt's child and all siblings are accounted for except Logan."

"My mother knew him as Demetri Volkov. But his real name was Logan Peyton." I watched Mama carefully, needing to know what the other woman was thinking. She was expert at hiding her emotions.

"Logan. Peyton. My brother, Logan." She tilted her head at me, taking a slow step toward me. I was about an inch taller than Mama was, but I wasn't fool enough to think I could take her easily in fight. Yes, I'd come out on top, but only if I respected her abilities enough to not think of her as a woman in her seventies, and look at her as deadly warrior she was. Not doing so would definitely get me killed.

" Da ," I answered softly.

"How did you know?" This time, it was Pops who asked the question. "His real name. And how did you put him and Mama together?"

"Because Victor is one who blew his cover." I never imagined how hard it would be to acknowledge this out loud. "I… I was there when they killed him." Even after so many years, I could still feel the horror and terror and grief and loss of that day. I hadn't been a child, but I wasn't yet an adult either. "Victor gave his real name and told everyone he worked for United States and executed him on spot." Mama's expression didn't change.

I blinked rapidly to get emotions under control when I'd never had difficulty with not showing my feelings before. "Anyway, when Victor sent me off to FSB, I put what they taught me to good use. I looked into names of both Logan Peyton and Demetri Volkov. According to their records, Peyton was a double agent undercover as Demetri Volkov. When Victor made our mother his wife, he destroyed everything associated with Logan." I cleared my throat and, with shaking hands, pulled photo from my vest pocket and handed it to Mama. "That picture was taken two days before Victor killed my father." I pointed to photo Mama now held but hadn't looked at. "That is Demetri Volkov. The child is me."

Mama studied image. Holding it close to really look at it. When she met my gaze again, her expression gave nothing away. "What else?"

"I know you're Josephine Peyton. And that you're supposed to be dead along with Michael Wilbanks. I also know CIA would lay waste to Bones if they knew you were still alive and Bones had been hiding you all this time."

"What do you want from this, Venus?" Mama was as direct as I'd always known her to be.

"I want Godforsaken chip out of my fuckin' shoulder. After that, I want to kill Victor."

"And us?" She raised an eyebrow.

This was it. The moment Mama decided my worth. Never in my life had I expected someone's opinion of me would matter so much. Piston's opinion mattered, but I knew where I stood with him. He'd been the one to pursue me. Not the other way around like I was doing with Mama. I could have kept all this from her and remained in background, content to watch from afar. But that's not what I wanted.

"I want to claim my family."

Mama smiled then, the sight warm and welcoming. "My dear Venus, you have always been family." She stepped toward me and laid her palm on my cheek. "The only thing this changes now is you don't get to go your own way. Even though more than one of us has been concerned you're too much of a loner, we've all given you space because Thorn said that's what you preferred. Now you don't get that luxury. You tell us what you need. We make it happen."

"I swear to fucking God, if you make me cry, I'm disowning you." I muttered. "I haven't cried since I was child until couple of days ago. Now I can't seem to stop with that nonsense."

Mama smiled. "Doesn't matter if you do or not. I'm not disowning you. Ever. Now. Come here. Your Aunt Jo needs a hug from one of her two favorite nieces."

Yeah. I was going to have to eat my words, because I cried like little baby as I clung to Mama. I knew I needed to give Millie heads-up, but it would also be kind of fun to see what happened if I let Mama and Pops blindside her. Yeah. I was bitch. Didn't mean it wouldn't be fun to watch. Besides, Millie would get over it.

When Mama finally let me go, I was relieved when she had tears in her own eyes. I supposed if Mama could have moment, so could I. We both laughed.

"I always thought there was something familiar about you but could never put my finger on it." The older woman now had both my hands in hers, petting me like she might child. I thought she might be trying to reassure me, like she knew how uncomfortable the idea of permanent family had been to me. I had to smile because, for first time since I'd left Russia, I thought of family not with dread or even longing. There was only warmth and fullness in my heart I had no hope of describing or understanding. All I knew was I'd do anything to protect this family. I also realized that I'd had this same family for several years and hadn't acknowledged it.

"It was all the pink," I said with chuckle. "I told myself disguise was necessary, but I think it was excuse to hide."

"So? Pops and I have been hidden for decades. We do what we must to survive and to protect those we love." She finally let me go. "Now. Taking out his chip should be straightforward. It's not too deep under the skin. I'll give you a local. If I have to go deeper than it looks, we'll talk about something a little stronger."

"Sounds good."