I frowned but took the candies from him. "I'm not a puppy that needs to be fed and watered."
"I didn't mean it like that."
The crinkling plastic sounded unnaturally loud in the vehicle. I popped one of the candies into my mouth and made a face. My father chuckled next to me. "You still hate watermelon, huh?"
"I'm surprised you remember that tiny detail when you never could remember the big things, like, you know, sending me a birthday card or a letter while you were away." I didn't mean it to come out so meanly but it did. He actually flinched as if I had struck him. Guilt speared me. "I'm sorry. I didn't—"
"I deserve so much worse than that, kiddo." He kept his attention on the road in front of us. "I should have written to you. Fuck. I should have come back for you that night. I shouldn't have left you there in that house."
"Why did you leave me?" It was a question that had plagued me for eleven years. "Why didn't you come back for me?"
He didn't answer immediately. "I left because I was only thinking about myself. I was a selfish dick. After I got picked up and thrown into jail, I found out you had been shot and I hated myself. I wanted to die. I deserved to die for abandoning you like that."
My fingers trembled as my father finally told me the truth about something. I bit my lip and tried to control my wildly vacillating emotions as he continued his impromptu confession.
"I wanted to write you. I wanted to apologize, but I couldn't."
"Why not?"
"You were already a target. Anyone who wanted to touch me just had to go after you. I made a conscious decision to ignore you and cut you out of my life. If everyone else thought you didn't matter to me, it made you a useless target. It was the only way to keep you safe."
He reached across the space between us and gripped my hand in his callused, scarred one. "It my broke my heart, Vivian. You were the only good thing I ever did in my life—and I damn near killed you." A harsh, raspy laugh left his mouth. "I guess Wilde was right about men killing the things they love."
I blinked with surprise. "You've read Oscar Wilde?"
"There's not much else to do on the inside."
He still hadn't let go of my hand. The contact between us brought back memories, good ones, from my childhood. "I was a shit father, Vivian. I didn't know the first fucking thing about being a parent or a husband. I made every mistake in the book, some of them twice, but I'm asking you to give me a chance to be your father now."
"What does that even look like?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "I really don't, but I'd like to try. You set the ground rules. I'll follow them. I want a chance to do right by you."
I didn't know if that was possible. I didn't know if I could forgive a lifetime of hurt to forge a new relationship with my father. I didn’t know if I could overlook the terrible things he did so unapologetically. Finally, after quite a bit of thought, I said, "We can try."
"Thank you." He gave my hand a squeeze and then let go. Clearing his throat, he said, "We're going to be driving for a couple of hours. You should get comfortable. Nap if you can."
I wasn't tired, but I didn't want to talk anymore. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the window. I couldn’t stop thinking about Erin and Bianca, Boy and Danny. Were they okay? Were they hurt? How quickly would Nikolai get to them?
"Stop worrying about your friends and rest. That Russian of ours will get them back."
"Ours?"
"You're my daughter. He's your husband. That makes him part of my family." Signaling that he didn’t to talk anymore, he turned on the radio. "Rest, Vivian. This will be over before you know it. Nikolai will find your friends and track down Lorenzo."
"And then?" Eyes closed, I asked the question that worried me most.
"And then he ends it, once and for all."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"What the fuck is going on?" Ivan charged Nikolai when he stepped into the barn, their arranged meeting point. "Where is my wife?"
"Erin, Bianca, Danny and Boy are being held at an old dairy plant not far from here." Nikolai clamped his hands on Ivan's shoulders and glanced at Sergei who had his fists clenched at his sides. Ilya stood nearby and patched up Ten's bloody wounds. "One of the men who took the job is on Hector's payroll. He's been feeding information to us since the women were taken."
"But not before," Sergei ground out angrily. "Why did this happen?"
"It happened because Lorenzo Guzman is desperate." Nikolai raked his fingers through his hair. "This is my fault. I should have known something this drastic and explosive would happen. I should have been better prepared." He inhaled a ragged breath. "We'll get the women and our men back—and then I'm finishing it."
Ivan's cheek twitched. "I can't be there for that. I swore to Erin that I was out. I can't go back."
Nikolai clasped Ivan's face. "I would never ask that of you. This is my problem. I'll handle it."
"Boss." Kostya stepped into the barn. "It's time."
Ten remained behind with Ilya. The rest of them piled into an SUV and headed for the dairy plant. Kostya filled them in on the layout of the building they would be entering. When they reached the plant, Kostya pointed out the men on loan from Besian and the small crew from the Calaveras MC that had pitched in to help.
Spider approached and extended his hand. Nikolai grasped it, and the biker pointed behind him to a black van. "We'll handle the assholes on the outside. That will leave the two dickheads on the inside, the two that have your women and your soldiers." Spider pulled on a pair of black leather gloves. "Ready?"
"Yes." Ivan shoved by them and headed for the building. "I'm ready to get my wife back."
Nikolai jogged after Ivan who was impossible to control when he was pissed off like this. "Vanya," he placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, "slow down."
"Fuck you, Kolya." Ivan rolled his shoulder. "My wife is in there with these pricks. They shot Artyom. How do I know they haven't shot Erin? How do I know they haven't hurt her?"
God help them all if Erin had been hurt by these men. Ivan would go insane with rage, and no one would walk away from this alive.
"We have to go in there quietly," Nikolai urged. "We have to be careful. For Erin and Bianca, Vanya. We have to think about what's best for them."
Ivan slowed the speed of his steps but remained in the lead until Kostya overtook them. He shoved Ivan back and put a finger to his mouth. Ivan managed to rein in his fury enough to follow Kostya's silent directions. They waited near a side door while Spider's crew and the small Albanian group descended on the cartel men outside the dairy plant. Once they had rounded up, gagged and tied all those men, Spider whistled in a warbling, bird-like way.
At the signal, Kostya led them into the plant in a single file. Nikolai's breaths came at a fast pace, but his hands remained still and sure. He followed close to Ivan and kept his eyes open for any stragglers who hadn't gone outside with the larger guard group. Memories of nights similar to this one, nights when Nikolai had followed Ivan into even more dangerous situations than this, came to mind. He had thought these nights were behind him, but that was just a dream.
As they neared a refrigerated storage container, the voices of two men could be heard. They pressed their bodies against the wall to listen and wait. What Nikolai heard made his blood boil. He couldn’t even imagine what it was like for Sergei and Ivan to hear those two worthless fucks talking about their wives."
"Fuck that! They've seen our faces. We slit their throats and go."
"Man, I got no problem killing the two soldiers, but the girls? One of them is pregnant. I don't kill babies."
"Do you know who Ivan Markovic is? Do you know what he'll do to you if he finds out you punched his wife? He'll rip your balls off and shove them down your throat. And the other one? I saw her husband fight once. He cracked a man's sternum with one punch. One. Punch." The man chortled loudly. "No, I'm not sticking around for that show. We kill them, and we go."
"Look, Chris, m
aybe we should think about this. They're worth more alive than dead. The girls at least."
"What? You want to ransom them back, Juan? You think they would pay?"
"Ivan Markovic is rich, right? And the other one? Sergei? He's in tight with Kalasnikov. That's lots of deep pockets we can rob."
"What if they won't pay?"
"Then we sell them. The skinny one is really pretty. I bet Tran would pay good money for some young pussy like that. She's…what? Twenty-three? Twenty-four? Not as good as the teenagers he likes to pick up on Spring Break, but she's fresh and clean."
"And that one? I doubt the market for pregnant whores is very high."
"No, but I bet we could make nice money off those babies. I heard people pay tens of thousands of dollars for newborns. She's got two of them inside her. You could have one and I could take the other."
Sergei and Ivan were panting now. Nikolai decided he would grab Bianca or Erin, whichever woman was closest to him, and shield them while their husbands beat the shit out of those two assholes. The thought of Erin or Bianca being sold into a brothel or those sweet, innocent babies being taken from Sergei and Bianca made him sick.
"Keeping her alive is the easy part. What happens when the babies are ready to come?"
"We could have them taken out. It can't be that hard to find a doctor to do it for us. When it's done, we let her bleed out."
"Seems like a waste. She might be able to make more money on her back. Get the skinny one. Let's go."
"What about those two?"
Nikolai assumed they were talking about Danny and Boy.
"We'll send the others back here to watch them. We tell the guys we're taking these two to a new drop-off spot. Let them be the ones to greet the Russians. Because you and I both know that cleaner they keep on their payroll will find this place sooner or later."
Sooner, much sooner.
"Go!" The thud of a foot connecting with someone's body echoed in the cold storage container. "I'm not carrying your fat ass."
Hands bound and wobbly on her feet, Bianca stumbled through the thick plastic strips that guarded the open doorway of the container. Sergei leapt forward and grabbed her, dragging her into his muscular arms and lifting her out of harm's way. Nikolai stepped forward and quickly accepted her from Sergei. He pushed her against a wall and shielded her pregnant body with his.
Sergei gripped the front of the shirt of the first man through the door. He picked him up like a sack of potatoes and slammed him against a wall across from them. Sergei pounded that poor bastard to a bloody pulp with his meaty fists.
Ivan followed Sergei's lead. He grabbed Erin and handed her to Kostya. Her face was illuminated by the overhead light, and Ivan gasped at the sight of her bruised lip and black eye. He roared like a lion and attacked the man who had been pushing her forward. It was brutal and bloody and one of the worst beat-downs Nikolai had ever witnessed.
Eventually, Kostya shifted Erin toward him and jumped on Ivan's back to get him to stop. Bianca had better luck stopping Sergei who now had the other man on the ground. Bianca wrapped her arms around Sergei's neck and hauled him into a kneeling position. She pressed her face against his. "Enough, Sergei. It's over. He's had enough."
Sergei spun around and hugged his wife. He pushed her back against the wall and nuzzled her pregnant belly and face. Bianca clung to him, and they kissed tenderly and lovingly.
Ivan shook off Kostya's hands and stormed toward Erin. He lifted her right up off the ground and buried his face in the curve of her throat. She wrapped her legs around his waist and sobbed into him. "I want to go home."
"Sh, angel moy. I'm here. I've got you."
"Don’t let go, Ivan. Don't let go."
"Never." He softly kissed her unbruised cheek. "Never, baby."
Kostya finished securing their two new prisoners with zipties and ambled over to the wall where Nikolai leaned. They watched the two couples for a few moments before Kostya reached into his pocket and withdrew a burner phone and a slip of paper. "There is a car waiting for you. It's fully gassed and stocked with weapons and cash. Dump it on that side of the border. Go to the second address. You'll find a getaway car there. It's clean with good tags and insurance for the trip back across the border."
Nikolai took the phone and paper. "Thank you."
"Don’t worry about this, boss. I'll handle everything."
Nikolai cast one final glance at his friends before quietly pivoting on his heel and disappearing before any of them noticed he was missing. With purposeful strides, he left the dairy plant and prepared himself for the perilous journey ahead.
* * *
There was still an hour until sunrise when Nikolai carefully approached the small house on the outskirts of Piedras Negras. He had left his car farther up the road so he could sneak onto the property with stealth. He had already mentally mapped out his exfiltration route. The second vehicle waited for him a little over a mile away.
As he crept through the shadows, he screwed the silencer onto the end of the pistol Kostya had stowed in the glove compartment. The leather gloves he had found next to the handgun were supple and well-used. He supposed that said something about his relationship with Kostya if the cleaner was willing to lend him a favorite pair of gloves.
Nikolai kept his mind clear. He couldn’t risk a misstep or a hesitation. He had to finish this and get home to Vivian. He wanted to put this whole fucking mess behind them and start fresh in a new underworld where everyone who was in control wanted the best for Vivian and the baby. That was the only way he could ensure the safety of his family.
The house was eerily quiet and dark. It was a small place, two bedrooms and one bathroom, with lots of peeling stucco and a roof that needed repairs. This early in the morning, Lorenzo was probably still in bed. Kostya had written a quick note about Lorenzo's drinking. Apparently it had spiraled out of control since Hector's successful coup.
As Nikolai drew closer to the house, he noticed the back door stood ajar. Maybe Lorenzo's drinking was worse than Kostya knew. What man on the run would leave his back door wide open like that?
The fine hairs on the back of his neck and along his arms rose as apprehension settled in the pit of his stomach. The idea that he had been set up wormed its way into his brain. Kostya wouldn't send him out here to be killed, but what if someone had fed Kostya bad information?
Floorboards squealed. Nikolai stopped moving and scanned for better cover. He ducked behind a tree and held his breath. The back door opened, and a tall figure appeared there. Shit.
"Are you going to hide out there all night or are you going to come inside and have a drink with your father?"
Nikolai's stomach dropped to his knees. He almost didn't believe his ears when he heard that familiar voice speaking Russian. What the fuck is Maksim doing here?
Lowering his weapon, Nikolai stepped away from the tree. The door was wide open now, but Maksim had gone back inside the house. Trying to figure out what the hell was happening here, Nikolai crossed the backyard of Lorenzo's bolt-hole and cautiously entered the house. He found the boss—my father—sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of tequila.
Hovering in the doorway of the dimly lit kitchen, he glanced around nervously. "Where is Lorenzo?"
"In the bathroom," Maksim answered while slashing tequila into two coffee cups. "In a few hours, he'll be discovered on the toilet where he suffered a heart attack."
Nikolai narrowed his eyes. That was awfully convenient. "Did he suffer a heart attack?"
Maksim pushed a coffee cup toward the empty chair. "Yes."
Nikolai suspected there was more to that answer, but he wasn’t going to ask the question. He didn't much care. He was exhausted and wanted to go home. At least now he could return to Vivian without the stain of another man's blood on his hands.
He slumped into the chair across from Maksim and sipped the tequila. He typically stayed away from it, but on a morning like this one, he wasn't very picky. Leaning back in the
rickety chair, he asked, "Why are you here?"
Maksim's eyebrows arched. "You still have to ask that question?"
Nikolai swirled his cup. "I don't know what this is." He gestured between them. "You've been my boss longer than I've known you were my father. I don't know what to expect from you."
"I've known you were my son longer than you've known me as your boss." Maksim sipped his tequila and hissed. "Frankly, most days, I don't know what to expect from me either. But this?" He slashed his hand through the air. "This was too much. That man tried to kill my daughter in September and then he turns around and tries to kill my daughter-in-law and my grandson? No. I couldn't allow that to stand. He could have taken the easy way out. He was offered relocation and money, but he dug in his heels to fight. It was the wrong choice. He had to go."
Nikolai took another drink. "So Holly…?"
"It's a long story, and it's not one I'm ready to tell you. When it's time, you'll learn all you need to know. Until then? Keep an eye on her. Lorenzo isn't the only one who would try to hurt her to get to me."
"I'll watch her." He didn't mention that Kostya would probably have more than his eyes on Holly.
"Have you chosen a name? For my grandson?"
The question surprised Nikolai. He set aside his cup and nodded. "We have a shortlist. Vivian is fond of Lev."
"Lev?" Maksim tried out the name. "Lion? I like that one very much. It's a strong name for a boy. He's going to need a strong name when he inherits all of this."
Over my dead fucking body, Nikolai crossly thought. "We'll see."
Maksim laughed. "There's no escaping our destiny, Kolya."
Nikolai didn't comment on that. He knocked back the last of the tequila and enjoyed the burn that rushed down his throat and into his chest. "I have a long drive ahead of me."