by Kat Mizera
She took the coffee with a weak smile. “Thank you. Black is fine. We like our coffee strong in this part of the country.”
“You’re welcome.” I nodded and moved away to lean against the wall across from where she was sitting with Sandor and Xander.
She looked tired and terrified after the evening’s events, and I wished there was something I could do to reassure her, promise her I could help somehow. I’d done some heavy lifting tonight, though I had a feeling that busting a few heads wasn’t going to be enough to deter this group of thugs who thought they could rule the town. I’d seen a couple of them roaming around at night, behaving like they were far tougher than they were, so my gut told me they answered to someone else. Probably a mob boss in Turkey, since it bordered a portion of the country. I just hadn’t realized they were terrorizing the businesses here.
I wasn’t sure exactly what they were up to, but I didn’t like the idea of Solange and her family being harassed and bullied by these people. The new king, who’d been in power about eighteen months and was my boss, was doing his best to fix the mess that the country had become during his predecessor’s reign. However, it was a thankless, full-time job filled with setbacks, death threats, issues with infrastructure and even the occasional kidnapping. I loved my job, but I imagined the pressure on King Erik was often overwhelming. Situations like this undoubtedly fell through the cracks.
“I’m going to stay the night here at the hospital with Solange,” Xander said, joining me. “I’d like you to go back to the café and see if you can help her parents.”
“What about my mission?” I asked.
He glanced over at Sandor, who gave us a small nod.
“It can wait a day or two so we can see what’s what here.”
“Okay.”
“Solange said you can crash in her brother’s room, so try to get a little sleep, and in the morning, we’re going to see if we can find these guys and get some information.”
I nodded. “I’m on it.” I looked over at Solange, who seemed exhausted. “She needs to rest. Don’t let her stay up all night.”
“I won’t.”
“See you later.” I was halfway down the hall when Solange’s soft and accented voice called to me. I paused and turned around, looking into her pretty face.
“I just wanted to thank you,” she said quietly. “For coming tonight, saving us. I appreciate it.”
“It was no problem,” I replied. “I’m glad I could help.”
“My brother wouldn’t be alive if you hadn’t…” She managed a tremulous smile. “Anyway, thank you. I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You’re very welcome. Make sure you get my number from Xander, just in case you need anything.”
Those bright blue eyes watched me until the elevator doors closed, blocking her from my view.
Jesus, she was beautiful. Not in a conventional way, like a lot of these movie stars today. They were pretty enough, but for some reason they all looked the same to me. Tiny little women that would break the moment you touched them. I liked a woman who was a little curvy, maybe even what other men might consider too big, but I didn’t give a flying fuck what other men thought. I was a big guy myself, both by genetics and by design.
I’d been a scrawny teenager, weighing a buck fifty at six feet three, but the Marines put fifty pounds on me and the gym put another seventy-five pounds of solid muscle on top of that. The worse things got while I was deployed in the Middle East, the harder I worked out, as if my size alone would combat the enemy. It didn’t work that way, of course, but my size served me well both in and out of the military. Now that I was a Royal Protector, I was often assigned to the king personally because people in general were intimidated by my sheer bulk. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the bad guys. Women tended to run in the other direction as well.
Normally, I didn’t give a shit about that either. Getting laid wasn’t usually an issue on the rare occasion I had time, but women in general tended to be afraid of me. Between the height, the muscles and the bushy beard I sported these days, most women kept their distance. The nice ones anyway. And sweet, beautiful Solange had been terrified when she’d first seen me. Unlike other women, though, she’d warmed up to me. She’d been grateful for my help and I’d seen a vulnerability in her eyes that told me I’d made her feel safe. While that was my job, most people were too intimidated by my scruffy looks and bulked-up body to see that side of me. The protector in me.
But Solange had.
I wanted to see her again, talk to her, hear her lilting accent. Nothing would come of it, of that I was sure, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy being her friend, thinking about the things I would never do with her. To her. Her curves were made for fucking, something I’d thought of every time I’d seen her at the café. She hadn’t noticed me because I always got my coffee early in the morning, before she officially started work, but I’d seen her come and go, up and down the back stairway that only the family used. Her parents worked in the mornings, usually until mid-afternoon, and then Solange and Kostya took over for the dinner and evening shift. Sometimes she was there all day, even in the morning, but mostly she handled the night shift.
There were two other employees as well, but the parents opened up and Solange and Kostya closed. Always. Seven days a week. I wondered why a pretty girl like her worked so hard, and didn’t seem to have a life, but it hadn’t been any of my business and I was only supposed to be in town a week or two anyway. So I’d put her and her luscious little ass out of my mind.
Until tonight.
Now I would think of nothing else.
When I got back to the café, I cringed at the condition. The windows were broken, every piece of furniture was smashed, and glass and trash littered the floor. Solange’s parents, whose names I didn’t know, were trying to board up the windows, but her father was favoring his right arm and her mother wasn’t strong enough to do it herself.
“Let me help,” I said quietly. “Is there a ladder?”
“Hello.” Solange’s mother smiled. “I am Nadia.”
“Hi, Nadia. I’m Axel.”
“My husband, he is Samuel.”
I nodded at him. “I’ll board this up. Why don’t you two get some rest? You’ll want to see your son in the morning.”
“Kostya, he is okay?” Nadia asked softly.
“He’s in surgery. He’s going to be okay.” I didn’t know that, of course, but what else could I say?
They only had a handful of four-by-eight slats of plywood, but I boarded everything up as well as I could and then helped Nadia bag up the worst of the mess. Samuel probably needed to see a doctor but he shook his head when I mentioned it and did his best to sweep the floors. Not that it would make much difference. The place was destroyed and I wasn’t sure what else I could do. I had a feeling Sandor would find a way to help, but that wasn’t my problem.
I slept for a few hours in Kostya’s bed, but it was too small and I didn’t rest very well. I’d brought in my duffel with a change of clothes, so I took a quick shower and headed downstairs. To my surprise, most of the early morning regulars were there, along with Nadia and Samuel, serving coffee out of industrial-sized urns. Something smelled fantastic and Nadia held out a basket of something to me.
“Good morning. You are hungry?”
“Thank you. Did you actually get up and bake?” I asked her, taking a soft, warm roll that smelled of cardamom.
“We have customers, they go to work in the factories, they are hungry.” She smiled. “Is okay.”
“Can I do anything?”
“You will go to Solange?” She held out a separate basket and a thermos.
“I…” Shit. I had a dozen things to do today that didn’t include stopping in at the hospital, but how could I say no? “Yes, of course. I will.”
She poured me a cup of coffee in a Styrofoam cup. “You go.”
“Thanks.” I took everything and headed out to my truck.
; And all four goddamn tires were flat.
This had been intentional, of course, and I slowly turned, sweeping the area. If the thugs who’d trashed the café had done this for revenge, they’d be watching for my reaction. I pulled out my phone and called Sandor, not giving them the satisfaction of reacting much at all.
“Looks like our neighborhood mafiosos think they’re tough,” I told him. “They trashed the tires on the SUV.”
“Okay, I’ve had about enough of these shitheads,” Sandor grumbled. “Let’s handle this situation today.”
“Mr. Axel!” Nadia was running out into the street, waving something.
“Give me a minute.” I disconnected and turned to her.
She put a ring of keys in my hand and pointed to an old pickup truck that had seen better days, parked across the street. “You take.”
“I’ll bring it back,” I told her. “Thank you.”
I sped off to the hospital, trying to figure out which way this day was going to go.
I’d been sent up here to the northern part of Limaj to handle a tedious, monotonous job that no one else on the team wanted to do. Granted, I’d made a big mistake a few months ago that had gotten Princess Elen kidnapped, but how the hell had I known the psycho who’d been after her would shoot me with a tranquilizer dart? Apparently, two had been needed to take me down, which made me feel a little better, but I was still stuck doing this stupid recon mission that no one else wanted to do because she’d been taken on my watch. They’d also killed her driver, but I’d been in charge that day, so I’d been getting some shit about it even though there’d been no way to prepare for a dart gun filled with horse tranquilizer.
On the plus side, I was going to see Solange again in a minute.
I walked into the hospital and took the elevator up to the third floor, where Kostya had ended up after surgery. Sandor and Xander met me in the hallway.
“How is he?” I asked.
“Doing better,” Xander replied. “Surgery went well and he had a good night.”
“Did Solange get any sleep?”
“She’s still sleeping,” Sandor said. “I arranged for a private room for him with an extra bed so she could rest a little.”
“I’m glad. She had a rough day yesterday.” I held up the thermos. “Her mother sent her breakfast.”
“Those are some seriously resilient people,” Xander said softly, shaking his head.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked Sandor. “Do I go back to my regular mission up in Braksa or do we handle this situation with this local gang or whatever the hell they are?”
“I made some calls,” Sandor said. “Looks like this Bojovnik Brat group fancies themselves the new neighborhood protection group. Here in Vinake, up in Braksa, and a few of the other little towns.”
“There’s nothing in Braksa,” I protested. “I’ve been making the rounds between here and there and up at Dickhead’s compound, and it’s deader than dead.” We called Elen’s kidnapper Dickhead. The compound where he’d held her was just outside of Braksa, which was about ninety miles from here, and I knew the area well. If these guys were looking to make money, that wasn’t going to happen around here.
“There are seven shops in Braksa,” Sandor said. “As well as three factories. There are a total of ten shops and six factories between Braksa and Vinake and there are about a dozen shops here, not to mention a few extremely profitable factories. All told, taking ten percent a week, I’m thinking they probably brought in—”
“Twenty percent.”
The voice came from behind us and we all turned to see Solange standing there.
3
Solange
I hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but I seemed to know a lot more than they did about this situation.
“Good morning.” Axel turned to me with a thermos in his hand. “Your mother sent you breakfast.”
I smiled, taking the thermos from him. “Good morning. And thank you.” I turned to Sandor. “They’ve been taking twenty percent from the shops, and twenty-five from the factories. Mr. Lafelle has breakfast at the café on Saturdays and he told us his rate has gone up to twenty-five percent in the last ninety days. He owns the textile factory just up the street. The wheat mill outside of town is on the verge of closing down. They can’t survive at that rate and the family said they would rather close than give everything to the Bojovnik Brat.”
“Does a particular man or group of men usually collect from you?” Sandor asked me.
I nodded. “I don’t know their names, but it wasn’t any of the men who attacked us last night. Apparently, they sent others to do their dirty work.”
“When do they come? The same day every week?”
“Yes. Mondays. Usually in the late morning, before Kostya and I get in, though I see them since I live there as well.”
“Do you think you could surreptitiously call a meeting of the local shop and factory owners?” Sandor asked me.
I nodded. “Of course. When?”
“As soon as possible. We need to handle this.”
“At the café?” I asked. “And what time?”
“Whatever time works for them. Today if possible.”
“Probably this evening, when they’re finished working. Maybe nine o’clock.”
“Set it up and we’ll be there,” Sandor told me.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“Axel is going to take you home,” Sandor continued. “And he’ll stay at the café all day, making sure no one comes around and hassles you or your family. I’m going to stay here with your brother, just in case.”
“I have to get the SUV fixed,” Axel said to him. He turned to me. “Is there a tire place in town?”
I nodded. “There’s one garage in the area, but he may not have four tires for an expensive SUV like yours. We can call him.”
“If you can’t get it done,” Sandor said, “I’ll have Natalia drive up with a new set and we can have the local guy put them on.”
Axel nodded. “What about my other task?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it. That’s secondary.”
Axel turned to me. “You ready to go?”
“Yes. Thank you.” I nodded but paused in front of Xander and Sandor. “Thank you for everything.”
“You’ve already thanked us,” Sandor said gently. “I’m just glad Axel got there in time.”
I followed Axel out to my father’s truck and frowned. “What happened to your SUV?”
“I guess the Bojovnik Brat wasn’t happy about what I did to their men last night so they retaliated.”
“They might not be rich or powerful like the royal family,” I said, getting in, “but they’re dangerous. They take a lot of money from businesses like ours, so they must need it for something important.”
“Greed isn’t enough?” Axel asked, putting the truck in gear and pulling out of the parking lot.
“I don’t know.” I glanced over at him. “I don’t know what motivates people like them. People that hurt others for no reason beyond money.”
“Men lose their minds for power.”
“Power. Like the power of the people you work for?”
“I work for your government, your king. Do you resent them?”
“The king? No. He has a thankless job. But the government, like many around the world, is broken. The priority is the big cities, the big companies, the people who hold the most influence. Even if it’s not intentional.”
“It’s definitely not intentional with King Erik,” Axel said quietly. “He’s one of the most honest, hard-working men I’ve ever known. He never sleeps. He never stops thinking about the needs of the people. Maybe he does focus on the bigger cities, but he’s only one man and one thing I can tell you for certain is that he doesn’t have enough help. Not that he can trust anyway. So it’s slowing down the process.”
“I understand that. And for me, personally, I’m young enough to hope this will get better in my lifetime. But my parents? Our frien
ds and neighbors? Many are giving up hope. The winters here are hard. Much harder than you think. It’s not just the cold and lack of food, but road conditions—sometimes the sick can’t even get to the hospital. Children can’t get to school. Supply trucks can’t get into town. Last January, Kostya and I, along with three of his friends, walked four kilometers to where a semi coming from Hiskale was stranded. We carried sacks of food in backpacks. The driver slept on our neighbor’s floor for three days until we could dig him out. Life here in winter is miserable. Much more difficult than the government realizes.”
“Well, lucky for you, this is your chance to tell Prince Sandor exactly what’s happening.”
“Yes.”
We pulled up in front of the café and Axel looked around. “Goddammit, the SUV is gone!” He got out of the truck and pulled out his phone.
“Axel, wait!” I hurried after him. “It was to be a surprise. My mother texted me. A tow truck was sent and our local mechanic is taking care of the tires.”
He paused, stuffing his phone back in his pocket. “That’s very kind. Thank you. It saves us a lot of hassle.”
“We take care of each other here in Vinake. Including the royal family, should the need arise.”
Axel and I walked into the café and my heart broke a little at the damage. The mess had been cleaned up but there was almost nothing left. Our entire lives revolved around the café, and without it, we would have no money to live.
“It’s going to be okay,” Axel said. “The king will help. You’ll see.”
