by KJ Dahlen
Stevie and Jaden had nothing to build on, well Jaden would have brought a connection to Sergi, but they chose not to use that, instead they all but dismissed it. But Stevie had brought nothing, she had no money, no family connections, only a brother she wasn’t even related too.
Her saving grace had been the twin boys she gave him. They were strong healthy sons a man could be proud to have. Timor shook his head, even that was denied him as the boys decided to bear their mother’s name and not his.
He had been wrong to accuse Jaden of the things he had. He knew this now. He had made mistakes with both of his sons. He didn’t want to die an old man here in this house, alone and unloved. The traditions that had been honed in on him since he was born were hard to let go of. He had been raised in the Bratva raised a Russian. He knew he needed to rebuild himself and become a better man somehow. Despite the prestige he was awarded now, all the wealth, the respect, the perks, accolades and evidence to him... it all felt hollow, unrewarding, and empty. He raised his gaze and looked around. Empty like this mausoleum of a mansion.
He lifted his head as he heard another set of footsteps coming his way. For a moment, he prayed it was Iosif but when his nephew, Ivan came into the room, he shook his head. Why did I think he would come?
“Uncle,” Ivan greeted him. “I think we need to speak.” Ivan sat down across from him and folded his hands over his knees.
“What do you want to speak about?”
“You.”
Timor frowned. “Excuse me?”
“I think we should talk about you,” Ivan repeated.
“What about me?” Timor growled.
“I think you should go to America and see your sons.”
“Why? They don’t want to see me.”
“Uncle, I’ve been watching you for the last six months.” Ivan looked over at him. “You’ve been trying to train me for a role you spent the last thirty years teaching Iosif. It isn’t working. I think you’ve lost your heart for this.”
“You are crazy,” Timor denied this loudly. “I am Bratva and will always be Bratva.”
Ivan shook his head. “That’s not what I’m saying. You miss your sons. Maybe it is time for you to retire and just enjoy life.”
“They don’t want me there. They’ve made that very plain.”
“Uncle, you have to acknowledge the fact they are grown men and can make their own decisions. They grew up without you, well Roman did. You raised Iosif the same way you were raised. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing but you need to learn to bend. You need to listen to what they need, not what you need to hear. They both have found good women to go through life with and while you may not approve of them, they are part of your family.”
“But they bring nothing to the family.”
Ivan shook his head. “Uncle, is not the family wealthy enough?”
“But it has always been this way,” Timor shook his head.
“Maybe it’s time to step into a brand new future,” Ivan suggested. “Your sons are happy, you should be happy for them. You should be getting to know your new daughters and playing with the children that will call you grandfather.”
“But they don’t live here, now do they?” Timor grumbled.
“What’s stopping you from moving to closer to them?” Ivan pointed out. “You could step down as Director here and still be of service to the Bratva in America.”
Timor thought about that for a moment. “Maybe I could be a consultant.”
“Talk to your boys and ask them to give you another chance,” Ivan urged. “But remember, you have to be willing to bend as much as they do. You can’t go there and demand they do things your way, you must be willing to do things their way too. Give their women a chance. You might even come to love them as much as your sons do.”
Timor nodded. “Let’s see what happens after I make some phone calls.”
Timor stepped off a plane three weeks later. Roman and Iosif were waiting for him as he came down the steps. Neither man knew quite what to expect from him with this move but they were willing to give him one more chance.
When he hit the tarmac, Timor smiled at the sight of his sons waiting for him. Holding out his hand first to Roman and then to Iosif he smiled. “Thank you for giving me this chance.”
“Timor, we agreed to this with conditions,” Roman began. “The first one being that you give our families respect. Stevie and Ben are mine along with the boys and I will not have you show them disrespect.”
“I understand that son.” Timor nodded. “And looking back, I can see my error in that. The last thing I want to do here is cause trouble for you two. I really want a chance to know you. I may not have raised you but you have my blood and I want to have the chance to know you as a man.”
“That goes for Jaden as well,” Iosif told him.
Timor nodded. “I know Iosif, I know. I’ve made so many mistakes in my life. I’ve been an arrogant fool pushing my ideals on the two of you.” He shrugged. “I never took in account the way you grew up, Roman and for that, I’m sorry. You had already met your woman when we met for the first time and I thought I could just ride over the top of what you wanted to get my own way. I know I hurt her and her brother but back then, I didn’t care. I thought you would give in to me and take your place in my world. I lost so much when you two were babies, so much and I reacted emotionally to finding you.” He shrugged again. “That was my arrogance showing up in full color. I thought I could give you everything but you showed me there was nothing I could give you that you couldn’t get for yourself. You have a good life here, people that you can count on to have your back, a woman who loved you and a good job you loved.” He turned to his younger son. “And you, I may have raised you but I couldn’t take away your need for something different, could I? You looked at your older brother and wanted what he had. The freedom to earn it for yourself. You needed to prove to yourself you could do it on your own and you have done just that.”
He looked over at his sons and smiled. “You have both made this old man very proud. And now I want the chance to know you two as your own men. I finally realized that, you are your own men, not extensions of me, but your own men.”
Two men followed him down the stairs and Roman raised an eyebrow at the sight of them. He knew exactly who and what they were.
Timor saw the look on his face and shrugged. “Old habits die hard I guess. They are my bodyguards. While the world knows who I am and what I represent the people around here may not and until I know what I’m dealing with, they will be part of my life. A man like me has many enemies.”
“We understand that.” Roman nodded. “We use security as well.”
“Sergi told me I would start a new chapter in my life in about a week. He’s giving me that long to get settled.” Timor ran his hand over the back of his head. “I need to find my own house. I’d like to stay near the two of you but not on top of you.” He looked around this airport and stated, “I want to explore this new country I’ll be living in. I need to know if I can adjust to the new world.”
“Yuri said you could stay at the hotel until you can find a place to live,” Roman told his father.
“Da, that is fine with me, I want to find a place of my own first thing tomorrow.” Timor laughed. “But tonight I want to take everyone out for a meal. I cannot wait to see how big the boys are getting.”
“Stevie and Jaden have been working hard to prepare for you, I’m afraid they have dinner planned already,” Roman informed him.
“Really?” Timor frowned. “They didn’t have to do that.”
“They wanted to welcome you,” Iosif added.
“Then da, we will eat what they had prepared. I am humbled by the gesture.” He looked over at Roman and asked, “And young Ben, what is he doing nowadays?”
“He’s still catching up on his studies but he’s getting there. Neither of them had much schooling before, so they are a little behind but they’re both working hard to catch up.”
“That woman deserved to be beaten like the dog she was.” Timor growled.
“Excuse me?” Roman stiffened. He looked over at his brother then back at Timor.
“That damn Harris woman,” Timor grumbled. “There should be a special place in hell for people like her.”
Both his sons simply stared at him.
“Come on then, let’s get you home,” Iosif suggested.
Timor liked the sound of that. Get him home. This was already coming along better than he previously thought. He rubbed his hands together and smiled at his sons. “I can’t wait to see your families again.”
A few minutes later, they pulled into Roman’s drive. When Timor got out of the vehicle, he looked around the yard. He could see the subtle changes from the last time he’d been here, six months ago.
The yard had more color with flowers Stevie had planted. It almost looked cozy. His eyes couldn’t take it all in at first. Then he heard the sound of splashing water. Timor followed the sound around the corner of the house and stopped. Gasping, he couldn’t believe what he saw. Roman had put a small pond just outside his bedroom patio door. The water he heard was splashing down a rock face and pooling in a shallow basin filled with bright colored stones.
It was beautiful and very peaceful. He could only imagine laying in the darkness hearing the soothing sounds of the water at night.
“I found out the one thing Stevie always wanted was to listen to... the sound of a waterfall,” Roman told him. “Benny told me it’d always been her dream, so for her last birthday I put this in for her. When she has the kids down for the night, she comes out here and sits for hours, just watching the water.”
“I am hoping she’ll forgive me for the way I treated her in the past and allow me to get to know her better.” Timor nodded. “And young Ben too.”
“Can I ask what brought this change on?” Roman had to ask. Timor seemed like a whole new man since he stepped off the plane today. When he called them to ask if they would mind him moving to America, at first Roman wanted to tell him no. Then it was Stevie who told him to give his father another chance. She told him he had an incredible opportunity to have him in his life and that maybe the older Maxim deserved another chance, maybe it could be a new beginning for them both.
“I suddenly realized I’m sixty-four years old and there’s nothing louder than only one set of footsteps echoing in the halls. I have two sons I barely know and two grandchildren I’ve only seen one time since they were born. Life was passing me by and I didn’t know what to do about it. Then Ivan pointed out to me that if you couldn’t come to me then I could always go to you. He told me I needed to try and bend. I’m stepping down as Director back home. I’ll do some consulting work here, maybe even set up a Kazakhstan branch here to work along with you guys.” Timor shook his head. “Not to push you guys out but to work beside you and your men. Sergi agreed with my proposal and I came here to make amends first. I want to look around and see what I can do here.”
Roman and Iosif nodded.
Roman then spoke, “Sergi spoke to us about this adventure. But we can talk about that tomorrow. Come inside now. Stevie will have supper ready.”
Timor braced himself for the inevitable. This was his one chance to set a different course for the future. He told his sons the truth when he said he wanted a new beginning. This was but the first step...
Chapter Two
It was just after dawn the next morning when Timor and his bodyguard Pavel that they were driving from New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain. It had been a great evening with his sons and their families. His grandchildren Aleksei and Dimitri were getting so big now and had just started to crawl, it had been a pleasure to watch over them.
Then there was Benny, the boy was flourishing under Roman’s guidance. And Stevie was positively glowing, come to find out she was carrying another grandchild. Timor couldn’t wait for the baby to be born.
Or rather babies, as Jaden was also pregnant. Iosif was busy building his own enterprises under the umbrella of the Bratva.
Now they were off exploring the land around New Orleans, maybe to find a place of his own to settle down in. Up ahead of them Timor could see rich farmlands and open fields of growing things. He wasn’t quite sure what the crops were just yet, but he had all the time he needed to find out.
Suddenly, he yelled out for Pavel to stop the car. Pavel stopped and Timor opened his door before the vehicle completely came to a stop. He fell out of the car and almost ended up on the ground. He got to his feet and stumbled toward the fence line. His eyes never left the rough carving he’d seen on the fencepost
He felt the dread growing in the pit of his stomach as he stumbled toward the carving. It was a crest from his past, one he hoped to never see again, in this lifetime. How could it be? All the way out here? He stood five feet away from it and just glared at the drawing. The dread in his gut was growing and he felt the intense coldness of it deep in his soul.
He was reaching out to touch it to find out if it was real or not when a voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Now sweetheart, I don’t know if you want to follow through with what you’re doing or not. Option one, you get back in your fancy car and drive away without any trouble at all, option two you keep reaching for the post and I fill that tight butt I’m drooling over with a load of birdshot. Your choice.”
Both Timor and Pavel heard the click of a shotgun being primed.
“Oh and you tell your friend there with the gun under his coat not to make any sudden moves, cuz my gun isn’t the only one you two got trained on you, right now. Mine might make it hard for you to sit down for a while but Joel’s might put a chunk of lead in your leg. Think of the pain and the bloodletting you can avoid as long as he doesn’t do anything stupid. So you might want to think about what you do next.”
The voice he heard was a woman’s voice but one unlike he’d ever heard before. It was soft and feminine but backed with steel. Timor raised his hands high in the air then ordered in English for Pavel not to reach for his weapon. Slowly, both men turned around to see who was threatening them.
Timor’s eyes widened when he saw her for the first time. She was tall for a woman and older than he thought with the sound of her voice. She was dressed in jeans and a cotton shirt. She wore cowboy boots and an old hat. Her hair was long and the color of a sunrise. Pulled back into a braid, he could see the strands of grey mixed in the strawberry blonde and golden hues.
When the man turned around, her eyes widened as she took him in. Daisy Ashburn was totally floored by the man in front of her. He was tall and his dark hair was shades of ebony and ivory mixed. From the top of his head to cover half his face. His face was strong and the man was hella built. He looked as if he could push a mountain off its axis if he wanted to. His chest was wide and had muscles sitting on top of muscles and his shoulders could lift trees. His thighs were as wide as a small tree trunks.
“Suppose you tell me what you stopped for before you say goodbye and get the hell off my land,” Daisy quipped. “This is private property and you’re trespassing.”
The man swallowed hard before he cleared his throat. “I saw the crest and had to get closer to look at it.”
“Why?”
“I thought I knew that crest and I wanted to see if was the same one I thought it was.”
“It belongs to a man named Anton Azarov. He wants to buy this land and I told him I don’t want to sell it. But he just can’t take no for an answer.” She narrowed her eyes at him and snarled, “But I guess you know that since he’s Russian just like you are.” She looked him up and down and while she admired the packaging, she didn’t like his tactics. “You go back and tell your boss the farm isn’t for sale, not now, not ever. He’s been here three times already and each time, I’ve told him I’m not interested in selling. The fourth time, I might not be so nice.”
“Azarov is not my boss, I hate that man, and I have for over thirty years.” He growled.
�
��Well, whoop-de-doo,” she told him as she raised her hand and made a circle over her head. “As heartwarming as that sounds I’ll still have to ask you to leave this place. Your kind isn’t welcome here,” Daisy told him with no uncertainty. “You tell that bastard he’d best leave my animals alone as well.”
He raised his eyebrow. “My kind? What kind do you think I am?”
“I could tell you but I think I’d make you blush and that might just piss you off.” She smiled wickedly. “Look, I’m not looking for trouble here but I will defend my right to stay here. And I will defend my animals as well.”
Timor looked around the area. The fences were all built up, looking strong and in a straight line. The land appeared well cared for, not like some places he’d passed along the way. He could see a farmhouse and a barn along with two other buildings in the distance.
He could also see a gate across the road with a big lock on it across the driveway. Looking around slowly, he noted the floodlights hidden in the trees. Looking down the fence line, he could see lights atop the fence posts as well.
He turned back to the woman with the shotgun.
She could see what he’d taken note of. She nodded at the look in his eyes.
“He has harmed your animals?” Timor asked, as he turned a bit to look at Pavel, then returned his eyes to her.
She snorted. “I don’t consider outright killing them harming my animals. He came, he thought he could scare me off my land simply by telling me his name. I then threw him off this land and thought case closed. That one was on me. I didn’t realize just how far he’d push it. Next day, I found three of my goats dead on my front porch. All three had their throats ripped out. He came back a few weeks later and gave me a price he was willing to pay. When I laughed in his face, he didn’t like it much. Three nights later, he set fire to my chicken coop and locked us all in the house. When we tried to save the coop, he fired shots at us, pinning us in the farmhouse. We had to stand there and watch as the fire took everything. Then the last time he was here, he didn’t make it to the farmhouse. He didn’t even get out of his car. He parked on the highway and sent his goons after us. They came speeding down the driveway looking to cause more damage, but I had a surprise waiting for them. I laid hydraulic spikes at points along the driveway and waited until their cars were in position and then the spikes came out. Popped their tires and took out the undercarriage of their vehicles. When his men deserted the vehicles, me and mine loaded their backsides with birdshot. That was three weeks ago.”
