by KJ Dahlen
Niko stared at his boss in surprise, “Your sister?”
“Da, my sister.” Vitya growled harshly. “She disappeared shortly after Ilya was killed. We’ve had no word of her since that time. I need to know what the daughter knows.”
“What happens then?” Niko asked.
“Then I will kill her like I killed her father and the rest of his miserable family blood line will be no more. Finally, I will have my revenge and my father can rest easy in his cold grave. I will have gotten full justice for Ilya.”
Chapter Four
Once everyone was back inside the clubhouse, Red had Grace sit down at one of the tables while his men gathered around.
Grace looked up at them and slowly turned her head full circle. “Look, I don’t know who you all are or why that man came to my father’s garage today. Hell,” she snorted. “I didn’t even know my father was Russian until you told me. Then Grace let out a sigh, “But now, so much makes sense.”
“What makes sense now?” Red wanted to know.
“He would sing me lullabies in another language when I was really little. I would ask what the words were and he would translate them for me but they never sounded the same. When he would swear after he got hurt, it was always in another language. It sounded bad but he tried not to swear in front of me.” Shaking her head her eyes grew haunted as she remembered different things over the years. “He homeschooled me and we led a very private sort of life. He taught me how to protect myself. When I would ask about family, he would get this far away look of sadness on his face and tell me that he no longer had any. He would never talk about them at all.”
“What about your mother?” Leonid asked. “Where has she been all this time?”
Grace shrugged. “She left when I was baby. My father said he loved her fiercely but she couldn’t take being a wife and mother anymore. She left us both and I have no idea where she might be today.” She paused and said quietly, “I don’t remember much about her and have no recollection of the time when she actually left. All I remember was for most of my life, it’s been just my dad and me.” Grace looked up at Red and asked, “I just cannot understand why that man shot my father and burned down his shop.”
“Didn’t you hear anything being said when Konovic arrived there?” Sasha asked.
Grace nodded. “My father said something about it had been twenty five years and the other man said something about taking twenty five years to repay since my dad shot a man in cold blood.” She shook her head. “My father wouldn’t do something like that. IF, and I say that with doubt, if my father shot a man, he had a damn good reason. He wouldn’t hurt anyone but to protect his family.”
“Da, that is what he did.” Leonid nodded. “Ilya Konovic raped and then murdered your father’s younger sister and when she called out for help, your father saw what happened, and he put a bullet in Ilya.”
Grace gasped and her hand went to touch her shoulder. She was remembering the old would her father had. She looked up at Red with tears in her eyes. “I think this Ilya person shot him. My father had a messed up shoulder wound. He told me he had it long before I was born.”
Red frowned. “What are you talking about? Rumor had it that Gennaldi just shot him, nothing was ever said that Ilya shot him.”
“Did you hear anything else before you ran out of there?” Sasha wanted to know.
Grace nodded. “The other man said Ilya didn’t deserve to die for a piece of ass.” She shook her head. “He didn’t seem to care that a woman died by his brother’s hands after he raped her.”
“That sounds like a Konovic.” Red shook his head.
Several of the men standing there nodded in agreement.
Grace looked around then looked at Red and asked, “Who are these people, these Konovics?”
“They are men who think they rule the Eastern Siberian area of Russia. They don’t but they think they do and the Russian government allows them to think they do. The government is more concerned with the rest of the country than to worry about an area so far away from Moscow.”
“What about this Bratva? Don’t they run the country? Don’t they care?” Grace asked. “I heard they run Russia.”
“The Bratva?” Sasha snorted. “They might care if they ever visited and saw what was going on. But the Konovic’s lie to them too. They know who to pay off and who not to. Vitya took over the reins from his father Boris some fifteen years ago but Vitya isn’t the business man his father was and he’s losing control. His empire is crumbling and he doesn’t even know it yet.”
Grace shivered and looked around the clubhouse again. “How did you all come to live here?”
“That’s not your business now is it?” Koyla growled.
Grace hung her head. “No, you’re right, it isn’t.” she whispered. Raising her head, she looked at Red. “So, now what? What are you going to do with me? If this Vitya finds me here, he doesn’t seem like the type to spare any of you. If he’s as bad as you say, then he won’t stop until I’m dead. If he’s got a vendetta against my dad’s family, he has to kill all of us which is now only me. I am the last of his line. He will just start shooting and sort it out later when he feels like it. He seems the type of man to do something like that.” She caught her breath and whispered, “I saw his eyes when he shot my father. They were empty of any feeling and cold as ice. I’ve never seen that look in anyone’s eyes before.”
Barron snorted. “You got that right. He is a cold unfeeling bastard.” He looked around at his men. “The Konovic’s have taken all we had back home and forced us to leave our homeland. I, for one will be damned if they do that to us again, especially here,” he addressed them more than her. “We have made a good life for ourselves here and I’m not giving this up. Never again will that family run me off from what I’ve built. Nyet, never again.”
“I’m not going to die standing between her and Konovic,” Tesha called out. “She’s right and you all know it. Konovic will come in here after her and he won’t care about who gets in his way. He can’t leave any witnesses against his actions.”
Barron glared at him.
“So you would leave an innocent to his mercy?” Sasha asked. “Maybe we should tie her to a post and let him kill her. What makes you think he wouldn’t storm these walls and kill us anyway? What kind of men would that make us?”
Barron then spoke up, “Any of you are free to leave here anytime you wish but know this, if you do, you’ll be running for the rest of your lives. Konovic took everything we had once and for me, once was one time too many.” Shaking his head he went on in disgust, “He doesn’t have the power here he thinks he does. This country was a new beginning for us all, if we give up on her, on what we have built for ourselves, then we all might as well eat a bullet.” He faced his men and pounded on his chest. “I’m not willing to roll over for that fucking yubylock again. The fact that I did it once eats at me every fucking day. I will never bow to him or any other man again.”
“The man has his own army, Barron think of that,” Sedki replied.
Barron turned and glared at his men. “We have an army too. With one phone call, we can have three times the number of men he has. It’s time to make our stand gentlemen. We either stand up for ourselves here and now, where at least, we stand and have a chance of redemption or we run away like cowards. Make your decision now because your life may depend on it. As for me? I choose to stand up and be recognized, something I couldn’t do fifteen years ago when he chased us out of Russia.” He looked around the room. “You have to decide if you’re running or staying. If I die for standing up, then at least I’ll die a free man. Not a man who is too afraid to try.”
“Is that what we were when we were run out of Russia?” Leonid asked quietly.
“No.” Barron shook his head. “Back then we were trying to survive against the odds. Konovic was leaning hard on anyone who opposed him. We had no choice back then but to run or die in the streets like beaten dogs. We all chose to live back then
. Now we are strong and we have friends. We now have a choice and I choose to stay and defend what we have here.” He looked around the room meeting each man’s eyes. “We all have a stake in this just as we all have a reason to hate the Konovic family. This isn’t just about her safety, this is about our safety too.”
“Do you have a plan of action?” Leonid asked.
Barron nodded. “Da, I’m going to place a call to a very old friend and pray he remembers me and will help. I’ve been following his career and he’s the only one I know that might be able to help.”
“Help us how?” Sasha wanted to know.
“By making the Bratva aware of the problem back home.” Barron looked around the room. “That was the one thing we all wished for back then, if only the Bratva knew. We all knew they were hard and might not give a damn about what was happening under their noses but now times have changed, they might care, and we’re in a better position to tell them.”
“Why are we in a better position now?” Tesha asked.
“Because we are here in another country and if this breaks open, the media will cover it and they don’t want that. One man is already dead and that’s going to bring in the police. The Bratva will not want the whole world to know their business.”
“Who are you going to call?” Leonid asked.
“Someone I knew once upon a time,” Barron told him. “Then he looked into Grace’s eyes, “I can only hope he remembers me.” He turned and walked down the hall to his office.
Barron sat down at his desk and opened the bottom drawer with the special key he had on his keyring. Reaching down, he lifted a small book and he began paging through the numbers. When he found the one he wanted, he exhaled hard and tapped the number into his cell.
He listened in silence at the ringing on the other end. When the gruff voice answered, Barron was still silent as his mind flipped back to the day these two men first met. They were little more than children yet something profound happened that day.
“Who is this?” the other man growled.
Barron snapped out of his funk and uttered one word. “Red.”
The other man gasped. Then there was silence for a long moment before he said, “After all this time, I never thought I would hear from you again. I always hoped I would get the chance to thank you for saving my life that fateful day.”
“You did that the day we met, but now it seems I need a favor and I’m hoping you can help me this time.”
“What’s going on that you need my help?”
“Have you ever heard the name Vitya Konovic?” Barron asked.
A long moment of silence followed then the other man growled, “Da I have heard of this man, he is wanted for questioning in our home land, why?”
“Because he is here in the United States and he has just killed one man and is hunting the man’s daughter. He has plans to kill her as well,” Red explained.
“The hell ...” He paused then added. “And you know this how?”
“He shot the girl’s father right in front of her, she escaped, but she chose to steal my bike to do it. We found her and brought her back to our compound only to tell her that Vitya had burned her father’s garage down to the ground and that he’s hunting her down as well.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the line then finally the other man asked, “Where are you located and how can I help?”
“We came here and formed our own little corner of Russia here in Red Wing, Minnesota. Fifteen years ago, Vitya Konovic ran me and about fourteen others out of Russia with the promise of a bullet if we ever came back to the place we were born. He has come here to find the man who shot his brother twenty five years ago and he found him. Now he’s after the daughter and I’ll be damned if I’m going to hand her over to this murdering bastard. But we need help.”
“You do know that I work for the Bratva don’t you?”
“Da, I do.” Barron smiled. “I was hoping you could get them involved and they would crack down on the man. He’s been paying off the government to hide his crimes against his own people and he needs to be stopped before his graveyard gets any fuller.”
“It is that bad?” the other man asked.
“It’s worse than bad,” Red assured him.
“We just found another turncoat in the same area of our homeland. The Bratva isn’t going to be happy about a second traitor.”
“Would that be Ivan Solvastan?” Barron asked.
“How did you know that?” came the surprised question.
“Konovic has been paying Ivan for some time now. No clue what he’s been paying for, but it’s been going on for some time now.” Barron sighed. “We may not live in our homeland, but we still get news every once in a while.”
“Damn, Misha and Sergi aren’t going to be pleased to hear about this.” His friend concluded. “But I will pass your message along to my boss and he’ll get on it right away.”
“Thank you, my friend.” Barron sighed deeply.
“I’ll be in touch as soon as I know anything.”
“We’ll wait for your word, either way. If he isn’t willing to help us let us know, so we can make our stand here. I’ll be damned if Vitya Konovic is running me out of my home again. Once was bad enough. This time, I’ll die before I’ll let him take her or anything else.”
“You won’t have to stand or die, I’ll be there for you no matter what,” the other man vowed. “Let me talk to my boss and I’ll call you right back.”
When the phone line went dead Barron replaced the receiver and waited in silence for a moment. He had hoped to never have to make that call but now he was glad he did.
He got to his feet and went back out to the main room. His men and Grace were waiting for him. “We might have help coming,” was all he said. “I’m waiting to hear back.”
He replaced the phone and stared at it for a moment. To hear from Red after all these years had been a shock and it brought the past back in furious avalanche...To the day he almost died. His past came slamming back to his present and he knew what he had to do. Getting up, he walked out of the security room and stepped into the elevator. Pushing the button for his boss’ floor, he thought back to the time when he was a boy in Russia.
To the day, he would have died in the streets but for the courage of one boy.
Everyone called him Red because of his bright red hair, but even at the age of ten, he knew how to street fight. He, his father and an older brother had been in Moscow for some reason or another, he never knew what but he was glad they were there when he’d needed them.
A street gang attacked him and his two brothers and while they fought well enough back then, it wasn’t until Red joined them that they had any chance of survival. Felix was already down and Kirill and he were losing their battle when they all saw the red headed boy jump into the fray.
He began knocking the other boys away from his brothers, allowing them a brief reprieve to catch their breath, then Felix woke up from being knocked out and together, the brothers and the red headed boy finished off the fight.
Only when the fight was over, did they all find out the stranger’s name, Barron Valerian. They all called him Red instead and each of the brothers made a vow that very day, to answer his call should he ever need their help.
When the elevator doors opened on his employer’s floor, he stepped out and walked down the short hall to the door of the penthouse. Reaching up, he knocked on the wooden panel.
Waiting a brief moment the door opened and Kosta found himself looking at Yuri Anatoly.
Before Yuri could say a word, Kosta asked, “Does the name Vitya Konovic mean anything to you?”
Chapter Five
Yuri’s smile faded, then he asked with a growl, “Why do you ask?”
“Because he’s here in the United States and he’s already committed one murder and is hunting his next victim down as we speak,” Kosta told him.
Yuri stepped aside and motioned for Kosta to enter into the apartment. Sla
mming the door shut behind them, he glared at Kosta. “And you know this how?”
“An old friend of mine called me tonight for help. He explained what was going on and asked for my help. I told him I would have to go through you.”
“And he was fine with that?”
“He was hoping the Bratva would step in and clean up Konovic or take him down.”
“We’ve been looking for an excuse to do that for the last fifteen years if not more,” Yuri assured him.
“Well, this might be your chance.” Kosta nodded. Then he heard the timeline Yuri mentioned and had to ask, “Why fifteen years?”
Yuri shrugged. “Fifteen years ago, we heard rumors about some unrest in Konovic’s area. But when we went there to find out what was going on, we couldn’t find anyone who would talk to us. They were afraid to even open their doors to us. We knew Boris Konovic had lost his youngest son ten years before but we didn’t know the whole story about that. We’ve been watching but again, no one would talk to us.”
Kosta snorted. “Well, these men can tell you what happened, fifteen years ago. Konovic pushed them out of Russia, for them it was stay and die or run to live another day. Fifteen men ran and now those men plus more are taking a stand against the very man who ran them out of their homeland.”
“Find out where these men are and get some men together. We will stand behind them and put an end to Vitya Konovic.” Yuri growled. “I’ll call Sergi and Misha and get things going over there. This ends now, here in the U.S.”
“Oh and Vitya has ties to Ivan Solvastan that can be proven,” Kosta informed him.
“Ublyudok, this fucker is going down.” Yuri growled.
“Then we need to move quickly, “Kosta suggested. “A man such as Konovic slips in, does his business, then gets out unnoticed because he doesn’t like attention. He might have fucked up this time hanging around to get the daughter but he won’t stay here longer than he needs too.”
