by KJ Dahlen
“Oh, why do I think that it does matter a great deal?” Joel grumbled.
“I have to agree with my colleague,” Judge stated. “I too, have a feeling who you guys matter a great deal.” Judge waited for a moment then repeated his question, “So what is the Russian Bratva doing on American soil?”
Viktor raised an eyebrow and glared at the man asking such questions. “What makes you think we are Bratva?”
“I know what I saw and your men are tatted Bratva.” Judge growled.
“Many men wear the red star of Russia,” Viktor stated.
Tension was rising in the room and everyone froze as testosterone filled the air. No one was ready to back down then the silence was shattered when Frankie slammed her hand down on the table.
Everyone but Viktor and Judge jumped and the tension was broken.
She grabbed the notebook and began to furiously write something.
Hawk chuckled when he got to his feet and read what she wrote. He nodded at the notebook and watched as she pushed it toward the team of men her father had dragged here.
Judge turned his glare on her.
Viktor was sternly looking at him before Judge read her words.
Judge pushed the notebook toward Joel.
“You wanted a parley, so parley and put your dicks back in your pants,” Joel read it and burst out laughing at her orders then looked over at his commander. “Well, she’s right.”
“Right about what?” Deter asked.
Viktor smiled. “She wants us to put our dicks back in our pants and parley.”
Ivan chuckled as he looked down at his jeans as if to make sure he’d zipped up.
Adrik nudged him while wearing a scowl.
“I also think she could be right,” Galen spoke softly at first. “I mean we need to talk about the man who directed all of this. When they snatched me off the street and took me to this warehouse, I watched what was going on. I saw the players and I saw what those men were doing.” She caught her breath with a sob and her father put his arms around her shoulders.
Deter watched as another man comforted her and he didn’t like it. He ended up glaring at the other man.
Joel took note of his glare and tightened his arms around his youngest daughter.
Galen felt the pressure of his hug and tried to break his hold. She turned to look at her father and found him glaring at someone. When she turned her head, she found Deter staring back at him. She smiled slightly then got up and went over to Deter. Kneeling down in front of him, she reached for his hand. “Can you stop glaring at the only other man in my life?” she whispered softly.
Deter’s glare softened as he looked into Galen’s eyes. “Da Malyshka, I suppose I could.”
“Good, because I think you and them need to work together to get this mission done with. You have information but so do they. It may not even be the same information. They might know something that could help you find and destroy this Tegan Averin.”
Galen’s suggestion made sense and everyone sitting there knew it. They might not like it but they recognized the validity of her words.
Judge, Hunter and Bull sat up at the name she threw out there. “You’re here for Tegan Averin?” Bull asked. He looked over at Joel just as the other man got to his feet in a rush.
His hands fisted at his sides. Joel growled. “I thought you were taken by Manuel Marchato and the Mexican cartel?”
“Shadow, hold steady,” Judge warned him. “We were just linking him to this bastard Averin.”
Joel whipped his head around to where his commander was sitting. “How long did you know he was connected to Averin? How long?” he shouted.
Judge sat back in his chair and stared at Joel. “We found out a couple weeks ago. We didn’t tell you because we didn’t want you to lose your shit like you’re about to do now. We needed your head clear, so we let you believe we were chasing down Marchato instead.”
Joel shook his head. “I thought I could trust you guys. I thought we were a team.”
“We are a team and you can trust us,” Judge insisted. “You knew from the beginning this could be linked to Averin. We never tried to hide that. But when Marchato’s name came up we looked deeper into him. We remember very well what Averin did to you all those years ago. We also know you’ve been keeping track of him all this time.”
Viktor looked at the men and asked harshly, “What do you mean you’ve been keeping track of him all this time? You know where this man Averin is right now?”
Joel turned his head slowly and glared at Viktor. “Yeah, I know where he is right now, or he was there last night. Something happened and the whole compound went crazy but when Galen’s call came in I left.” He hesitated then asked, “Would you happen to know what all the hubbub was about?”
Viktor shrugged. “Perhaps he just found out his MC was blown to hell.”
Judge looked stunned for a moment. “You took out his whole MC?”
“Along with Manuel Marchato,” Galen added.
“You killed them all?” Bull exclaimed.
“They got what they deserved!” Galen cried out. “Now no other woman needs to go through what they did to those girls.”
Deter pulled her down into his lap and held her while she sobbed.
Joel now watched as another man gave comfort to his daughter. He’d known this day would come. From the moment, he met his children at the hospital, after they were born. He just wasn’t sure he was ready for this. Glancing over at her sister, he noted she was clinging to the man he caught her in bed with a few hours ago.
“Where was this place?” Viktor demanded. “Did you actually see Tegan Averin there?”
Joel nodded as he focused on the question. “Yes, he was there.” He paused then added, “Do you realize what you’ve done by taking out his MC? By murdering his people, you’ve put him on alert that someone is looking for him. You just fucked this whole thing up.”
“Perhaps not,’ Deter claimed. “We made it look like an accident.”
“How the fuck can you make a bombing look like an accident?” Bull scoffed.
“I can make anything look like an accident,” Grisha told them. “They didn’t even see it coming, one moment they were talking and laughing and the next, they were screaming in death as they burned alive.”
Judge looked unimpressed. “Did you get them all?”
“Da, we got every last one of them,” Viktor assured them.
“Did you know he has another warehouse in Cameron?” Joel asked. “That’s where his compound is, Cameron.”
Viktor looked at his men and found them looking back at him.
Galen was silent now but she still clung to Deter.
Viktor looked at Judge and his men. “Our mission here is to take everything away from Tegan Averin, leaving him broken and wishing for death. We were hired by a man name Vatali Anishin.
Joel sat down hard in his chair as his past just came back to bite him in the ass. “Galina’s father brought you here to find her abductor?”
“Da, he did.” Viktor nodded.
“Daddy, there’s more you need to know,” Galen whispered. “Galina had a daughter a few months after you left her. She named her daughter Sahara Beck.”
Joel was stunned. “What the hell?”
“Vatali recently found out what happened to his daughter and met his granddaughter. He hadn’t heard from Galina in over twenty six years and when he did find his granddaughter, it was both a blessing and a curse. Galina is gone but her daughter, your daughter is very much alive. She was in trouble and needed his help.”
“Is she all right now?” Joel’s voice trembled.
“Da, she is protected now.” Viktor nodded.
Joel frowned. “What does that mean she is protected now?”
“She is married to a member of the Bratva now,” Viktor informed him. “And the man who was after her is no more.”
“Did you kill him too?” Judge asked offhandedly.
Viktor shrugg
ed. “Not me, personally no, but he is dead all the same. He dared to threaten her life and the Bratva do not take threats like that lightly. He thought he could begin his own empire with using her like Tegan was going to use her mother.”
Joel swallowed hard. “You’ve seen this girl, this Sahara Beck?”
Viktor reached for his phone and began scrolling through his photos. When he found what he wanted, he handed the phone to Joel.
Joel took the phone and stared at the photo for a long moment. “She looks just like her mother did when I first met her,” he whispered. Looking up at Viktor he asked, “Her husband...he’s a good man? He treats her right?”
“Da, Kosta treats her like a queen.”
“Does she know about me?” Joel wanted to know.
“I think she does.” Viktor stared back at him. “Your Galina told her about you. She left a set of diaries for anyone who wanted to know what she went through. I think she hoped her father would one day read them. She wrote down what happened while she was with Tegan, mostly where his business interests were, where he started, and what he was doing to build his empire.”
“When I met her, this bastard Tegan was trying to break her. He never did and when she begged me to help her, I took a chance with her. I got her out of there and we escaped his reach. We spent a few months together and then she told me it might be better if we split up. We lived together in New Orleans at that time. But one day, we saw Tegan there and that’s when she wanted to run again. She said she would be better off on her own. She convinced me she could hide better that way. I hated leaving her alone but she pretty much forced me away.” He looked up at Viktor and asked, “Do you know what happened to her after I left? I looked for years and never found her.”
“Da, she went to a town called Chalmette and raised her daughter. While she was living there, she met a woman named Jessica Carter. She had a child about the same age whose name was Pepper. In the end, the children became known as Salt and Pepper. They were very good friends until Pepper’s mother was murdered and she was abandoned in New Orleans at the age of four. They just found each other again a few months ago.”
Joel looked over at the other men from his team. They looked like they couldn’t believe it either. Then he looked over at his daughters. He found them looking back at him with hope in their eyes. He held up his hands. “Before you start dreaming about a sister girls, we have to find this bastard and take him out. I’m not bringing Sahara into his sights as a replacement for Galina.”
Deter barked out a laugh. “Kosta will not allow anything or anyone to take his Sahara away from him and now he’s got the Bratva behind him. I don’t think you realize just how influential her grandfather is.”
“I know the man is a bastard for what he did to his daughter.” Joel sneered.
“That may be, but she ended up forgiving him,” Matvey informed him as all the men had read her diaries so they did know the facts.
“She may have but I haven’t.” Joel seethed. “No matter what my daughters have done, I would never turn my back on them. Never, do you hear me?”
“Da, we hear you.” Viktor nodded. Looking down at Frankie, he agreed with the other man. Then he looked back up at Joel. “We need to know what you know about this man Tegan Averin. It is our job to take everything away from him and then finally destroy him.”
~*~
Search out men who’d crossed the Bratva, then tear them down. Judge had been watching all the Russian men in the room. Something niggled at him. They weren’t Bratva, but yet, they were. He hated a mystery and these men looked like the scariest kind of mystery. “Let us work with you,” Judge demanded. “We can shut him down legally and use the knowledge we gain to look for other holdings like this one. It may not be enough to stop the trade altogether but we can do our part and maybe make a little bit of a difference in some women’s lives.”
Viktor stared at the other man in contemplation of what he was saying. As the leader of this particular group, it was up to him if he wanted to work with the other men. “I will allow you to work with us until we bring this Tegan to his knees. But there is something I want you to know before you agree to this, what we do may not be legal in your world but we will do it anyway. We are Bratva but we are more than just that. As enforcers we go by a secret name- we are known as the Nomads.”
Judge sat up and stared around at the eight men. Damn, that was it! He knew about the Nomads. He heard the whispers about these men. They were the worst of the worst. Natural born killers. At least that’s what he’d heard about them. Looking at them, he could see for himself they were hard men. They hadn’t batted an eye at the fact that fifteen men lost their lives yesterday.
He thought long and hard about what they were going to do and he knew deep down, he didn’t have a choice. They were going to take down a monster and he had to admit, this man deserved whatever he got in the end. Judge got to his feet and held out his hand to Viktor.
Viktor stared at the other man for a moment then raised a dark brow at him. “Just don’t judge us or our ways. We will do whatever we have to do to bring this pig to his knees and it may get bloody. As long as you know this going in.”
“We do.” Judge held his hand out and waited for Viktor to accept it.
When Viktor and him shook hands, they came to an alliance of a sort.
An alliance of men who would search and destroy human traffickers. Each group having their own motivations for doing so. Judge released a sigh.
Heaven help anyone who got in their way.
Chapter Nine
Viktor stood out on the front porch of the cabin and stared at the woods around them. His mind was occupied by thoughts of what happened this morning. Adding the six extra men to his team wasn’t something he envisioned but he couldn’t afford to tell them no. If he had, he would have lost Frankie and he wasn’t ready to do that yet. He also wasn’t sure Deter was ready to lose Galen yet either. The problem was that he wasn’t sure if he could trust these new men. While they might speed up their search for this man Tegan, they might also fuck things up.
The Nomads had a mission to accomplish before they faced Tegan.
He heard the door open quietly behind him and he tensed. He wanted to spin around with his Makarov in his hand but instead, he remained still and let the other man come to him. His own men knew better than to surprise him as they might receive a bullet as a greeting, so this was one of the new men for sure. Viktor smiled slightly as his fingers slowly reached for the gun under his arm. Then he saw Frankie’s father step up to his side and he reluctantly took his hand off his weapon. He couldn’t kill her father as much as he wanted to. “You know something...”
“What’s that?” Joel muttered as he stood next to him at the railing while staring off into the woods.
“It’s never wise to sneak up behind me or any of my men,” he warned. “It might not work out in the end for you or the others. My men are highly trained to strike first and ask questions later, if at all.”
“Understood.” Joel acknowledged his own position. After a moment, he asked, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Certainly, I might even have an answer for you.” Viktor nodded.
“My daughter Sahara,” Joel began. “Is she happy? I know you said she was married now, but what kind of childhood did she have? Did she ever wonder about me and where I was? Why I wasn’t there with her and her mother?”
Viktor didn’t know what exactly he was asking. He’d read Galina’s diaries but he had no idea what Sahara was like. She seemed well adjusted but wasn’t downtrodden. But she was loyal, he knew that much. She had stepped in front of bullets for her friend she hadn’t seen in years. He wasn’t sure Joel wanted to hear about that though. Finally, he shrugged. “I do not know that much about her but from what I have seen, she is very loyal to the ones she considers her friend. She’s not afraid to stand up for herself or her convictions, the same way your other daughters do. She’s lived a sheltered life, sometimes hidin
g from the rest of the world but she had her mother to care for her. Galina protected her very well. She loved her daughter very much. She also told her about you, which you’ll have to admit, she didn’t have to do. Galina remembered you with nothing but respect and love.”
Joel was silent for a long moment then asked, “Did she really forgive her old man?”
“Da, she did. Galina said that as much as she disagreed with him, once she had her own child, she knew his decision must have been hard. Her father was old school but she did say that it nearly broke her heart when he turned his back on her and berated her for shaming his name, even if it wasn’t true. It wasn’t until she looked down at her innocent daughter’s face that she forgave him, years later. When she finally understood the love she had for her own child, she realized her father never let his heart grow enough to love her that same way. She claimed being Bratva made him a hard man but she always thought there was something broken inside him, something no one could reach, not even her mother and she knew he loved her as much as he was capable of loving anyone.”
Joel stared hard at him. “How the hell do you know all of this?”
“She left diaries behind and we, the enforcers were given copies as she had records and information on this Tegan bastard. Her words were if I remember correctly, ‘when she looked into her daughter’s eyes, something inside her seemed to heal and she could at last forgive her father for what he’d done to her.’ ” He shrugged. “Then she said, she would always stand beside her child no matter how old she was. She prayed for him.”
Joel nodded. “It’s a good thing he’s in Russia right now. I might walk right up to him and punch him in the god damn throat and watch him struggle to breathe his last breath.”
Viktor smiled at the thought of a man like Vatali Anishin taking a punch like the one Joel described. "Vatali might be old school but he knows how to protect himself. And while he is an older man, he is still in good shape. He is Bratva and even old Bratva men are resilient. You might try to do this but you might also fail... and he is not in Russia. He is currently in New Orleans making the acquaintance of his granddaughter.”
