by K. J. Dahlen
She opened her eyes and noted Nikoli’s gaze remained on the little girl on her lap. She could have been a bitch about it but that wasn’t what she wanted and not what her child needed. She needed to make this as easy for both of them as she could. She wasn’t a bitter person not even after the way he treated her the morning after their night together.
“Baby girl,” she called out in a soft tone. When Malina raised her head to her mother, Bella nodded at Nikoli. “This is Nikoli, your daddy. He’s waited a long time to meet you.”
Malina peeked over at her father.
He waited for her to say something and when she smiled, he knew it would be ok.
“Hi.” She stared at him with wide eyes.
“Hello.” Nikoli smiled.
“Are you okay?” Malina asked. “I saw that nasty man hurt you.”
Nikoli smiled. “I’ll be fine. Are you okay?”
Malina nodded. “He didn’t hurt me. He just scared me.”
“Ok that’s good.” Nikoli nodded with a warmth in his eyes. “I’m told you’re my little girl, is that right?”
Malina nodded. “I know. I was told you are my daddy.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I don’t know you. My mom always told me you were out there and hopefully one day, I would know you but she would never tell me who you were.”
Nikoli closed his eyes. “I know. She didn’t tell me about you until the other night.”
“She was scared of the nasty man,” Malina whispered. “He said he would hurt me if you didn’t come. But you did come.”
“Yes, I did. But your mother protected us both by telling me what was going on.” He sat back and looked at his child. “She didn’t have to do that. She could have done what Danton wanted and allowed him to hurt me.”
Malina frowned. “If you think that of my mother then you don’t know her very well. If she loved you, she would never hurt you or allow you to be hurt.” Malina squared her shoulders firmly then glanced at her mother and back to Nikoli. “She told me you filled a part of her heart and I should give you a chance to know me. Is that something you want to do? Get to know me?”
Nikoli stared at the little girl for a moment then he looked over at Bella. He read the truth in her eyes. Turning his gaze back to Malina, he nodded. “Yes, I’d very much like to get to know you. If that’s something you want too.”
“I guess that would be okay.”
~* * * *~
Nikoli heard Sergi clear his throat. When Nikoli looked over, he saw Sergi motion him over. He got up and walked over to the other man.
Sergi glanced at the two girls on the sofa and then he looked at Nikoli. “As much as I know you want to stay here, I think you deserve the chance to face Danton. We must deal with this now before we forget our objective. I want to close this chapter in my life.” He gazed at Bella and Malina. “Then it seems you have a new chapter in your life to begin.”
Nikoli nodded. “Let’s get this done then. I want to get back here and get to know the new woman in my life.”
Chapter Thirteen
As the men entered the warehouse in the old harbor, they noted the man tied to the chair in the middle of the room.
Danton was covered in bruises and blood. His right eye was swollen shut and he had blood trickling down from the corner of his mouth.
He looked at the line of men in front of him. Nikoli, Sergi Misha, Kosta and Felix. “Oh, it’s the Bratva golden boy.”
Nikoli shook his head.
Danton snorted and winced as his broken ribs made breathing difficult. “Did you come to see how low I’ve fallen?”
“No, I’m here to close a painful chapter in my life,” Nikoli assured him.
Danton looked over at Sergi and Misha then he looked back to Nikoli. “Do they know who you really are?”
Nikoli stared at him. “Da, they know exactly who I am. I never had to hide anything from them.”
Danton turned to view Sergi and Misha. “So you know Nikoli and I are first cousins.”
“Da.” Sergi nodded. “We’ve always known. Nikoli never hid that from any of us. In fact, that made him work even harder to become the man he is today.”
“Before she passed away your mother called me,” Misha admitted. “She asked me if I could ever forgive you for something you tried to do a lifetime ago. She told me you were the only one of her children who looked for the easy way out of working hard for an honest living. That even if she didn’t live to see it, she knew you would die alone and with nothing. You see she told me about a dream she had. Out of her five sons, you would be the only one to bring shame and discord to the name your father gave you.”
Danton scoffed. “Even my own mother gave up on me. Well, that just figures.”
Nikoli shook his head. “The only one who ever gave up on you was you. You never gave hard work and honor a chance. You thought you’d skip over the hard work part and just take the easy way. Well now, you know that was the wrong way to go. My life hasn’t been easy and glamourous all the time. In fact, right now it sucks. But this is something I need to do. I need to see this through.”
Danton nodded. “I know you do.” He looked over at Sergi and Misha. “I know you have a grudge with me and I can understand why you think that. But over the years, I did learn something. I think I worked harder trying to earn my own way than I would have if I had done the right thing to begin with.” He nodded at Nikoli. “He got the life I wanted. He was the golden boy I thought I wanted to be, but I was so wrong. My mother was right. I will die alone and with nothing. My life was over the moment I tried to kill Misha. I never knew who he was and that night it didn’t really matter, not to me. He was just a means to an end. I would have lied and cheated and that didn’t matter either. Not then and not now.” Danton swallowed hard. “I know I don’t deserve it but I’m asking for mercy. Make my death quick. I’m so done with this thing called life.”
Without a word, Misha stepped forward and with a knife in his hand, he sliced through Danton’s throat. Blood sprayed them both as Danton’s eyes rolled back in his head and he breathed his last breath.
Misha dropped the blade and it hit the floor with a clatter. Then he stepped back and his father handed him a towel.
“Why?” Sergi asked.
“Because vengeance needed to be done,” Misha explained. “It’s been a long time coming and now it’s over. We can move forward with our lives and forget this man ever existed. This did not have to be us torturing a man who was already tortured and done with his life.” He threw the bloody towel down on the floor. “I think as long as we’re here in the U.S., we should make a trip to New Orleans. I’d really like to see my daughter and grandchildren before we go back.”
Sergi smiled. “I think we can do that. After a good night’s sleep, we’ll fly down there tomorrow.”
Ivan stepped forward and asked them, “What about Geno? What are your plans for him? I would like permission to reacquaint myself with the man.”
Sergi stared into the eyes of the other man for a long moment before he looked over at Nikoli. “He is your daughter’s grandfather, what say you?”
Nikoli sneered. “He may be her grandfather, but he will never meet her. He will never lay his eyes on her or get his hands on her. He deserves this visit and I would wish him well but that would be a lie. I would wish him the pain of hell but that wouldn’t be enough to cover what he did to Bella all her life. It would only be a beginning.” He turned to Ivan and gave his consent. “Make him regret the day he was born, but don’t end his life. Leave his bloody and broken and let him think about what is waiting for him on the other side. Then when you go to Chicago, let his wife know he’ll meet her when she gets to hell.”
Ivan smiled and nodded. He turned to walk away then turned back to Nikoli. “Would you like to send him a message from Bella?”
Nikoli nodded. “Tell him she’s got the protection from us that he should have given her from the day she was born. Tell him
a daughter is something he should have cherished from the moment she was born and that he fucked up. She belongs to me now and I don’t share with anyone.”
Ivan nodded. “I’ll make sure I hammer that point home to him.”
A moment later just Sergi, Misha and Nikoli were left standing in the warehouse.
Sergi turned to Nikoli and asked, “So are you claiming Bella for yourself then?”
Nikoli shrugged. “They do come as a package deal, do they not?”
Sergi shook his head. “They don’t have to, you know. You could simply claim Malina and be done with it.”
Nikoli stopped and glared at the older man. “I would never take her child from her. Malina loves her mother and Bella loves Malina.”
“Da, she does but you are a man of great power and wealth. Do you really trust Bella?”
Nikoli took a moment to think about his answer, not because he really needed to, but he wanted to answer as honestly as he could so he took a moment to figure out how to put the words together. “You both know how I felt about my wife, Bethany.”
They both nodded.
Nikoli continued, “I thought my heart had grown cold after I lost both her and Nicky in the same night to the same crazy woman. When I buried Bethany, I made a vow to never love another woman the same obsessive way I loved her. I kept that vow all these years. I searched for my son as well and the longer I searched, the more frustrated I became. Then on the tenth anniversary of Nicky’s birth and Bethany’s death, I walked into the casino and I saw an angel. I didn’t even know her name when I took her upstairs. All I knew was that I wanted her. I wanted to feel something that night. Right or wrong, I took her. I called her name when I gave into my desire for her. I didn’t realize it then but I found a connection with her that I never had with any other woman, even my Bethany.”
The two men listened quietly to a rare sharing by this man. He’d always kept everything close to the vest, so to speak.
“Then I made a mistake that cost me the first ten years of my daughter’s life. It was something so brutal that I broke her heart. I gave her a stack of cash to her for spending the night with me. That act crushed her soul. She dropped the money at my door and walked away. You see, she’ s confided to me that she’d been in love with me for a while before that night and I never knew it. I used her willingly then I crushed her the next morning. She then gave life to my child and raised her with all the love she once had for me. That little girl means the world to Bella and Bella means the world to Malina. If I took one away from the other, it would kill them both. So no Sergi, I won’t take my daughter away from her mother. What I will do is try very hard to be the kind of man Bella needs me to be. I want her to fall in love with me again. I may not deserve her but I want her in my life. Our connection is still there. I can feel it.”
“Good luck to you then.” Sergi slapped him on the back as he looked happier than anyone had seen him in a long time. Nikoli had been his man for many years and he truly cared for him.
Nikoli nodded. “Maybe there is hope for me yet. She couldn’t allow me to be killed so that has to count for something, right?”
Misha grinned. “It might at that.”
“And she had enough faith in you to know you would move mountains to get your daughter back to her safely,” Sergi pointed out. “She trusted you enough to tell you what was going on and for you to get your daughter back when she had no reason to think you would even care. She has given you the most precious gift a woman can give a man, a child and love. Take care of it and never lose it again. You might not get it back a third time.”
Half an hour later, the three men stood in front of the door to Nikoli’s penthouse. He was nervous about going inside for some reason. He couldn’t seem to move forward.
Then Sergi told him, “Beyond that door is your future. We buried the worst part of your past, the future is yours to mold into something beautiful. But to do that my friend, you have to have the courage to open that door.”
Nikoli took a deep breath, when he exhaled his hand reached for the door knob. Turning it, he pushed open the door and stepped inside to greet his future.
~* * * *~
When Misha and Sergi were walking toward their own room, Sergi got a call. It was from the men he’d sent to Chicago. He went into the room he was sharing with Misha and sat down on the bed.
“Well,” he asked through the cell phone. “Was it there?”
Grenada, his man there in Chicago cleared his throat. “Oh yeah, it was there. The vault was hidden just like she said and the combination she had worked. We got in the first try.”
Sergi hesitated then asked, “What else was in the vault? You seem to have more to tell me.”
“Yeah, there’s more to tell you and I don’t think you are going to be pleased by what else we found.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense man, tell me what you found,” Sergi demanded.
“Marchanti must be some kind of black market broker or something. There are all kinds of pieces in this vault that no one has seen for decades. Some of this stuff looks like Crown jewels but whose crown is anyone’s guess. The vault takes up almost the entire room.”
“Dos it really?” Sergi was stunned by the news of what his men had found. “Did you run into any problems with his wife or other children?”
“No they weren’t even here,” Grenada replied.
“Stay right where you are. Stand guard until more men join you. I will send them out right away. If his wife and children come home, keep them there and do not let them communicate with anyone. I have to speak to Marchanti and find out what’s going on but I have to do it quickly. Ivan Korchagan is questioning him as we speak.”
Sergi hung up the call and placed another quick call. He was sending most of the men he brought with him to Chicago to secure Marchanti’s house until it could be determined what was going on.
He turned to Misha. “The men found not only the Token but a whole lot more. Grenada thinks Marchanti may have be dealing in the black market. If that is so, he may have some of the world’s lost treasures in his home.”
“We’d better move quickly. Ivan seemed to be very pissed at the man.” Misha ran his fingers through his hair. “What are you going to tell the Ukraniains?”
“I need to speak with Marchanti first.” Sergi nodded. “Then I will speak to the Council. Daemon understands the protocol we need to follow. He would do the same.”
They took the elevator to the basement then walked over to the elevator that would take them to the security rooms. Felix Grigori was waiting there along with his brothers and together, they went to the room set aside for Geno Marchanti.
Ivan was there already and he was just getting started. When Sergi stopped him, he turned to glare at the older man.
Sergi glared right back at him. “Am I going to have trouble with you now as well?” Sergi snarled.
Ivan stepped back and ground his teeth. He didn’t say a word as he watched and listened.
When he approached Geno, Sergi looked him over very carefully. The man was bruised and bloody but most of his wounds were at least a day old. Which meant Ivan hadn’t gotten started on his yet.
Geno looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, the right one was swollen half closed. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I want some answers,” Sergi replied.
“Go to hell.” He spat on the floor. “I don’t answer to you or anyone else.”
“Oh, you will answer to me, I promise you,” Sergi assured him.
“Fuck off!” Geno swore.
“I need to know why me men found a treasure trove of items the world seems to have forgotten about in your vault tonight?” Sergi ignored Geno’s swearing. If he had been in the same position, he would have sworn at the men holding him too.
Geno stiffened and lifted his head to glare at the older man. “What vault are you talking about?”
Sergi smiled slightly.
His smile seemed to send shivers
down Geno’s back as he quivered in his ropes.
Sergi raised a brow at him as he continued to smile. “The vault in your basement office.”
“How the hell do you know about that vault?” Geno snarled. “And how the fuck did you get it opened?”
“Your daughter told us about it.”
“That fucking little bitch!” Geno’s saliva flew as he swore. “I’ll kill that useless whore.”
Sergi gripped Geno’s jaw and pressed his fingers in tightly. “You want to answer my question? Why are the items in your vault in there in the first place?”
“I don’t have to answer you,” Geno told him.
“But you do, you really do,” Sergi assured the other man.
“Is this something Daemon should be here for?” Ivan asked as he realized the importance of what Sergi was asking Geno.
“Not yet. I’ll bring him in once I know where this is going,” Sergi replied.
Ivan nodded and stepped back. He just listened. The more he listened the more he hated Geno Marchanti
“How the hell did Isabella find the vault?” he demanded with a snarl. “No one is supposed to go down in the basement. That’s the fucking rule. No one goes into the basement without my permission.”
Sergi ignored his ranting and asked again, “What do you do for a living?”
“That’s none of your business. If you’re going to kill me get on with it but know if you kill me, you’ll start a war you don’t want.”
“Why do I doubt that very much?” Sergi scoffed. “Does your High Council know you deal with the black market?”
Geno’s eyes widened as much as they could, given the circumstances. Sweat beaded along the side of his head and he wet his lips nervously.
Sergi nodded. “I think I have my answer.” He began to pace in front of Geno. “So is this a sideline for you? Are you a broker or merely a thief?”
