by K. J. Dahlen
Sergi sneered. “His appointment would never be approved from Russia.”
Yuri took them to his own private elevator. This one would take them straight to the security floor. When they got off the elevator, they were in a short hallway. To the right was a large open room with many monitors that showed every part of the hotel and restaurant. There was one bank of monitors that displayed the inside of an old fort.
They continued down the hall to a block of secure rooms. In the first room was Andria Waterson. She was pacing the limited room she had and seemed to be very nervous. When Misha and Sergi stopped to watch her, she noticed them. Turning her head, she paled when she saw Misha. She had to sit down on the narrow bed in the room. “Misha,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Hello Andria,” he greeted her. “You aren’t looking so well.”
“I’ve been better,” she admitted. “I never thought I would see you again.”
“I imagine you did not.” He walked closer to the clear bullet proof door. “I have one question for you and I want you to try not to lie to me. What did you do to Joy?”
Andria’s face went completely white and she began to tremble. “I had nothing to do with what happened to Joy.”
“What happened to her?” he asked her again.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Carlos asked me about her and I told him you were seeing her. The last night I saw her, we were clubbing, and she went to the bathroom. The next thing I know, Carlos came into the club and told me to go home. He said not to worry about her and I should avoid getting in contact with him and you. I did what I was told. It was months later, Carlos came to my home with a baby girl. He told me to take care of her. I told him I wasn’t mother material but he didn’t care. I didn’t hear from him again for five years when he told me to get close to Nikoli. I didn’t want to but he made me. He scares me and he told me if I didn’t do what he wanted, he would just kill me. When Nikoli wouldn’t cooperate, Carlos told me to kill Bethany. I didn’t want to do it but I didn’t have a choice. After she was dead, he told me to get the baby. I did what I was told to do. If I didn’t I knew Carlos would come for me and he would hurt me until I prayed for death.” She hung her head. “I just did what I was told to do.”
“You did it to save your own skin.” Nikoli sneered. “You killed my wife and stole my son. You made my life a living hell for twenty years and now, I have learned that you didn’t even take care of him. You left him in the care of another then you walked away. You managed to hide yourself for years, yet you feared not doing what he asked you to do? Somehow your words do not ring true.”
“What’s going to happen to me now?” she asked.
“Your fate lies with me now,” Sergi told her. “The daughter you were to care for is my granddaughter, Misha’s only child. I believe you knew that from the beginning and like Nikoli, I believe you turned your back on an innocent child, not once but twice. We of the Bratva do not turn our backs on the innocent, we protect them. Anyone who abuses women and innocents deserve our wrath and you, woman, deserve my wrath.”
“But I didn’t know Misha was Bratva!” She cried out.
“No more excuses.” Sergi demanded. “No more lies.” He then turned away and walked down the hall to the next room. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared into the room. Misha, Nikoli and Yuri saw this and moved forward to see what he was looking at. Raven and Nicky came up behind them.
When Raven saw who was in the room she was shaken. “Carlos,” she whispered.
Sergi whipped his head around and stared at her. “This is your Carlos?” he demanded. He turned back to glare at the other man.
“Do you know him father?” Misha asked.
Carlos noticed them standing there and he turned around slowly. When he saw Sergi staring at him, Carlos growled. “It had to be you didn’t it?”
Sergi nodded. “I guess we’ve come full circle haven’t we? Only this time, you are on the other end.”
Carlos sneered. “You cannot judge me.”
“I can and will,” Sergi assured him. “You will be brought before a High Tribunal but it will be me who passes your judgement.” He hesitated and then added. “And it will give me great pleasure to do so.”
“You know this man?” Nikoli asked.
Sergi nodded. “He has been a wanted man in Russia for the last forty five years. His name is Carl Bellovik.”
“What crime is he wanted for?” Yuri asked.
“He was an upcoming member of the Bratva as a young man. But he was a cruel man even then. When the old Bratva leader Felix Valan tried to sanction his actions, Carl murdered him in his sleep, like the coward he is. Then he ran. He murdered the Russian boss and then disappeared. No one could find him. Believe me, we searched for him under every rock on Russian soil.”
“What are you going to do with him now?” Nikoli asked as he had a stake in this man’s future.
“He is going back to Russia to face a Tribunal and then he will hang for his crimes. The Valan family will be very interested in the Tribunal verdict. They will be sitting in the front row when you are hanged.”
Carl showed no remorse, no emotion at all at Sergi’s words. “You can all go to hell!”
“Tell me something,” Nikoli spoke. “What did I ever do to you that you would murder my wife and take my son?”
“It wasn’t me who did that.” Carl shrugged. “That was all Grigori’s plan. I would have just killed you but Grigori wanted you to suffer for the slight your wife gave him.”
“What slight?” Nikoli frowned.
“He thought she would be happy to sleep with him but she turned him down flat. She told him she was in love with you and she wouldn’t even entertain the idea of being with him. He tried to tell her he was the better man but she wouldn’t hear it. She said him she loved you and you alone.” He sneered. “He told her he would ruin you and she would be left out in the cold.”
“What did she say to that?” Nikoli asked.
“She laughed at him.” Carl shook his head. “She told him she would never be left in the cold. She told him your arms would keep her safe and warm.”
“Is that why he had her murdered?”
Carl nodded. “He told me in confidence that she would die and Nikoli would lose his son but he would live to suffer for his humiliation.” He looked over at Nikoli. “You were supposed to suffer, always knowing your son lived, but you wouldn’t know where he was or what was happening to him.”
Nikoli charged at the glass. “You would have sold my child into the skin trade!”
Carl smiled. “Yes, I would have. I had a buyer all lined up until that bitch stole him from my home.”
“Be very happy that you can only die once,” Nikoli vowed. “There is a special place in hell waiting for you when you get there.”
“At least I won’t go alone,” Carl surmised.
“No, you won’t go alone,” Nikoli agreed. “Grigori will accompany you. We have your confession taped to show the tribunal at the trial.”
“You might want to know that we took every file you had in your safe house,” Yuri informed him.
Carl snarled. “How the hell did you know where it was?”
“Your secret wasn’t a secret,” Yuri assured him. “We got all your files.”
“Not all of them.” Carl sneered.
“If you mean the notebook in the wall safe, we got that too.” Yuri nodded.
“How the hell did you know about the safe?” Carl demanded. He turned to glare at Raven who waved at him. “How the fuck did you even know where the house was?”
“You threatened me and Nicky,” Raven replied. “You had people hunting for us. I needed something I could use against you if your people ever found us.”
Carl thought for a moment. “You took it didn’t you?”
Raven nodded.
“Have you given it to them yet?” He wanted to know.
“No but I will.” Raven reached into her pocket and pulled out a flash
drive. She gave it to Misha.
“What is this?” Misha asked.
“I’m not sure what’s on it but he blew a gasket when he noticed it was gone,” Raven told them.
“You little bitch!” Carl shouted. “You’ve just signed my death warrant. I hope you’re happy now.”
Raven stalked up to the door of the cell. “I did nothing, but survive your foul world. Your own actions have condemned you. You truly deserve whatever the Tribunal does to you. Both you and Grigori have earned your place in hell and you can take that nasty woman with you.”
Sergi looked over at Yuri. “I don’t think we need to subject Grigori to whatever you had planned for him. Bring him here and hold him until we go back to Russia. The evidence we have is enough to condemn him for his actions.” He nodded to the flash drive in his son’s hand. “There might be even more on that.”
Yuri stepped away to place the call to Sazon. When he returned he said, “They’ll bring him here. They had to give him something to put him to sleep and it hasn’t wore off yet.”
“Maybe he’ll get here before he wakes up.” Sergi shrugged. “It might be better that way, less hassle.”
Misha stepped up to the glass. “What happened to my Joy?” he growled at Carl.
Carl closed his eyes. “I really cared about Joy,” he told them. “She was the only thing in my life that was good and I wanted her. I saw her out with Andria one night and that’s all it took. I had to have her, so I took her. I didn’t know she was carrying your baby when I took her. Even after she began to show, she wouldn’t tell me who the baby’s father was. She kept her secret until the night the baby was born. She was a strong woman all through the time she was with me. When she delivered her daughter, she called out your name and that’s when I knew. I knew she would never be with me because she was still very much in love with you. I told her she would never see her baby again and when I took the baby from her, she closed her eyes and just gave up. I didn’t do anything to her but she knew she wouldn’t be with you or her child again and she simply gave up. I couldn’t get her to care about anything after that. She passed three days later. She wouldn’t eat or drink. She just didn’t care about living anymore. I was angry at her for her defying my wishes. All I wanted was for her to care about me.”
“What did you do with her body?” Misha wanted to know.
“I had her buried under a fake name.” Carl admitted.
“Where is she buried?” Misha asked.
“That I don’t have to tell you.” Carl shook his head.
“I know where she is,” Raven spoke up.
Misha turned to frown at her while Carl growled. “How do you know?” Her father asked.
“When Nicky and I were living with him, Carlos had a drinking problem. He would get drunk all the time and then he would get chatty. He would always want to be alone when he drank and sometimes he would talk about her. Her would yell at someone named Joy and ask her why she couldn’t love him the way he loved her. One night, he’d been drinking. He started getting mad, screaming, yelling and throwing furniture around the garage. Then he stumbled outside and went down the street. He walked for a long time and ended up at a small cemetery. He stopped in front of a grave. He sat down and started talking to the headstone. I followed him that night just to see where he was going. It was almost dawn before he left. When he left, I checked the headstone and saw the name Joyce Briggs.” She shrugged. “I didn’t think anything about it because I never heard the name Joy or Joyce before yesterday, or at least I didn’t put it together until now.”
Carl held out his arms and sneered, “Now you know everything! You should be very happy. You got your brat back safe and sound and you got me in custody. What more do you want?”
“I want the twenty four years you stole from me back.” Misha growled. “I want to be there when my child is born, I want to see her grow up and take her first steps. I want to grow old with her mother. That’s what I want.”
“Well neither one of us got what we wanted, did we?” Carl growled back. “All I ever wanted was Joy.”
“I will gladly watch you hang,” Misha told him.
“And I will die knowing Joy is out of your reach,” Carl taunted him.
“But she isn’t completely out of his reach,” Sergi pointed out. “He’ll have the daughter she gave him. Raven is half her mother’s daughter too.”
Carl hung in head in defeat.
Just then, the elevator door opened as Sazon and Barshan came out carrying Grigori. He was tied and gagged and still out for the count. Yuri opened the third cell door and the others carried him inside. They dumped his body on the bed and Grigori began to wake up.
Before he came completely to, Sazon cut the ropes around his wrists and ankles and all three men left the cell. Yuri locked the door behind him and they all waited and watched until Grigori sat up and ripped the duct tape off his mouth. “What the hell is going on here?” he demanded.
Nikoli stepped forward and smiled at the other man’s misfortune. “I found my son and uncovered who was behind his kidnapping and the murder of my wife.”
Grigori paused then got to his feet. “And what has that to do with me?”
“You masterminded the entire plot, you rat bastard!” Nikoli all but shouted.
“You can’t prove a thing,” Grigori told him.
“Oh, but we can.” Nikoli argued. “We have both your accomplices and all the evidence the Tribunal will need to nail you to the wall.”
Sergi stepped into Grigori’s line of sight. “I have heard the evidence and seen it as well.”
“What are you doing here?” Grigori began to look worried.
“I came to meet my long lost granddaughter.”
“Rebel,” Grigori mumbled.
“You knew about her as well?” Sergi swore.
“He found out about her a long time ago,” Carl assured them. “How do you think I became his middle man and Andria became his pawn? He blackmailed us into doing his dirty work while he stayed in the clear.”
Sergi walked to the glass door and stared at the man inside. “The tribunal will make short work of the case and you will meet your fate on Russian soil. All your assets will be turned over to the Bratva.”
“What about my family?” Grigori asked.
“That will be up to the tribunal, won’t it?” Sergi shrugged. “You knew the rules when you broke them.”
“This will destroy them.” Grigori lamented.
“Just as you almost destroyed my family.” Sergi seethed. He then turned and walked back to the elevator, ushering Raven and Nicky along with him. The others joined him, leaving the three prisoners locked in their cells.
Chapter Thirteen
An hour later, Yuri’s apartment was filled with people. His four friends joined the party along with Yuri, Nikoli, Sergi, Misha, Raven and Nicky. Yuri stayed close to Raven, much to the annoyance of Misha and Sergi.
“So Yuri, what are your plans as far as breaking up Carl’s little operation here?” Sergi asked.
“Once the word gets out of Carl’s real identity and his fate with the Tribunal, I’ll get the word out that he’s done in this town and if anyone wants to lay claim to the pieces of his empire they should come and see me. I’ll take care of them. I don’t really think there will be many to challenge anything. Most of his associates will realize the train has stopped and his victims will rejoice in the fact they have their lives back.”
“And Raven?” Sergi asked Yuri. “What do you plan for her?”
“She will stay here with me,” he stated. “When she’s ready, she will become my wife and bear my children.”
“Then your intentions are honorable?”
“Absolutely, they are.” Yuri nodded firmly. “But you have to understand something about your granddaughter…”
“And what is that?”
“She has lived in mortal fear most of her life. Fear for her own life and for the life of Nicky. They both need time and patience t
o become the people they were meant to be. I can give her that time. She has to feel safe before she can let go of her fear. She knows she’s safe here with me. You and Misha are more than welcome to come and go or come and stay a while to get to know her but I will ask that you don’t force her to do something she isn’t ready yet to do.”
Sergi glanced over at Raven and nodded. “I have a feeling my son will want to move back here to be close to his daughter.”
“And you?” Yuri held back a grin.
“I will stay for a few days but I can promise I’ll be back often to check on things here.” Sergi finished his drink and nodded to Yuri. “I will leave her in your charge. Keep her safe and happy, or you will answer to her father and grandfather.”
“I now know what all the fuss is about,” Yuri told the other man.
Sergi nodded at him. “Then you are a lucky man, indeed.”
Book Two
Bratva Blood Brothers Series
In Cold Blood
When she’s was found at age four on the streets of New Orleans with no memories of who she even is, Pepper is left in a void.
Years pass and when she goes into a gallery that Mikial Bannonkov owns to view a painting of a little girl with silver curls, it brings back memories. Memories she doesn’t know if she can trust.
Memories of a murder.
Moments later, a window shatters from a bullet and it plunges Pepper into another nightmare.
Mikial offers her protection and helps her to unravel her past. A past someone doesn’t want her to remember. Mikial is with Pepper every step of the way as she uncovers all thee secrets and lies of her life.
K.J. Dahlen
I live in a small town (population495) in Wisconsin. From my deck, I can see the Mississippi River on one side and the bluffs, where eagles live and nest on the other side. I live with my husband Dave and dog Buddy. My two children are grown and I have two grandchildren. I love to watch people and that has helped me with my writing. I often use people I watch as characters in my books and I always try to give my characters some of my own values and habits.
