“Someone appears to be questioning it,” Fyodor said. “And they’ve clearly worked and lived around you. There must be damning evidence in that notebook for them to want it so badly.”
Jake shook his head. “There’s not anything concrete, that I can guarantee. They may have suspicions, but half the world is suspicious of what I do.”
“Jake.” Drake spoke quietly. “These people are willing to wipe out an entire family to retrieve that notebook. There has to be something in it. Why not make another copy and send that, or use an electronic version? The Dovers are well-known and off-limits. Whoever killed that family has made enemies if it ever comes out. And that’s another thing. They have to be very powerful not to have a whisper of this on the streets. Your family could be in jeopardy. Mine. Joshua’s. Certainly, Mitya’s is. All of us in this room have a stake in this.” He switched his gaze to Mitya. “Do you have the notebook? Does Ania?”
Mitya kept his face an expressionless mask and his body relaxed. Deep inside, knots twisted in his gut. “No. If I had the damn thing, I would know what the problem was and who was coming at us.” He rubbed the annoying five-o’clock shadow he could get five minutes after shaving. “My best guess is someone became suspicious of Jake and for whatever reason began watching him. What is it that you’ve done that could make someone take a hard look at you?”
“I target companies that launder money,” Jake said. “I buy them up and destroy them, which eventually strangles those needing to launder money.” He shrugged. “I’ve been doing it for years. Drake just helped me focus more sharply on the companies that are suspect.”
Joshua drummed his fingers on the table. “That’s the tie-in, Jake. Before Drake, you probably randomly chose companies to take apart. Now you specifically target mob companies.”
“I don’t make mistakes like that,” Jake denied. “I make certain to do both.”
“If one of your trusted guards is a traitor, could he have overheard a conversation between you and Drake? Something he could note down and show at a later date?” Joshua persisted.
“That’s always a possibility,” Jake admitted. “But that would be like you believing Evan betrayed you, or Sevastyan, Mitya. Would you believe Timur would betray Fyodor? You have to put things in perspective. I trust Trey and Jerico. They’ve been with me for some time now and worked with Drake before that.”
“No one wants to believe someone they care about would betray them, but my own father and my uncles betrayed us. My father had Gorya’s father killed. All for what? And then there’s Joshua’s father. In this room, all of us have seen betrayal by the people we love. It is a sad fact of life, especially in the life we’ve chosen,” Mitya said. “We have a problem and we don’t know how deep it’s gone. If we can’t find the notebook, we have no idea who our enemies are.”
“The Anwar family is one of the oldest in Houston,” Drake said. “They held that territory exclusively until the Caruso family moved from Florida to Houston and took over the port there. What kind of a deal was struck between the two families, no one knows, but they never went to war, and there wasn’t a single killing over the takeover.”
Fyodor looked up. “It is possible the notebook was being delivered to convince the Anwar family to side with whoever is behind this.”
“That’s a definite possibility,” Elijah Lospostos said. “We’ve got Fyodor and Mitya and me, known in our world already as criminals. Drake, Eli and Jake are known as good guys, working with cops. Eli was a cop. We’re all friends. That definitely would give someone pause if they were looking for reasons to doubt us.”
“How do we find the notebook?” Eli asked. He was sprawled out, feet in front of him, chewing on a toothpick as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He had been the one to help dispose of the bodies of the three shifters on his property.
“I don’t know yet,” Mitya admitted. “I’m hoping Ania will have some ideas. This isn’t the best time for her right now.” He glanced at the door again, knowing she would be burning up soon.
He’d had to call a meeting and try to ferret out who might be a traitor, but he heard the ring of truth in every word said. Several times he’d glanced at his cousins; all of them but Gorya was in the room. Fyodor, Sevastyan and Timur hadn’t indicated that they heard a lie. Gorya was out with the bodyguards, hoping to discern if any of them was the enemy.
“There is also the possibility that my father, Lazar, has managed to slip into the country. His three lieutenants managed to do so without a single rumbling or whisper of a rumor. Any thoughts?” Mitya threw it out there, watching their faces carefully.
“If they came through Miami, we would have been informed immediately. Sasha Bogomolov runs Miami. He would have told us immediately. He knew Lazar and Rolan, your uncle, would eventually make a try for you. No one is going to get into Miami without his knowledge.”
“Unless one of his men is working for the same people Amory was working for,” Drake said. “The Caruso family run the port in Houston. They could have come in that way.”
“Alessandro Caruso keeps hanging around Ania, although she admits, prior to all this, he was never that interested,” Mitya said. “The old man wanted her to dump me and choose one of his sons. It’s understandable, but the timing seems suspect given that none of them approached her after her father was shot.”
“The bottom line, gentlemen,” Drake said, “is we have to all be careful and watch one another’s backs. Don’t just trust blindly. Make certain you know who you’re putting your faith in because you’re putting your life in their hands as well as those of people you love.” His gaze moved over Jake, but he didn’t single him out.
“How soon will Lazar strike at you again, Mitya?” Joshua asked. “We can stick around for a while if it would help.”
Mitya shook his head. “Whoever is out to get Jake and Drake is somewhere in or around New Orleans. The problem originates there, I’m sure of it. We need eyes and ears in that area. Watch the men you’re uncertain of. See where they go, who they talk to. We have a mutual enemy and he’s patient. He’s so patient he put people in place to activate when needed. Drake seems to be the person they go to for training and also for validation. If he endorses them, no one ever questions it.”
That much was true. Mitya was the only holdout because he didn’t know Drake the way everyone else did. And he had Lazar for a father. That meant he had little trust or faith in anyone, least of all a stranger.
“I’ll start going over everyone who might have applied for work around the same time Amory did. Also, I can match up various people Amory worked with. A pattern might emerge,” Drake said.
“I think we’re done here,” Mitya said. “I appreciate everyone coming, especially to Antosha’s service. It meant a lot to Ania. She needed to see that her father was well-respected. The last few years have been rough.”
“What do you plan to do with her property?” Fyodor asked.
“She wants to keep it for now,” Mitya said. He didn’t look at Sevastyan. He hoped eventually his cousin would buy the property as his home.
“I can see that, no breaking ties. Evangeline still has her house as well,” Fyodor said. “She has a difficult time whenever I bring up the subject of selling.”
“You told us what Ania did in that tree,” Elijah said. “She’s tough, that one. Having neighbors who won’t even acknowledge you or pretend to be your friend and then talk behind your back is extremely hard on women and children.” He knew from experience. His family was generations in the crime business.
His Ania may have been tough, but it had taken a toll on her. Jabbing a blade into a man’s throat wasn’t as easy as it looked in a movie. She’d seen the results instantly. The horror of what she’d done had spread across his face. She’d been splattered with his blood. There were repercussions to being brave. He cursed that he needed to shore up their defenses instead of shari
ng the bed with her. She needed to be held. Or maybe he needed to hold her.
The others made noises about leaving, but it took close to an hour for Drake, Jake, Eli, Joshua and Elijah to actually leave. The moment they were gone, Mitya and his cousins made their way to the den, where the room was smaller and warmer. The fireplace was lit to combat the cold the dripping rain outside brought with it. As always, because he was rightfully paranoid, Sevastyan made certain there were no listening devices in the den. He’d already swept the meeting room and declared no listening or recording devices had been left behind.
“Jake has to have spies in his camp,” Timur announced. “He doesn’t want to think that he does, and I can’t blame him.”
“It’s insane not to believe us,” Mitya said.
“He believes us,” Timur said. “He’ll be careful. No, he’ll try to set traps. He’s a smart man and he won’t tolerate a traitor near his family.”
“He may have had a succession of them,” Mitya warned. “It sounds like they trained with Drake to put all suspicion aside. From Drake they went to Jake. All of us have men that trained in the Donovan Security Company. His word has been gold. There aren’t that many shifters, and they needed jobs that would allow their leopards to have some freedom. Drake provides that as well as a very real service to those families who need them. Not just bodyguards; kidnappings have become so prevalent that someone is needed to deliver money or take back the victim.”
“For some of these men to have worked in Borneo for at least a year, this has gone back far before Jake and Drake got together with the idea to rid the crime world of shifters. That’s too recent. Elijah was the first the idea was pitched to. So why were these men being sent through Donovan’s training?” Fyodor asked.
“He is the best in the world,” Timur said. “His reputation is impeccable.”
“Do you suppose whoever is behind this began to get suspicious when Jake began taking apart companies that laundered money?” Sevastyan asked.
Mitya shrugged. “We can speculate forever, but the bottom line is, we have an enemy who is coming after us. We might not be the main target, but we’re in their sights because we’re seen as being friendly with Drake and Jake.”
“We’re leaving out Eli Perez,” Timur said. “He was DEA. He had to have made enemies. He has an impressive arrest and conviction rate. I spent a good deal of time investigating him. He took down Rafe Cordeau, although he’s not gotten credit for it, nor does he want it. He could have enemies.”
“He came on the scene too late,” Mitya pointed out. “At least for the start-up of this thing. To get sleepers in place, someone began orchestrating this a few years ago. Eli became part of it recently.”
“We’ve got a big fat ugly spider sitting in his web somewhere, waiting for someone to step into it so he can devour them,” Gorya said.
“I believe Lazar has stumbled across them once or twice but doesn’t know the significance of them,” Mitya said.
He knew his father. He made it his business to know him. Lazar believed he was far superior to any other man walking the earth. He thought himself stronger and more intelligent. The best at everything. He believed he had the right to do anything he wanted because he was that entitled. He would never think that anyone would be able to suppress an ego in order to further their agenda. Whoever this spider is, he doesn’t need the spotlight, and that makes him doubly dangerous.
“Lazar coming at us at this time is nothing more than a coincidence?” Sevastyan asked, but there was the merest hint of disbelief in his voice. Like Mitya, he didn’t believe in coincidences.
“I didn’t say that,” Mitya said. “I think this spider uses anything to his advantage. Lazar wasn’t quiet about trying to find us. It wouldn’t be that difficult to help Lazar find us and even offer to help him get into the country quietly. Lazar would think the spider was afraid of him and wanted favors owed. I think it doesn’t matter to our spider what happens to Lazar or us. He wants his notebook.”
There was silence. The cousins looked at one another for a long time. “We knew it was coming,” Fyodor said with a sigh. “I’m sorry about Ania, Mitya. You need to be looking after her and her leopard, not worrying about your father trying to kill you.”
Mitya nodded, because what was there to say? Ania was his first priority, but when someone was trying to kill them, he had no choice but to defend them.
“We’ll get out of here, Mitya, but watch yourself and now your back.”
“Fyodor, you have several of Drake’s shifters working for you, just as I do. Just as Joshua does.”
Mitya looked at Timur, wanting him to understand just what trouble they were all in. Lazar might pay a million dollars for someone to kill them. That was a straight up-and-up business deal. The spider might order someone to pull out a gun at the dinner table and kill the whole family. It was much more difficult when you didn’t know who your enemy was.
“I understand,” Timur said. “I’ll be looking over every single one of the men we hired from Donovan’s agency again. And I’ll be watching them.”
Gorya nodded. “We’ll make certain Fyodor and Evangeline are safe. Evangeline can’t move fast anymore. She’s pretty sick. I wish she’d walk away from the bakery if only for the rest of her pregnancy.”
Fyodor sighed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, and I’ll be there from here on out until the issue with Lazar is resolved and this spider shows himself.”
“Timur, you and Gorya are at risk from both enemies as well,” Mitya pointed out. “Just because you’ve chosen to be the head of security doesn’t mean either of them will spare you. Just the opposite. You’re between them and their prey.”
Timur grinned at him. “Don’t much like to be called that, Mitya. I always thought I was the predator.” He stretched. “You need anything else from us?”
“No. All of you believe both Drake and Jake? They aren’t a part of this in any way?” Mitya was compelled to ask. He didn’t think so, but conspiracy had been his life when he’d lived with his father.
All of his cousins shook their heads. “Drake and Jake are on our side,” Fyodor said. “I believe every man sitting at that table is one that can be trusted.”
Mitya wished he felt the same. He was trying. He wanted to have that many friends in his life that he could count on—that his family could count on. He had been working toward that place when all this had happened, and he went right back to being the untrusting, careful man he’d always been. He didn’t let others in. He watched over his cousins as best he could. They were his only family, and they were vulnerable. Fyodor had a woman he loved. Timur did as well. That made them targets for a man like Lazar.
Fyodor headed for the door, turned back and unexpectedly took Mitya’s shoulders in a strong grip. “Be safe, Mitya. Watch your back at all times. We can’t afford to lose you.”
Mitya nodded, a hard lump unexpectedly blocking his throat. “Same goes for all of you.”
Sevastyan walked them out while Mitya went on up the stairs, needing to be close to Ania. He entered the bedroom, inhaling deeply to take in her scent and judge how close she was to needing him again. Her scent was everywhere, an enticing fragrance that settled in his lungs and made him feel whole.
He took two steps closer to the bed and realized she wasn’t in it. The blankets were piled up as if she were sleeping in the middle, but there was no Ania. His heart nearly stopped, and he fought the roar of rage. Quickly, he hurried to the master bath, but she wasn’t there either. He turned slowly, staring at the bank of windows to the wide balcony. Had someone come in? Was it possible? Could she have been taken right under the nose of every single shifter who had been at the meeting?
He slid open the glass doors to the balcony and found himself closing his eyes in relief. Ania’s scent was heavy outside. It was raining, but the roof overhead kept the furniture from getting soak
ed. A few feet from the door were two chairs and a small table. Ania was curled up in one of the deep cushioned chairs, staring out at the silvery rain, a blanket covering her. She turned her head and smiled up at him as he approached.
“Your meeting is over?”
She was so serene, when he’d been a bundle of nerves. He’d nearly lost his shit, turned into a raging leopard just because she wasn’t in his bed and he’d been afraid. Afraid. That wasn’t a word he associated with himself often.
“I thought someone had come up here and kidnapped you.” He didn’t mean to make it sound the way it came out. His voice was a growl of reprimand. An accusation.
“After what happened earlier, I can assure you, honey, that I wouldn’t allow myself to be kidnapped. That would make me so angry I’d have to kill someone.” She lifted the blanket and he saw the gun she held in her lap. Beside her chair was a rifle with a scope.
The relief that she had come out onto the balcony prepared was tremendous. On the other hand, he detested that she would have to consider taking weapons with her when she just wanted to sit outside on her balcony and watch the rain. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to be outside. It was cool and beautiful with the silvery drops falling. The rain on the roof sounded like music.
Even though Mitya understood, he still wanted to shake her. She’d scared him. He didn’t take well to that. Neither did his leopard. He forced himself to sit in the chair beside her. “The meeting didn’t give us anything new, kotyonok.” His voice was edged with disappointment. “I was hoping for something. Anything. I know Lazar is here. He had to have come in from Houston. I’m sure of it, but I don’t know who helped him.”
She closed her eyes. He could see the fan of her lashes against the single light from the bedroom. He didn’t like that she was backlit. There were no houses or rooftops for a sniper to lie in wait, but there were hills. He got up, went into the bedroom and turned off the light. When he returned, there were tears on her face. The sight nearly broke him. Mitya reached down, gathered her up—blanket and all—and sat back down in her chair, holding her close.
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