Saving Anya (11 page)

“
What part of this life is not filled with fear?” Dmitry countered. “I think that we have proven that no one is safe. Money only protects you for so long.”

Gabriel lifted his long finger. His green eyes narrowed. “Wait. Let me speak. Please, hear me out.” He swallowed hard, his thick neck bulging. “Fear or not, I want this. I need it. I’m tired of feeling like I’m in limbo. I need to belong to something. It’s my rightful place, right? I mean, regardless of what my father wasn’t…he was a Vor.”

Even Anatoly couldn’t argue with that.

“
And what don’t I know? I’ve studied the Vor since I was old enough to understand what my father’s tattoos were. A part of me always wanted this, even when I decided to become an agent. I mean, most of that was to spite the old man for what he had done to my mother. And Dmitry is right. I can’t ever go back home…not as myself anyway…and to what for fuck’s sake? What do I have in America anymore? My mother is dead. My father is dead. I have no siblings. Brigitte and this family is all I have in the world.”

“
And what about the council?” Anatoly asked, quietly agreeing with Gabriel. “How will they take it?” He looked to his father for counsel.

Dmitry tilted his head. “That’s a horse of another color. The council has dwindled. We have lost Ivan, Kirill, Oleg and Yuri to deception along with Max and Nicolai, and then we had to sacrifice Roman and Alesky for their father’s treachery. We lost four good men in Ivan’s bomb at the restaurant. And as of today, we have lost Davyd, which means that we are down to Khalid – a man who is like a father to me, you – my son, the two new brothers from the Ukraine – Nikita and Roman, old man Toma and of course, myself. That gives us a total of five men.”

“
Six with him,” Anatoly said looking at Gabriel. “And it’s good to know that you’re back,” he said to his father.

“
With your permission,” Dmitry said, bowing his head.

Anatoly poured another shot and ran his hand down the length of the bottle. “I know what we are up against. I feel it better for you to take your rightful place as head of the family. I mean, it’s not like I’m not ready for the position and I’ve proven myself in that capacity, but the …position will be there always…even after you are gone.”

“
You give it up so easily?” Dmitry was confused.

Anatoly’s voice was low but as clear as a bell. “No, I don’t give it up easily, papa. I have worked my entire life for the title. I killed, spilled more blood and provided a lifetime of pain for it. I give it up proudly, because it is yours first. It always has been. I’m happy to have you back. Strangely, the words bring me some ill comfort. And I’m sure the men will feel the same.” He gazed upon his father with the seriousness of a man who had seen more than his young eyes should have.

Dmitry shook his head in agreement. “Well, I accept the position of Czar back
for the time being
, and I will do the title it’s just honor by regaining the honor of our family name through finding Anya.”

“
Heavy business to discuss over drinks, huh,” Gabriel said, feeling as though he had just been hit by a ton of bricks.

“
Heavy business indeed,” Anatoly agreed.

“
Out of the current five council members, there are three to investigate,” Dmitry said quietly. He moved past the moment to the business at hand.

“
You want to investigate
Khalid
also?” Anatoly asked shocked. He knew how Dmitry felt about the old man. There was nothing but admiration and had been since he had come to the Vor.

“
It amazes me that I haven’t investigated you and your cousin, but I have learned that even in this, you must have trust in someone. The only men I trust are in this room.” Dmitry looked at both boys and ran his fingers over the bridge of his nose. “And I pray with everything in me that my intuition has not left me and that I’m doing the right thing to trust you, Gabriel. But if I am not...”

“
You’ll kill me yourself,” Gabriel finished.

“
No, I’ll kill you and Brigitte. I’ll kill everyone who ever knew you, ever laid eyes on you. In fact, I’ll fly to New York myself and kill Agent Lee and his wife, and then I’ll sell his children. Do you really want that on your conscience, because I sure as hell don’t want it on mine but I’ll do it. At this point, I’ll do any fucking thing.” Dmitry didn’t blink. Although it killed him to threaten the boy, he had to let him know the seriousness of the situation.

He could see in Gabriel’s eyes that he was honest and committed to this, but he couldn’t risk it. None of them could. He was fighting for his life right now, fighting to get back his daughter and leave a legacy for his son. He simply couldn’t risk another oversight like he had done with Ivan.

Gabriel heaved a heavy sigh and placed his large hand on the end of the bar. Gripping it until his knuckles were white, he finally bit out the words they were waiting to hear. “I know what is at stake. I wouldn’t have come here, if I didn’t. And I can’t say it enough for you to believe me, so I guess that I’ll just have to fucking prove it.”

“
Good. Because if you do prove yourself, you will see your riches multiplied exponentially, your power expanded to the point of making your heart explode and your name etched in the minds of any men who are mention,” Dmitry promised with sincere conviction to Gabriel.

“
I’m not in it for the money. I’ve got enough of that,” Gabriel’s eyes swept back and forth between his uncle and his cousin.

“
And who will investigate the council?” Anatoly swallowed hard as he finished, “Common soldiers can’t have that kind of access,” he said in a huff. “It’s unthinkable.”

Dmitry smiled. “Your cousin will investigate them. He has the background.”

Gabriel looked up confused. “You want me to sit on the council as a spy?”

“
No. I want you to spy on the men
before
you are presented to the council. No more bullshit. I want to know the most intimate details of each council member’s life…the things that I miss with my normal investigations. I’ll give you the files that I have on each. Dig deep and when you are certain that one has not betrayed me in any way, then cross him off the list. They will be here in the next day. Watch them closely. Figure out which ones seem uncomfortable…out of place.”

“
And if I find one?” Gabriel asked.

“
Kill him,” Dmitry answered quickly, his diction perfect.

Anatoly looked up. “What do you consider to be betrayal? Some of the men take a little off top. They always have.”

Dmitry turned to look at his son with a stone cold face and solemn. “No more leeway, Anatoly. No more passes. Now, we find out who is truly loyal and those who are not will no longer exist. It’s called
process of elimination
. Where there is one infraction, there are many. Trust me. I have done it for a very long time.” He did not blink.

Gabriel looked between the two men with a glass of vodka up to his mouth. His heart pounded in his chest, realizing that his uncle just potentially put a hit out on his entire council, and he, the son of a traitor already, was to carry it out. Such a lofty job for entry into this lifestyle that he had chosen. He wondered if the shoes were too big to fill, still he had to try. In truth, the idea of what was just suggested made his heart skip a beat, but he hid it with his normal cool disposition.

Dmitry turned to Gabriel and smiled. “You said that you were ready. Let us see.” His look was far less cool, in fact, it was fire hot, roused with anger that could be neither calmed nor matched.

“
Fine, let’s see,” Gabriel challenged.

Dmitry nodded and then pointed to the door. “Well, get in there and do your thing. Find my daughter. You were a fed. Use your contacts and your skills. Call in your favors and bribe whomever you need to.”

Gabriel bucked his emerald green eyes in disbelief of his uncle’s brazen request. “I don’t know if my contacts will even…talk to me.”

“
How will you know until you call them?” Dmitry countered in a smooth, persuasive voice. “Plus, I need to talk to this one alone.” He looked at Anatoly, his face suddenly unreadable.

“
Say no more,” Gabriel said, putting down his drink.

Excusing himself, Gabriel walked to the door in a confident slow stride that reminded Dmitry of Ivan. Dmitry gave no more thought to it once it crossed his mind briefly. Everything about Gabriel reminded him of Ivan, yet Gabriel was no Ivan – that he knew.

“
Vasily, you too,” Dmitry said, looking across the room in the shadows to the man who knew so much about their private lives. “I want to talk to him
alone
.”

Vasily was quick about it. He walked out behind Gabriel and left Dmitry and Anatoly alone in the room together. When the door was closed, Dmitry turned and looked at his son with a more concerned glare. “Okay, everyone is gone. So tell me what the hell is going on with you.”

“
What do you mean?” Anatoly tried to ask innocently but he failed miserably.

“
You’re my son. I know when something isn’t right. That’s my job…to know my men but it’s my birthright to know my son. Okay, so before we move forward with this, I need to make sure that you’re all here. I need you with me, Anatoly.” Dmitry swallowed hard, showing the tightness around his mouth. His Adam’s apple shifted in his thick neck. All tales that his patience grew short.

Anatoly nodded and scratched his head. Shifting in his seat, he put down his glass and leaned over towards his father. “Renee is pregnant.” His eye twitched as he said the words for the first time aloud. “Pregnant,” he repeated. “With my kid. Talk about bad fucking timing.”

Dmitry raised his brow.
He wasn’t expecting that.
With a heave of an exasperated sigh, he sat back and smirked. “Well, that is news, isn’t it?” He ran his finger over the granite top watching the smear disappear quickly. “How far along is she?”

“
Two months. She’s been waiting to tell me, and last night when I went home to tell her to get packed, she was on the bed
naked
with an ultrasound picture taped to her fucking navel.”

“
Creative.” The news reminded him even more of his missing daughter and the pain of that reminder stabbed him in his heart. “You’re so young...to be a father that is,” Dmitry said, scratching his head. He’d never known the boy to have even the most basic of parental instincts.

“
Older than you when I was born.”

Dmitry nodded. “So now I understand why you relinquished your position so easily. You have other business that has to be properly attended to.”

“
Like I said, it wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.” Anatoly shook his head again. Frowning, he tried to put his emotions into words. “I never wanted to be a father. I’m sort of lacking in that area. Renee has always been the dependable one…not me.”

“
You were using protection then?” Dmitry asked.

“
No.”

“
This entire time, you’ve just been…coming inside of her over and over again and you expected what? A butterfly…a puppy maybe?” He waited for a mature answer from his son, knowing the boy could do better than that.

“
Maybe subconsciously I enjoyed the thought. I just didn’t think it would be so soon.”

“
Sounds deliberate to me,” Dmitry said, touching his son’s hand. “It’s quite amazing really that it took so long. Maybe you have weak sperm,” Dmitry said with just a hint of a clever smile.

Anatoly seethed. “There is nothing weak about me, and you know it.”

“
Then there will be nothing weak about your child. All the worry you have about rearing is natural…expected.”

“
I’m worried about more than just the child. This changes things dramatically for me…for you…for everyone involved. And now with what has happened to Anya, it is sobering. You know what I was doing last night half way around the world, but you didn’t know what was happening a few miles up the road from you. Why? Because you are not God. And no man can know everything or control everything…no matter how much money he has… no matter his title. So, the more people that he loves the more vulnerable he is.”

“
You’re angry with yourself?” Dmitry surmised.

Anatoly deflated. “Of course.”

“
Don’t be. I have never regretted once my decision to have children. The men of the code have modified over the decades. We’ve gained more knowledge on how to camouflage ourselves in society, blend better, but we also have gained a certain sense of humanity, and some of us have even allowed ourselves the bliss of having an heir. You are not the first; you won’t be the last,” Dmitry said in a matter of fact tone.

“
But yet you admit that it changes things,” Anatoly continued.

“
Yes, it changes things,” Dmitry agreed. “Still, I would be celebrating right now for you if I were not in the middle of trying to find my baby…get her back here where she belongs.”

Anatoly saw his father’s discomfort and immediately regretted having to break the news. “That’s why I didn’t want to…”

“
I know. I get it. I do. And what does she want?”

“
She hasn’t said. After I told her what happened, she shut down sort of.”

“
What woman wouldn’t? They need to feel safe, protected, and when they don’t…” Dmitry thought of Royal and when she had been raped. “They stop blossoming, and nothing is more tragic than a wilting flower.”