Ultimate Vengeance (Wanted Men Book 4) (26 page)

“That will be the last shower you ever have.” She turned slowly, her eyes widening. He could tell her breathing had choked off. “You have enough supplies to last you maybe two weeks if you ration. The meds will stretch beyond that, but soon you won’t need them.” He stepped back toward the door. “I am sure you have wished to be rid of me. I grant that wish now. Goodbye.”

To the sound of her bare feet slapping on the floor and her fists hammering against the door he slammed in her face, Sergei turned, and for the last time, left the responsibility he’d undertaken.

It seemed she would inadvertently die by his hand, after all, he thought as the sound of her shouts faded the further up the stairs he went. By the time he reached the main level of the house, they were muted. When he made it to the second floor and began packing a couple of bags, he could hear nothing but the deep grunts and high-pitched pleas that came from the spare bedroom.

After gathering what he’d need, he entered the hallway just as the door across the way was flung open. The dark haired prostitute stumbled out. She pulled her skirt down over a handprint on her ass and tucked in an exposed breast that had red scratch marks on it. She had blood running over her lip where it leaked from her left nostril, and her right eye was pink and already swelling from what had to have been repeated hits.

“Wait,” he said as she limped away on one heel. He pressed a few hundred dollars into her hand. “Forgive me. I should have cared enough to warn you.”

“You guys are fuckin’ nuts,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

Fear flooded her face at his ready agreement, and she was gone in the next second.

Reynard came out, buttoning his pants. He appeared satisfied.

Sergei knew right then how he would dispose of this sadist who so enjoyed taking his pleasure at another’s expense. Had the women been willing, because there were those who got off on rough treatment, it would have been different. But Reynard didn’t want an eager partner. He enjoyed the panic and struggle, and that was wrong.

“Where to now, boss?” Reynard asked as they locked up and got in the car.

Sergei wasn’t sure how his uncle was going to react to his latest attempt to affect the family’s ability to do business. It would be the most public strike yet, and it might hinder how freely he and Reynard could roam afterward.

He glanced at the house as they drove off. Unless he’d fucked up along the way and a drastic discovery was made in the next few hours, he and Reynard could probably return for one more night before they were forced to rest their heads under their enemy’s roof. He didn’t mind admitting he wanted to put that off for as long as he possibly could. Or avoid accepting the Baikov’s hospitality altogether. Who knew if they’d wake up the following morning? One could never fully trust an enemy.

He reached out and turned on the heat. “Aside from getting Sacha and her daughter out of the picture, there is only one other thing I must take care of before this ends.” He thought about the weapon he’d stowed in the trunk just that morning. It was funny how a man was going about his life with no clue it would end in the next forty-eight hours.

“What thing?” Reynard asked. “You never mentioned anything other than Brighton Beach and Alek’s woman. What else is there?”

“A private matter. Call Anton and see if they are still at the convention center. If so, we will go there. I’ll try to get Sacha alone. If I am successful, I will kill her fixation with Alek by using the same means he did. How do you think she will take it when she learns the man she loves has a son with the woman he cheated on her with? She will believe the lie because, correct me if I’m wrong, she did witness them having sex. To twist the knife, I will tell her Alek has spent an enjoyable year and a half with his ‘other family’.” He chuckled. “The poor girl will not be able to get away from him fast enough, and she will never know how lucky she is. After all, a broken heart is preferable to dead.”

“And if you can’t get to her?”

He went into his pocket and took out a small vial. “Then dead it is. At least for the little one, which will cause the most pain.”

“No shit.” Reynard laughed, sounding too happy. “I didn’t think you had the balls.”

Sergei rolled the brown bottle between his palms and looked out the window. It wasn’t about balls. It was about finishing what he’d started. And speaking of finishing a project, he had to get back to Rapture at some point in the next couple of days. Hopefully, when Micha, and his invasive stare, was out with Maksim.

“Get in touch with Anton,” he repeated. “We need to be seen. Too, I would like to be present when they get the call.” He sat back with a sigh and felt some relief that it was almost over.

Alek was next to Maks in the back of the SUV stretch limo while Sacha and Sydney sat across the way. Micha was driving, Anton riding shotgun, and back at Sacha’s place, Grigori and Lucas were stationed with a team of four others, guarding what was now Alek’s most prized possession.

Every little while Sydney would give Sacha a pat on the knee or arm. Sacha would look at her, offer a small smile; Sydney would return it, then look over and glare at him and Maks. It was more than apparent the two had bonded in the restroom. Women were funny like that.

He turned over his cell that he was holding loosely in his hands, and took the edge of his jacket to wipe over the camera lens he now had every reason to use.

His leg started bobbing, and he turned to look out the window. No traffic. “Micha drives like an old woman,” he muttered.

“Cooks like one, too,” Maks drawled without taking his eyes off his phone. “Does a lentil soup that’ll make you cream your panties. Look. I took a pic of it last time for posterity sake.” He held his phone to Alek’s face so he could read a text that wouldn’t get sent.

Congratulations, Papa. I have no words. You?

Fuck. “Yeah,” he admitted, conscious the girls could hear them. “Put it in front of me and get me an army. No one’s getting anywhere near it. You guys liked to ride my ass about not being the sharing type before? Fuck you.”

Sacha was looking puzzled. Oops. They were supposed to be talking about soup.

He finished what he was saying regardless. “I’ll use a spoon or a fork. Don’t care. You can even give me a knife. A dull one that has a rusty bent tip that’ll really mess up the soft spots if anyone dares come near what’s mine.”

Maks laughed and nudged him in the ribs to shut him up. “You want drive-thru, brother? Sounds as if you’re starving.”

Sacha’s eyes, which somehow looked more beautiful in their exhaustion, clashed with his. “Famished,” he murmured, tearing his gaze away when he started to get hard.

He needed a kick in the groin. Fucking dick didn’t have a clue.
Idiot
, he snapped to the thickening appendage.
She’s a fucking thieving liar. Shut it down.

It didn’t listen. In fact, it shot back a response.

She’s a thieving liar because of you. Now give me what I want.

Then it hardened to stone and sent memories up to remind Alek’s of how hot and snug its favorite place was.

The vehicle’s heat turned on and began blowing in his eyes as he tried to get his head out of his pants.

A child.

Living in a paper apartment with no protection from the time of her birth.

His thoughts began to race right along with his heartbeat. How could Sacha have kept this from him? He wanted to rail. Lose his shit all over her firm, round ass. At the duplicity, at all he’d missed, at what he was missing even in that moment. He had a baby, yet he’d had no clue she was out there in the world. How could that be?

Or maybe deep down he
had
somehow known. Had felt the connection on a level so deep he hadn’t recognized it. Maybe it was that connection that had pushed him so hard; that had refused to allow him to give up on his search for Sacha. Maybe it had been about his child and not her mother.

Alek was jostled when Maks leaned over and took Sydney’s chin in his hand. He openly scrutinized her perfectly structured face, turning it this way and that.

“What are you doing?” she asked guardedly.

“Reminiscing.” He let go and sat back. “Haven’t seen that expression aimed at me since I was in hunting mode. First woman I ever had to chase,” he said to Sacha. “Caught her, of course, but it took some work. Used to think she was just a fine piece of ass.” His goatee curved into a smile. “Little did I know how much more I’d be getting.” His focus was back on the woman he was speaking so openly about. But, with Maksim, you had to expect that. “You look at me like that and it kind of makes my palm want to get busy because there’s no justification for it. It isn’t my story to tell.”

The quiet sound Sacha made at the mention of an itchy palm was ignored. Well, ignored by everyone but the idiot sitting all achy and shit on Alek’s thigh.

“If I understand what that means,” Sydney drawled with her nose tipped in the air. “Might I ask that you close the bathroom door before you begin satisfying that palm. Maybe even get in the shower, so there’s no awkwardness afterward when we pretend we didn’t hear you making those odd noises. Isn’t that the normal way of things?”

Alek found himself watching Sacha’s reaction to the backtalk. She’d rarely offered Alek any. Though in his favor, he’d never been quite as tactless as Maks was capable of being. Right now, Sacha was looking between the couple, appearing to hold her breath.

“If we’re in the shower, princess, your tight little bod might slip out of my hands. Then where would that well place swat land?”

“Well, if I were to climb onto your shoulders, Russia, most likely right where it should.”

It was obvious Maks was totally enjoying himself as he slid to the edge of the seat and reached for his woman’s dainty ankle. Sydney didn’t pull away when he started massaging her calf. “Why are you mad at me?”

“I wasn’t, really, until you opened your mouth. It’s more about being mad at all of you.” She included Alek in that, then said to Sacha, “Because no one will tell us—and by us I mean the ladies of the house—why you left him, we’re left to imagine the worst case scenario. Now that there’s a baby involved, and you still stayed away? Wow. Just, wow. The worst case scenario suddenly seems that much more painful.” She patted Sacha’s leg again before clasping her hands together in her lap and looking out the window, muttering about men in general. With her history of being left pregnant and alone at seventeen, Alek didn’t hold it against her.

When Maks put Sydney’s foot down and took up the other, he jerked her leg so her butt slid forward and she instinctively threw her arms out to save herself from landing on the floor.

“Don’t lump me with the masses,” he warned. “I think we long ago established I don’t belong there any more than you do. And I’m not making what Sacha did a gender thing and cursing you for it, so, again, don’t put me where I don’t belong.”

Sydney sighed and adopted a sheepish half-smile as she came over to their side and climbed into Maks’s lap much the same way Alek had pictured Sacha doing last night. Just like that, all was well in Maks’s weird little world of Bickerville.

“Sorry,” he heard Sydney whisper. “Hearing what little I did brings back memories of how terrifying it was to be pregnant and alone.”

Seeing a flash of resentment when he met Sacha’s stare, Alek was suddenly glad they were going to Vasily’s house. Because if they were going home, where Sacha would have the backing of Sydney, Eva, and Nika, Alek would be done for.

The limo came to a stop, but it wasn’t until Sacha started spinning her rings that his gut began to churn.

“We’ll be out here if you need us,” Maks said with an encouraging thump on the knee.

Alek climbed from the truck, and after helping Sacha do the same, they moved at an even pace to the door. Most men had at least eight or nine months to prepare for fatherhood. He’d had just over an hour.

He nodded at Lucas and Grigori, then held up a hand before Sacha could unlock with her keys. “This is what keeps going through my head,” he told her as he put his hand out to Grigori. “You must have a tension wrench on you.”

One appeared on his palm in the next second, and he bypassed the cheap lock as if he’d inserted her key. His skin crawled as he turned the knob and much too effortlessly entered the small unit.

“Just that easily. More than seven fucking months.”

As she came forward to greet them, Angela was much more subdued than she’d been earlier in the day. Which meant she’d already been updated. Sacha must have called ahead when she’d gone to the restroom with Sydney.

“Are you going to be okay?” her friend asked with genuine concern.

Sacha pulled back from their hug and smiled. “Yes. Of course.” She sounded as if she meant it. He wasn’t sure why, but it bugged him that she was more nervous than afraid.

“I’m taking her and the baby home,” Alek said as he shrugged out of his coat. His gaze strayed to the closed bedroom door. Made sense now why Sacha had drawn him away from it this morning…

A slow burn started up when he realized something, but he put it aside to deal with later.

“Sacha will call you in a day or so,” he continued. “If you’d like to see her, let her know, and I’ll bring her into the city. We have a place near Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District.”