“What happened?” I demanded. I wrapped an arm around Elena, doing everything in my power to try and shove down the thoughts of her pussy around my cock, her juices coating my erection. From how intently Elena was staring at my men, I knew she was trying to do the same thing.
Artyom delivered the news. “The Feds–with the DEA–just raided the banya. We didn’t have prisoners in the tunnels, but three men have been arrested for breaking their parole violations and consorting with known criminals.”
A muscle in my jaw twitched. “Who ran the raid?”
“Special Agent Stephen Kavinsky.”
The agent from outside the orchard. It seemed he wasn’t done poking the snake. He would find that when the snake bit back, his old heart might not be able to take the venom.
Elena’s rubbed my knee in a gesture of comfort. “Why did you say she’s back?”
“Because of these.” Olezka stepped into the room, a bouquet of foxglove in his arms. The purple horn-shaped flowers were wrapped in black ribbon. “They were delivered to the banya after the raid, addressed to Elena.”
She tensed in my arms.
I shoved down my instincts–which were calling for me to take Elena out of the room and hide her from any and all threats. She wouldn’t be so onboard with the plan. “Bring them here.”
Olezka laid the bouquet on the desk. Tied to the ribbon was a little note with Elena’s name written. No other markers could be found.
But we all knew who it was from.
Elena tapped one of the flowers and a tooth fell out. It gleamed like a pearl on my desk.
“Fucking hell,” Roman muttered.
I drew Elena’s hands away from it, holding them between my own. “Who delivered it?”
“A random postman. He was just doing his job,” Olezka clarified. “Does this mean Tatiana was the one behind the raid?”
Elena said suddenly, “This is the second little warning she’s sent me.”
I turned to her, studying her hard features. Problems and solutions were twisting behind her eyes. “What do you mean the second little warning?”
“When she found Niko and I, she sent me a vase of foxglove and teeth.” Elena was looking at like the bouquet like it had personally offended her. “That’s why we ran.”
A second flush of anger swept through me, but I shoved it down. There were other things to worry about than my boy-like fury. “I see.” My tone caused her to look at me. “Feodor, ring the lawyer. He’s got a busy night ahead of him, it seems.”
Feodor took his phone out and stepped to the side.
Elena adjusted her position. I gripped her tighter as the pleasure from her simple movement ricocheted through me. Don’t be cheeky, my eyes warned.
Elena ducked her head to hide her smirk.
“She’s coming for you, boss,” Roman said, interrupting Elena’s and my flirting. “Three years of waiting is up.”
“She wasn’t waiting,” I replied. “She was preparing.”
Dmitri turned his head to hide the emotions in his eyes. Sullenness and coldness stuck to him, but I could the brief glimmer of grief in his expression.
He needs to be watched, I told myself.
It didn’t bring me any pleasure to treat Dmitri like an outsider. I loved him, considered him family. But Dmitri’s wife, the love of his life, was planning on taking down my Bratva–who was to say she wouldn’t offer him a position as her king? Would he take it, or would he spit in her face?
I didn’t know, which meant Dmitri was no longer to be trusted.
Elena met my eyes, reading my mind immediately.
He’s family, she implored.
I’m aware.
In her ear, I murmured, “Family doesn’t always mean trustworthy.”
“Then what does it mean?” she whispered back harshly.
Technically speaking, Dmitri had yet to give me a reason not to trust him. He had stayed with us three years ago, relying on the support of his family heavily as he endured heartache and being a single parent. I recalled our conversation on the bathroom floor, him drunk and me becoming my old self again.
Miss my wife, he had grumbled. Miss my son, miss my daughter.
How much did he yearn for them? What would he do to make sure they were back in his arms?
I knew what I would do if I was in his position.
“We need to do something,” Roman was saying. “We need to get her where she sleeps, where she lives. We can’t let her keep scurrying away like the rat she is.”
“Easier said than done, Roman,” Artyom answered. “Tatiana has proven to have contacts inside law enforcement. That could be a very big problem for us.”
“Fuck ‘em all. A bunch of pussies.”
“It’s a shame wars aren’t won with insults, Roman,” Elena interrupted. “You would be our fighting champion.”
He flashed her the finger.
“Though Roman’s point wasn’t very eloquent, he is correct,” I said. The room fell silent beneath my words. “Tatiana’s largest advantage is that she knows everything about our security and lairs, whereas we know very little about hers. If we got into her nest, taking her down would be easy.”
“Where would we start?”
That was the question. Where would we start?
I considered the facts before me. We had an arrogant but fiercely intelligent woman who was intent on committing revenge on those she deemed had wronged her. Her first step had been inserting herself into a family, from there she had silently built up her organization and waited for the right moment to strike.
Letizia Zetticci, a woman from the Lombardi Famiglia, had been her first statement. She had torn the women’s teeth out in her death and left her to be found by her family.
Tatiana’s past was not as much as a mystery as she would like. Her father had been a Vory, and married Tatiana’s mother. When a younger and more beautiful woman had come along who could bear him a son, he’d left young Tatiana and her mother, forcing them into a life of poverty.
Women, men, families. They were complex topics to Tatiana, and I knew the dynamics would keep her awake at night.
Tatiana’d had a second chance at a family–but instead she had chosen to betray us, betray the people who had taken care of her, fed her, nurtured her. When she had gotten sick, we had tried to tear the world apart to provide her with a cure.
Instead, she had destroyed her husband and son. Just in the name of revenge.
Tatiana was not worthy of being a part of the Tarkhanov Bratva. She didn’t deserve to be Dmitri’s wife or Anton’s mother. In fact, the only thing Tatiana was destined for wasa cruel and painful death by my hand.
That would be my revenge and my justice.
The question still remained. Where would we start?
“I’ll do it.”
It took a few seconds for my brain to comprehend the words. The rational part of me said: Elena didn’t say that. Elena wouldn’t be so reckless. My Elena has never made a decision without calculating all the positives and negatives first.
She repeated herself. “I’ll do it. Join her organization, bring her down.”
My Elena, it turned out, had lost her mind.
“No.”
Her eyes snapped to me. “No? That’s all you have to say? You’re not even going to hear me out?”