“I want Ivanov eliminated for you and Ruby,” I said.
“He threatened my city,” Sparrow said, “and at the time had a fucking good plan.”
“We don’t want to lose more men to an unnecessary war,” Mason added. “So, yes, we’d like to support the change in regime from Ivanov to Bykov.”
“I don’t know how I feel,” Maddie said, taking a seat on the sofa.
I tilted my head toward her. My friends nodded as I stepped away from the table where we’d all been seated. Offering Madeline my hand, I smiled her direction. “Come with me. They need to keep working with Reid.”
“I’m not the enemy.”
“If any of us thought you were, you wouldn’t be within earshot of what’s happening.”
She nodded as she stood. Together we walked back into the bedroom.
Closing the door, I asked, “Talk to me?”
Her green eyes turned upward to mine, glistening with unshed tears. “He promised me that I’d hate him.”
“Ivanov?”
She nodded as she paced near the large bed. “When…after he first bought me, I was so…” She looked my way. “…scared, naïve, and also grateful.”
I hated hearing her say that; however, after hearing about the cell house, I understood.
“He told me,” she continued, “that he wasn’t nice or good. I remember him telling me that as he was looking for baby furniture.” She shrugged. “I was so young and unworldly. I didn’t know they made more than baby beds. That was what the foster homes had with babies, and I was an only child…I thought. I remember him looking online for furniture for my baby, and I thought he was the most generous man I’d ever met. Here he was providing for a child that wasn’t his.”
“Madeline, I’m grateful too. I am. No matter his motivation, he allowed you to stay with Ruby.”
“He did. It was after she was born that he told me I’d hate him one day.” Her head shook. “I didn’t at the time. I was, as you said, happy to be with Ruby. I couldn’t even recount the number of times in that cell-house basement that I feared I’d never even know the sex of my child or ever hold him or her in my arms.”
“Was he right?” I asked. “About hating him.”
Madeline took a deep breath and sat beside me on the edge of the bed. “Yes. It wasn’t all the time, and didn’t usually last, but yes, there were times I hated him. One was recently at Marion’s house when together they announced that I’d been again sold.” She looked up at me. “I don’t want to think anymore about why I hated him, the things he did or made me do, but yes, I did hate him. And then there were times he was…” She shrugged. “Nice, just like he said he wasn’t. And more recently, in the last five years, we’d come to a kind of understanding. He wanted other women. Not that I really had a say, but I was all right with that. It wasn’t an option for me to be with other men, and that was fine too. He would even talk to me about…” She shook her head. “In a way, it was like we were friends…friends where one friend holds all the power. I hated him off and on during that time too.”
“I’m not going to lie to you,” I said, reaching for her hands. The sight of her ring made me smile. “Maddie, you and Ruby will never be completely free of him as long as he’s alive. He made bad choices and now is the time.”
“But I heard one of you say you approached him for a truce.”
“We did. We lied.”
A giggle rolled from her lips. “I forget that you’re all bad men too.”
“We are. We gave Bykov our word. He’s aware the truce with Ivanov is a ruse.” A smile came to my lips. “You’re right, we can be very bad, and maybe, when we get back to Chicago, I can show you how bad.”
Maddie shook her head. “It was the paintings at the club that gave you the idea, wasn’t it?”
I lifted a brow. “No, I had my ideas before those pictures. I have nothing against a little bondage or spanking, but some of those pictures…I’d rather have you in my bed than tethered to a St. Andrews Cross.”
“Next to you in bed sounds better to me too. Tonight?” she asked.
“Yes, you’ll be in my bed tonight and the next and the next—”
“I don’t want to think about it, but please tell me…will he die tonight?”
“Not at the club. Sparrow has promised the powers of New Orleans civility, but yes, after the tournament. Bykov will deliver him for a one-on-one meeting with Sparrow. The location is set.”
“You’re not letting Sterling walk in there alone, are you?”
“Sparrow is capable of taking care of himself.” We wouldn’t allow him to go alone, but he was capable.
“Sasha is capable of manning the bratva,” Madeline said. “However, I’m not confident that he’s capable of setting up Andros. He’s been with him a long time.”
“Do you think Bykov ever hates Ivanov, like you?”
“Probably. It’s difficult to be around Andros all the time and not hate him from time to time. I know Mitchell was intimidated by him.” Her eyes widened. “Mitchell helped me. I couldn’t find my phone the second day of the Chicago tournament. I’d missed calls from Andros. We went to Club Regal to see if it was left there. Mitchell helped by keeping that information secret from Andros until we located the phone.”
“Where was it?”
“In the room. It must have fallen.” She grinned. “I thought you’d taken it.”
“I should have,” I admitted. “I wasn’t exactly thinking straight after seeing you again.”
“I wonder…”
“What do you wonder,” I asked.
“What Mitchell knows about this uprising.”
“Maddie girl, he has been off the radar since he killed Veronica Standish.”
She sprang from the bed. “Veronica, the lady from Club Regal, was killed?”
Taking a deep breath, I stood. “There was a lot happening during that tournament. We believe Ivanov was involved in the robbery of the entire tournament purse. We still don’t know how Veronica was involved, but Beckman was definitely part of it. They’re both dead.”
“Andros was right,” she said. “He isn’t a nice man. Please be careful after the tournament. He won’t hesitate to kill anyone who he perceives to be a threat.” Her eyes clouded with memories. “Even Sasha isn’t safe.”
“That’s why Ivanov has to die.”
She looked over to the clock near the television. “I should get ready for the tournament.”
I reached for her forearms and pulled her close. “You know that you don’t have to win tonight. That pressure is all self-imposed.”
Her green eyes shone up at me. “I don’t know if I want to keep doing this.”
“Playing tournaments? Or this tournament.”
“In general. It is what I do, what I excel at doing, but I have no desire for limelight. I think I’d maybe enjoy helping Araneae.”
Surely she didn’t mean at the institute.