“Ah. They’re the threat.” Gabriel’s eyes frosted over at the mention of the bratva responsible for destroying what little happiness Vasily had known. “Alek mentioned you recently shaved them down a few members. I can’t believe they’re still fucking with you.”
The conflict between the Tarasov and Baikov syndicates had been there since Vasily was a child. But this? This cold-blooded murder put things on a whole new level.
And that’s why they were here tonight. Gabriel receiving this assignment came down to one thing. His ability to get the job done, no matter the level of difficulty. He was intelligent. Voracious. Dangerous. He could read a situation in the blink of an eye and react accordingly. Harshly. And that’s what Vasily needed.
Coming in closer, he loosely clasped his tattooed hands on the table in front of him. “They’ll always fuck with me, just as I will now forever fuck with them.” Their eyes locked. “While I’m doing that, I am placing my daughter’s safety in your hands.” As the club’s patrons chatted and drank and laughed around them, a deep understanding was shared between Vasily and this Italian he’d watched grow into the man he was today.
He sat back to break the moment and confirmed, “She is here in New York, attending Columbia, as a matter of fact.”
Gabriel, too, sat back, his stare steady and focused. Annoyed. “Columbia. She’s old enough to be in college. Christ Almighty. How’d you do this? How the fuck did you keep a secret like this for so long? I mean…Maks.”
Vasily chuckled a little. Maksim—another cherished member of his inner circle—and his need to know everything did indeed make it near impossible to hide anything. But keeping Kathryn and Eva’s existence under wraps had been necessary to protect them.
Yet here they were.
He moved on without addressing the whys. “Her name is Eva. She’s twenty-three. She’ll be returning home to Seattle when she finishes school in a few weeks. Luckily, aside from being based in Seattle, you have the freedom and resources to travel back and forth as often as needed until she graduates. You also have Vincente to step in when you can’t be here. I’d appreciate a weekly report detailing her movements. Nothing invasive. Just…keep me updated. She doesn’t have a lot of friends and leads a very simple life, so you won’t be running.”
Gabriel nodded absently as he got to opening the email. His nostrils flared slightly as though he’d drawn in a sharp breath. He brought the phone in for closer inspection, and just that quickly, his expression shut down.
He lifted cold eyes to meet Vasily’s across the table. “Not a lot of friends. This one leads a simple life.” His tone said he didn’t believe it, but he’d see. “Tell me, does my brother and his fucked up vendetta against me figure into this? I’m assuming…since she’s…since she looks like she does that you’ve considered it.”
Of course he’d considered it. “If at some point Stefano gets wind of this and he targets her despite learning she’s my daughter?” Vasily’s blood ran cold. “I don’t have to tell you what the outcome will be. To avoid any possible problems, I’d like to warn him off right out of the gate, but that might draw his attention when he may not take any notice in the first place. With Vincente in so deep, you’ll instruct him to keep his ears and eyes open so you can deal before anything gets anywhere near her. Is that clear?”
The former underboss dropped his attention to the photograph once more, and when he spoke, the beautiful sound of the darkest violence was clear in his voice. “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to your daughter on my watch, brother. You have my word.”
As they shook hands across the table, Vasily took some comfort in knowing he’d just guaranteed his daughter’s safety from anything that dared come at her.
TWO
PRESENT DAY…
Eva Jacobs gripped the cardboard box containing random guy-crap that should have been reclaimed from her place last night. She couldn’t say she was surprised Caleb, her best friend’s brother, which made him Eva’s brother by default, hadn’t come by. He was neither materialistic nor sentimental.
Nudging the car’s door shut with her knee, she bent to speak into the open window. “I’ll just be a minute,” she confirmed with her Uber driver again, thinking of her suitcase and carry-on in the trunk.
The man’s nod made his second chin dance. “Then onto to JFK. Got it.”
“’Kay. Be right back.” As she crossed the busy Washington Heights sidewalk, her cell rang. She fished it out of her pocket and entered the apartment building.
“Hey,” she greeted her best friend when the display showed a picture of her and Nika sitting on a Starbucks patio last summer. She pressed the cracked elevator button with the corner of the box.
“I have bad news.”
Nika’s subdued tone had Eva’s smile fading. “You can’t come,” she guessed, shoulders slumping.
“Kevin said he made plans for us and can’t change them. He wouldn’t say what, but apparently whatever we’re doing tomorrow night starts at the same time as the benefit.”
For as long as Eva could remember, her mom had done charity work. Their favorite event had always been the annual Pediatric Cancer Foundation gala being held in Seattle tomorrow night. A few things would be different this year.
One, the event wouldn’t run as smoothly as it had in other years because Kathryn Jacobs wouldn’t be there to oversee things.
Two, instead of the Washington State Convention Center, the function would be held at the Crown Jewel, one of Seattle’s most exclusive hotels.
And three, Eva would be attending alone. Something she’d hoped Nika would help her avoid.
Swallowing the knot that formed in her throat, she stepped into the elevator and forced a lightness to her tone that she wasn’t feeling. “Don’t worry about it. I understand.” She understood that it wasn’t Nika’s fault that her husband had a habit of springing sudden plans on her. But only when those plans conflicted with anything Nika might do that didn’t include Kevin.
And no way Eva was inviting that asshole along.
Eight months on and she still couldn’t bring herself to accept her best friend’s marriage to a weirdo they’d met through Caleb’s club, the Obsidian Devils MC. Fixating on a patched member’s little sister was one thing, managing to get her to marry you in a Vegas quickie was something else entirely. The guy gave Eva the creeps back then, and that hadn’t changed. Even Caleb hated him, and, though discerning, he was usually pretty accepting of all the guys who hung around the clubhouse, members or not.
“I wish I could come.” Nika’s voice rang with regret. “I know how hard it’s going to be for you.”
“Yeah, but I’ll get through it.” Would she? “My mom’s friends won’t mind entertaining me. I’m glad you guys are finally going out,” she forced herself to add. Even though “out” to Kevin probably meant to the garbage chute in the hallway of their apartment building, but whatever.
“Yeah,” Nika murmured with zero enthusiasm. “Are you at the airport?”