by SE Jakes
Brogan would be too disoriented to follow very fast, and by the time the elevator stopped ringing, Aleks would be long gone.
He got to his bike just as Brogan burst into the garage and he peeled out of the parking lot before he looked back and lost his resolve.
Chapter Fourteen
Brogan watched as Aleks's bike sped off into the night. Stood there, in the cold, in bare feet, didn't matter. He'd gone numb inside after Aleks had told him about the fights. Wasn't sure he'd ever thaw out again.
"You dumb fuck. Couldn't just play the family game and keep your mouth shut?"
Brogan turned to see Harry, holding a gun. Harry, who he'd made suspicious with his phone call.
"But no," Harry continued. "You had to ruin it by selling out our family. You realize that your money is also tainted—same last name, same money, same funding. I could wash your money if that would help you sleep better at night. But you should know better than to sleep with the help anyway."
Brogan wanted to lunge but Harry was too far away. Advantage, gun. For now.
At least Aleks had gotten away safely. "You're still involved in this shit? In killing people's family members if they don't fight in your club?"
"No worse than big game hunting. It's a novelty. You know how many new clients we bring in after taking them to the fights? Most people don't realize how bloodthirsty they are until they see bloodshed."
"You think it's about sport? What the hell is wrong with you, Harry?"
He flicked the gun toward his car. "Get in the trunk."
"If I don't?"
Harry snarled. "How worried do you want to be about Aleks? Because I've got someone watching him. You want him alive, you come with me. Now."
Without further argument, Brogan climbed into the trunk. Before Harry shut the door, he slammed Brogan's skull with the butt of the pistol and his world went black.
Aleks went to Inked to find Con. It was pretty busy for a random Thursday night but all the clients were being taken care of. Con and Quinn were behind the desk, talking, and they looked up when he came in.
Both looked concerned, for different reasons. "Hey, Aleks. You look like you need a drink," Con said carefully.
"Let's go next door and grab a few," Quinn suggested.
Aleks should've called Con instead. There was no way he was putting a wedge between the men. "Thanks, but I'm just beat. Needed to check my schedule for tomorrow."
Con nodded and pushed the appointment book toward him, and Aleks studied it like he'd be tested on it. Really, the words swam in front of him, but he ran his finger down the list and nodded a few times like he was recalling things.
Where would he be tomorrow? In jail? On the run? He shook that off and handed Con back the book. "Thanks."
"All planned out?" Con asked, and he wasn't talking about tattoos.
"As always," Aleks told him. But when his phone rang and he saw Harry's name on the caller ID, everything changed. "Back in a sec." He pointed to the phone as he went outside to take the call.
"Yeah?" he asked warily when he picked up.
"Hello, Aleksandr. Remember me? I'm sure you do—you've been stalking me for years."
Harry. Aleks stared at Con through the window of Inked and said, "What do you want, Harry?"
"You. I'm assuming you'd trade yourself for my cousin, considering you two are now an item."
Harry had Brogan? Harry was here? Last time Aleks checked, Harry's flight was still booked for two days from now. If he'd flown, Aleks would've been alerted, which meant Harry had flown under a different name.
Which also meant that Harry had been onto him longer than Aleks realized. Unless Brogan's phone call had made Harry suspicious.
But sometimes an innocent can cause more danger just by being innocent. "If you touch him—if he has so much as a single bruise on him—"
"Fuck you, Aleks. That's my decision. I'll keep him alive for the next hour. The rest is up to you. And by the way—come alone or I'll kill Brogan the second I see one other person with you," Harry warned.
Harry was a man with nothing to lose. He had the perfect set-up—his cousin was in on illegal schemes and Harry killed him and his lover in self-defense. Aleks refused to pull Con into this. He'd already put him too much at risk. "I'll be there. Alone. Where am I going?"
"You've pulled all the bank statements. Since you know me so well, you'll know exactly where I am. Clock's ticking." Harry hung up and Aleks took a deep breath before sticking his head in the door of Inked and saying, "I've got to run. I'll see you guys tomorrow."
He didn't stick around to see if either man believed him.
Based on what he’d just witnessed, coupled with what he’d been noticing over the past weeks, Quinn now knew definitively that something big was going on between Aleks and Con. Something life or death, if the looks on both Aleks and Con’s faces were any indication, and although Quinn had suspected that Con had been working on something above the law, he hadn’t been able to figure out what.
Until now.
He motioned for Con to follow him to the back, and Con did. “Close the door,” he said and Con complied. And then Quinn crossed his arms and just stared at Con, who squirmed under his interrogation-like gaze.
"Fuck. I can lie to anyone. Why not you?" Con grumbled.
Quinn still glared, ultimately grateful that Con couldn’t lie to him.
"I'm helping Aleks," Con finally admitted, far more quickly than he would’ve under normal circumstances, which meant that Aleks was in trouble.
"Really." Sarcasm dripped from Quinn's delivery. "Care to tell me all about it? Or would you like to keep me in the dark, and not realizing I should be protecting myself or watching your back from imminent danger?"
"When you put it that way, it sounds bad." Con sighed and Quinn glared at him again. "Fine. I'll tell you everything. But trust me, if Aleks had come to you with this shit, you'd have done exactly what I did."
Chapter Fifteen
When Brogan came to, the first person he saw was Aleks. For a few seconds, he had hope that he'd been rescued, that he was in a hospital bed sleeping off a concussion…except…
Harry was there. Watching both of them. And they were in the back room of Brogan's gym. "You shouldn't have come here," he managed to tell Aleks.
"This is my fault, not yours," Aleks told him.
"So sorry to break up this sweet reunion," Harry interrupted. "But I invited Aleks and he came willingly. Just like you, Brogan."
"Fuck off," Aleks muttered.
"Brogan, meet Aleksandr Solonick. You landed yourself a rich Russian boy," Harry said. "Congratulations. But I can't let you walk off into the sunset together."
He'd known all along, the bastard. Miserable motherfucker. "It was you who started the fire," Aleks said dully.
"Give the rich Russian boy a prize. Took you this long to figure this out? They told me you were smart. But I turned you into a killer. God, you have no idea what a fucking rush that was. Like being a keeper of some exotic zoo."
Zoo.
Caged.
Animal.
That's all he'd been, all Vann and the others had been to Harry. Sport, pure and simple.
Harry continued, "If my asshole client hadn't opened his mouth, none of this would've happened."
"I would've gotten my brother back?" Aleks asked.
"Sure," Harry said sarcastically. "And you would've gotten a trophy and a dozen roses."
Aleks and Vann were never set to be freed. Maybe they would've been forced into service for much longer, and Aleks didn't want to know what Berdy and Lola had gone through in captivity. Anything he'd come up with in his head was far worse than anything Harry would've told him.
"It didn't matter what you did to me, then. It didn't matter what you planned," Aleks told him now. "You were always a dead man."
"Really? Because you can't fight a gun." Harry glanced at Brogan. "Two of you are really sweet together. Maybe Brogan should fight for you? What do you t
hink, Aleks? Just like old times, except you can sit in a cage and think about Brogan coming to rescue you."
Fuck no. He'd die on the spot rather than let anyone experience the torture he'd been put through.
"Did the Russian mob force you into this?" Brogan demanded, his pupils blown.
"Force me? I never went to them." Harry looked insulted. "I'd heard about the fights, went and saw one. I decided to invest and to run my own version. Now the Russians? They come to me."
"Jesus Christ. Does our family name mean nothing to you?" Brogan asked.
"Sorry. I'll do some charity shit to make up for my sins," Harry said sarcastically.
"Going to take more than that," Aleks muttered.
"You always did have a smart mouth." Harry stared at him. "I knew I'd let you go for too long."
"You were still in London this morning," Brogan said to Harry.
"I told you I was. You're as naive as ever, Brogan. I thought the military would've given you some balls."
What it had done was let Harry's words not affect Brogan in the least; his expression was stone cold nothing.
In a fight—gym or no gym—Aleks would bet on Brogan. But Brogan wanted to listen to Harry instead, which would fuck him over.
"Your 'friend' here? Did you know he's had a plan to kill me for…how many years is it, Aleks?"
"Eight years," Aleks offered helpfully for Harry while staring at Brogan.
"Didn't he tell you that when he started fucking you to get information?" Harry demanded.
"To be fair, he fucked me. But in a much different way than you did," Aleks said.
"You were going to kill my cousin," Harry said.
Aleks laughed. "I'm going to kill you, Harry. That's all."
"You heard that, Brogan? Your boyfriend betrayed you. Set it up to look like you and I were both in on the fighting ring. He's sick." Harry shook his head.
"Right. He signed himself up for the deathmatches and imprisoned his own brother," Brogan started.
"He was going to kill us," Harry emphasized.
"I don't blame him. But now you're going to kill us, right?" He looked over at Aleks than back at Harry. "Do you think I didn't see the accounts?"
Harry frowned—Brogan hadn't seen shit. Aleks knew that, but his tone was authoritative enough to trip Harry up for a few moments.
"Did he tell you he's from a Russian mob family?" Harry shook his head sadly as he came forward with a needle. Aleks froze and Brogan tried to pull away.
"Harry, please—think about this," Brogan managed, as calmly as he could.
"Think about how guilty you'll look either way," he told Brogan as the needle pricked the skin on the left side of his neck. "You think I'm going to wait around? I know Aleks probably has friends coming soon."
He said that, was halfway finished with pressing the plunger when everything went nuts. Brogan's eyes widened and Aleks was behind Harry, had him by the neck in a chokehold. But Harry was reaching for his gun.
With the needle still in his neck, Brogan fought off the woozy feeling. He held his breath as Aleks wrestled the gun from pointing at Brogan and instead, turned it toward Harry.
"No, Aleks," Brogan whispered, because Aleks was standing directly behind Harry. Because even though Harry would take the impact of the bullet, Aleks wouldn't be able to stop it from ripping through his own body.
"I'm taking him with me," Harry told Brogan.
But Aleks had other ideas. With his bare hands, he held onto both sides of Harry's chin and, with a hard and fast move, he snapped Harry's neck.
Chapter Sixteen
Everything had happened so fast. Aleks let go of Harry's body and reached out to pull the needle carefully from Brogan's neck as the police sirens wailed in the distance. There was a commotion at the door and Aleks picked the gun up and stood in front of Brogan to protect him.
But Con was holding his weapon too and they both immediately lowered them. "Quinn's outside waiting for the police."
"Ambulance," Aleks managed as he turned back to Brogan and pointed. He heard Con yelling for Quinn and told Brogan, "I didn't kill him for any other reason—"
"Than to save me. I know, Aleks. Fuck, I know." Brogan shuddered, the drugs still strong in his system. "What did he give me?"
Aleks didn't want to tell him, wanted to say I have no idea but you'll be fine. But he couldn't. "The same drugs he gave my brother."
Brogan exhaled shallowly as Aleks untied him. "Got to get you to a hospital. Not sure how much he gave you but the syringe was only halfway done. That's a good sign."
He didn't want to think about the fact that if he'd taken any longer to get out of the bonds, Brogan would be gone. Instead, he gathered Brogan up as best and gently as he could and carried him up and out of the basement.
"I can walk—"
"And then the shit spreads faster," Aleks told him. Because that's exactly how his sister and Vann's girlfriend had died. Panic made the poison run through their veins faster.
He saw Con and Quinn waving down the police car and he laid Brogan carefully down on the sidewalk, cradling his body against his.
When the officer came over, Aleks told him, "He's been poisoned. Need an ambulance."
"Bus is on the way," the officer confirmed as he took in both men's bloodstained clothes. He looked directly at Aleks. "Sir, I'll need to speak with you."
"As soon as the ambulance comes," Aleks told him.
"Sir—"
The siren cut through the air sharply. Aleks almost collapsed with relief when the EMTs got to Brogan, understood what the syringe that Aleks handed them meant and began the IV before getting him into the ambulance.
"Will it work?" Aleks asked as he picked Brogan up and placed him on the stretcher as the EMTs made sure his lines weren't tangled.
"We won't know yet, but it's the best we can do. We'll get him to the hospital ASAP," the EMT assured him.
"You can't ride with him," the officer told Aleks now. "We have questions for you."
"I'll go with him," Quinn told Aleks. "I won't leave his side."
"And I'll follow you," Con told him.
"Take care of him," Aleks told Quinn, his voice desperate. Brogan's eyes had closed but he was comfortable and the antidote was hopefully working to clear the poison from his system.
"On my life," Quinn promised. Aleks watched the EMTs load Brogan into the ambulance, watched Quinn climb in after him and the doors close and the sirens blare before driving away.
Only then did he turn away from the police officer, presenting his hands behind his back as the officer read him his rights.
Hours later, Aleks sat in another cage, interrogated for hours on end. Brogan and Harry were well-known in the community. Aleks had killed a well-known businessman (true) and it appeared he'd poisoned another one (not true but hell, the police were on a roll and even Aleks had to admit that he looked guilty as fuck).
He was treated like a criminal for sure. And the worst part was that no one would tell him how Brogan was doing.
"You tried to kill him—what do you care? Or is it about beating a double murder rap?" the detective demanded.
Aleks kept his mouth shut for everything, except alternating asking for a lawyer and about Brogan's condition The threats, the yelling, they couldn't touch him. He'd been to hell and back. Knew the terrain intimately.
Finally, they took him for a piss before putting him in a holding cell. He hesitated briefly before the guard pushed him in forcibly and clanked the door behind him. He refused to turn around and look at the bars, instead focusing on the wall in front of him. His fingers curled into fists as he recalled all the days and nights he'd punched the cinderblock, toughening up, trying not to have a panic attack.
He didn't care how strong someone was—years in a confined space would do it to the strongest of souls. But he forced himself to breathe—for Brogan. Brogan was safe. Brogan was innocent in all of this—and Aleks had taken care of Harry for him, for Berdy and Lola and Vann.
For himself and all the men and women Harry had harmed over the years.
He wasn't the only one. Aleks knew he couldn't stop there, but he also knew that this was the most personal struggle. That he could handle whatever came his way, better and stronger.
Brogan, come on, be okay. Please.
It was dark when the bars slid open with a loud clank and the officer said, "You're being released."
Aleks was given his clothes and belongings back, told not to leave town. Aleks glanced at the clock and noted that they'd held him for over twenty hours. They'd held him here while Brogan was fighting for his life—because Aleks refused to believe anything else.
Con was there waiting, with a five o'clock shadow, obviously had camped out in the police station and probably was precariously close to getting thrown out. But it was the big, quiet man in the corner who caught his eye next.
Vann. Coming toward him as Aleks felt the overall shock of everything that had happened set in. Vann embraced him and, just like he'd done all those years ago, he took Aleks's arm and tugged him out of the fire.
Chapter Seventeen
"He's alive, but still unconscious. They had to flush the drugs. He's holding his own," Con told Aleks as the three men walked to Con's car. Aleks crawled into the backseat, needing more space than a front seat could give, and Vann had Con open all the car's windows and the sunroof as they drove toward the hospital.
Aleks didn't say a word, not until he heard the doctor repeat what Con had told him. Then he asked, "Can I see him?"
"Yes," the doctor said, and motioned to the nurse to open the door to the ICU. "One at a time, and not for long."
Aleks nodded, feeling numb as he entered the room and saw Brogan lying there, pale and unmoving. He walked up to the hospital bed and folded Brogan into his arms. Didn't give a shit about the tubes and machines. He just wanted Brogan to feel him. Life force was a powerful thing.