by K. J. Dahlen
Brothers. And should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
America would be a challenge for him to conquer and he felt a new hope building in his chest. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to get there and begin his life.
When the plane landed in New York, the sun was coming up in the eastern sky. It was the dawning of a new day and a new life for the six men that walked off the plane.
Each of the men had their own dreams, their own goals and their own hopes in their quest to begin their new life. They would experience joy and despair, broken trusts and betrayal, new hopes and shattered dreams but they would do it together. They would never be alone again.
At special times or when they’d achieved another goal. They often would toast vodka with,
“We are brothers by choice. Blood has brought us together and will forever hold us strong.
Brothers we are and brothers we will always be.”
And they would find the love of their lives here in the new country someday. All they would have to do was grab hold of it and hang on tight…
Bratva Blood Brothers
“We are brothers by choice. Blood has brought us together and will forever hold us strong.
Brothers we are and brothers we will always be.”
BOOK SIX
Chapter One
New Orleans, Louisiana…
Stevie looked out into the backyard from the kitchen window and couldn’t help but notice how much her life had changed. In the last four months she and Benny had been living here, they had settled in and made a life for themselves with Roman. She wasn’t scared anymore of waking up in the morning, she wasn’t afraid of someone sneaking up on her any more. She felt safe here with him.
She glanced over at Benny and smiled. He was at the table, on his computer taking online classes to catch up to other kids his own age in preparation for school in a few months. His mind was like a sponge, absorbing all the knowledge he could get his hands on. He hoped to go to a public school this fall. He was working hard to get there all on his own, and she was so proud of him.
Suddenly, a wet nose pushed into her hand and she looked down at her dog Corbin. Smiling, she knelt beside the animal and scratched behind his ears. Roman had gotten both her and Benny a protection dog shortly after they got here.
Corbin was a trained dog, not only for her protection but also as a service dog. He was a pure white German Shephard and while that was unusual for the breed, it only made Corbin special in her eyes. Benny’s dog was pure black German Shephard he’d named Lucifer.
After a trip to the doctor, it was decided that her hearing in her left ear was gone forever but with the use of a hearing aid, she had very good hearing in her right ear. She was learning to get by with what she had, like she always had but every day, Roman showed her a little bit more of his world. She was teaching Roman the sign language she and Benny used to get by on and soon, she was going to take classes to learn the proper universal sign language.
In the last four months, she’d been keeping track of everything going on in Baton Rouge and while the justice system was very slow at times, the situation was moving forward. Most of the people involved had been arrested and the city was just now getting back on its feet.
Her evidence hadn’t come into play yet, as the Advocates had pretty much the same stuff, she did so no one knew about her and Benny yet. She never really looked at the evidence she’d taken that night so she didn’t know what was there. They had been waiting for the trials to begin before they turned over the evidence, that way nothing could get conveniently lost or go missing before it was time to enter it into the trial.
Silas was still watching out for her and Benny. At least, that’s what she’d been told. Lately, however she’d gotten the feeling something evil was waiting for her. She couldn’t help but shiver at the thought. She hadn’t heard anything for sure but when you live as long on the streets as they had you, you gain a sixth sense about stuff like that.
Roman and the rest of his brothers had become protective of her and Benny. Security had been beefed up not only around Roman’s house but everywhere she and Benny went, there was at least one security person with them.
Pappy called Roman last night and after they spoke, Roman mentioned the fact that there were rumors around Baton Rouge that some of the people on trial were searching for her and Benny. Roman assured her there was nothing to worry about but she’d lived that life before. If there were someone out there looking, they would find her or Benny.
She leaned into Corbin and just wrapped her arms around him for a moment. When she looked up, she found Benny studying her.
After a moment he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Stevie shrugged. She tried to stand then Corbin grabbed her wrist with his teeth and kept her low to the floor. Suddenly, the window behind her shattered and glass rained all over her.
Stevie screamed and huddled over Corbin while Benny shouted and dove under the table. Lucifer crowded over him and they both could hear running footsteps coming toward them from outside.
A large man burst in through the door with his gun drawn. It was the outside guard, Stephanous. “Stay down.” He stalked toward where Stevie was squatting. “What the hell happened here?” he demanded.
Stevie looked up at him. “I-I don’t know.” Her voice quivered. She turned her head and stared at the broken glass.
“Stevie,” Benny called out as he came out from under the table. Instead of standing up, he crawled over to her. “Are you ok?” His hand was trembling as he reached out to touch her arm.
“Be careful,” Stevie warned him. “I—don’t want you t-to get cut.” Her voice was shaky. “I’m ok, I think.” She tried to push herself off the floor but Stephanous hauled her away from the open window.
He turned to assist Benny then saw the blood spots on the floor where Stevie had been before. Stephanous turned to her and began searching her for open wounds. He found blood staining her clothing from a wound on her neck and shoulder.
“We need to get you to a doctor,” Stephanous said. He shoved his weapon in the holster he wore under his jacket and pulled out his phone to call the car. While they waited, Stephanous placed another call to Roman. After he explained what happened, he hustled both of them out to the front door.
When the car pulled up out front, they all got inside including the dogs. Five minutes later, they were on their way to the hospital.
When they pulled up out front, Roman and Yuri were waiting for them.
Roman rushed over to the car and opened the door. His eyes were crazy and his beard was all over the place while he looked her over. When he saw the shards of glass that covered her head and shoulders he demanded, “What the fuck happened?”
Stevie was trembling as she reached out to touch him. “I don’t know. I was by the window in the kitchen and I bent over to hug Corbin then the window exploded behind me.”
Roman turned to look at Stephanous then back to Stevie. “Are you all right?”
“I guess so,” she whispered.
“She’s bleeding, that’s why we’re here,” Stephanous explained.
“Then let’s get you looked at.” Roman assisted her out of the car then he hustled her into the Emergency Room. He looked back at Benny and noted that Stephanous was watching over him. Corbin was beside Stevie all the way to the exam room.
When the doctor joined them, Corbin stayed beside her. When the nurse drew blood and began cleaning her shallow wounds, the doctor decided she didn’t need stitches. They superglued the wounds and waited for the results of the blood test.
Roman had gone out to check on Benny.
While she was alone, Stevie knelt down on the floor and hugged her dog to her. “Oh Corbin,” she wept into his fur. “What the hell else can go wrong in my life? Now I have brought danger to Roman’s life. I can’t do this anymore.”
“Don’t you even think about leaving him,” Yuri’s harsh voice rang out in the silence of the room. He
’d just walked in to hear her words.
Stevie looked up and felt that haunted sadness all over again. Tears ran freely down her cheeks. “How can you say that? I put him and you all in danger. I just can’t do that anymore. I can’t be selfish. I just can’t do that to him. I love him too much for that.”
Yuri knelt on the floor beside her. “And if you think he’ll allow you to leave without turning over every rock in the entire state looking for you, you would be wrong.”
“Trouble follows me no matter where I go and I can’t watch him get hurt, not because of me. I can’t face that kind of pain anymore. I just don’t want to.”
“I won’t lose my brother because you’re afraid of getting hurt,” Yuri insisted.
“But I’m not afraid for me.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid for him. My life would be over if anything happened to him. Don’t you see? He’ll be safe if I go away.”
Yuri snorted. “Roman will never allow it and in this, I would back him all the way. We are Russians you know? Very stubborn men… all of us. We’ve had to be in order to survive what we did growing up. I think Roman is the most stubborn of us all. If you go, he will follow. I think your brother will as well.” Yuri got to his feet and helped her to hers. “We can’t protect you if you aren’t here.”
Before she could say anything, the doctor came back into the room. He glanced at his chart but when he looked up, he was smiling. “Well young lady, I have some very good news for you.”
Stevie glanced over at Yuri and asked, “What would that be? I thought I was ok?”
“Well, I think this tops just being ok.” The doctor chuckled. “The blood test tells us another story altogether.”
“Oh?” Stevie got nervous. “What else did it tell you?”
The doctor looked at Yuri for a moment then back to her. “Do you want me to tell you now or should I wait until you’re alone?”
Stevie shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, he’ll find out anyway. I don’t keep secrets from them.”
“It tells us you’re pregnant,” the doctor announced with a smile.
Stevie felt faint and stumbled for a moment. Yuri caught her before she could fall and assisted her over to an exam table. She glanced quickly at Yuri then looked back at the doctor. “Would you repeat that please?”
The doctor smiled. “According to your blood test, you’re going to have a baby.”
Yuri smiled. “Roman will be so happy. He’s always wanted a family.”
Stevie grabbed Yuri’s arm. “You can’t tell him. Oh god, he can’t know, not now!”
Yuri frowned.” Like you said you cannot keep secrets—“
Just then, the door opened and Roman came back in.
The silence grew tense for a moment while he glanced at Yuri, then Stevie then finally to the doctor. “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing,” Stevie assured him. “The doctor was telling me I could go home.”
The doctor picked up on her cue and nodded. “Yes, she should be good to go. Just watch for any unusual bleeding and she can have Tylenol for fever if she needs it. She shouldn’t take anything stronger though.”
Roman glanced again between the three of them but when no one said anything else, he wrapped his arm around her and walked out to the waiting room.
Benny was sitting there with Stephanous and several other security men.
Yuri slapped Roman on the back. “You guys can stay at the penthouse suite until we know for sure your house is safe and we can get some more security in place. This was too close for comfort.”
Roman wrapped his huge arms around Stevie and Benny. “Da, it was.” Turning to his brother, he held out his hand. “Thank you.”
Yuri smiled as he took his hand to shake it. “There’s no need for thanks. We’re always there for one another since we were kids. It’s always been us against the whole world and that isn’t going to change now.”
Stevie looked over at Yuri and met his eyes briefly. His look seemed to dare her to tell Roman the news. Instead, she bit her lip and kept quiet. Looking over at Benny, she went to brush her hair behind her ear and winced when she hit a sore spot on her neck. “Are you ok, Benny?”
Benny nodded and hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re not hurt.”
Stevie smiled. “I’ll be fine. Just a few cuts.”
“What happened?” Benny whispered. “Is this still about Baton Rouge?”
“I don’t know, maybe.” Stevie shrugged.
“I thought we were free of that place,” Benny cried.
“You are free of that place,” Roman assured them. “Nothing from that cesspool will ever hurt you guys again. I won’t let it.”
Stevie shook her head. “You can’t stop it. They know where we are now and they’ll keep coming. They need Benny and me gone for good and they just won’t stop coming until they get that.”
Roman snarled. “They aren’t going to get what they want then are they?”
Stevie looked away. “I hope not,” she whispered.
Baton Rouge Louisiana
When the phone rang, Nick Bennett answered the call. He was on his way to visit his half-brother Eugene Harris in jail but hadn’t left his hotel room yet. Eugene had spent the last four months sitting behind bars for his part in the corruption of the civil authorities of Baton Rouge.
Four months ago, everything had come crashing down when the people had taken their streets back. Eugene’s wife disappeared along with her sons, leaving him and several others holding the bag for sex crimes and corruption. The state had brought in a special prosecutor and judge into play. The Governor had even declared Martial Law in the city.
Eugene had called him as a last resort and one of Nick’s conditions had been that no one in Baton Rouge would know that they were related. He didn’t want the stain of Eugene’s crime to be associated with him or his family in any way shape or form.
When he answered the phone, he heard the words, “I found them.”
Nick smiled at this news from the no name hitman. “Good, can you get to them and take them both out? As far as I know, the special prosecutor hasn’t got a case without her evidence and so far, he doesn’t have it.”
“I almost got her today.”
“Damn.” Nick swore.
“Don’t worry I’ll find her again. Now that I know where to look.”
“The trial starts in two weeks. You have two weeks to locate them and take them out. The sooner the better. Her evidence hasn’t come into play yet, and it can’t or these people will go to prison for a very long time.”
The man on the other end of the phone call chuckled. “They broke the number one rule of not getting caught.”
“Yeah, but they are paying you an insane amount of money to get them out of this, so you’d better earn your money,” Nick threatened.
“Don’t worry I’ll do my job.”
When Nick heard the click of the call ending, he tossed his phone down on the bed, then went over to the mini bar and poured himself a drink. Slamming the liquor down his throat, he had to smile.
He might be able to go home soon with his family secret intact. Eugene was more than an embarrassment to his entire family and Nick had refused to do anything about him until now. Eugene was his father’s bastard’s child and while Nick and his mother knew about him all his life, they wanted nothing to do with him. When he’d called four months ago, Eugene had told them he would tell the papers the whole sordid story if Nick didn’t help him out of this mess.
So to preserve his family’s good name, Nick had left his law practice behind in Oklahoma City to come here and represent his half-brother. The strategy had been to find and take out Stevie Grace and her brother Benny, so neither of them could confirm the evidence nor tell their own story. These two were the ones who could make the case for the other side and Nick thought this would be the less messy way to win the deal.
Nick had some unsavory contacts and he had hired the best, Jack Hail to track down the missing pair. N
ow that he had found them, he knew Jack would take care of his problem. He smiled as he picked up his phone and walked toward the door of his hotel room. He whistled as he made his way to the elevator and beyond.
Chapter Two
Moscow, Russia…
Sergi, the head of the Moscow Bratva was laughing at a joke his son Misha was telling him when they heard a knock on his office door. It was late in the evening and they were about to go home after a busy day. When he opened his door, he was surprised to see the man on the other side. He was the last man Sergi thought would ever come to see him.
“Timor Maxin,” Sergi called out his name. “This is a surprise. Please come in.” He stepped back and motioned for the men standing there to come in.
Timor stepped inside the office and a second man younger than Timor came in behind him. He turned to introduce the other man, “Sergi, this is my son Iosif.”
Sergi held out his hand. He turned to Misha after shaking Iosif’s hand “And this is my son, Misha.” After they all shook hands, Sergi sat back down behind his desk and looked at the other man. “What can we do for you?”
Timor glanced down at the floor for a moment then turned to Sergi. “First off, let me tell you this has nothing to do whatsoever with Bratva business and we bring no problems to your attention. This is more personal.” He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hands along his face. “This isn’t an easy story to tell but I think you have to hear it. When I was a younger man, things were different, I was different. Younger, more outgoing, just more. Anyway, I met a woman back then, and I thought I cared about her. We were together briefly before she disappeared one day. Oh, I looked for her but I’m ashamed to say not all that hard. A few years passed and then I found her again, much to my surprise. We were together again for a while and then she disappeared on me again. This time, I looked a little harder for her. It took me almost three years to find her but I did. Or at least, I thought I did. Instead, what I found was her secret.” He paused and looked over at his son. “Instead of finding her, I found my infant son. I didn’t know about him before that day but as soon as I saw him, I knew he was mine. My blood.”