I hadn’t realized how vivid the dreams were until I moved into the hole in the wall with Patrick. He’d wake me as I thrashed and screamed, lulling me back to sleep with promises of fighting my demons.
“No,” I replied.
His head lifted from the pillow as his eyes blinked away the sleep. “Are you okay?”
I reached across his toned abdomen and settled against his shoulder. “I am. I really am.”
Laying his head back down, he sighed, still holding me close.
There were still a few hours to wait before it was time to wake. With the rhythmic sounds of his breaths as a backdrop, I drifted into a blissful sleep. Dreams weren’t as vivid when they were happy. It wasn’t actual scenes I saw or experienced but a feeling.
Warmth.
Safety.
Happiness.
It was so close.
The alarm clock on the bookcase squealed. Patrick jumped from the bed and silenced the noise.
“You always do that so fast. Have you ever heard of snooze?” I asked.
“I don’t want it to wake anyone else.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “Next week, Pastor Roberto is going to let me take a crew. It will only be two other guys, but he said I’ll be in charge.”
I smiled up at him, taking in his messed hair and shining smile. “I love you.”
He leaned down and planted a kiss on my forehead. “You know I love you too.”
I nodded.
“We’re going to do this, Maddie. You and me. We’re going to make it.”
“You and me.” And baby. The words were on the tip of my tongue.
Today was my appointment with the people Kristine knew. Maybe tonight I would be able to tell Patrick. Then again, maybe I wasn’t pregnant. I wasn’t certain why that possibility made me sad. If I was, we were in for big changes.
“What if things change?” I asked.
“Things always change.” His lips curled upward. “That hasn’t stopped us before.”
I inhaled and stretched upon the warm sheets.
He was right.
Patrick
Present day
Opening the door, I was met with a dark stare. I’d known Sparrow long enough to know his body language. Without his saying a word, I knew he was upset, something he rarely showed. Whatever had happened or he’d learned had him even more upset than he was earlier, or perhaps it wasn’t something new but the accumulation of recent events.
With a quick glance over my shoulder, I confirmed Madeline’s state of undress. Stepping into the hallway, I closed the door behind me.
“Anything?” he asked.
“I haven’t heard from Garrett about her clothing, but on her? No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Are you asking if I thoroughly searched or if I would lie to you?”
His head shook. “Garrett came to me. The platinum bracelet was transmitting, audio and location.”
I sucked in a breath. “Fuck.”
“The office is clean. She didn’t plant anything in there. The fucking bracelet was enough. Ivanov heard or has recorded every damn word upstairs and anything since. The guard said he never heard her speaking while she was alone, but she could have been. She could have been relaying every goddamned move.”
“What about Ivanov?”
“He still hasn’t taken off. Hillman neither.”
“What are they waiting for?” I asked.
“If Ivanov didn’t know about your relationship with Ms. Miller, he does now. That’s a fucking jackpot when trying to infiltrate the Sparrow outfit.”
“She’s not trying...” I didn’t finish. “This is his war, not hers.”
Sparrow stood taller. “Start thinking like the man I know, the one who uses his brain, not his dick.”
My neck straightened.
“We can’t risk this,” Sparrow went on. “I won’t risk this. Ivanov is probably waiting for you to take her to our headquarters. That fucking bracelet would have led him there. She’s a liability and if you were thinking straight, you’d agree.”
She wasn’t a liability. She was my wife—the mother of my daughter.
“I won’t lead him there; I’ll lead him somewhere else.”
“What?” Sparrow asked.
“Give me the damn bracelet. I’ll lead him away from here. I don’t want that monster around the other women any more than I want him near Madeline or Ruby.”
Sparrow’s large hand raked through his dark hair. “Does she exist?”
I pulled Madeline’s phone from the inner pocket of my suit coat. “I was about to find out.”
“We’re at war and you want to abandon the outfit—us. Where do you plan to go?” He turned a circle. “You’re...important to us.”
“You have Mason.”
“Fuck, you aren’t interchangeable. That’s not how this works.”
I nodded as the lump in my throat grew larger. “Maybe not, but he’s capable of doing whatever I do.”
“Fuck no.” His jaw clenched and unclenched. “You...” It wasn’t easy for Sparrow to say whatever he was about to say. “...are the fucking voice of reason, usually,” he clarified. “Mason is good. No, he’s fantastic at what he does, but he’s also more volatile.”
He was right under usual circumstances. These weren’t usual and I wasn’t even close to being the voice of reason. “Sparrow, listen to me. You, Reid, and I ran this outfit. Hell, we took over the outfit with the three of us. I will come back. I’m not leaving you. I’m leading the Ivanov bratva away from here and away from the people I care about. That is reason. In the process, I plan to save my daughter from their clutches.”
“Alone?”
I could take a handful of capos with me. Doing so would leave Sparrow with fewer men. “I won’t take any men away from the war we have happening here. You need every single one. It’s bad enough I’m taking me away.”
“Take Garrett and two others. You can use whatever plane—whatever resources—you need or want. And here’s what you’re going to do.” He inhaled as his nostrils flared. “You are going to take her.” He nodded toward the door. “You’re going to go somewhere not associated with us, not my cabin or Mason’s. Those places are our safe houses. I don’t want the Ivanov bratva to know they exist.”
I nodded. “I need to learn where Ruby is.”
“I’m not done,” he said. “This place you’re going, while you’re there, you will maintain constant communication. I’m fucking pissed—don’t think I’m not—but that doesn’t get you off the hook.” His eyes narrowed. “I want you back. Sending you away isn’t some kind of fucking test. You will succeed and once you do, I expect you to get your ass back here. And while you’re gone, if you learn anything and a way to bring them down, tell one of us.” He again tilted his chin toward the door. “I don’t trust her. I’m not sure I ever will just knowing who she’s been associated with. That doesn’t mean I don’t trust you.”
“What would you do if you learned you had a daughter?” I asked.
“I kept it wrapped.”
“I was eighteen. Affording food was more of a priority than condoms.”
“I don’t know what I’d do,” Sparrow said with a small inflection of empathy. “I’d want to know if it were true.” He shook his head. “I remember overhearing conversations between my father and his men. It was probably Rudy. They fucked every female in sight. You know the stories.”
I did.
“They didn’t care who they fucked, but they did care that there were no kids.” He scoffed. “No kids equaled no proof. They had a doctor—hell, I hope he was a doctor—who routinely provided abortions for their mistresses as well as the girls in the stables.” He exhaled. “I don’t know what made me think of that.”
“The thing is, Sparrow, Madeline wasn’t a mistress or caught in your father’s or McFadden’s trafficking. She was...she is,” I corrected, “my wife. And if I had known back then I wouldn’t have suggested termination. Even with no fuc
king money and living in a mission, I would have wanted the kid because it was part of Madeline.”
His head shook. “Figure this out and get your ass back where you belong.”
“Yes, Mr. Sparrow.”
Unexpectedly, Sparrow’s long arms came around my shoulders, pulling me into a back-slapping embrace. “I mean it. If you die out there, I’ll kick your ass.” He took a step away. “If this goes south, after giving my permission, that makes me fucking responsible. I lived through that once. I don’t want to do it again.”
“You won’t.”
“I’ll talk to Garrett, and Reid will set you up with what you need.”
“Hey,” I shouted as Sparrow started to walk away.
He stopped and turned.
“Win this war,” I said, “and the same goes for you. Stay safe. I don’t want to find my family and lose one too.”
“We’ve been to war before.”
“We have. We also have more at stake.” I was talking about Madeline, Ruby, and the women back at the penthouse.
Sparrow nodded and turned away. His footsteps echoed off the cement walls as he disappeared around a corner. For a moment I stood in the silence, wondering where Madeline and I would go. As I was about to reach for the door handle to talk to Madeline, Garrett came around the corner.
“Sir, which plane do you want ready?”
“Are you all right with this? Going with me?” I welcomed the assistance, but I didn’t want a crew that would rather be back in Chicago.
Garrett stood taller and his eyes gleamed. “You mean taking this war to them, going into the enemies’ city, taking one of their biggest assets, and showing those Russian motherfuckers that they can’t threaten us...fuck yes, sir. I’m more than all right with it. I’m ready to kick Russian ass.”
I liked the way he made it sound. “You’re going to be my second. I want two more men, ones you trust with your life. Get two cars ready and we’ll head to the airport west of the city.” Sparrow’s planes were not all in one location. The planes at the airport I requested weren’t as big and ostentatious as the one Sparrow had painted like a bird. Even with the tracker, I planned to get in without fanfare. That reminded me. “You should know that we’ll have the tracker bracelet. Once we’re ready, it’ll be like a fucking beacon telling the Ivanov bratva where we are.”
With a bit of a grin, Garrett pulled a box from the pocket of his suit coat. It looked like a jewelry box.
“What’s that?”
“A little thing Mr. Pierce thought would come in handy.” He opened the lid. Lying upon the soft velvet was the platinum bracelet Madeline had been wearing. He closed the lid. “It’s lined with a unique polymer agent that he’s familiar with, sir. It blocks transmissions. No signal will go out until Sparrows decide.”
Sparrow was wrong about Mason. He could be a level thinker, too.
I nodded. “Give us five. Oh, and…Ms. Miller...” I hesitated on her name. “...needs better-fitting clothes and she needs shoes.”
“I’m on it.”
As Garrett walked away, a renewed sense of purpose bloomed within me. Yes, this was about Madeline and Ruby, but it was also about the Sparrows. Garrett was probably correct that Ivanov saw my daughter as an asset. If he hadn’t before, after hearing Madeline’s announcement of my paternity, he did now.
Along with the sense of purpose came another feeling. I no longer questioned Ruby’s existence. Even without proof, since learning of her, I knew in my heart and soul that she was real, a part of both Madeline and me. We’d been children learning to survive, and in the process, we’d created a life.
After seventeen years, mine was suddenly incomplete without Ruby in it.
Turning the knob, I gazed inside as Madeline turned my direction. I’d known the clothes I’d brought weren’t her size, but I hadn’t anticipated how fucking cute she would look. Her dark hair was free and tousled from my removal of the hairpins. The sweatpants and sweatshirt were designed for a man, one closer to my size, not a woman half my size. To try to make them fit, Madeline had the sleeves rolled up, creating large rolls near her elbows. The elastic at her ankles kept the pants from dragging on the floor or covering her bare feet. The pile of clothing hadn’t contained any underclothes. That thought was suddenly in the forefront of my mind.
“Tell me what’s happening,” she said, reminding me that there were priorities at hand.
I inhaled and exhaled. “We’re leaving.”
“We?”
“Yes, we. Ivanov is still in Chicago, waiting for some signal. Do you know what that is?”
Her head shook. “I don’t. I really don’t.”
“The bracelet you were wearing, where did you get it?”
Her eyebrows knitted together as she contemplated her answer. “Bracelet? Do you mean the platinum one?”
I nodded.
“Andros. He gave it to me just before today’s—” She reconsidered. “—probably yesterday’s, now—tournament play. He was in Marion’s car when Marion’s driver picked me up from the hotel.”
“What? Ivanov was in Elliott’s car?”
She nodded. “Yes. I didn’t know until I got in. The windows were dark.” She shook her head. “Anyway, on the way here, he lectured me on winning the tournament, implying that without a win I wouldn’t return to Detroit. When he was done, he handed me the bracelet.”
“Did he tell you to wear it?”
“He didn’t have to. It is how he works—a lecture, a threat, a goodwill gift. Punishment, another gift. Sometimes it’s the other way around, a gift and then the price for the gift.”
I didn’t like the way her eyes changed as she spoke about him. It was as if with each word or memory, another cloud settled, dimming the vibrant green.
Madeline came a step closer, still with bare feet. “Why did you ask?”
“It contains a tracker. Not only does the signal tell him your location, it also has an audible function. He’s heard everything you or anyone around you has said until I took it away.”
Her arm wrapped around her midsection. “Oh my God. That means that he knows you’re Ruby’s father.”
“You never told him?”
“No, I told you I hadn’t.” Her expression darkened with what could only be described as unadulterated terror. “And you’re part of the Sparrows, the organization he wants to take over.” She didn’t say it as a question, more like a play-by-play as the pieces fell into place. “He now knows that he has the daughter of one of the men in the Sparrow organization.” She collapsed into the chair near the table. “We need to get to her.”
“Do you think she’s in danger?”
“I honestly don’t know if this knowledge will help or hurt her.” She looked up. “If you give me my phone, I’ll show you your daughter, your beautiful daughter. Once you see her, I know you’ll believe me.”
I offered Madeline my hand. “We have time for that on the way to the plane.”
“Plane?” she asked as she stood.
Her small hand fit perfectly into mine, just as it had nearly two decades ago. I gave it a squeeze. “Madeline, I can hate you for not telling me about her while at the same time, I can love you because you’re you. And damn it, I never stopped. When it comes to Ruby, I don’t need to see the pictures, though I want to. I believe you.”
“You do?”
“Yes, and now you need to believe me.”
“Okay.”
“Ivanov hasn’t left Chicago. We’re going to save our daughter. After we do, you will need to make a choice.”
“My choice is and always has been Ruby.”
“She’s not one of your options.”
Ruby would never return to Ivanov with Madeline. I would make sure of that. I wasn’t under an illusion that a sixteen-year-old girl would want to leave the life she knew. I also wasn’t expecting a happy home in some suburb with a white picket fence where Madeline, Ruby, and I live out a happy ever after. No, my life had taught me that fairy tales d
idn’t exist.
Madeline’s choice wasn’t if she’d stay with Ruby. It was if she’d help us take down Ivanov.
A knock came from the door.
“We’ll discuss this later,” I said. “Now, we need to get out of here.”
Patrick
Garrett drove the SUV toward the airport as Madeline and I sat silently in the back seat. She was still wearing the oversized sweatpants and shirt. On her feet were tennis shoes that Garrett found in Veronica’s office. I imagined Veronica changing out of heels and into the more comfortable shoes when she wasn’t on the club’s floors managing events and employees, things she’d no longer do.
When Garrett handed me the tennis shoes, he promised to have appropriate clothes on the plane. I knew from experience that he’d made a call to the pilot or perhaps one of the flight attendants. Even in these uncertain times, the Sparrows had trusted employees who were capable of providing whatever we asked.
Two capos who Garrett chose to accompany us, Christian and Romero, were in an SUV driving behind us. I’d worked with both of them over the last seven years. They’d shown their allegiance to Sparrow time and time again. There’d been situations where I’d trusted them with my life. Now I had to trust all three of these men with Madeline’s life.
In reality, it worked both ways.
I also had to trust Madeline.
It’s a trap.
Mason’s words lingered in my thoughts.
Was our destination a trap? Was Madeline setting the three Sparrows on this assignment up for an ambush?
A half hour ago back at the club, after Garrett gave me the shoes, I’d again closed the door on the conference room. When I turned, I was met by a more determined Madeline.
“What choices are you talking about?”
“First things first.”
“First, you said Andros is still in Chicago. You also said we were going to save Ruby. We need to hurry. I know where she is.”
“In Detroit?”
“Ann Arbor. She’s in a boarding school not far from the university.”
The university was the University of Michigan, Sparrow’s alma mater.
Flame Page 6