by KJ Dahlen
Vitya sat with round eyes while bound and gagged for the entire story.
“She was afraid and alone,” Yuri went on, “And she couldn’t remember where she was supposed to go. I got her back to the hotel you were staying at and she was afraid of what her father was going to do to her.”
Vitya shrugged now as he tried to sit up straighter but couldn’t say anything. He was still gagged.
“Well old man, it’s time to take you back for a tribunal in front of the High Council.” Yuri stood then looked down at him. “Karma truly is a vengeful bitch and you will know this soon. You took something I cared about thirty years ago and now, I’ll take everything I can from you. “We’ve taken your money and shut down your prisons. We’ve freed the women you kidnapped and are looking for the ones you sold into slavery. Even as we speak, we are tracking down your ring of cohorts and business partners. We also have a list of the people in power that you pay to stay ahead of the game. We will shut you down and drag your partners kicking and screaming if we have to, out into the open. We will expose you to the world in bright neon lights. You won’t be able to hide anymore in the shadows and your name will no longer be feared by the masses. In fact, it will be spat upon as your Konovic name deserves to be. Stripping our homeland like thieves for generations. Korolevskiye vor, the lot of you.”
He turned and motioned to the guards around the room. “Take this maggot out of here but give him no freedom. I want to wait no longer than it takes Nikoli to get here to send him back to Russia for judgement. In fact, leave him tied up, so he can’t escape.”
Vitya struggled against his bindings and began screaming out but no one could hear a word he said because of his gag.
Yuri and the others went from room to room looking for anything that would tell them where the Vory V Zakone had gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Grace stood in the kitchen gazing out the window. When everyone left for the Vory V Zakone’s compound she didn’t wish them good luck, in fact she just stood there watching them leave the compound. She’d felt so cold when she’d watched them disappear. For a moment, she wondered if she’d ever feel warm again. She frowned when she saw a flash of something in one of the trees on the outskirts of the compound but as quickly as she saw it, the shadows covered it.
When a cup of coffee was handed to her, she startled and looked to see who was there with her. It was Barron’s man Pavel. Her real father’s cousin. She accepted the cup then turned to gaze out the window again.
“He’ll come back,” Pavel told her softly.
Grace nodded but didn’t say anything as she sipped her coffee.
Pavel was silent as he watched her for a moment. Then he seemed to finally make up his mind to tell her. “You know when Nikita met your mother, he fell so hard in love with her, he couldn’t even imagine life without her. He always said she felt the same about him. They both knew they had to keep their love a secret because of who and what her family was but she was willing to leave them behind and make a life with him anywhere else in the world.” Pavel paused but he could tell she was listening to his words. “They had to find places to meet and were always looking over their shoulders when they did meet but he loved her with a passion I’ve never seen before. I was almost envious of what they had, almost. Your mother was a beautiful woman and Nikita was a lucky man but her family was vicious. Her father was a bastard and her brothers were tutored very well to fill his shoes.”
Grace now turned to look at him as he spoke.
He took a sip of his coffee. “Then someone close to Irena betrayed her to her brothers. They burst into the room they were in and beat him bloody and dragged them both back to her father. Pavel shook his head. “That bastard locked her in her room for a month then told her she was getting married to a man his age, Ivan Kolvastan. She was told it didn’t matter, as she never even had a choice in the matter. Her father told her Ivan would break her will and reform it to one he liked. Since she was so willful and disobedient maybe, Ivan could teach her where he couldn’t. Well, Irena somehow slipped out of the house one more time. She found Nikita and when she saw what her family had done to him, she was ashamed of what her loving him had caused. He told her it was not her fault. He told her he would stay and die for her but he wanted her to go far, far away and live, live for him. And remember him for the rest of her life.”
Grace swallowed hard. In a way, her mother had lost everything she was, her family, which was no big deal in her mind, but she left behind a man who truly loved her to start a life over in a new country. She turned her head to stare out the window and asked. “Did my father ever know about me?”
“Yes, he did. The last night she saw him she told him about you. Nikita was so happy. He asked her to name you Grace if you were a girl and Michail if you were a boy. Michail was his father’s name. Then he told her that he would love her forever no matter what happened.”
“We all know what happened next don’t we?” Grace voiced her opinion.
Pavel shook his head. “No child, you don’t know. All you know is that your father died in prison and your mother came here to give you birth, but you don’t know what happened.”
“Then you tell me.”
“The next day when Boris couldn’t find your mother, he dragged Nikita into the prison yard. He made everyone watch. He even dragged Nikita’s family there and made them watch as he tortured him. He hoped to break Nikita to find out where your mother was hiding but Nikita didn’t break, he took the torture and wouldn’t tell him anything. He loved your mother that much. He loved you that much.” He shook his head. Boris realized Nikita was not going to give away any Information so he gave Vitya the go ahead Vitya always followed his Father’s orders and walked up to the beaten Nikita and put a bullet in the back of his head. Moments before he pulled the trigger, Vitya leaned down and whispered something into Nikita’s ear.”
She turned and studied his posture for a moment.
He took another sip of his coffee and his hand tightened on his cup.
“Did you find out what he whispered to Nikita?”
“Da, I did. When he threw me in his prison he claimed her remembered me from that day. I told him I remembered him too. He laughed and asked me to ask him about what he said before he put the bullet in Nikita. So I did.”
“It wasn’t good was it?” Grace stated without emotion in her voice.
Pavel shook his head. “No, it wasn’t good. Before he put a bullet in my cousin, he told him he would kill the child in his sister’s belly. He told Nikita that no matter what, he would end the shame she brought to the family and then he would watch another man break her spirit. Then after all of that, he would sell her to a brothel.” He shivered. “That was the last thing my cousin heard before they killed him.”
Grace shivered. “He would have killed me? Even before I was born?”
“I think that’s why your mother left you with Gene. She wanted to give you more of a life than you would have had with her. More of a chance to live than her family would have allowed you to have. I think she loved your father more than she loved anyone else even after all these years.”
“How do you know that?’ Grace whispered.
“I read her journal.”
Grace dropped her forehead on the glass of the window. “Then you know more than I do,” she stated brokenly. “I haven’t had the chance to do that yet.”
“Why don’t you read them now?”
She shook her head. “I’m not in a good place right now. Vitya Konovic has taken everything I cared about away from me. I have to heal a bit before I can read her words. I just didn’t want anyone else to read them first. When Yuri demanded them I felt he was forcing me into doing his will.”
“He had his own reason for being so brutal to you moya malen'kaya milost'.” Red’s voice came from the doorway.
She turned to him and her whole face lit up. “You’re back.” She exclaimed. Running over to him, she wrapped her arms around him. “I’m
so glad to see you. You came back to me.”
Red wrapped his large arms around her and lifted her off her feet. “You belong to me, Little Grace, so who else would I come back to?” he whispered in her ear. Then his mouth covered hers and he kissed her wildly. When the kiss broke, he had to suck in air for a moment or two.
Grace was dizzy when he set her on her feet. “What did that mean?”
“What are you talking about?” Red asked.
“When you came in, you said moya something milos?”
He shook his head. “It means my little Grace.”
“Oh...” She smiled.
Clearing his throat, he looked her in the eyes. “We didn’t come back alone.”
Grace’s smiled faded quickly. “You brought him here didn’t you?”
Red nodded. “Just as we got to the compound the whole damn club rode off, scattering to the four winds. Then we went inside and we found him tied to a chair with a gag in his mouth. He was bleeding from a shoulder wound and we haven’t talked to him yet but Yuri brought him back here. Nikoli Silvanic is coming tomorrow to take him back to Russia in handcuffs to stand trial in front of the High Council.”
“What about his men?” she asked. “The ones he brought with him. Where are they?”
Red shrugged. “We got one of them the night you were shot, Sasha got Niko, but we don’t know where the others are, or even how many he brought with him.”
“There were four men with him the night he shot my dad plus the driver,” she told him. “Only two followed me but there were two others that stayed behind.”
Red nodded. “Yeah, baby we saw that on the security cameras remember? We still have two more to find.” He looked down at her and saw her eyes glaze over in fear. “Don’t you worry about them. We won’t stop until we find them. You’ll be safe here with us.”
“I know I saw your men out in the woods. The one was pretty high up the tree though. I hope he doesn’t fall.”
Red looked at Pavel and then back to her. “You weren’t supposed to see them Little Grace.”
She shrugged. “Well, I didn’t exactly see him. I saw the reflection from his scope and then only for a moment.”
Red smiled tightly. “Where exactly did you see it?”
Grace moved over to the window and pointed at the far left tree in the corner of the lot, to an old oak tree.
Red glanced out the window and didn’t like what he saw. He quickly moved her away from the window and out of the kitchen. He glanced at Pavel and nodded to the backyard.
Pavel knew what he wanted and gave him a chin lift.
As soon as they left the kitchen, Pavel made a call to Alexi. He was the best shooter in the group. Whoever was out there watching the house had a high-powered rifle aimed at the clubhouse. While Red and Grace were looking out one window, Pavel was looking out another window.
Barron began gathering everyone into the main room. Even the still bound Vitya.
Kolya pushed the tied man down on a chair and wrapped rope around his chest. When Grace walked into the room with Barron, Vitya’s eyes widened but he was unable to say anything as his mouth was still gagged. He did however stare at her. Grace cringed at his glare and Vitya sneered the best he could under the gag.
“I have just been informed we have an unwelcome visitor watching the compound,” Barron explained. “If there is one, there could be more. And if they are out there, they now know we have him here. They might try to free him, so be aware people.” He looked over at his IT man, “Anton, we need to know how many we could be dealing with and where they are.”
Anton got up then looked at Matvey of the Enforcers. You wish to come and see our set up?”
Matvey nodded and they both moved down the hall.
“If these men are well trained, you won’t even see them,” Barshan assured them.
“Grace saw the reflection from his scope. When she pointed it out to me, Pavel and I both saw it as well. Any well trained sniper never would have been seen. I agree with you on that point but he allowed us to notice him.” He turned and saw Vitya glaring at Grace and there was nothing but hate in his soulless eyes.
Barron glanced back at Grace and saw her staring back. It was then he noticed they shared one feature. She had eyes like his. The shape, the contour of the brow, the color and even the same look in them right now. They both hated the other.
Barron growled and went back into the kitchen. When he returned, he threw a large towel over the other man’s head and tied it down around his head. He looked up at Grace and found her shaking. He pulled her into his arms and just held her.
Then he looked over at Yuri. He saw the other man had compassion in his eyes for Grace. Which after the way he treated her since he arrived, was slightly surprising. “I want two men with eyes on him the whole time he’s here,” Barron ordered. “And I want him in more than just rope. We have irons here and if he’s staying, he’s going to be in them. He has serious crimes to finally stand trial for and I want him to stand in front of the High Council for those crimes.”
Yuri nodded.
Barron looked over at Kolya.
The man then went to their weapons room and came back with an iron harness.
Two of the others untied him from the chair as Kolya wrapped the harness around his waist the freed his arms and attached the arm bands and the leg bands. Then he led the man over to the main beam and attached the chains to a special hook embedded deep into the wooden post. They sat him down in the chair again and wrapped his chest to the chair. They left him blindfolded with the towel and gag.
Vitya tried to protest but the two men wouldn’t allow him much room to fight their hold. As they were younger and stronger than he was, it was barely a contest of strength or will. Vitya wasn’t used to exerting much fight as he’d grown lazy over the years and his age didn’t help much. He was too used to exerting his will through fear and intimidation.
The silence around the clubhouse was shattered by the sound of a high powered rifle. The sound came from above them. Barron tightened his hold on Grace when she startled at the sound.
Then another shot rang out, and return fire could be heard.
Grace shivered as the gun battle played out. After the shots stopped, it still took about fifteen minutes before they heard footsteps coming into the main room. Grisha and Alexi joined them still holding their rifles in their hands.
“I took out four shooters.” Alexi announced. “Anton said there aren’t any more but he will continue searching for any other threat.”
Barron nodded. “As the Vory V Zakone scattered we don’t know if they are still in the area or not. We can’t afford to be lax on security so we’re locking down, four on four watch.”
They all watched as the members of the Hell’s Bloodhounds MC scattered to do their jobs.
“Who is the Vory’s leader here?” Sazon asked.
“Arkady Belizon,” Leonid, Barron’s VP answered with a sneer. “That man is almost as ruthless as anyone but he does protect his men.” He turned and stared at Vitya’s shoulder for a moment before he turned back to Yuri and the brothers. “My bet is he threw a ninja star at Vitya. He likes to carry his own type of weapons and one of those weapons is metal blades. He likes knives and ninja stars. They are quiet and can rip a man’s throat out with little effort.”
Barron felt Grace begin to shake and he growled at his brother.
Leonid looked over at her and winced. “Sorry, I forgot she was here.”
Barron tightened his hold on her and soon, she settled down again.
Sazon nodded and began texting someone on his phone.
“Nikoli will be here in a few hours,” Yuri told them. “As soon as I let him know we had Vitya in custody he said he would leave New York. He is on a private jet, so could be here sooner than expected.”
“Good,” Barron growled. “I want this piece of human garbage out of here as soon as possible.”
Grace broke free of his embrace and pushed her hai
r out of her face. She was pale and looked so lost for a moment.
Barron asked, “Do you need to lay down for a while?”
She shook her head. “No, I couldn’t sleep anyway, not with him here.” She motioned toward Vitya. “I need to keep busy. I’ll start some supper.” She reached up and briefly kissed him then turned heading for the kitchen.
When she disappeared through the door, Yuri walked over to him. “She isn’t handling this very well is she?”
Barron turned to the other man and snarled. “Would any woman? She just found out her whole life has been a lie, would anyone handle that well?”
Yuri winced at his words. Thinking back to his own wife’s reaction when she found out about her life he shook his head. “No they wouldn’t. My own wife went through this same scenario and she didn’t handle it well either. I’m sorry for the way I treated her earlier, but I had to know what she knew.”
“Well, now you do,” Barron stated bitterly as he walked away from the other man.
Yuri sighed and just watched him go. What did he expect after how he'd treated Grace? It had been what he thought was right at the time, however he could see it had caused a rift here for sure. But they had gotten the job done. Almost, as there were others to round up.
Barshan and Sazon came up to him and the three brothers just stood there for a moment.
Then Sazon broke the silence around them, “I just spoke to Sergi. They moved quicker than expected. The High Council has already sentenced Vitya’s uncle and several of his top henchmen to death and they will only live long enough to witness Vitya’s trial. Then the whole lot will face the firing squad.”