Nicky

by K. J. Dahlen

  Then Serenity gasped, raising her hands to cover her mouth.

  Everyone looked over at her in query then turned back to the camera feed. “Do you know that man?” Nikoli asked harshly.

  She nodded as she stared at the grainy film. “His name is Owen Vandross. He works for my father’s security firm.” She looked up at the group of people staring back at her.

  “Would he harm my daughter?” Bella asked.

  “I don’t know. He might be using her to draw me out. He’s been wanting to kill me since I was seven years old.”

  “But why?” Raven asked. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he want you dead?”

  “Because my father wants me dead and Owen follows orders very well.” She sat down on a chair with a thud and spoke with a sadness she couldn’t hide, “Owen told me once the night he stabbed me and left me for dead that it was at my father’s orders he did what he did. Dear old dad thought I’d be better off dead. You see if word every got around how I came to be, it would destroy his political career not to mention my dear auntie would take everything he had in a divorce.”

  “How did he find you now?” Misha asked.

  “Oh, I’m sure when I downloaded my birth certificate, someone called it to his attention.”

  “That’s why you didn’t want to do it?’ Nicky demanded.

  “What are you talking about?” Nikoli asked.

  “We both had to download our paperwork to get the license we needed to be legally married. She didn’t want to do it.”

  “He has to be somewhere on this floor,” Kirill reminded them. “Everything has been locked down until six. It’s only two. We have four hours to find the bastard before he can escape.”

  “Where is my laptop?” Serenity turned to Nicky.

  “Its in our room why?”

  “Can you get it for me please?” She begged.

  Nicky turned to go get it.

  Nikoli stared at her. “What do you need your laptop for? Kirill has his right here. If you need to check your facebook page, you can use his.”

  “Nikoli, you are being rude and you are also forgetting one very important thing here,” Sergi reminded him.

  Nikoli turned his head and glared at the older man. “Oh yeah, what is that? My daughter is missing possibly in the hands of a killer and she wants her computer.”

  “Why don’t you tell him my dear?” Sergi nodded at Serenity.

  “I have a program on my laptop that can seek out any heat source. I used it often enough to get a head’s up when someone was closing in on me. With that program, I can search the rooms on this floor for a heat signature and we can use that to determine where he might be hiding with her. That is if you’ll allow me to do that.”

  With a sigh, Nikoli ran his fingers over the back of his head. “Do it.”

  Nicky returned a moment later with her laptop.

  Kirill took one look at it and began shaking his head. “You’ll never get through our firewalls with that old thing.”

  Serenity smiled. “Watch and learn how its done.” She opened her laptop and when it fired up immediately everyone was surprised, everyone but Nicky. He just stood back and watched in awe as she navigated her way in no time flat, into the security system of the hotel.

  Kirill’s jaw dropped as he watched her flip through firewall after firewall, in and out of their mainframe systems until she came to the diagnostics of the tenth floor. Typing in a command, she switched over to heat sensor program then began going from room to room. Everyone there saw the change in temperatures when she hit on a room with people in it.

  When she got to the room they were in, they counted nine red spots of color before she moved down the hall. As most of the rooms were closed off to guests, she didn’t find many other red spots until she got to the end of the hall.

  There, she found a room with only two red spots. One of the spots was stationary while the other one was moving back and forth. She looked up at Sergi and spoke quietly, “That’s where they are.”

  “Why isn’t she moving?’ Bella asked tearfully.

  “Because the bastard used chloroform on her,” Nikoli told them. “He had to get her out quickly and quietly and that was his best option.”

  “How do you know?” Misha asked.

  “I could still smell it in the air when I went into her room.”

  Sergi turned to Serenity. “Do you want us to take him alive? Is there anything you want to know from him?”

  Serenity thought about that for a moment then shook her head. “He’s one very sick man. I went to his house one time about four years ago when he wasn’t there to see why he was always following me. The man had photographs of me pasted to his wall. He’s taken pictures of me my entire life. I found it disturbing. No, there is nothing.”

  Sergi nodded. “Very well.”

  Kirill got to his feet and grabbed his phone calling in more men. They assembled outside Nikoli’s room.

  Serenity shut down her laptop and got up. Walking back to her room, no one noticed her leaving.

  She sat down on her bed and waited in the dark. She didn’t wait long. Soon the sounds of a door being kicked in and someone screaming echoed in the halls. She didn’t stop the tears from falling down her face as she stared at the wall in her room. Only when it was quiet again, did she dare to breathe.

  A few minutes later someone entered the room and sat down beside her. She didn’t even look to see who it was. A small hand reached out and took hers. Then Raven’s voice broke the silence, “It’s over.”

  “Is Malina ok?” she whispered.

  “Malina is fine. She’s waking up in her mother’s arms with her father standing right beside her.”

  “Is Owen dead?” she finally asked.

  “Not yet but he soon will be,” Raven assured her. “Sergi had some questions for him.”

  Serenity shrugged but didn’t say anything.

  “Thank you.”

  Serenity turned her head and stared in shock at the other woman. “For what? I almost got a little girl killed tonight. Why on earth would you thank me for that?”

  “You did nothing of the kind.” Raven shook her head. “You helped save her life. You didn’t have to do that but you did all the same.”

  “Owen was my cross to bear, not hers.”

  “Now, you no longer have to bear that cross and he will never hurt another child again, not in this lifetime.”

  Serenity shook her head. “You don’t know my father. When Owen disappears, he’ll get another man to take his place. I’ll never be safe, not as long as I’m alive. My father will never stop. I’m his dirty little secret and he can’t tell anyone or let anyone find out about me.”

  “Well, you let the men worry about that. They will take care of your father,” Raven assured her.

  “Somedays, I wonder why God allowed me to be born.” Serenity shook her head.

  “He allowed you to be born so you, the perfect woman for me, could become my wife.” They both heard Nicky’s voice call out from the door.

  Raven chuckled and got up. She leaned over and kissed Serenity on the head and turned to leave the room.

  Nicky shut the door behind her and walked over to sit beside her. Taking her hand, he said quietly, “This will be over soon and you can live your life free and clear of the danger.”

  Serenity didn’t look at him. “I will never be free. My father can’t and won’t allow that.”

  “He won’t have a choice if he doesn’t want to go to war with the Bratva,” Nicky assured her. “I want to make you happy. You deserve it. I intend to do just that too. It is now the purpose of my life. Remember, I am as stubborn as you are.” He raised a brow at her.

  Serenity smiled for the first time this day as she kissed him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The very next morning Sergi, Nikoli and Yuri walked into Governor Bailey’s, political office in Albany.

  His secretary Mary Beth looked up from her typing and gasped at the t
hree gentlemen in front of her desk.

  All three men were dressed in fine linen suits and all three men looked larger than life and just a tad pissed off.

  Sergi in his sternest form, leaned forward and rested his fingertips on her desk as he growled, “I want to see your Governor right now.”

  Her eyes widened and she mumbled, “M-my Governor? Yes sir, I’ll see if he’s available.”

  “Oh, he’ll be available.” Sergi straightened up again and smirked unkindly.

  They didn’t even wait for her to place her call, instead they walked over to his office door and without knocking, Yuri pushed the double doors wide open.

  Arthur Bailey was startled when the doors to his office burst opened and three very angry men stomped inside. He got to his feet slowly and turned to face them, noting his nervous secretary in the back ground, her hand poised over the phone waiting for instructions as to what she should do.

  Arthur shook his head slightly.

  She got up and quietly closed the door behind them.

  Arthur sat back down and looked as if he were contemplating what the men wanted from him. His fingers steepled in front of his chest and he looked to Sergi first. “Can I help you men with something?”

  Sergi sneered at the other man. “I doubt that very much.” He looked around the opulent office with all its polished wood and nice furniture. His eyes came back to rest on the man behind the desk. “I don’t deal with scumbags like you.”

  Arthur frowned at the man on the other side of his desk. “Excuse me?”

  “There is no excuse for a man like you.” Sergi glared at him.

  “Or a man like your Mr. Vandross.” Yuri came forward and dropped a good sized box on Arthur’s desk.

  Arthur’s eyes went from Sergi to the box on his desk. His eyes took on an almost fearful look as he contemplated what was in the box. “What about Owen? Do you know where he is? He didn’t come to work this morning and I’m a little concerned about him.”

  Sergi sneered at the other man. “You should be very concerned about that man. He isn’t right in the head if you know what I mean.”

  Nikoli stepped forward and tossed a file on his desk.

  The file burst opened and Arthur gasped as hundreds of photographs of a white skinned woman spilled out all over his desk and into his lap. He looked horrified as he stared at the pictures everywhere. “What the ever loving hell?” he gasped. He looked up at the three men facing him. “What is all this shit?”

  “All this shit is what your security man had on the walls of his office at his home,” Sergi informed him. “He seems to have had an uncommon attachment to your oldest daughter.”

  Arthur’s face went white. “That creature is not my daughter.”

  “Oh, but you and I both know that she is,” Nikoli assured him. “We have all the evidence we need to prove that fact. You see, not only did Owen have the photographs of every different stage of her life but he had a very thick file of each and every time he found her since she left the nunnery in Norwich at the age of fourteen.”

  Yuri leaned down closer to the man on the other side of the polished desk. He took in a deep breath. “I love the scent of fear in the morning. But is he afraid we will tell the world his deepest, darkest secret or is he afraid of something else? I wonder.”

  “Open the box,” Sergi demanded.

  Arthur jumped at the command in his voice and reached for the box on his desk. Flipping the lid off, he gasped. He couldn’t take his eyes off the plaster mask staring back at him. Finally, he looked up at Sergi and found him looking back. Arthur couldn’t hide the unease and fear in his eyes. “What the hell is this?” he whispered.

  “You have probably already come to the conclusion that we are not from this country.” Sergi glared at him. “In case you can’t place our accent, we come from Russia. Now, in our homeland, there is an organization called the Bratva. It is similar but not quite the same as your Mafia. The Bratva is much older and stronger than the Mafia could ever be. This...” He motioned toward the box on the desk. “...is what we refer to as a death mask. Your man Owen thought he could take something that belonged to us without paying the ultimate price for his stupidity. This mask is reserved for the worst of those who betray us.”

  Nikoli stepped closer. “This bastard thought he could take my child in the hope that your Serenity would come to take her place. He expected to her to give up her life to save another’s.”

  “That freak is not my anything.” Arthur gritted out between his tightly clenched teeth.

  “She is your flesh and blood, you bastard.” Nikoli growled.

  “I only have one daughter and it isn’t that girl Serenity.” Arthur snarled at them.

  “How did your wife Junie take the death of her sister Melanie? Did she understand that her sister had to die to keep your secret? Or was the reason she had to die because she threatened to tell the world that she gave birth to your child? A child born of an act of rape when she was sixteen years old,” Sergi wanted to know.

  Arthur paled slightly. “That’s a god damn lie.” His voice rose but not enough.

  “Oh, but we all know it is the truth, don’t we?” Yuri sneered.

  “We have everything your man Owen collected over the years, every photograph, every medical record, every newspaper clipping.” Sergi shrugged. “You have been quite busy since you began your political career haven’t you? Tell me something Mr. Bailey, do you think the FBI and Homeland Security would be interested in some of your backroom deals with powers that seem to be in place in this country?”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” Yuri shrugged as he continued for Sergi. “...but they might want to be aware of his funding a pipeline of drugs and guns coming in through Canada, via the Great Lakes water system while cutting funds to welfare programs for women and children in need.”

  Nikoli shrugged as he added, “They also might be interested in the bank accounts he has down in the Cayman Islands or in the Swiss banks. Accounts he hid his money in so he doesn’t have to pay the taxes he charges his people to pay but thinks he doesn’t have to.”

  Arthur began to sweat and he actually began to look a little green around the edges. He wiped the line of sweat along his upper lip grew as he gaped at the well dressed men on the other side of his desk. “What’s going on here? Is this a shake down? Are you going to demand money from me to keep all this a secret now?”

  Sergi and Yuri burst into laughter.

  Nikoli merely smiled at him.

  Arthur didn’t trust any one of the three.

  “You really are stupid if you think we came here for money.” Sergi laughed in the other man’s face. “We are Bratva, not blackmailers.”

  “What do you want then?” Arthur asked nervously. His eyes fell to the mask inside the box. He recognized the look on his friend’s face. Even death could not take Owen’s look away. He also saw the rip in Owen’s throat. It hadn’t been made by a sharp blade, no this tear was more savage than he’d ever seen before. It looked as if someone or something had torn his throat out.

  Sergi noted the other man gaze into the box. He raised an eyebrow and decided to tell him exactly how the other man died. “He was a coward right up until the moment he died. He kept saying that you would come for him. You would come for him because he knew all your secrets, secrets you wouldn’t want the world to know, secrets that would ruin your entire family. Your family and your wife’s family.”

  “What happened to him?” Arthur asked in a low voice.

  “He pissed off the wrong man,” Nikoli told him with a hard steel like gleam in his eyes. “We warned him but he didn’t listen.”

  “What do you want if you don’t want money?” Arthur finally asked.

  “We are here to offer you a one time only deal.” Nikoli raised a brow at him. “You have a choice to make, one that if you go back on will result in you losing everything you ever gave a rat’s ass about. And we will know if you betray us.”

  “What do you wa
nt me to do?” Arthur asked while almost gasping for air.

  “We want you to leave Serenity alone.” Sergi informed him. “You turned your back on her once, you can do it again. If you do this, you can go on with your life as if we were never here. If you try to harm her again, you will lose everything.”

  “How do I take the chance you will keep your word?” Arthur voiced his biggest fear.

  “We are Bratva,” Sergi assured him. “We keep our word without question.”

  “That means nothing to me. Most men will promise you anything and betray their word without thinking about it.” Arthur scoffed. “As long as she lives, she’s a threat to me and mine. A threat I cannot have out there.”

  Sergi leaned over the desk and got right up and personal to the other man. “Take the deal or we will destroy you.”

  “You have nothing that cannot be explained away as fabrication,” Arthur scoffed. “Her mother was the only one that could refute your allegations and as you know, she’s gone already. Everything else you have can be denied. But I’ll take your deal. As long as I don’t hear from her or about her, I’ll leave her alone.” Arthur slowly got to his feet. Straightening his tie and glaring at the three men opposite him he ordered them to go, “Get the fuck out of my office and never come back here. I accept your deal and I don’t ever want to see you people again!”

  Serge, Yuri and Nikoli simply stared at him. They stood for a several minutes, staring at him. It was a point of honor to them. They would show they had no intention of jumping at his orders.

  Arthur grew nervous as the silent but tense seconds ticked by. He’d heard of men like these three but he had never met one. They were as dangerous as they came.

  Then all at once, all three turned and headed slowly to the doors. Yuri opened them and they swept out of the room closing the door behind them. They walked out of the building and all the way out to their car without saying a word.

  When Yuri opened the car door, he said to Sergi, “He’s not going to keep his word is he?”