by K. J. Dahlen
Nikoli glared at Bella for a moment then turned to Kirill. “It seems this woman has held a secret from me for ten years. According to her, I have a daughter out there somewhere and her story is that someone is forcing her to get me to a place where he can take me out.”
Kirill growled at Nikoli’s statement. Swinging his eyes to Bella, he noted her tears and her trembling hands.
“What did this man look like?” Nikoli finally asked.
Bella shrugged. “I don’t really remember.”
“Think Bella,” Nikoli ordered.
“Why would I want to think about him?” she screamed. “He took Malina and I know I’m never going to get her back! She was my reason for living. She was my hope for the future and now she’s gone!”
Nikoli reached out and grabbed her wrists. “Get yourself together woman.” He seethed at her.
Then suddenly, the semi hysterical woman took a deep breath and settled herself.
He watched as she shuddered and then calmed down. He leaned toward her. “Now listen very carefully. What did this man look like? I need you to really think.”
Bella closed her eyes then thought for a moment. “I think he was as tall as you, maybe not as wide or as muscled but just as big. His hair is grey, cut very short but I think at one time his hair was dark. He has scars all over his face and arms. One very nasty scar, it starts by his left ear and it cuts across is face ending at his right jaw. I don’t know what happened to him but it must have been really bad.”
Nikoli’s heart sank. With each word, she spoke, he knew in his heart who the man was that had taken his daughter. “How did he know about Malina?”
Bella shook her head. “I don’t know. He never said anything but the more he stared at her the more enraged he became.”
“Why?” Kirill asked in the silence that followed her statement.
“She looks just like her father,” she whispered. Digging into her purse, she pulled out her cell and scrolled through her photos. Then she tapped one and brought it up, turning the cell with the photo toward Nikoli.
Nikoli glanced at the photo and his heart stopped. The small girl did look just like him. She had his dark hair, his jaw and nose too. But she had her mother’s shape to her eyes. He reached for the phone and studied her likeness, then he handed the cell to Kirill.
Kirill looked at the photo and sent it to his own phone then handed the phone back to Bella.
Nikoli got to his feet and stalked over to the windows. Staring out over the city, he was quiet for a moment then he turned to Kirill. “His name could be Danton Valeril. The Bratva has been looking for him for thirty years. You need to call Felix and warn him to let Sergi know.”
“Let Sergi know what?” Kirill asked while looking perplexed.
“Let Sergi know Misha’s attacker is here in the United States,” Nikoli told him quietly.
“This is man that dared to think he could kill Misha and get away with it?” Kirill looked angry.
Nikoli nodded. “It was a different time and place back then. No one knew much about Misha back then, who or what he was.” Shaking his head he went on, “Sergi didn’t want to put his son out there for his enemies to come after. Misha had to do things his own way as well. He was and is just as stubborn as his father is.” He began rubbing his forehead as if to rid himself of a headache. “The night he was attacked, I was barely a kid myself. I was all of seventeen. I heard the fight. Danton was looking for a way to get into the Bratva and he thought the fastest way was to tell people he overheard a plot against Sergi and to kill a man he would then claim was going to attack in hopes of killing the leader. What neither of us knew was the man Danton picked out to murder was Sergi’s own son.”
“How do you know all this?” Kirill asked.
“Danton and I were once closer than friends, we grew up together,” Nikoli admitted. “When he attacked Misha, Misha fought back but Danton was better with a blade. We both grew up on the streets and had to fight every day. Danton had a home to go to every night but that wasn’t where he wanted to be. He always said he wouldn’t work as hard as his father did to earn a living. He said he would use his brains not his brawn to earn his way in life. Misha didn’t have our street sense but he did have the will to live, he fought well. I didn’t know who he was either but what Danton was doing was just wrong. I couldn’t allow him to kill an innocent man. I stepped between them and took Danton on. In the end, we were both wounded but Danton was bleeding bad. He finally ran away from me and I got Misha help. Then Sergi heard about the attack and came to kill me. Misha told his father what I’d done to protect him and Sergi demanded the other man’s name.” Shaking his head. “If you know Sergi, you do not want to lie to him and keeping what I knew would have been a lie in his eyes. I had no choice but to tell him the truth. He plastered Danton’s name all over the place. He had every man looking for him and he knew he had to leave his homeland. Now he’s like a ghost from my past.” Nikoli turned back to the window and searched the streets below him. “I haven’t thought about Danton in years.”
Bella hung her head. “He’s thought about you and he’s hated you every day since that day you stopped him.”
“You seem to know a lot about it,” Kirill stated as he glared at her.
“When he showed up at my home three days ago, he held us hostage for hours. Malina and I were afraid but he didn’t hurt us then. He told us what he wanted me to do. When I asked why he hated you so much he held out his arms and showed me his scars. He told me you betrayed him, you made him run for his life. He had to live for thirty years hiding who he was and now that he found you he was going to take his life back by killing you.”
“Then what did he do?” Kirill asked.
“He instructed me on where to go and what to do. If I got Nikoli at the café today at noon, day after tomorrow and if he was alone with no protection, I would get my daughter back, but he told me if I fucked up my daughter would pay for my betrayal. Then while one of his men held me down he snatched my daughter out of my arms and dragged her away with him. She’s been alone with him for three days now and I have no idea if she’s still alive or not.”
“Did he mention how he found you?” Nikoli stared at her.
Bella shuddered. “He told me he’d been watching the little girls in the school yards when he first saw Malina. I couldn’t understand what he was saying at first, I mean why would he be looking at little girls? Then I realized what he was saying. He admitted to me that he sold little girls and that mine would make a good amount of money for him, but he also said he had to kill you first. He would kill you and then sell her to someone he knew would take care of her for maybe three days while he enjoyed all that she could give him, then she would join you in death. He also told me I would never be able to prove a thing against him. He said he would let me live knowing what I did.”
Bella laid her head against the cushions of the couch. Staring at the ceiling she told them, “My baby girl is my whole life. I knew I couldn’t come to you when I found out I was carrying her. I didn’t know if you would care or not but I loved her enough for both of us.” Tears tracked down her face and dripped off her chin. “Even though I know I may never see her again, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t set you up to be killed.”
Nikoli came over to where she was sitting and knelt in front of her. Grabbing her hands, he forced her to look at him. “Let me try to get her back. I can find Danton.”
Bella shook her head. “He said if I betrayed him, he would kill her himself. He said he would rip her heart out of her chest while she was still breathing.” She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands. “Why couldn’t he just let her be? Why did he have to know who she was? I couldn’t protect her! I tried I really tried but he was stronger than I could ever be.”
“Bella, listen to me.” Nikoli growled. Ripping her hands away from her face, he moved closer to her. “I will find the bastard and I will get our daughter back, do you hear me?”
Bella stared at him her tears shining in her eyes. Reaching out her hand, she cupped his bearded jaw. “I may have only had one night with you but I loved a lifetime in those few hours we had together. You never knew that did you? You might have just used my body for release but I loved you. I’d been watching you from afar for so long and then you chose me. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about that night.”
Nikoli closed his eyes. “Even though I crushed your heart the next morning?”
Bella smiled faintly. “Yeah even though you kinda did crush me the next morning. You also gave me my life back when you gave me Malina. I cried for three days before I got up and dusted my ass off again. I never knew that kind of pain before. Then I found out I was carrying your child and suddenly my heart was full again. This hurts ten times more that I felt that morning. This pain is overwhelming. I almost can’t bear it.”
“You hang in there.” Nikoli leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered. “If I lose her, my life is over.”
“We won’t stop looking until we do find her,” Kirill vowed. “We’ll put this dog down and find your little girl.”
Bella almost smiled. “I hope you can. I hope it’s not all for nothing and that I just didn’t get her killed.” She looked over at Nikoli. “I came here tonight to set up your death, but I just couldn’t do it. I hope you can forgive me for that. As much as I love our daughter, I just couldn’t set you up to die.”
Nikoli glanced over at Kirill. “Get the word out on the street. Call Felix and get him to let Sergi know about this. I want Danton found and I want my daughter brought home to me.” He hesitated then added, “Call in Kosta. I want the both of you on this. We need to get this done quickly and quietly.”
Kirill nodded. “We can try and find his buyer first, then track that fucker down.”
Bella shivered at his words and Nikoli glared at the him.
~* * * *~
Kirill didn’t say a word. He didn’t regret what he’d just said. His job was to protect the Bratva men. To protect Nikoli. He left the penthouse leaving his other two men behind. On his way to the elevator, Kirill made his first call to Kosta. Then he called his other brother in Moscow.
By the time he made it down to the security room, Kirill had men out on the streets hunting down information. By the time dawn broke, Kosta was walking through the doors and Felix was on his way across the sea from Russia, along with Sergi and Misha and an entire Bratva army.
If Nikoli didn’t find this man Danton first, Sergi would let loose his own men to hunt him down. These were not nice men, these were hunters. They were the best of the best and Danton Valeril would not survive very long when they found him.
Chapter Three
Nikoli sat down and stared at Bella for a long moment before he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about Malina when you knew she was coming?”
Bella shook her head. “Would you have wanted to know?”
“You never gave me that option did you?” He glared at her.
Bella turned her head to glare back at him. “No I never did and you know what? I would do it again, and do the same thing. After the way you treated me the next morning, I didn’t think I had to tell you. You made your position very clear. I was nothing more than a good time to you. One you felt you had to pay for the pleasure of using.”
Nikoli winced inside. “That’s no defense for you to keep my daughter from me.”
Bella gave him a cold look. “Would you have even wanted to know about her? To be tied to a woman you thought was little more than a whore? When I walked out of here ten years ago, I had the idea you never wanted to see me again. Then was I to come and beg you for support? Plead with you to acknowledge your daughter? No, I had more pride than that.” She shrugged. “But by that time it was fine by me, I don’t think I wanted to see you again either. She was my baby, nothing to do with you at all.”
“Except that she was also my daughter.” Nikoli growled.
Bella nodded. “You were there the night she was conceived but she was mine and mine alone. I carried her. I suffered the morning sickness and the labor pains. I rocked her to sleep at night and held her when she was sick. I watched her grow from a toddler to a little girl. I watched the first day she walked, the first tooth she got, her first day of school. I was there for her and you weren’t. I was the one who loved her the moment I saw her tiny face. I got her through her first cold, I held her when she cried, not you. Malina was my child.”
Nikoli leaned forward and seethed at her. “She is my daughter too. You have to accept that.”
Bella felt tears run down her cheeks. “No Nikoli, I don’t. No you would have taken her from me the moment I gave birth to her. You are that type of man and you cannot deny it. And control is all you know. She was my child not yours. My responsibility not yours and we were doing all right. Malina is my daughter and now because I couldn’t set you up to be killed—I probably lost her. Danton will kill her when you don’t show up.”
“We’ll find her,” he assured her. “My men won’t stop until they do. We’ll get her back for you.”
Bella shook her head, tears ran down her cheeks, but she couldn’t say anything. The lightness in her life was gone, probably forever.
Nikoli leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “You don’t know this but I had a twenty one year old son. My wife, the only woman I ever loved was murdered but before she died, she gave birth to him. While I held her hand and watched her die, my son was taken from the hospital, stolen by a mad woman. I didn’t even get to see him, or hold him then he was just gone. I looked for him for twenty years before he was returned to me. For each day of those twenty year, I had to wonder where he was, who he was with and if he was still alive. Through God’s grace, I found him safe and whole. The night I brought you here was the tenth anniversary of his disappearance. I was full of rage that night, rage that I lost my wife and my son. Rage that I couldn’t find the woman who’d taken him. All I felt was pure misery knowing that there hadn’t been any sign of either of them.”
~* * * *~
Bella gasped. Raising her hand to cover her mouth she gazed at him in shock. “Oh Nikoli, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
Nikoli shook his head. “Why would you know about Nicky? Only my closest friends knew about him.”
Bella closed her eyes against the pain that touched her heart at his statement. There was so much she didn’t know about him. So much she would never know about him. Now she might lose her daughter, either to a killer or to her father and she wasn’t sure which one could be more painful.
Suddenly, she felt tired of the struggle. She couldn’t let loose of the fear she’d lived with the past few days but she could maybe give Nikoli some hope. Maybe she could let him know what a wonderful kid Malina was. “She’s a lot like you… you know?” she asked softly. “She’s got your dark hair and light blue eyes and boy, does she have a temper. She doesn’t let it loose very often but she’s got one. She sleeps hard and could almost sleep through anything. She loves animals and wants a puppy for her birthday.” Bella bit her bottom lips and looked away. “She has the sweetest hugs you can ever imagine. When she’s happy her eyes light up. And she’s so smart that she skipped a full grade in school. She reads at high school level and math is her favorite subject.”
“What else does she like?” he asked softly.
“She has an amazing imagination and she wants to be a writer when she grows up. She likes the murder mystery genre but thinks romance sucks. I’ve told her she’ll change her mind in a few years, but she doesn’t think so.” She took a deep breath then added, “She likes dark chocolate, homemade macaroni and cheese, and baked beans but hates broccoli, plain orange juice and licorice. Surprisingly, she loves to drink tea and Mango orange juice.”
Nikoli felt his heart sink in his chest. She was more his daughter than Bella realized, even had the same taste in food as he did. He suddenly couldn’t wait to m
eet her. “We will find her.” He assured her. “You can’t give up.”
Bella shook her head. “I can’t help but think what that bastard is doing to her though. Is she ok? Is he feeding her? Is she scared?”
Nikoli knelt in front of her. He took her hands in his and kissed her fingers. “We will find her and when we do, Danton will pay for taking her. If I know anything I know that much. He has a lot to answer for and he will answer with his blood. Sergi he is on his way here to face the man that almost took his son’s life.”
“I really don’t care if he is or isn’t.” Bella shook her head. “That doesn’t concern me a bit. All I care about is my daughter and what she’s going through right now.”
“She’s my daughter too,” he reminded her gently.
Bella sobbed as she shook her head. “A daughter you may never get the chance to meet or come to know!”
He gathered her into his arms and whispered in her ear, “We will find her and I’ll get to know her. I won’t allow Danton to take that chance away from me and if he’s hurt her in any way…I will kill him.”
“Then what?” Bella asked against his hair as he held her. “Even if we do get her back what will happen then?”
Nikoli sighed. “I don’t know. I’d like to say we could work something out but I don’t know if we can. I want her to live here with me, somewhere I can protect her. Once word gets out, she is my daughter it might not be safe for her to live anywhere else.” He could almost see the heartbreak in her eyes.
“And what happens to me?” she whispered.
Nikoli shook his head slowly. “I can’t promise anything right now. I have no clue as we have to find her first.”
Bella bit her lip and looked away. “I should get going. Will you let me know if you can find her?”
Nikoli shook his head. “You don’t seem to understand, you aren’t going anywhere. I need to know you’re safe until we can bring Malina home again. I can’t watch over you and look for Danton at the same damn time.”