Nikoli (Full Novel)

by K. J. Dahlen

Misha’s phone began to ping with text messages and pictures. He gasped at the photographs coming through his phone.

  Ivan moved closer to see what was going on. One picture came up and he turned his head to glare at the man sitting there squirming. “He’s a thief.” Ivan growled.

  Sergi snapped his head around to stare at the other man. “How do you know this?”

  He pointed to a photograph on Misha’s phone. “That piece belongs to a friend of mine here in the city. Geno came here on a business trip and asked me to introduce him to my friend. I didn’t want to but he insisted. I did and later that week my friend was robbed. His fourteen year old son was beaten almost to death and the police called it a home invasion. This piece and several others went missing. My friend didn’t care about the objects he cared about his son who barely survived the attack.”

  Sergi nodded then looked at Ivan. “Call Daemon and ask him to join us.” Looking at his son Misha he said, “Call Nikoli. Tell him we’re sorry his reunion is cut short but we need him down here right away. Then get Kosta here to represent the New Orleans Bratva. I’m going to call the High Council.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  An hour later, more men entered the room.

  Nikoli came over to Sergi and Misha. “I spoke to the High Council for the Italian’s and they said to tell you to handle this. They will handle damage control on their end but they will cede to us this man and the items stored at his residence. They are willing to cooperate but not be ignored when the facts are known. They want to know if we will allow them to be represented here while Marchanti is questioned.”

  Sergi nodded. “Of course. We can wait until someone shows up to begin our questions.”

  Nikoli nodded. “Oh, by the way, we have taken his wife and children into custody for their own safety.” He gave Geno a look. “She was not happy about it either.”

  Geno smirked.

  Nikoli glared at him. “What she wasn’t happy about was the fact she didn’t know what was in the basement. When she saw the pictures, she started screaming about what a low life you were. She’s planning on suing you for everything you are worth in divorce court.”

  “Let her try, she won’t get much, not from a dead man. The people I work with are going to take everything I have to my name and then some. That bitch will have to find another sucker to shack up with.” Geno growled. He turned to Sergi. “You said my daughter gave me up. Is she still around? I’d like to thank her with a bullet to the head. Can I arrange that?”

  Nikoli stomped over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. Lifting him clean off the floor, he flung the other man against the closest wall.

  Geno screamed as he hit the cement wall. Blood sprayed everywhere from the cuts that lacerated his skin. His right side smashed into the concrete and when he was left in a crumbled heap on the floor, his right arm was broken in at least two places along with his knee and foot. Broken bones stuck out of his torn skin and he screamed until the pain took him into unconsciousness.

  Nikoli growled and looked like he was going to pick him up and throw him again.

  Sergi shouted a command in Russian at the man. “Nyet, Nikoli! Dovol'no!” Nikoli stopped and swung his raging gaze around at the other man. His chest heaved with fury and his silver eyes were almost a cobalt blue at this point.

  No one in the room moved a muscle as he fought for control. They would rather he calmed on his own. After a few minutes, he relaxed and walked away from everyone. He went to stand against the wall. Everyone watched as he got himself under control.

  Sergi glanced at Daemon. “Bella is his woman and apparently, he did not take well to those threats.”

  Daemon nodded. “I too, might have done the same thing. Though Geno is now worse for wear but as long as he breathes we can still do what it needed.”

  Forty minutes later another man entered the room. He introduced himself as the representative of the Italian High Council, Bruno Cantori. When he saw Geno still laying when he landed, he raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

  Kosta had cut the ropes binding Geno to his chair but the man hadn’t tried to move. They dragged his closer to the wall while he kept screaming the whole time in severe pain and sat him up against the cement wall. The bleeding had slowed down but now he was weak with blood loss and was sitting in a pool of his own blood. Other than this, they hadn’t given him any other care.

  Ivan wouldn’t let them call a doctor for the man and no one argued with him about that.

  Bruno walked over to Geno and shook his head. “You do know if we have found you out, you would have been dead hours ago don’t you? You and your family.”

  Geno nodded and winched. “Yeah, I know that.”

  “You were warned years ago not to fuck up again. You maybe should have listened to that warning huh?”

  “You didn’t catch me then I had no reason to think you would now.” Geno’s voice was low but the room was small and everyone heard his condemning words.

  “How long you been doing this shit?” Bruno demanded.

  “Bout twenty-five years now,” he admitted quietly.

  “How long you been working with the Russians?”

  “I’m not. They were never involved in this.”

  “Then how did they find you out?”

  Geno tried to move and had to close his eyes as waves of pain washed over him. “You remember my daughter Isabella?” he finally asked.

  Bruno nodded. “Did you ever find her?”

  “She ratted me out to them.” He growled.

  “We warned you about her too, didn’t we?” Bruno glared at the other man. “Mika wasn’t happy when he saw how you treated her. You or that bitch you married.”

  Geno snorted, “Yeah well, I ain’t in this alone either, my family is up to their eyeballs about what I’m doing. They knew, the boys worked with me on several jobs, they just didn’t know where the haul was at.” He paused and closed his eyes in pain again. “I need a doctor. Can you get me some medical help?” he begged opening his eyes again.

  Bruno shook his head. “I’m here to observe, not to render aid under the orders of the High Council and the Families organization. I am not to interfere with their questioning.” He looked at Geno. “I don’t know who you pissed off and I don’t want to know why but I can imagine.” He walked over to Sergi. “I suggest you ask your questions while he’s still alive and can tell you what you want to know.”

  Sergi walked over to where Geno was propped up and squatted down to his level. “You are a thief then?”

  Geno nodded. “Inside the vault there is a record book.” He was fading fast at this point. “Tell Bella something for me will you?” He looked at Sergi and when the other man didn’t say anything he said, “Inside the vault you’ll find a contract involving her. It’s a legal document, he insisted on that. It wasn’t Ivan she ran away from that night, it was another man. He told me his name was Jeffery Smith but it wasn’t. His name is Randal Kenneth Jorgennson. He also deals in high end merchandize. He saw her when she was about twelve and he wanted her then but he had nothing to offer me for her. He knew he could get a lot of money for her in one of the overseas markets. I made him wait until he had something I wanted bad enough to turn her over to him.”

  “And pray tell what did he finally give you for her?” Sergi sneered.

  “A picture of her mother,” Geno told him. Shaking his head, he told them, “That bitch survived the overdose I gave her. The temperature of the water slowed down her heart and body core temperature enough for her to live through the overdose and nearly drowning. She got caught up on some rocks just below where I threw her into the river. She lived until I found her again and then I made sure she was dead.”

  Ivan roared in his fury. He had heard enough. He stomped over to the man. Reaching out, he grabbed his head and jerked it all the way around snapping his spinal column with a loud crack.

  Geno never felt a thing.

  Sergi got to his feet and walked over to wh
ere Bruno was standing. “Tell your organization that Geno is dead.”

  Bruno looked up at the other man and nodded. “Will you turn over his wife and children to us?”

  Sergi nodded.

  “Then our business is concluded here. Thank you for your consideration and for letting us know this was happening.” Bruno turned and walked away.

  Sergi didn’t say a word to anyone, though he motioned at Nikoli as he walked out of the room.

  One by one, the others followed and they all gathered in the conference room at the other end of the hall.

  “I want everything boxed up and brought back here. All the paperwork as well. When it arrives, we will go through it and then decide what we want to do with it,” Sergi announced when everyone was present. He looked over at Daemon and Travern. “I would appreciate your presence at that time as well as your opinions. I’ll invite a member of the High Council to be present as well.”

  “And this man, Randal Jorgennson?” Ivan demanded. “What’s to be his fate?”

  “I will leave his fate to you and Nikoli,” Sergi commented. “If Daemon agrees to that, I will let the two of you decide what’s to become of him.”

  Ivan turned to Braaken and got his nod. Then he turned to Nikoli. “You will leave the fate of this man in my hands. You protect Bella and Malina.”

  Nikoli held out his hand to Ivan. When he grasped it, Nikoli gazed in to his eyes. “Make him regret he was ever born.”

  Ivan smiled. “Da, I will.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Three days later, two armored trucks pulled into the parking structure at the back of the hotel. Security was tight as the contents were unloaded and taken to a vault in the basement of the casino/hotel Nikoli owned and ran.

  Seven men watched as the contents were unloaded and stored in the vault. The seven men then went to a conference room on the same floor while four armed guards stood watch.

  Sergi, Misha, Daemon, Travern, along with three members of the High Council gathered around Sergi’s man Grenada and waited until he handed Sergi an inventory list of the contents of Geno’s vault.

  “What happened with the wife and children left behind?” Sergi wanted to know.

  Grenada shook his head. “You don’t want to know, but I will tell you. The wife, when she first got home she ranted and raved like there was no tomorrow, then when she realized why we were there, she demanded to see inside the vault. We let her look and she exploded in rage. At Geno. She kept on and on about how he was a no good man and a thief, only thinking of himself and never his family.

  “How old are his children?” Misha asked.

  “His oldest son, Raoul is twenty two and his youngest son Paulo is twenty one.” He snorted. “And believe me when I tell you neither one of them is a child, nor an innocent. They both knew what their father was doing. They were quietly waiting the whole time and then when their High Council came to collect them they all heard the charges against them and all hell broke loose. They all fought like hell against being taken, proclaiming their innocence to whoever would listen.” He shrugged, “No one did, listen to them I mean. When they realized this, all three were very helpful in laying blame on Geno for everything.” He shook his head. “It was pitiful to watch. His family was just like him, quick to lay blame at someone else’s door until it didn’t work no more.”

  “Da, but that chapter is over now and we move on,” Sergi told him. “Did you find the document we asked you to locate?”

  Grenada nodded. “Da, it was there.” He patted the briefcase he held in his hand. Walking over to a table, he laid it out and opened it. He handed Sergi several documents, the top one being the contract Geno made with Jorgennson.

  Sergi read it carefully then handed it down the line giving everyone a chance to read it and understand its meaning.

  One of the council members, Dmitri Slavic looked over at Sergi. “Hold this man but do not kill him. Not yet. Investigate his holdings and find his routes and when you do, report them to the Council. We have run across this man before but lacked what we needed to take him down. With this, we have what we need. The people this man works with are pure evil, they deal in women.” He looked disgusted. “Not women really, they are barely in their teens when they are taken from their homes and sold into slavery. As you know, we have no problem with women selling themselves to make a living. If that is what they want and there is no problem, but these girls are not there willingly. They are forced to serve whoever has the money to buy them and what happens to them is often tragic.”

  “What do you want us to do with him once we have him?” Daemon Braaken asked. “My man Ivan will not be happy he has to keep him alive.”

  Dmitri shook his head, as he looked a little troubled. “You called Ivan in?”

  Daemon shrugged. “He was here the night we found out about the contract. He didn’t take the news well.”

  The other man shook his head. “How long can Ivan refrain from killing him?”

  “Two, maybe three days.” Daemon offered a timeline.

  “Then gentlemen,” Slavic replied as he shrugged, knowing Ivan’s temper. “You have two maybe three days to investigate this man’s holdings.”

  ~* * * *~

  Nikoli laid in his bed, one arm thrown up across the top of his head. He stared at the ceiling and thought about what had happened a few nights ago, the contract for Bella, the fact that her mother had died after all at the hands of Geno. About her father’s death and what they found in his vault.

  He’d been wanting to tell Bella something better than this news. But it had to wait. He needed to tell her how he really felt about her. Now though, he knew he had to deliver this disturbing news instead.

  It was just before dawn. He was already awake and waiting for her.

  His door opened softly. Bella d glided softly across the floor and climbed into bed with him, as was their routine.

  This morning, Nikoli didn’t take her into his arms and cuddle her close. This morning, he did none of that. He just stared at the ceiling.

  “Is something wrong?” Bella asked trembling. “Is this not what you want anymore?”

  Nikoli turned his head and saw the pain on her face. Then he realized she thought he was rejecting her. His arm came down and he held her close. “I’m sorry, there’s something I have to tell you and I’m not sure how you’re going to take the news.”

  Bella sat up and stayed with him but she put distance between them that had not been there before. Staring at the wall, she was facing, she whispered, “Just tell me.”

  Nikoli sat up and stared at the same wall. “We found your father’s vault.”

  “And was the Token inside?”

  “Da, it was and so much more. We found more than we could have dreamed.”

  Bella looked confused for a moment. “Well, that’s good. Knowing my father it’s probably hot, so don’t spend it yet.” She let out a small chuckle.

  Nikoli shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. The items in your father’s vault were already stolen. It was mostly jewelry and gold coins but these were national treasures from all over the world. Your father was a thief.”

  “And that affects me how? I left his home eighteen years ago.”

  “It doesn’t affect you at all.” Nikoli shook his head. “We found even more items in his vault. One of the things we found was a legal contract between your father and a man named Jeffery Smith.”

  Bella reacted to this name. She went pale and began to tremble.

  Nikoli watched her for a moment and realized she knew him, or she knew of him. He wasn’t sure which but he was certain she knew the name.

  “What did he accept in payment for me?” Bella whispered.

  “The fact that your mother survived being overdosed and thrown into the river. She survived two more years until your father found her again.”

  The light in Bella’s eyes faded to nothing.

  Nikoli grew concerned for her.

  She swung her le
gs over the side of the bed and bent down to grab her nightgown. Putting it back on, she got up and was walking toward the door.

  Nikoli got up and rushed after her. Grabbing her shoulders, he held her to him.

  Bella didn’t even bother to struggle in his hold. She just stood there staring at the door.

  Nikoli pulled her into his arms and she seemed so cold. He shook her gently, but she never responded. He shook her again and this time, she lifted her head.

  She took in the concern on his face. Then she smiled gently. Reaching up her hand, she cupped his jawline and studied the contours of his face one last time. “Promise me something?” she whispered.

  “Anything,” he replied as he stared at her emotionless expression.

  “Try to remember me to Malina. When she grows up, tell her that I loved her very much. I wanted so much for her. I had hoped to show her the world and all its glories, and take her to a thousand different places. Please love her enough for both of us.”

  “Where do you think you are going woman?” Nikoli frowned.

  “My father has sentenced me to a living hell. Jeffery or one of his friends will come for me now that I have been found. I have to leave here and settle some other place in order not to be taken by them. I will not live that life, not now, not ever. I’m sure my price has dropped considerably by now.” Then gazed at Nikoli and grabbed both sides of his face to look right into his eyes. “I may not mean a thing to you but you protect Malina. Don’t let her out of your sight, not even for a moment. If Jeffery can’t get to me I’m sure he’ll take her in my place.”

  “You aren’t going anywhere but back to bed woman.” Nikoli growled. “What I’m trying to tell you is the fact your father is dead and Ivan is hunting down this bastard Jeffery. Both you and Malina are safe here with me.”

  Bella’s eyes cleared of the despair slightly. Hope began to appear a little at the edges. “What about my father’s wife and her two sons?”

  “They are dead as well,” Nikoli assured her. “Their High Council took care of that. All of them knew what Geno was doing and they didn’t try to stop it, so they all were involved in his crime and therefore, they all shared his fate.”