“Any new updates yet?” Porter asked Storm.
“Nothing but chatter. Got news that Andrei is still pushing into the family territory. We’ve got men on Sotoro and hoping to get some info to use against Andrei,” Winter said.
“Aren’t you guys worried about him taking over your territory and gaining more power?” Reid asked them.
Storm looked at Winter and Weston. He crossed his arms and kept a firm expression. “To be honest, Porter, we really don’t care. We love your sister, she loves us, and we’re together. Our fear in pursuing her has always been that threat to her life. With our connections, our positions in the Russian mafia, and ties to Chicago, we think it wouldn’t be such a financial loss, or power loss losing the businesses in Chicago and moving out here completely,” Storm told him.
“Are you serious?” Porter asked. “You’d give all that up for my sister and face the family and their lashing out? Because you know the bosses are going to flip.”
“I didn’t say that I was going to give it up to Andrei. I’m thinking of passing it along to someone close to me. Someone who already is there, has a good business sense, and of course the reputation of power even greater than ours.”
“Holy shit, Dmitri?” Reid asked.
Winter nodded.
Porter whistled and looked toward the living room where Silas was with Aspen talking.
“What about Aspen? How does she feel about moving out here completely?” Porter asked.
“We haven’t discussed it entirely yet. There’s all this shit to figure out and handle about Andrei. The bosses aren’t looking like they’re ready to eliminate him quite yet even after all he’s done in the past. Getting Aspen here and offering her the job retraining our staff and becoming part of Pro-Tech will help her become comfortable here. At least that’s what we’re hoping for.”
“She needs to remain under your protection constantly, Storm. Renoke cannot get his hands on my sister.”
“I know that. She is under our constant protection and will never be left alone.”
Porter felt his anxiety rise. “Silas is worried about his sister. We think it may be a good idea to get India out of Chicago, too. We’re thinking about sending her into another town with some of our friends from the SEALs.”
“Who?” Weston asked.
“Flynn, Ford, Fenton, Fisher, and Gray. Gray’s a deputy with the Town of Pearl Sheriff’s Department. The others do protective details like this for good friends. Silas trusts Gray, and Fisher is a Texas Ranger. Pearl is a pretty unique town and with all the retired military around it would be a safe place to put her,” Reid stated.
“There’s also the women’s shelter there. Blade, Beau, Avery, Asher, and Cason could set things up with the sheriff and the women who run the shelter to hide India there for as long as needed. Then Gray and his team could watch over her from afar. Knowing India, she isn’t going to take something like this lying down. She’ll fight Silas tooth and nail,” Winter told him.
“I know. Silas knows that, too, but he’ll personally deliver her to Pearl and make sure she understands the seriousness of the situation,” Porter replied and they chuckled.
“Good luck with that. Have you seen India in action lately? It’s going to take a hell of a lot to slow her down and keep her under wraps. The woman is a spitfire,” Weston said and they chuckled.
“Let’s grab some beers with the guys and sit out back,” Winter suggested.
“I’m going to check on Silas and Aspen,” Storm said.
“No need, commander, I’ve got her right here. We were just catching up,” Silas said with his arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“Well, maybe you can catch up without touching her. I know I’d feel a lot better,” Storm said, and Silas removed his arm and saluted Storm. They laughed and Storm immediately pulled Aspen against him and kissed her.
“There are consequences for flirting with other men,” he teased.
“Other men? You mean Silas and the gang. That’s funny, Storm. They’re like brothers to me,” Aspen stated.
“That’s interesting, I thought you referred to Storm, Winter, Weston, York, and Zin as brothers to you, too, in the past,” Silas said, and they all started laughing, but Aspen gave Silas’s arm a smack.
“Don’t go causing any trouble, you,” she said as they started heading into the kitchen. Porter took his sister’s hand and Storm stopped then winked at Aspen before he released her to her brother.
Porter knew that Storm and his team would protect her, just like always.
* * * *
Aspen took Porter’s hand and they headed out to the front porch.
They were a few years apart. He helped to raise Aspen when she was little and their dad was sick all the time. They lost their mom when Aspen was only a few months old. It weighed a toll on the family from what Porter had told her. They had extended family that helped out for years. Their father died when Aspen was three. She didn’t even remember him. It made her feel more like and orphan than someone who had parents but died before she even got to know them.
“How are you really doing?” Porter asked her as they sat down on the bench.
“I’m hanging in there.”
He smiled. “So the guys finally made a move on you. I thought it would never happen. But I guess seeing your life in danger again kind of changed things for them.”
“Again?” she asked.
“Aspen, when you were abducted.”
“Porter, I know. I know that it was Storm, Winter, Zin, York, and Weston who rescued me.”
“You do? When did you know? Did they tell you?”
She shook her head and wound her fingers together on her lap. “I still have nightmares, Porter. I sleep with the lights on every night.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me? We could have spoken to the doctors and gotten you something to help.”
“No, Porter, I didn’t want to depend upon sleeping aids or something I could become addicted to. Every night I would remember a little more. But when I came here, when I was back in Salvation, things changed for me.”
“Changed how so?”
“I feel like this is home. I don’t know. I mean I never really felt right at the place we had in Chicago. Every time you brought me here after the abduction and every time I visited and even worked temporary jobs around here, I felt like I belonged.”
“I get it. I feel that way around here, around Tranquility and even in Pearl where I visited. The towns aren’t that much different.”
“I don’t think I ever really felt like I belonged, Porter. I never knew our parents.”
“I never really knew them either, Aspen. Then when Mom died, there were people always around taking care of us, but there were so many different faces.”
“I remember that, too. I know it was part of the reason why you left and joined the service.”
“I made sure that you felt strong enough to handle things, and you seemed so strong.”
“I am strong. A lot stronger than you give me credit for.”
“I think you’re strong,” Porter told her.
“Then why didn’t you tell me that it was Andrei who was responsible for my abduction?”
“Because I knew you would do exactly what you did. Seek revenge. There’s always been this side of you, Aspen, so tough and ready to fight and take on the world. You never back down. No obstacle is too big. It’s why you succeeded in life and keep succeeding. You have a gift. Even Aunt Oxsanna saw that in you immediately. She always said how strong, how brave and determined you were, even as a baby.”
“I miss her. She was a wonderful woman. To lose her to that car accident was so upsetting. I think that’s when I really started to build a wall around my heart.”
“Then you were abducted.”
“I still don’t get why. I mean Andrei told me it wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I was to be his, not sold off as a sex slave.”
“When did he say that?” Porter asked, and th
e door to the front porch pushed open.
“Did I hear you correctly?” York asked.
Aspen sighed. “He was trying to get under my skin. He was being pompous when he told me that,” she said and thought about that moment and how angry she was. But then she remembered him saying how one of his guards, his men, made a mistake and that she wasn’t supposed to be sold. Did he really know that Iakov was the one to take her? Or was he trying to cover something up? Was it part of a plan? But why? She knew no one in the mafia. She was seventeen years old and working at a small business office in town when she was taken. It didn’t make any sense.
York stood next to her as Porter took her hand. “That fucker told you that?” Porter asked.
York caressed her hair from her cheek and she glanced up toward him. She could see the concern, the anger in his hazel eyes.
“It’s not a big deal. He expected to shock me or maybe test me.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” York asked her.
“He had a lot of things to say.”
“At the party that night on the balcony or the day you ditched the guards we placed on you and you disappeared for two hours?”
“Aspen, were you with Andrei that night? The night they were looking for you and the guards lost you?” Porter asked.
“I had to go. Iakov and his friends were at the restaurant where India and I were having lunch. Iakov said that it would be in my best interest to make sure that I lose the guards and meet him at his restaurant.”
“And you went?” York asked, pulling back and running his fingers through his hair. He was pissed off. So was her brother.
“Why would you do that? Why, after what he told you he did to you?” Porter asked.
“Because he threatened your lives and India’s. I wasn’t going to get you all hurt or killed. I’ll still do whatever is necessary to protect the people I love,” she said and stood up.
Porter grabbed her arm. “Goddamn it, Aspen, these are killers. Men who would think nothing of hurting you, raping you, fucking killing you. I can’t lose you, Aspen. You’re the only family I have left.”
“You’re not going to lose me. I knew what I was doing. I had no choice when he threatened you and India. She was with me at the restaurant. If they were able to locate us and had the nerve to approach us with Storm’s security guards there, then they would come through on their threats of hurting her or you. I had to go.”
“Fuck!” York exclaimed.
Porter placed his hands on her shoulders. “What happened at the meeting with Andrei?”
She didn’t say a word. She wasn’t sure how to approach this without blowing everything her and Dmitri were working on. But she’d never lied to Porter before. She also was a different person than she was a few weeks ago. She was in love and five men broke down the walls around her heart and made her feel again. When she dealt with Andrei back in Chicago, she was hollow inside and didn’t care if she lived or died. Now things were different.
“Aspen?” York pushed.
“I can’t say.”
“What?” Porter yelled out.
“I’m sorry but none of what he said matters.”
* * * *
Iakov watched as India walked out of the building and headed down the street. He had two men on her as he watched them heading toward him. He got the order from Andrei to send a message to Aspen that he meant business and that she was working for him, not Storm and the others. Iakov would have never let Aspen leave. To this day he still wondered how they found her in that Mexican hellhole. He had covered their tracks so good. Why had Andrei called off selling her? She was a nobody. A woman who came from shit. She didn’t even have any parents and lived with relatives. Her extended family were peasants, nobodies who worked blue-collar jobs and struggled to make ends meet. Why had she been so important to keep? Because of her beauty and sexy body?
He wanted to fuck her and then ship her off. No one would have known a thing. She was ripe for the taking. He issued the order, got out of the place, and then got the call ten minutes later that they had been invaded by soldiers dressed in black.
He should have known it wasn’t a federal military operation. Then came the additional order to keep her alive and to stay clear. Something happened to make Andrei pull back and remain away for all these years.
His boss was weak. Iakov knew that. He didn’t have it in him to slit a throat here and there to send a message. No, he wanted things operated in a more diplomatic, calm fashion. But that was what destroyed empires. Iakov could do a better job of leading and working the black market businesses than Andrei Renoke. Instead he was Andrei’s main guard. Well, he gave him the job of sending a message to Aspen about loyalty to her boss, the man that now owned her as far as Andrei was concerned.
He would send a clear message. No other bitch was safe. Aspen’s brother and team weren’t either and definitely not Storm and those other Russian weaklings.
He made eye contact with his men and they grabbed India just as she waved down a cab. The black van pulled up. The two men took her into the van and they took off before anyone even noticed a thing.
* * * *
India was screaming and kicking her legs as the hand covered her mouth and men pulled her into a van. The sound of tires peeling out and down the street echoed in the background. She was scared, shaking with fear.
“Cooperate,” one man said in a Russian accent.
The van swerved, the engine roared, and she knew they were taking her away from the city or maybe just somewhere no one could hear her pleas for help.
Then suddenly the van stopped.
One man held her hands behind her back, and made her kneel upward in the van. The door slid open and there was Iakov, the man from the restaurant she and Aspen had lunch at that day. He was Andrei Renoke’s main guard.
He was an evil-looking dick, who eyed her over in a way that warned any woman with a brain that the man was sleazy.
“What do you want from me?” she asked him.
“To give Aspen a message from Andrei. Remind her who she is working for.” He struck her across the face once, twice, then a third time as she cried and fell over. The others joined in punching her, ripping her dress, then touching her breasts, her intimate parts. She screamed and tried to fight them off, and defend herself against their hits. She felt her eye swell up, her lip, too, and she was bleeding, aching everywhere when finally Iakov gave the order to stop.
He gripped her face. She cried out.
“You tell that little bitch remember who she works for now. Andrei will not allow his woman to fuck him over again. Next time she dies.”
She looked up at him and spat blood at his face.
One of the men gripped her tighter.
Iakov wiped her bloody spit from his face and gave the guy holding her a nod.
He tilted her chin up and Iakov smiled.
“Some women never learn when to keep their mouths shut.”
He struck her one last time sending her to the floor of the van.
* * * *
Storm came to the porch door with his cell phone in his hand.
Aspen turned to look at him as he stared at her.
“I just got a call. India is in the hospital. Andrei’s men got to her.”
“No! No!” Aspen screamed out. “Is she okay? What did they do to her?”
“They beat her up. Dmitri is with her now. He said he needs to talk to you, Aspen,” Storm said and handed her the cell phone.
All eyes were upon her as Silas and all the other men came outside.
“Dmitri?” Aspen whispered, her voice cracking.
“He was sending a message. You’re to remember who you work for. Remember that you’re his woman and you won’t get away with fucking with him again.”
“Oh God, is India okay though. They didn’t…”
“No. No Aspen, they roughed her up good and she’s so scared. I know that Silas wants to head out here, but I think you guys are going to need t
he backup there. I already spoke with him. They’ll get her to a safe place. Until this all blows over, we need to keep her out of harm’s way now. The fight is on Aspen.”
“I want to see her. I should fly out and—”
A series of “No!” went through the porch and over the phone.
“I’m sending you everything I have. Tell the men what you’ve been doing at Pro-Tech. Tell them about Sparks Industries and how you stopped the sale to Andrei.”
“What?”
“You were right. Gary Sparks couldn’t be forced to sell the company to Renoke. It appears that he shared the company with a few silent partners.”
“A few? Who?”
“I don’t know, but it just put a halt to Renoke’s ability to overthrow your men’s territory. The individuals who owned part of the shares just bought out the company, including Gary’s shares, and now there is one sole owner.”
“Who?”
“No one knows.”
“But then Sparks Industries doesn’t stay in Storm’s family. So we lost it anyway,” she said to Dmitri.
“What’s going on?” Storm asked, and the others looked concerned and angry.
“My sources say it does. When I know who specifically, we’ll talk and I will let you know. In the meantime, you need to help Storm and the team clean house at their company. I’ll send everything to them now.”
Aspen ended the call and handed it to Storm who eyed her suspiciously. She felt intimidated by him and his superiority.
“Okay, Silas is working on getting India to a safe location while we save your company, guys,” Aspen told Storm, Weston, York, Zin, and Winter.
“Dmitri said that Iakov told India to tell you to remember who you work for. To remember whose woman you are,” Storm announced.
“Yeah well, about that.”
“Aspen.” Porter said her name through clenched teeth.
“The man’s delusional,” she retorted.
“Aspen.” Storm raised his voice.
“Okay fine, about that meeting I had when I ditched your two security guards. Well, during that meeting I found out that my sort of boss, Gary Sparks, was being forced to sell his company to Andrei, not you guys, even though I had Gary ready to call you and make a deal. That kind of went amuck because apparently, due to your whole mafia territory thing, Andrei wants to take you over. He was already moving in on your territory at the clubs, the bars, hotels and even the construction deals. Well, until I negotiated that deal with Cartwright and sealed the deal for Dmitri who in turn planned on hiring you guys at Pro-Tech as well as Liberty Construction to do the jobs.” She took a breath and continued to explain everything they had been working on including in the last three weeks at Pro-Tech.
The American Soldier Collection 10: Compromising Love (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 16