by K. J. Dahlen
Talli turned and walked over to the firemen standing there. Rugar went with her and she was glad for the company. “I’m Talli Janick.”
One of the men gave her a tight smile. “I’m Chief Bill Garner. I’m sure you’ve been told this fire was arson.”
Talli nodded. “That’s what I understand.”
“As an arson, we’ll need to investigate it.” Bill paused and ran his fingers through his hair. Looking back at the group of men waiting for her he said, “I need to ask, are any of those men involved with this?’
Talli glanced over her shoulder and said, “No they aren’t. I think the man behind this is a man named Russell Jerome. But I don’t think that’s his real name. He’s after something he thinks I have.”
“And what would that be?” Bill frowned.
“To tell you the truth I have no clue.”
“Alright then, the investigator will be round this afternoon while things are still fresh enough to work with.” He looked over at the men waiting for her. “I don’t want any trouble but they have to let him do his job.”
Talli nodded. “I understand. He won’t have any problems. I’ll probably be here all afternoon anyway.”
“Thank you ma’am. I’ll be in touch as soon as we know anything of value.”
Talli watched as the men gathered up their equipment and left the scene.
Barshan joined her. Wrapping his arms around her he asked, “What did he want?”
Talli laughed. “He wanted to know if your men had anything to do with the fire. I told him no but that I suspected a man going by the name of Russell Jerome might be behind it.”
Barshan hissed. “You probably shouldn’t have told him that.”
“Why not?” Talli wanted to know. “You know as well as I do that he did this.”
“Sweetheart, we may think we know the facts but we never bring in civilians into our battles. We protect our own for a reason.”
Talli rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s out of the question in this case. The police and fire department are already involved and I won’t lie.” Then she grinned. “He almost didn’t want to believe you and your men had nothing to do with this.”
Barshan smiled. “I’m sure he didn’t. Maybe he thought he would get caught in the crossfire and wanted bragging rights.”
“Lord, I hope not. This situation is nothing I want to be in.” She shuddered.
“We will protect you. You have nothing to worry about.”
He tried to assure her but Talli still worried. “I know but like you said you can’t be with me every moment.”
“That’s why I got you Rugar. He can be with you and he isn’t going to let anything happen to you.”
Wrapping her arms around his waist she hugged him close. “I know and I feel safe with you and Rugar watching over me but I will be so glad when this is over. I hate the fact this is giving more power to Russell.”
“Then take the power back,” Barshan urged. “Know in your heart that this is going to end with him dead and you still alive. Whatever he has plans for isn’t going to work out for him. He’s crossed too many people with this. Between us and the Ukraine’s, he isn’t going to get very far. I don’t care who he thinks he is.”
Talli shook her head. “I still don’t get what he thinks his connection to the royal family is going to get him. Russia doesn’t acknowledge the royals anymore. There is no direct line from Nicholas anymore anyway. They murdered his entire family almost a hundred years ago.”
“Russians are a very stubborn people. We never forget anything.” Barshan smiled at her. “The politics in Russia today are very unstable at the moment. They present themselves as a solid unit but who knows what changes are coming up next.”
Talli sighed and paused for a moment to feel the sense of safety he gave her. “I suppose I’d better get going. I need to see what the real damage is.”
Just then, Rugar nudged her knee and growled low.
Talli turned and saw Kosta walking toward them. When he got close enough he told them, “Yuri just called. He thinks it would be a good idea to take whatever is valuable back to the hotel until its safe again. Until the shop is closed up again, there could be looting.”
Barshan nodded. “That’s a good idea.’ Turning to Talli, he said, “Can you gather up everything of value, even what’s in the safes. We can take it back with us. We’ll help you as much as we can.”
“Some of the paperwork from your office is in the truck of my car,” Kosta informed her. “I couldn’t get into the safes but you can get that yourself. The guys and I have been picking up what we could out here but much of it is no good anymore.”
Talli looked around and shook her head. “I’ll have to melt it all down and start over.”
“You can do that?” Kosta questioned.
Talli nodded. “That’s how I designed most of the items here.”
“Cool.” Kosta grinned.
Barshan nudged her toward the back rooms. “You get started in the back and the boys and I will gather what we can out here. Go.”
Talli and Rugar went to the offices and she found a bag then went over to the first safe. Working the combination, she opened the heavy door and began emptying the trays inside. She just dumped it all together. She figured she could sort it all out at a later date.
The bag was almost full by the time she was done and she still had another safe to go. But she didn’t worry. That safe had been open the other night and some of its contents were already gone. Grabbing the bag, she went to the other office where she walked through ankle high water.
Gazing at the destruction, she shook her head and tried not to cringe. Some of her drawings still floated in the cold dirty water. Sloshing over to the safe, she worked the combination and opened the heavy door. Viewing the chaos inside, she didn’t say a word as she emptied the inventory into her bag. When the safe was empty, she closed the bag the best she could.
She wrapped several smaller bags around her wrist and lifted the larger bag then hauled it out into the main show room.
Sazon came toward her and took the bags. “I’ll just put these in the truck of my car. They’ll be safe there until we can get back to the hotel and Yuri can put them in his safe.”
“Do you need anything else?” Barshan asked.
“There are some designs I’d like to gather before we go. Everything is wet but maybe it can still be salvaged.”
“The boys will be here until this is over and everything is out of here,” Kosta assured her. “Between us and the Ukraines, we got it covered.”
Talli nodded then turned to go back to her design room.
Barshan followed along with Rugar.
Grabbing a box from one of the shelves, she began picking up the papers floating on top of the water on the floor. Shaking them off, she piled them in the box.
Barshan grabbed another box and began pulling books and other items off the shelves and placing them in the box.
When Talli had gathered everything, she could she moved into the other office and began picking up items. When she was finished, Barshan was waiting at the door for her.
They went out to the car together and waited for Sazon to join them. Storing the boxes in the truck, they piled into the car and as Sazon drove them away, Talli turned and took one more look over her shoulder at the burnt out wreck of her father’s shop. Tears rolled down her face at the loss of the only place besides the home she grew up in that she had fond memories of. She had grown up in that shop. She had learned to draw there, she had sat on her father’s knee and designed her first piece of jewelry at his work station.
She still had a hard time thinking about its destruction even though the evidence was there right in front of her. Finally, with tears blinding her, she turned her back on the past. She didn’t know if she would ever find another shop to replace the one she lost but that worry was for another day.
Barshan wrapped his arms around her. “It’s going to be all right sweetheart.”
“I know but it’s never going to be the same, you know.”
“I know but together, we can make it better.”
Talli shook her head. “No, Christophe’s is dead. My father’s dream is gone.”
“No it’s not, not really,” Barshan insisted. “You are his real dream. As long as you’re alive, your father’s dream will go on. His legacy is you, not his jewelry designs.”
“Do you really think that?” Talli had to ask.
“I know that for a fact. I think our parents see us as an extension of themselves or what they hope to be. They teach us right from wrong and hope their message somehow gets though. I never knew my parents but I have to believe they’re out there somewhere doing their best to overcome the mistakes they’ve made and that they think and dream about what I’ve become despite the fact they left me behind. Maybe they thought I could have a better life without them I don’t know.”
“Has your life been hard?”
Barshan looked troubled. “My life was a bitch before I met Yuri and the others. We all struggled just to live another day, huh Sazon? Do you remember before we all came together in Moscow?”
“I don’t want to remember those days.” Sazon growled. “My life began the day we met for the first time. That’s all I want to remember of those days.”
“You guys are all real close huh?” Talli asked as she sat back.
“We would die for one another,” Barshan explained. “We are brothers, blood brothers by our own oath. We all met when we were teenagers living on the streets. We were barely surviving alone but once we all came together, we more than survived. We thrived and grew stronger. Then we all began working for the Bratva and for the first time we became a family. None of us are willing to break those vows, they are stronger than any metal and they bind us just as fiercely.”
Talli listened and couldn’t help but feel alone, even though she shared the vehicle with them. She hadn’t felt the feeling he described after her father died. She also hadn’t realized how much she missed it. In her mind, her father had been a big man and in his arms she felt safe, she knew he wouldn’t allow anything or anyone to harm her or her mother. He loved them both so much. They were his whole world and he had been hers. When he was alive, she hadn’t known fear but after he died she felt it every day and every day that passed since then, she felt that fear growing inside her.
In the weeks since her mother died, she’d been in limbo, here but not here. Alive but so alone. Now there was someone out there who wanted to hurt her. Someone who had destroyed her whole world one piece at a time and she didn’t know why.
Suddenly, her whole world exploded as another vehicle rammed their car. Metal on metal crumbled and glass shattered. Talli screamed as she was thrown against the door. The door burst open and she could feel herself falling out onto the pavement. Then she felt hands grabbing her and dragging her away from the vehicle. She heard Rugar barking and someone screaming then she heard nothing as the blackness surrounded her.
Barshan groaned as he tried to open his eyes. Pain assaulted his body and he groaned as he came awake. He struggled to open his eyes and he felt something wet lick his face. He could feel something warm and wet down the side of his head and from somewhere in the distance he heard his name begin called out.
“What the fuck?” he murmured. The sounds echoed in his head and he frowned.
“Barshan, open your eyes,” someone called to him.
Barshan tried again and this time he managed to open them. The light shattered and the pain grew uncomfortable. He didn’t want to know what happened. Then he felt something wet lick his cheek again and he pushed it away.
Opening his eyes again, he saw his friend Yuri standing beside him. “What the hell happened?”
“Someone rammed your car,” Yuri explained. “You and Sazon are lucky to be alive.”
Barshan frowned and tried to sit up. Looking around, he asked, “Where is Talli? Is she hurt?”
Yuri shook his head. “Talli is missing. Sazon told me they took her. There were two cars, one to ram your car and the other to grab Talli.”
Barshan growled. “Where did they take her? IS she still alive?”
Yuri put his hand on Barshan’s shoulder. “She was ok that Sazon could see. The accident trapped him in the front seat but he saw her taken. She’s still alive. She’s hurt but she’s alive.”
Bashan felt something nudge his hand and he looked down and saw Rugar next to him. He looked a little worse for wear but he was still with them. Barshan leaned down to rub his fur. When he rubbed a little hard Rugar, nipped him. Barshan frowned and commented, “Did they hurt him?”
“When I arrived, I found him trying to walk but I think he hurt his leg in the crash. He was whining and refused to allow anyone to get close to you. It took a few minutes to let us tend to you.”
“How long ago where we hit?”
“Maybe twenty minutes or less.” Yuri shrugged. “We got here as soon as we could.”
“Let’s get the items from the shop transferred to your car and hunt these bastards down. Talli must be scared to death by this time.” Barshan felt so angry.
“He won’t kill her, not yet. She has something he needs and as long as she does, he won’t hurt her,” Yuri tried to assure him.
“That bastard is already dead.” Barshan growled then vowed, “And so are the men working with him. I won’t stop until I get her back.”
“We’re right there beside you, my brother,” Yuri assured him.
Barshan looked up and saw Sazon limping toward him. His head was bandaged and his right hand was wrapped in gauze but the look in his eyes matched the one in Barshan’s own eyes.
One that promised vengeance.
CHAPTER NINE
Talli awoke groaning as pain racked her body. It hurt to even breathe and she couldn’t move her hands. She tried to open her eyes but they were swollen shut and she could feel something warm and wet along the side of her face. She tried again to open her eyes and found herself laying on a thin mattress in a semi- dark dank room.
The room was in the shadows and it smelled of old sweat and stale beer. The only light came from an overhead bulb in the ceiling that wasn’t very strong but it was still a light and better than being alone in the dark. She could hear muffled noises from the rooms outside the one she was in so she knew there were people around her.
“So you are finally awake,” a soft voice said from beside her.
She turned her head and saw through a slit of light the face of the man she hated more than anything. The man she knew as Russell Jerome. “What the hell do you want?” she whispered. Her throat hurt so much she could hardly speak.
“I want what is rightfully mine.” He growled.
“And just what would that be?”
“Something my cousin Rizvan Dreususs gave over to your father eleven years ago. It took me a very long time to track him down and even then, I was too late to get the items. You see, he’d already given them to your father for safekeeping. When I confronted your father, he refused to give them back and he told me to leave his sight. He threatened me if I didn’t leave him alone. He told me I had no right to the items but he was wrong. I had every right to claim the items he had hidden from the world. Rizvan turned his back on everything that should have mattered to him but I never did.”
Talli caught her breath as she realized this man had murdered her father. “You killed him didn’t you? You killed my father.”
Russell glared at her and his lip curled in anger. “Yes, I took his life. He refused to give me what I wanted. He had the nerve to tell me the items Rizvan had given him were in safe keeping until he wanted them back. He told me Rizvan and Rizvan alone would get them back. I felt a rage like I have never felt before. For a moment, I left my body and when I came back your father was dead.”
“You stabbed him over thirty times,” Talli whispered. Her throat was dry and tears rolled down her cheeks.
Russell nodded. “
When I saw all the blood I knew I lost it. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. The bloodlust inside me was too much.”
“Did you kill my mother as well?”
Russell smiled.
Gazing into his eyes, Talli could see nothing in them. She remembered the old saying about the eyes being the windows on the soul and she knew this man had no soul. He was evil all the way though. She shuddered with that knowledge as her fate was in his hands. Then she remembered the vow Barshan had given her. She knew Barshan wouldn’t give up on her until she was safe again in his arms. She had to hang on to that hope. The hope that he would find her and save her.
“Your mother was a pathetic excuse for a woman. It was so easy to convince her that I cared about her. I could barely allow myself to touch her.”
“If you hated her so much, why did you marry her?”
“Because I thought she could lead me to the hidden vault!” he screamed at her. “I thought the way she spoke of Christophe that she shared everything with him. It wasn’t until after we were married, she told me she didn’t know where the vault was or how to get into it. I thought maybe after she died I would have the time I needed to find it. I even thought it was in the shop but I didn’t get the chance to look for it. You threw me out on my ass. Then I found out about your father’s will. I knew then my time and opportunity for finding the vault were limited and that I had to hurry or all would be lost.’
“How did she die?” Talli’s heart hurt but she had to know.
Russell sneered. “I gave her antifreeze in her tea. A little drop or two every day and then I gave her a little bit more. I couldn’t allow her to have an autopsy as then my secret would be revealed, so I burned her.”
“You murdered them both and for what? What was so damn important that you would kill for? What was my father holding for Rizvan Dreususs?”
“You know something, I’m not even sure what it is but it’s the proof he will use to establish himself as the next Tzar of Russia. Old family secrets have told me that much. Rizvan is the only known heir to the throne of the Tzar of old Russia. He is one of the last members of Nicholas’s own family and he doesn’t want it.”