I nodded. “Ivan, you with us?”
“Fuck, yes. I know you want to be the one to kill Yuri, but I hope you don’t mind me getting a few punches in or pumping him with a few extra rounds after you’re done with him.”
I nodded. “Okay, we’ll have Nikolai, Will, Boris, and a dozen of my guys, in addition to Callahan’s men, at Trinity. According to the information we got from Martoni, Karl passed on that Katya would only have a few guys guarding her. I had some of those guys call Karl saying that they will either not be there or be very late. He didn’t tell me to get new guards, so he knows he’ll be alone. He’ll tell Yuri about it. Yuri won’t be able to resist trying to grab her.”
The other men nodded. “What if he sends only Orlov?” Ivan asked.
I cracked my knuckles. “Then we use a lot of encouragement to get Orlov to tell us where the fuck Yuri is. He knows.”
“Fuck, is it possible we are finally going to take this asshole out tonight?” Maxim said rhetorically.
“Fuck, yes. As eager as I am to put holes in his ass and throw him off the top of my building, we should figure out where he’s been the last three weeks. It can’t be a good thing that he’s been missing. Surely, he was planning something.”
Ivan nodded. “Me and Callahan will check around town, and I’ll check with some guys back in Moscow. Yuri knows that Mikhail would never allow him to stay in power here, even if he did manage to take all of us out. He must be planning something.”
“Definitely. I’ll also check back with some people in Russia and see what they’ve heard. Okay, this operation is set. By this time tomorrow, Yuri Ivanov will be dead.”
Chapter 38
Katya
I awkwardly carried four martini glasses back to the table where Hannah, Nikolai, Anya, and Emmy were seated. Nikolai could get his own drink.
Anya took a sip of her drink. “I still can’t believe you got Drago to agree to this.”
She looked so pretty tonight. It was almost a shame that nobody aside from the five of us and nearly two dozen assorted gangsters got to see her. The prospect of seeing Callahan had really altered how Anya dressed now. She’d contacted me a million times over the past weeks begging for my help as she tried to pick out clothes and put outfits together. I’d gone on more than one Facetimed shopping trip with her.
Tonight, she was wearing a pretty black envelope skirt that landed many inches above the knee and a black, scoop-necked, sleeveless top with applique around the neckline. She was also definitely wearing a bra, so Callahan had managed to accomplish what I couldn’t on all fronts. Her pale hair was loose down her back, and she was wearing a burgundy lipstick that made her icy eyes pop.
“You can fucking say that again,” Nikolai murmured, taking a sip of his beer.
Hannah jabbed him with her elbow.
“To be honest, me either, but I just made some valid points. I mean, surrounded by guys in some safe house or surrounded by his guys here—what’s the difference?”
We were at the Trinity Club, and though there were no dancers here, I could see various poles decorating the stage in front of us. It was your typical mobster dive bar, strip club, so it wasn’t bringing much in terms of ambiance and atmosphere, but that was all made up for by the fact that it wasn’t Drago’s condo. I had seen enough of the inside of that place to last the rest of my life.
Nikolai shook his head. “He knows a safe house is more secure. He just didn’t want to say no to you.”
Four disgruntled faces stared back at him. He held up his hands in surrender. “Fine, I’ll shut up,” he said, then hopped up to go talk to Will.
“It’s really kind of sweet that he’d let you do this, Katya,” Hannah said, looking very pretty in an off the shoulder, dark blue dress while Emmy was wearing a black halter style dress with a loose skirt that landed just above the knee. I wore a dress I had made for myself during the long hours in Drago’s apartment. It was a one-shouldered, toga-style, emerald green cocktail dress. The draping had been a bitch, but I was happy with it.
I wore it with minimal jewelry, only jade earrings and Drago’s necklace. I reached up and fingered the locket, smiling as I thought about Drago’s expression every time he saw me wearing it. His eyes filled with heat and possession as he rubbed his finger over the scrollwork on the front.
“I agree,” Emmy said. “But, it’s a little weird to think they are waiting to ambush Yuri at the condo while we sit here and have drinks, isn’t it?”
We all nodded. It was weird.
“I know, but I’m glad to be out and drinking just for the simple fact that if I were alone in some safe house, I would be climbing the walls. At least while all that is going on, I can hang out with you guys. Although I’d be lying if I didn’t say the waiting is making me a little edgy.”
“Yeah, I’m nervous, too,” Anya murmured, taking another huge gulp of her drink.
“For Callahan?” Hannah asked.
Anya nodded. “We’ve been getting closer lately. I know he can handle himself, it’s just Yuri…he’s like a cat. Nine fucking lives.”
We all nodded, well aware of Yuri’s seemingly uncanny ability to avoid capture. The mood dimmed. We’d all had various run-ins with Yuri—none of them a positive experience.
I shook it off. “Okay, ladies, hoist your glasses! We need to toast Anya’s twenty-fourth birthday. Happy birthday, Anya!” I said, raising my glass.
The other girls followed suit. “Happy birthday, Anya!” Hannah and Emmy said in unison.
Anya blushed, probably with both embarrassment and pleasure. “Thank you. I know these circumstances are kind of terrible, but it means a lot to celebrate with you guys.”
We emptied our glasses, and I hopped up to get another round from Dimitri, one of Drago’s captains who was kind of enough to tend bar for us tonight.
“Another round?” he asked.
I nodded my head. “Yeah, we have a birthday to celebrate.”
He nodded his head. “Hopefully, we’ll have more to celebrate than Anya’s birthday by the end of the night.”
I nodded my head and thought of Drago waiting for Yuri.
Hopefully, we would.
Chapter 39
Drago
I sat on the balcony smoking another cigarette in silence. Something was wrong, and I knew it. All of our information had lined up. We knew that Karl had contacted Yuri about Katya being unguarded in the condo. Our sources told us he was going to grab her tonight himself. Things had gone smoothly earlier with Karl. We made sure he saw Katya say goodbye to me in her pajamas before I left the condo. I’d come back through the elevator, brought her to the club, and returned the same way.
But none of that mattered. Something was off.
I walked back inside as men stood in the living room and waited.
Ivan and Callahan were sitting at the breakfast bar, both looking at their phones. Maxim sat on the couch, swiping to the left repeatedly. Tinder?
I had been on my phone intermittently all night, checking the video feeds from Trinity Club to make sure Katya was safe. It had become a compulsion.
“Something’s wrong,” I said, walking up to them, speaking softly.
Ivan nodded. “It’s been feeling off all day, but I don’t know why.”
“Karl still ‘guarding’ the door?” Callahan asked, using air quotes.
I nodded. “He should be. I’m thinking of sending one of the men out to check on him to see how he acts. Maybe he’ll give something away.”
“I’ll do it,” Ivan said and headed for the elevator in order to come up through the front elevators and check on Karl.
Callahan and I waited, tension ratcheting up, causing me to pull up the feed for the bar again. Watching Katya drinking with her friends, beaming with happiness, brought a brief smile to my face. She’d been a good sport, but between worrying about Yuri and never leaving the house, she’d been miserable. It pinched something in my chest to see her smile like that again.
“You got the video for the bar on there?” Callahan asked.
“Yeah.”
“Me too,” he said, winking at me.
I shot him a dry look. “You hack my feeds?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking down again. Now I knew what he’d been looking at all night.
A thought occurred to me. “You do that for Ivan, too?”
Callahan nodded. “Yeah, he saw the feed on my phone and thought it would be good if he could keep track of what was happening at the club, too.”
I snorted. Right. They were just as crazy about their girls as I was about mine.
A knock at the door had me reaching for my gun, adrenaline pouring through my body. I crept to the door softly and looked through the peephole, disappointed to find Ivan’s grim features staring back at me.
I pulled the door open. “What are you doing?”
Ivan kicked at something to his side. “You should take a look at this.”
Karl’s body was lying there, a bullet through his head.
Fuck. I knew something was wrong. I needed to get to Katya. Yuri was planning something, and I needed to make sure he couldn’t get to her.
“Let’s get to the club. I don’t know what the fuck is going on right now, but we have to get to Katya.”
Before I could do anything, the phone in my hand rang. It was one of my guys at the warehouse. I answered impatiently.
“What?”
“Pakhan, we just caught Orlov outside the warehouse during one of our patrols.”
“What the fuck? You keep his ass on lockdown, you fucking hear me? We’ll be there in ten minutes,” I barked into the phone and ended the call.
“What happened?” Maxim asked.
“Orlov. One of the guys on patrol outside the warehouse caught him lurking around the building. They’ve got him in interrogation,” I said, my mind scrambling to make sense of what was going on.
“What the hell is he doing there?” asked a perplexed Maxim.
“Good fucking question,” I replied.
“I’ll head to the club,” Ivan said. “You guys go to the warehouse. Callahan, you want to come with me, or the warehouse?”
Callahan cracked his knuckles. “Oh, I want to go to the warehouse and pound on Orlov, but I think I should visit Martoni and find out what he knows about this,” he said, gesturing to Karl’s dead body, reminding me that I was going to need someone to take care of it. “I’ll head over to the bar he runs his crew out of and see what he knows about what the fuck is going on.”
Ivan nodded. “Okay, I’ll head over to the bar. Call me if you get any information from Orlov or Martoni.”
“I’ll be getting something out of Orlov,” I assured Ivan as we all walked out the door.
Chapter 40
Katya
I was up at the bar, getting yet another round when Dimitri grabbed his chirping phone. Whatever he read caused his features to tighten with tension.
“Anything wrong?”
His gaze shot up from his phone, looking like he’d forgotten I was standing there and shook his head.
“Oh, no. Here are your drinks,” he said quickly, then walked over to Will and Boris to explain something.
I frowned, feeling a sudden urge to text Drago and find out what was going on with Yuri. I had a bad feeling. I think I’d had it all night but had been distracting myself from it with alcohol and mindless chatter with my friends.
I brought the drinks to the table and reached for my phone, but before I could text anything, Ivan barreled into the room.
I ran over to him. “What are you doing here? Is Yuri dead? Is Drago with you?” I asked urgently, looking behind him, the bad feeling more intense than ever. The girls came up behind me, obviously just as jarred by Ivan’s sudden arrival.
Ivan gave me a grave look. “Listen, Katya, there’s a lot going on right now. I need to lock this place down.”
“What? What happened? Where’s Yuri? Where’s Drago?” I asked, panic starting to leach into my voice.
Ivan, finally reading my distress, put his hands on my shoulders. “Drago’s fine. Yuri didn’t show, but Orlov showed up down at the warehouse, so he went down there to take care of him.”
I let out a huge breath, my hand resting on my chest as my heartbeat started to regulate. My hand landing on the locket, the feel of it calming me.
“What the hell is Orlov doing showing up at the warehouse?” Anya asked.
“I have no idea,” Ivan muttered. “But Drago is going to find out.”
Nikolai shook his head. “That’s a fucking death sentence, and he knows it.”
“Look, Nik, take the girls,” Ivan said, nodding toward Hannah and Emmy. “Get out of here. We need to get everyone secure. I don’t want anyone here who might be in Yuri’s sites, you know?” he said, taking another glance at Emmy.
Nikolai nodded his head and looked at Hannah, gesturing for her to get her stuff.
Ivan’s phone chirped, his expression getting more alarmed as he read. “Jesus Christ. That’s Callahan.” His eyes took a quick sweep around the room. "He says we have a rat,” he said in a low voice.
I frowned. “I know, Karl. Although, I’m pissed Drago didn’t share that fact with me until tonight, we do know Karl is the mole.”
Ivan shook his head. “No, he just talked to Martoni. There’s another one,” he said, his mouth flattening into a grim line as he once again looked around the room speculatively.
We all gasped in shock and I looked over and saw Anya also scanning the room, trying to figure out who the most likely suspect might be.
“Any ideas,” I asked both of them.
They both focused their attention on me, shaking their heads. “It could be anyone. The person might not even be here. They might be at the warehouse,” Anya said.
Anya’s phone chirped this time, a slow grin forming as she read. “That’s Callahan. He’s watching the feeds and wondering why you haven’t gotten me out of here. Well, that’s the gist of it. The actual text has a lot more swear words in it,” she said.
Nikolai snorted. “I have to agree with him. We should get the hell out of here.”
“Shouldn’t you tell Drago?” I asked.
Ivan shook his head. “Callahan’s telling him.”
Nikolai turned to the girls as they walked over to gather their belongings as Ivan fired off a text to someone, probably Callahan.
Another rat. My anxiety and paranoia ratcheted up to new levels. I was looking at every person in the room as a potential traitor just waiting for the opportunity to hand me over to Yuri. Sweat gathered at the base of my spine as I moved closer to Ivan.
“Maybe I should have a gun,” I suggested to Ivan.
“What? Have you ever even shot a gun? Any gun?”
“Well, no, but don’t you think the circumstance outweighs the risks, here?”
Ivan pondered my point. “Perhaps, but I’m more afraid of you shooting yourself or one of us in a panic.”
I bit my lip. That was a pretty fair concern on his part. “I just feel so exposed sitting here. If I had a weapon, I wouldn’t feel so vulnerable.”
Ivan blew out a breath. “Okay—”
Ivan was interrupted by Will careening out of the backroom and falling on top of tables and chairs in an attempt to stand up, blood soaking the entire front of his shirt, his hand clutching his shoulder.
“Oh my god, Will! What happened?” I asked as I ran toward him, but Ivan grabbed my arm.
“Boris...Boris…” he said before collapsing at our feet.
I looked around for Boris, fearing that Will was calling for his friend in his last moments. Ivan pulled a gun from behind his back and knelt beside Will. Nikolai and the girls all rushed over to see what had happened.
“Holy shit,” Nikolai said.
“He’s alive,” Ivan said, leaning beside Will’s unconscious body, feeling for his pulse.
I let out a breath. “Oh, thank god. Who shot him? What happened? Let me get Bor
is since he—”
Ivan put up a hand to stay me. “No! Katya—Boris.”
My mouth fell open. I was about to respond when a loud explosion sounded from the back of the club, rocking all of us off our feet, causing light fixtures and hanging decorations to crash to floor all around us.
I was pulled under a table with Ivan and…Emmy. He had pulled her into his side, her face tucked into his neck. If I wasn’t so distracted by the apocalyptic situation we were in, I definitely would have asked him a few questions about his feelings for her.
There were still sounds of falling debris when the pounding of footsteps filled the room. Were we being invaded?
I barely had time to process what was happening when a voice rang out that chilled me to the bone.
“Hello, moya Katerina. It’s time.”
Chapter 41
Drago
As I drove to the South Side, anger and anticipation pulsed through my veins and a shiver of apprehension skittered down my spine. This seemed too easy. Why would Orlov be hanging around my warehouse unless he wanted to get caught? The farther away from Katya I got, the more my gut twisted with uneasiness.
Getting Orlov was the key to getting to Yuri, but something continued to feel wrong.
“Hey, get on the phone. Find out how Orlov was caught. What was he doing?”
Maxim dialed one of the men at the warehouse and had a brief conversation. His expression did nothing to dissolve the tension I was feeling.
Maxim was frowning. “He was found behind the warehouse during a normal patrol.”
My anxiety skyrocketed with that information. “Something’s up. Orlov wanted to get caught—he was just standing there? Why? I don’t like it.”
Maxim shook his head. “Me either.
It seemed like someone was trying to get us away from the club. I glanced in the rear-view mirror, looking to pull a U-turn and to go to the club.
Maxim glanced over and accurately reading my intentions. “Ivan is there. She’s got twenty men there protecting her. How could he possibly get to her?”
Drago (Dangerous Love Book 3) Page 23