Pinching the bridge of my nose, I fought to block out images of Lexi’s face earlier. Her expressions of shock, confusion, and devastation. She was a seriously gifted actress. For a moment, she’d actually made me believe that she had no idea what I was talking about.
But the videos spoke for themselves.
You were played. They ran game on you.
Reaching over to the mahogany box on the end table beside me, I lifted a priceless Rothenberg dagger in my hand—
And drove it into the armrest.
I slashed through the material, dragging the sharp blade through the leather. Over and over again. Then I did the same thing to the other side.
Slash. Drink.
Slash. Drink.
Slash. Drink.
I kept the process up until the bottle was well over halfway gone, my head started to spin, and the slashes turned into blurry lines.
The dagger clattering to the floor was the last thing I heard before I passed out.
“Nico! Wake up, man!”
With great effort, I peeled my heavy eyes open and winced.
Christ. Sleeping like that killed my neck. The knot on my nape was bigger than ever.
I rubbed the throbbing muscles as I straightened myself in the chair, my vision slowly coming into focus.
My entire family stared down at me. My brothers surrounded my chair, while Mom, Gia, Jasmine, and Roxy huddled around the other armchair, where Dad was sitting.
“What the fuck is going on?” My voice was scratchy, my words slightly slurring.
Cris passed me a bottle of water as Ace said, “We were wrong about Sergei Kozlov.”
I frowned and emptied the bottle in two gulps. “What are you talking about?”
Ace placed his laptop down on the end table, turning it around to face me. “Sergei’s not the one who’s been taking payments from Esposito. And he’s not the one who broke him out of prison.”
It was taking me longer to register what he was saying. Everything was still pretty fuzzy. “So, you’re saying the Russians aren’t the ones partnering with Raphael?”
“Oh, it’s the Russians all right,” Luka mused.
“Just not the Russians we thought,” Rome added in a grave voice.
Ace must have caught them up on everything regarding the footage of Lexi and Dimitri. And clearly, everyone but me was updated on whatever these new developments were.
Rubbing my temples to ward off an oncoming headache, I asked, “The Voiny? The faction opposing Sergei?”
Cris snorted, arms crossed over his chest. “A more accurate term for their faction would be The Frenemies.”
“Just spit out whatever you’re trying to say,” I bit out wearily.
I was seriously getting sick and fucking tired of all this cloak-and-dagger bullshit.
Ace tapped a few buttons on his keyboard. “Take a close look at this video.” It was the CCTV footage of Raphael’s breakout behind the courthouse. I hadn’t a chance to watch it yet. “Look at the driver of the black van. Tell me if you see something off.”
I leaned forward and squinted at the screen. Ace zoomed in on the driver’s arm that was sticking out the open window, hand holding a gun that the bastard had been pointing at me. Right before he shot me in the shoulder. Like all of his black-clothed, masked cohorts, he’d been wearing black leather riding gloves. No doubt to prevent the risk of leaving behind any fingerprints.
I had no idea what I was supposed to be loo—
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
I zoomed in further on where the driver clutched the handle of his gun. In particular, the way his gloved fingers gripped it. The pinkie finger hole was loose, almost hanging there apart from the others, like it was empty or something. Which could mean only one thing.
There was no finger in it.
The driver who shot me was missing the pinkie finger on his left hand.
“No fucking way,” I hissed.
“Dimitri Novikoff doesn’t just act as Sergei Kozlov’s head of security and main enforcer,” Ace explained. “He’s the official underboss, which means he has access to all of Sergei’s personal accounts.”
My eyes darted to my youngest brother. “Including his offshore accounts.”
A curt nod from the tech genius. “I traced the activity on Dimitri’s own accounts from the past two years. This isn’t the first time he’s accepted money from the enemy without Sergei’s knowledge. It’s no wonder why Sergei’s been having pushback from groups who used to be his allies. His own underboss has been stirring up shit behind his back. It seems that Dimitri’s loyalties shift in whichever direction the cashflow is running.”
Dad shook his head. “And Sergei didn’t have a clue.”
“Even if he knew he had a rat in his organization,” I cut in, “he would never have looked at Dimitri. Lexi said Sergei thinks of him as a son.”
“Funny you say that.” Ace pulled up a series of documents on the laptop. “Because Dimitri Novikoff is Sergei’s son.”
Everyone’s heads snapped in his direction.
“What?”
“Come again?”
“How do you know that?” I demanded. Did Lexi know that?
“Sergei was married to a woman named Claudia Ostrovsky for about four years over twenty years ago,” Ace detailed.
I nodded. “Right. But she died months after suffering from a miscarriage. Apparently, she couldn’t have any more children from all the complications, and she basically slipped into a deep depression and died from her own despair.”
Everyone in our world knew the tragic story of Sergei Kozlov’s doomed wife and child. Lexi had also filled in some blanks with what sparse information she knew.
Ace shook his head. “She never died. I got curious when I never found her death certificate during my research, so I looked into it further. Claudia left Sergei. Decided she couldn’t handle mafia life anymore, so she divorced him on the downlow. I guess she lied to him about the miscarriage, too, because she gave birth to a baby boy six months after the divorce.”
“Dimitri,” Rome confirmed.
“And Sergei never knew about the baby?” This from Cris.
“I guess not,” Ace answered. “He told everyone she’d died, most likely for her own protection. You don’t willingly leave the Russian mafia. He knew she could be used against him, so he had to ensure that none of his enemies would go looking for her.”
“And if she wanted no part of mafia life, then she wouldn’t want her child part of it either,” Luka threw out.
“But Lexi said Dimitri had been around ever since they were teenagers,” I interjected. “You’re telling me Sergei hasn’t known this entire time that Dimitri is Claudia’s son?”
Ace spun the laptop back around to face him and pulled up more documents on the screen. “From the information I found, Claudia re-married about two years after she divorced Sergei. The new husband was apparently an abusive alcoholic. He was charged with domestic assault and child endangerment when Dimitri was eight. Went to prison for it and was killed inside not long after. Some kind of prison riot.
“Claudia died from lung cancer when Dimitri was fourteen. The address I found for them was in the slums, really rough neighborhood. After her death, I couldn’t find any record of Dimitri attending any school or being admitted into any foster care system. As far as I can tell, he had no other immediate family to turn to after his mother’s death.”
“Except for Sergei,” Rome supplied from where he stood in the shadowed corner, like a statue.
“But why would he keep Sergei’s paternity a secret?” Luka asked. “If he just told him who he was, he’d be heir to a billion-dollar fortune.”
“Perhaps it was revenge,” Dad spoke up. You’d never have known he’d been in the hospital three weeks ago. Aside from losing a little weight, he looked no different than before the heart attack. “It’s possible Dimitri blames Sergei for everything that happened to him and Claudia. Maybe he felt Sergei had abandoned
them, and now he’s looking for payback.”
“But Claudia left him,” Cris argued. “It was her choice.”
Dad grunted. “Grief can convince the mind of almost anything.”
I pressed my palms to my eyes, my brain wading through the mushy effects of the alcohol. “So, Dimitri helps Raphael escape prison…just for the money? What’s his game? There has to be more to it than that.”
“There is.” Ace pulled up the security camera footage from Sergei’s compound the day of the shooting. The day of our wedding. “The brigadiers shooting up your father-in-law’s estate the day you hightailed it out of Moscow? Same guys who helped Dimitri break Raphael out. Same crew.”
My face slackened with clarity. “They’re the Voiny. Dimitri is the leader of the faction that’s trying to overthrow Sergei.”
It was all beginning to make sense.
Cris blew out a heavy breath. “He’s been turning Sergei’s own men against him from the inside. Pulling the wool right over the boss’s eyes.”
Luka threw his arms up. “Why didn’t he just kill Sergei? That seems like a long time to wait to claim power for someone so greedy. Putting a bullet through Sergei’s eyes would have been a lot quicker.”
“He had to gain respect among the men,” I answered. “He knew those loyal to Sergei would revolt if he moved too quickly. He had to get as many as he could to go turncoat before he made his move.”
“Then, what?” Rome asked. “He kills Sergei and claims the boss seat? And the Voiny basically take over the entire syndicate?”
Luka shook his head. “It still doesn’t make any sense to me why he didn’t just tell Sergei who he was. He would have an automatic inheritance.”
“But not until Sergei died,” Dad pointed out. “Which could still be another twenty years or more. If Dimitri proved paternity, he’d have to arrange for Sergei’s ‘accidental’ death if he wanted to see that money anytime soon.”
“Besides, he wouldn’t be the only one inheriting,” Ace said. “Sergei changed his will not long after he adopted Lexi, leaving her everything. His entire fortune goes to her upon his death. Even if Sergei were to change it and include Dimitri in it, something tells me that he probably never learned to share as a child.”
“Are you saying he was planning to take her out, too?” I barked, the question coming out louder than I’d intended.
I fumed at the thought of that cocksucker laying a finger on Lexi.
Ace quirked an eyebrow. “If he wanted all the money and power for himself, both Sergei and Lexi would have to be out of the picture.”
“So, why is he making his move now?” Cris asked.
I could tell he immediately answered his own question, but I was the one who said it out loud. “Because she married me.”
“Which would have screwed up his entire plan,” Rome added.
“Sergei must have known more than he was letting on,” Dad concluded.
Ace rubbed his chin in contemplation. “He must have discovered what Dimitri was up to and called the impromptu meeting with Nico to cut Dimitri off at the pass. If Lexi was married to Nico, he knew Dimitri would have to fight our entire family if he wanted to get at her.”
“And Sergei knew he wouldn’t be able to stop Dimitri by force,” Luka cut in, pacing once again. “Not with so many Voiny at his back.”
Cris shot me a look. “Not to mention, Sergei knew she’d be in danger if she stayed in Moscow. Just like he told Nico, he wanted her out of Russia for her own safety.”
“But Dimitri’s been here,” I snapped, growing more agitated with every new revelation. “He followed us here.” I thought back to the footage of he and Lexi talking on the street. “Jesus Christ, he’s been within arm’s reach of her this entire time.”
He could have done anything to her, right under my nose.
He could have stolen her…hurt her.
Or worse.
“Did she tell you what he said to her during their meetings?” Ace asked. Because he knew I had confronted her.
I ran my hand through my hair. “Just that Sergei had ordered him to keep an eye on her. To keep her safe. And he was trying to tell her lies about us, probably to drive a wedge between me and her.”
Which hadn’t been necessary. I’d done a pretty bang-up job of that on my own.
But now we knew for sure that Sergei had never ordered Dimitri to protect her. And if Dimitri had been lying to her the whole time, that meant…
Lexi hadn’t betrayed me.
She’d kept their meetings secret, but probably because she knew I didn’t trust the bastard, just like she said. She knew I would lose my shit if I’d known he was in the city. She truly didn’t know anything about Raphael’s breakout, and she honestly thought Dimitri had just been doing his job.
What the hell have I done?
“Where is Lexi?” Mom spoke up for the first time, concern marring her features. “I couldn’t find her upstairs.”
As her words sank in, my eyes shot wider and wider until they were the size of dinner plates and my heartbeat tapped like a snare drum in my chest.
“She’s here somewhere,” I whispered. “She has to be here.”
The last time you two spoke, you basically told her you were kicking her ass back to Russia with annulment papers in her hands.
I took off at a sprint for the stairs, vaguely registering the pounding footsteps of my family following behind me. I shoved open the door to the back patio to find the pool empty, same with the guest house. No sign of her in the living room, kitchen, my office. Panic setting in with every vacant room I came upon, I flew up the second set of stairs to her bedroom and found that also empty. In fact, it was completely empty.
Her suitcase was gone.
Her closet cleaned out.
Her bathroom devoid of all toiletries.
My last shred of hope had me checking my bedroom, praying that I would miraculously find her curled up in my bed asleep.
Nothing.
Her fragrance lingered, but there was no Lexi tangled among my sheets. No lacy underwear littering my floor. No sign that she’d ever even stepped foot inside the room.
Lexi was gone.
“No…”
I didn’t know where else to go.
The cab driver had driven around the city aimlessly before I’d eventually given him the address of the Brooklyn Armor House. Don’t ask me why I didn’t just go to a hotel because I wouldn’t have had an answer.
For some reason, the distillery just felt…comforting.
Nico had given me the access codes to the security systems at every property he owned in the city, so I was able to get inside the building without triggering the alarm. I figured I could at least wait here long enough to get my thoughts in order and come up with a plan.
And until Dimitri came to pick me up.
I’d told him in my message to meet me at the distillery.
Because it was time to go home. The home with my father, in Russia. Brooklyn wasn’t my home, and the Rossettis weren’t my family. No matter how much it had begun to seem that way.
No matter how much I want it to be that way.
Of course, Nico’s scent had to be all over the bloody place. The leather couch in his upstairs office smelled so much like him, it nearly had me bursting into tears.
And yet, I still found myself falling asleep on it…
Some time later, a sound from downstairs in the taproom roused me from a light sleep. Blinking my eyes open, I realized someone had entered the building without setting off the alarm. Which meant they had the code.
Nico.
How had he already found me? And why would he even care to come after me? After all, he was ready to pass me back off to my father. Because he thought I was a traitor. Even before tonight, he’d never once indicated that I was anything more to him than a negotiation tactic.
A business transaction.
A nuisance.
And I’d apparently served my purpose.
He hadn’t been able to tell earlier.
No, he’d been too busy being a jackass to notice anything except whatever jackasses noticed.
I wound my way down the spiral staircase to the first floor. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on staying here,” I called out flatly. “My ride is on his way, and then I’ll be out of your hair forever.”
“No need, kotyonok. Your ride is here.”
I stilled on the last stair, my gaze lifting to find Dimitri and two of my father’s byki flanking him on both sides.
“Dimitri? I didn’t expect you to arrive so fast.”
His smile seemed almost triumphant, which I found a bit out of place. Although, he wasn’t the one who had just been tossed away by the father of his child, so he didn’t have any reason to feel melancholy, did he?
“You forget, I’ve been watching over you,” he said gently. “I’ve been ready to collect you at a moment’s notice if the situation became too dangerous.”
I stepped further into the room, ducking my head self-consciously. “I wasn’t sure you even would after our last conversation.”
His face softened, genuine affection shining from his features. “I’ll always be here to protect you.” Then he scowled. “You’ve been in Rossetti’s company too long anyway. He was starting to corrupt your mind. You don’t belong here with him.”
Corrupt my mind? I felt that was a tad overstated. I was a big girl and could think for myself, thanks very much. Besides, Nico wasn’t capable of corrupting me. Enlightening me, perhaps. Infuriating me, sure.
Wait, was I defending him?
Surely not. He didn’t deserve that.
Dimitri held out his hand to me, the two byki at his back moving aside to clear a path for the door. “Come, Alexia. It is time for you to go home.”
Call it instinct or some Spidey sense, but I didn’t move.
Why are you being so jumpy? It’s Dimitri. Your decades-long friend, Dimitri.
Booze and Bullets (Brooklyn Brothers #3) Page 30