Sweet Hart

by Rae Marks

  “All hell’s breaking loose. Ruslan Andreiko’s nowhere to be found, which is a surprise to me, and I was his second-in-command. Then you end up in the hands of their competition, Vladyslav Bagan. Kozak’s going insane because he doesn’t know who he can trust. I’m waiting on orders as to who I’m supposed to remain loyal to. So, yeah. Total shit-storm.”

  Before Bray could respond, Mase pulled over to the side of the road.

  “Get out,” Mase ordered. “We’re changing cars.”

  Bray got out and as soon as he stood up, Ax was there with a knife. He cut the binding off Bray’s wrists and patted him on the shoulder a few times before turning him toward a different car…Sam’s car.

  “Was that your car?” Bray asked Mase.

  “No. I stole it. Didn’t want Bagan to know who rolled up and took his prize, just in case I end up having to work with him.”

  Mase got into the front seat with Ax and started giving him directions. Bray slipped into the back. Sam cast a glance in his direction, but his whole body was stiff as a board.

  “I’m sorry I kicked you, Mase. I didn’t know it was you. I thought—”

  “It wasn’t Mase you kicked, kiddo. It was Sam,” Ax said.

  Bray turned his horrified face to Sam, who gave him a side eye with a dash of raised eyebrow.

  “Don’t sweat it, kid,” Sam said. “You might have gotten away if they’d been short on men and had left the motor running and the driver’s seat empty.”

  “I could’ve gotten the car started. Might have been able to kick the driver out too,” Bray said.

  He wasn’t sure any of it was true, but he wanted to impress his brother. Ax snorted as he turned the car around another corner. At the next stoplight, he looked over his shoulder at Bray.

  “You got balls, kid. I like that about you.”

  Bray smiled. He was a little dizzy and nauseated. His ankles hurt like hell, but he felt good—like he was one of the guys, like he’d accomplished a goal. Technically, he had. He was going to get the chance to talk to Mase.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Sam

  Sam’s thoughts were an absolute mess and this was exactly when they needed to be crystal clear. He was livid. He was elated. He was scared and yet relieved. The jumble of emotions lay at exactly one person’s feet.

  And yet Bray sat there oblivious to the turmoil as he joked with Ax about what had just gone down. If that had been any of Bagan or Andreiko’s men, they would have sent a few bullets through the window as soon as Bray had slammed that door shut.

  Sam’s phone buzzed in his hand and he finally felt a little bit of calm move through him. With a quick shush to the car at large, he answered the phone. He heard the clicking and entered his code.

  “Sam, what the fuck is going on?” Jazz asked.

  “We need a safe house in Kiev and we need it now.”

  “Give me an hour.”

  “What’s going down is bigger than us—or me, rather. I think it has a lot to do with you. I think Andreiko and Kozak have had a falling out over my ultimatum.”

  “That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Jazz said.

  “Ax saw Andreiko in a club owned by Vladyslav Bagan. Clement’s here as well.”

  “Clement’s in Kiev?”

  “I saw him myself.”

  “Sam, he never handles anything himself. He’s getting nervous.”

  “They were going to use me,” Bray said.

  Sam turned to him. He looked at him full-on for the first time since he’d picked him up off that filthy, stained mattress. He’d wanted to fall to his knees in relief and he’d also wanted to beat Bray’s ass for putting himself at risk with his crazy plan in the first place. Neither had been an option, so he’d thrown the kid over his shoulder and lit out of there.

  “Use you for what?” Mase asked.

  “To get Sam to talk. Three men came into the room. I was pretending be out. One of them said he was going to get information out of you. They didn’t think you'd betray your employer for more money, so they were going to use me to try to get intel.”

  “Who do you want Mase to declare loyalty to?” Sam asked.

  “Can you take out Andreiko?” Jazz asked.

  Sam licked his lips. He wanted to torture that motherfucker for taking Bray.

  “Of course.”

  “You, Sam. I can’t risk Mase, and with your cover, you have reason for retribution if he was planning on using Bray to get to you.”

  “It’ll be me,” Sam said. “So Mase sticks with Kozak?”

  “If this is the way it splits, we stick with Kozak. Get Andreiko out of the way. He was probably going to roll over on Kozak somehow and either run the whole operation himself or pass the narcotics side to Bagan.”

  “What about Bagan?” Sam asked.

  “I have no orders for Bagan. That’s at your discretion. I’ll contact you with an address for a safe house within the hour.”

  The line went dead. Killing Andreiko and Bagan would ease his conscience. Two fewer people in the world who might go after Bray to get to him. It was the exact reason that relationships were a liability.

  “You stick with Kozak,” Sam told Mase.

  “Ten-four. Figured that would be it if Andreiko’s in cahoots with Clement.”

  “How are we on gas?” Sam asked Ax. “We’ll drive around for an hour until we get an address.”

  “I have someplace safe for an hour,” Mase said. “Then I’ll get rid of this car for you.”

  “Where do you have that’s safe?”

  “I know someone.”

  After ten minutes of driving, Mase directed Ax to pull into an underground parking garage. He led them to an elevator and finally to a door, where he knocked.

  A small, attractive woman opened the door. She seemed glad to see Mase, but her face pinched with worry when she saw the rest of them. She shook her head at Mase.

  “Yulia,” Mase said as he placed his hand on the door to keep it open when she tried to close it.

  He whispered in Ukrainian that his friends needed help, that they were in trouble, that they were like her brother. He promised it would just be for an hour until they could find a safer place.

  When Mase said the word ‘brother’, Yulia’s gaze had flicked over his shoulder to look at the three of them. They all waited in limbo while she made up her mind.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Yulia nodded and pulled the door open enough for them to enter. The apartment was small and utilitarian. There were two doors down a short hallway that presumably led to a bedroom and a bathroom.

  Mase excused himself and Yulia down the hallway. Sam was sure they were trying to be quiet, but he could hear every whisper-yelled word.

  “What’s going on?” Bray whispered it to Ax as they sat on the small sofa.

  “She’s pissed he brought us here. No one’s supposed to know they know each other. He thinks that’s the reason we’ll be safe here.”

  “Is she…an informant?”

  “No,” Sam answered.

  “Mase knew her brother. He’s gay, so he had a rough time of it,” Ax said.

  They all remained quiet after that, but the argument didn’t last much longer. Yulia said she didn’t have much choice after what he’d done for her brother. Mase told her that the men in the living room were like brothers to him.

  Sam knew Mase couldn’t exactly claim Bray as his real brother. Even though they’d smuggled Yulia’s brother Kyrylo out of Ukraine, that didn’t mean they could fully trust her. There was also the fact that Bray didn’t understand Ukrainian and had no idea what was being said.

  And still, Sam felt anger surge on Bray’s behalf. The kid had jumped in with both feet. He’d risked everything, including his own life, to find his brother, a brother who wouldn’t claim him.

  Bray was rubbing at his ankles through his pants. With a resigned sigh, Sam gave in to the urge to make sure he was all right.

  He walked fully into the living room and
sat on the coffee table in front of Bray. Reaching down, Sam pulled Bray’s feet up onto his knees and lifted the cuffs of his slacks. Each of Bray’s ankles had an angry red strip of flesh along the outside. The zip tie that had been binding his legs had cut into his skin and left it welted and bleeding.

  He knew better. He should have cut the zip ties before he picked him up, but he’d been in such a rush to get Bray off that filthy mattress. He hadn’t wanted anyone to stop him or to risk having to use Bray’s body as a shield for any gunfire.

  When Mase and Yulia came back into the living room, Sam asked if she had a first-aid kit. Yulia’s eyes widened in horror when she saw Bray’s ankles and she hurried down the hall.

  “I have to get back,” Mase said.

  “Do you have to leave right now?” Bray pulled his ankles from Sam’s lap and stood.

  “I can’t be gone too long.”

  “But we just… I need to talk to you.” Bray looked over his shoulder at Sam and Ax.

  Sam would be willing to give the brothers the moment of privacy Bray seemed to need, but there was no place for him and Ax to go.

  “If I don’t go back now, they won’t believe anything I say. I have to get back before they find out what went down at Bagan’s club.”

  Bray nodded. He hesitated before throwing himself into his brother’s arms. Mase stood there stiff for a moment, his arms outstretched like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. He blinked a few times before finally closing his arms around Bray’s back. The two brothers squeezed each other closer before finally letting go.

  “I’ll tell Kozak I lost you,” Mase said as he headed for the door. “If Andreiko’s taking his walking papers, Kozak will be even more desperate for your business.”

  Sam nodded.

  Yulia came back into the living room with a first-aid kit just as Mase was closing the front door. Bray stood there for a moment, watching the door as if he was worried Mase had been a figment of his imagination.

  “Bray,” Sam said after a moment, “come sit down. I need to look at your ankles.”

  Sam thought maybe Bray hadn’t heard him, because he didn’t move right away. Finally, he turned and walked back to the sofa. He plopped down next to Ax and laid his head back on the cushion.

  Sam reached his hand out to Yulia, who stepped forward and handed him the little box she’d been holding to her chest. Giving her a quiet ‘thank you’, he popped open the large plastic container and dug through the contents for what he needed.

  “It’s not that I didn’t want to help,” she said as Sam cleaned Bray’s wounds.

  “We get it,” Sam assured her. “And we do appreciate the respite.”

  Yulia opened her mouth to respond, but Sam’s phone rang, cutting her off. He picked up and entered his code when he heard the clicking.

  “Go,” Sam said as he signaled to Ax. Ax handed Sam a small notepad and pen from the interior pocket of his jacket.

  Jazz gave him an address. Sam scribbled it down and handed it to Ax before updating Jazz on their situation. Things were tenuous, but Jazz didn’t seem too concerned.

  “We should have a secure flight out for Brayden within twenty-four hours. Will you be good to go to Thailand or do we need to delay?”

  “I’ll be good to go,” Sam said.

  The line disconnected. If he were smart, he would be at the safe house just long enough to drop off Bray and Ax and change his clothes. But Sam wasn’t smart.

  He set his phone on the table and returned his attention to Bray’s torn skin. Even as the need for retribution bubbled up inside him, Sam knew he’d remain with Bray. He would delay his mission to have a few more moments. That made him very, very stupid.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Brayden

  The safe house wasn’t actually a house. Technically, it was a warehouse, but it was secure. Walls of thick concrete brick, all-metal doors and a top-of-the-line security system definitely made it safe. There was an apartment in a corner of the upper floor that seemed to hang from the ceiling three stories high.

  The space had at one point been the office of some type of manufacturing plant, allowing management to have a view of the entire operation. It was like being in a bird’s nest. There was a wall of windows that gave a view of the empty space below.

  A silver car, the car Ax had boosted, sat alone in the center of the concrete floor. The only downside to the place was all the stairs. Bray’s ankles were sore, and climbing all those steps had felt like someone was trying to saw off his feet.

  The apartment was unadorned but spacious. There were two bedrooms and a security room that housed multiple monitors showing feeds from cameras around the perimeter.

  Yulia, relieved they would be leaving sooner rather than later, had agreed to do a little shopping for them. By the time she’d returned from the store, Ax had come back with the silver car.

  Bray was tasked with keeping his feet elevated as Ax set up the security room and Sam put away the groceries. His mind was running in circles. Had Mase been giving him the brush off? He’d hesitated to hug Bray back, but then he’d squeezed so tight that Bray couldn’t breathe.

  “Can I borrow your phone?” Bray asked.

  Sam shot him a look over his shoulder as he put a carton of milk in the fridge.

  “I just want to call Sin.”

  “Fuck,” Sam said and swung around. “I promised him you’d call. He’s the reason we found you so fast. He tracked your coin. Hang on.” Sam went into the security room.

  Bray took in a shuttered breath. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Sam knowing the coins were tracking devices, especially since he’d given one to Sam.

  After a moment, Sam came back out of the security room with a phone. He turned it on and pressed a few buttons before handing it to Bray.

  “It’s a burner. Keep it until we get everything sorted out.”

  Sam returned to the kitchen and resumed putting the groceries away. When Bray looked at the phone, he saw that both Sam’s and Ax’s phone numbers were now programmed in. He dialed Max’s number.

  “Sin City,” Max answered.

  “That’s the worst one yet,” Bray said but couldn’t hold back a smile.

  “Bray. Oh thank fuck. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Sam found me. Thanks.”

  “It wasn’t a big deal,” Max said.

  “It was to me. It was a huge deal. I don’t know what I’d do if you didn’t have my back.”

  “You’ve always had mine too. Anytime you need help…”

  “I still do.”

  “Still do what? Need help?”

  “Exactly,” Bray said. “This will be my number until we figure out what happened to my phone.”

  “Got it. What do you need help with? Want me to track your phone?”

  “I’ll talk to you later, okay? I just wanted you to know I’m safe.”

  “Aah, you don’t want your new bodyguard to know what you’re up to. I get it.”

  “You always do, Sin. You always do. Talk to you later.”

  “Text me what you need if you can’t get any privacy,” Max suggested.

  “Okay. Bye.”

  Bray leaned back on the sofa and put his feet up on the box he’d been using as an ottoman. Now that everything was put away, Sam took out a few pots and started boiling some water.

  “What do you still do with Sin?”

  Bray turned to find Sam looking at him over the kitchen island. The kitchen, living room and dining room were essentially just different corners of the same great room. There was one bedroom on the east side of the great room and one on the west side. Since they didn’t have bags to unpack, they hadn’t discussed sleeping arrangements.

  “What?”

  “You told him you still do.”

  “Oh, have his back.”

  “Does he need someone to watch his six?” Sam asked.

  “Don’t we all?”

  Sam grunted and turned back to the stove. Bray considered te
xting Max now, but didn’t want to risk Sam asking him what he was doing or, worse, walking up and seeing what he was doing.

  “Seems like a smart kid,” Sam said.

  “He’s a genius. He tends to overstep boundaries, but sometimes I’m glad when he does, like when he pressed those coins into my hand before I got on the flight here.”

  “Where did he find those?”

  “He made them.”

  Sam took the coin out of his pocket and looked at it. He flipped it up in the air and caught it. Then, he laid it on his fingertip as if he were weighing it.

  “It’s pretty amazing. Has the weight of a coin, the metal feel of a coin. It’s perfectly balanced like a coin. He can just…make more?”

  Bray nodded.

  “Nice to have someone like that in your corner.”

  “Obviously. I wish I could say this is the first time he’s literally saved my life, but it’s not. Doubt it’ll be the last either.”

  Sam lowered his eyebrows in a severe scowl. He stepped out from behind the kitchen counter and made his way over to the sofa.

  “What other crazy shit are you planning?” Sam demanded

  “Nothing. But being in the army isn’t exactly a walk in the park.”

  “Sin’s in the army with you?”

  “Not technically. But he always has the best intel.”

  Sam shook his head and made a disapproving hum as he turned back to the kitchen. Bray got up and told Sam he was heading to the bathroom. With the door closed and locked, Bray pulled the phone out of his pocket.

  I got the tracker in Mase’s pocket.

  You talked to him?

  I saw him, but there was no time to talk. I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me find him when I’m able to.

  Good thing you told me. I gave Sam ability to track that signal for seventy-two hours. I’ll change his access now.

  Has he opened the app?

  Not since his location first matched up to yours.