“All of it.”
I was ready for his more. I knew that, because I realized that knowing what I already knew, I was still standing in his arms.
And nothing could be scarier than that.
I shouldn’t have lefther at that bar. Not even with Juvie and Mikhail and Real there. Not even with all them women around her, glaring at me, ready to give her love and advice, while their husbands sat close by, watching the room like hawks. Theory had told me to go, told me she needed space, time to think, and I had given it to her. Hell, I was a husband who wanted to stay married, so I had to know when to back the fuck up, but that didn’t mean I liked it. It damn sure didn’t mean I wasn’t still thinking about the little bit of blood near her hairline and the way her body shook when she let me hold her on the side of that road.
By the time I got her back to the compound, I was damn near desperate to talk more, even though she was quiet. Thatquiet worried me. I had to give her some kind of peace offering, so I showed her the office I’d designed for her. My milaya liked it, even though she was too stubborn and mad to say it. She’d told me she was going out with family. As badly as I wanted to go, I had shit to handle. The longer I sat thinking about what happened, the more enraged I got. By the time I searched out my brother, I was furious, and my fury was quiet, but deadly.
Maxim took one look at me and knew.
He was waiting in his study when I walked in, sprawled in an oversized leather chair like the king he thought he was. He looked calm, a drink in one hand and a file open on the table beside him. Kael Walker, our crazy ass associate, stood near the windows, hands clasped behind his back, his face as blank as ever. Lev was at the door, looking like an armored truck. I barely glanced at any of them. I looked at the file, then at my brother.
“Where?” I asked.
Maxim’s silvery eyes lifted to mine. “No greeting,brat? Dr. Joia would be appalled.”
I stared at him, eyes narrowing. “Don’t fuck with me right now, Maxim,” I warned.
“Oh, but it is so much fun.” He took a slow sip, then set the glass down. “But I have arranged something productive for you.”
See, that was one of the things about my brother. The nigga was annoying ninety-eight percent of the time, but he was useful one hundred percent of it. Maxim didn’t waste my time trying to calm me down. He just pointed me where I needed to go.
He handed the file to me. The first thing I saw was a grainy photo of a little nondescript warehouse. The next pic was of a balding man with a puffy face and beady eyes. A third picture showed a black SUV being unloaded off a transport truck two days earlier. It was the same make and model as one of the vehicles from the road.
“The man’s name is Viktor Semyonov,” Maxim said. “He is a middleman who arranges for things. Vehicles. Weapons. People sometimes, especially men to do jobs and women to do men. He operates in Houston, Galveston, parts of Louisiana. He is very careful not to be loyal to anyone.”
“So, he’ll talk,” I said.
Maxim’s mouth curved. “Eventually, with your amazing power of persuasion.”
I looked back down at the photo. Viktor looked like the kind of man I would enjoy hurting, the type of nigga who was dirty as fuck but liked to pretend his hands were clean.
“Same people for her house and the road?” I asked.
“Likely.” Maxim leaned back. “The men at the road were better than the break-in crew, but the vehicles, some of the comms equipment, and a few other things connect back to Semyonov.”
I thought about my baby’s house, the turned over furniture, the broken things. Somebody trashed her space like it meant nothing… like she meant nothing. I felt myself tense as a fresh wave of anger spread through me.
“So, Viktor knows who hired them?”
Maxim shrugged. “He knows something.”
I nodded. “That’s enough.”
I turned to leave, but Maxim’s voice stopped me.
“Targen.”
I looked back.
The deceptively relaxed pose was gone. In its place was a man who was more serious.
“Do not kill him immediately.”
I stared at him.
“He may have more value alive than dead, at least for an hour,” he coaxed.
