Merciless Union by Faith Summers

34

Lucca

Grigori steps strong for a man of eighty-seven years old.

I watch him as he walks onto Aiden’s terrace.

It’s a sign of peaceful intentions for one Pakhan to invite another to his home.

When that is done, it means there is no plan for violence or death, and the other is to leave his weapons and his guards at the door.

Grigori did exactly that; however, when his eyes land on me, I can see he wishes he didn’t.

This was the only way I could get to speak to him. Any other way would have seen me dodging bullets, and I’m sure Pasha would want my head on a fucking platter. The same platter Ivy’s was on.

Grigori is looking at me the same way.

The crazy thing about the Bratva is you could be friends one day and enemies the next.

Emotion changes like the wind, and succumbing to it can only be your downfall. In other words, to be human is a weakness none of us can afford, but we still do it anyway.

None of us here are above nature.

I could hold Grigori’s command to kill me over him, but I don’t. He wouldn’t be the Pakhan if he didn’t at least try to control his emotions and follow the rules no matter what I mean to him.

We are standing beside the patio table, and copies of the documents we got from Gina are in the center in a little box. I have the originals upstairs ready to take and keep with me.

Aiden dips his head first for a bow because he’s younger than Grigori. Grigori pays him the same respect.

“What is the meaning of this, Aiden Romanov?” Grigori asks, glaring at me.

Up close, I can now see the conflict writing within him. It’s a tell he doesn’t want to be my enemy.

“Pakhan, we have urgent matters to discuss,” Aiden states. “These documents before me contain incriminating evidence against your son Pasha and Raphael. Since you are already in search of Raphael, I won’t waste time talking about him.”

Grigori’s face hardens. “What has my son done?”

“Crimes that would destroy you, Pakhan. And everything you have worked for. I have seen the evidence myself and am willing to sever the seventy-year alliance and friendship my forefathers have had with you if nothing is done.”

Grigori looks stunned at Aiden’s threat. From that alone, he knows whatever he’ll hear next is the truth.

“It’s truly that bad?” he checks.

“Yes, Pakhan it is. So I further ask that you pardon Lucca Dyshekov of his punishment because he only acted accordingly to prevent the pursuit of a lie. It is because of him we have this evidence today. It is because of him that you might be able to stop your destruction in its tracks.”

Grigori’s hands start to shake. Something I’ve never seen before. This man has never shown anybody any weakness. What I’m seeing now is the disappointment of a distressed parent.

“What are the crimes, Aiden? Tell me what Pasha did.” His Russian accent gets thicker with emotion.

“Abused and murdered children, then he framed their father for what he did and made sure the man got the death sentence. That’s bad, but there’s more. In regard to his crimes against those who have worked for you, he’s responsible for the massacre of the Dyshekov family and Timothy Mikhailov and his family. Those people died because they knew his secrets. He had them killed via Raphael to keep the secret. He’s also working with Tobias Rivera from the Camorra. It seems they might have some alliance. Which means the stolen money and everything else is all on Pasha’s shoulders.”

Grigori’s already alabaster skin goes pale, and I swear he ages before us. He looks at me, and his eyes now brim with sadness.

“Your family died because of my son, my boy? Please do not tell me this is true.” It’s the first time he’s addressed me.

“It’s true, Pakhan.”

He drops his head, and his shoulders sag. When his gaze climbs back to meet mine, he shakes his head.

“I am so sorry. You are free of your punishment. I apologize, Merciless.”

I bow. “Thank you, Pakhan.”

He moves over to me and places a gnarled hand on my shoulder. “Your father and mother were very good to me. I will see that justice is done. I am so sorry that my son did this to you.”

“It’s okay. My loyalty is still to you, Grigori. My father and mother would want it to be so.” They would, and that’s why I’m still here.

“We will meet as a Brotherhood when I have gone through the evidence. Aiden, I ask of you to join us with your Sovietnik and Obshchak. I owe you and your forefathers a meeting like this to restore any respect lost from the Yurkov.”

“I will be there, Pakhan. I’m sorry to give you such bad news.”

“Thank you for your tact in giving it to me.”

Aiden dips his head and picks up the box to hand to Grigori.

He takes it and the two bow but this time, Grigori bows to me too.

As I watch him go, I know the real trouble has only just begun, and so has my day.

My next stop is Damien, then on to Mendes’ place.

* * *

I jump on my bike and call Damien when I get on the road, and as always, he answers on the first ring.

“Lucca, how are you? I’d hoped to hear from you by now.”

“I need to see you.” I cut to the chase. “Can we meet at the cemetery?”

There’s a pause, and I can imagine him trying to process what’s going on. I don’t usually meet him at the cemetery unless it’s a good reason, and we’ve never talked business there before.

“Of course. How does half an hour sound?”

“Yes, I’ll see there.”

I get to the cemetery earlier than I anticipated, so I paid my respect to Timothy and his family.

When I see Damien coming, I walk away from the family plot to meet him in the middle by the fountain.

I’m always respectful when I come here, and I don’t want the negativity I feel now to be anywhere near my friend or his family, especially when I hoped to bring better news on my next visit.

Damien looks me over when I get up to him and lands a fatherly hand on my shoulder.

“How are you, moy syn?”

I shake my head. “I’m not good, Damien.”

“Is this about Jon? Grigori told me that the morgue called him the other day to identify Jon’s body.”

“This isn’t about Jon, and I only left him on that boat out of mercy so he could be buried properly.” I could have called the cleanup crew to cremate his body, but I didn’t. A proper burial is what he got for the information he gave me.

Now I’m about to test part of that information. I’m going back to Mendes’ place tonight.

“I’m sorry you had to kill him.”

“Don’t worry about me.” I won’t tell him about Grigori and definitely nothing about Gina for safety reasons. “We have urgent matters to discuss, Damien.”

He narrows his eyes. “What’s happening? Is everything okay with your wife?”

I don’t miss the way he emphasizes the word wife.

“My wife is fine.” I deepen my stare. “Jon mentioned something about you working for Pasha. I want to talk to you about that.”

I pick that first because his answer to that accusation will determine my response to the next matter—Aria’s mother.

He looks momentarily thrown and shrugs. “I don’t know what Jon meant. Lucca, we all worked for Pasha in some kind of way.”

Jon wasn’t stupid. Of course, we all worked for Pasha, but that wasn’t what he fucking meant.

He was being specific but at the same time vague too in regard to detail. Jon knew things but didn’t tell me shit.

“He wasn’t talking about that kind of work, Damien, and he wouldn’t have mentioned work if he didn’t mean shit I should be aware of.”

“I’m not sure what he meant because, yes, I’ve done many jobs for Pasha. I don’t know which he meant.”

Okay, fair dues, but I’m not buying it. Now I’m about to delve deeper.

“Clarify this to me then? Did you kill Theresa De Marchi?”

Now he looks flabbergasted. Like I just implied, he killed J.F.K.

“Me? Fuck no, didn’t she die in a fire?”

My brain feels like it’s going to pop. I have my wife telling me she remembers Damien killing her mother, and he’s telling me he didn’t.

“What the fuck is this, Lucca? Since when do we question each other like this?” He shakes his head at me and frowns. “Is this about her? Did your wife tell you that shit?”

“Damien, just look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t do it. That’s all. I just need you to do that.”

He rests a hand on my shoulder and stares at me, making sure he’s looking me in the eye.

Hope rises inside me that Aria is wrong, that she’s mistaken. I have hope even though I believe my wife. Maybe right now, I’m just that terrified kid Damien rescued from the sight of his family’s massacre. I’m that boy, and I don’t want to believe he’s anything other than my savior.

“I didn’t do it,” Damien says, and as the words fall from his lips, I know he’s lying, and the weight of that knowledge crushes me.

I remember when Grigori first made me an enforcer. You don’t just become one in the Yurkov for simply being good. You have to be the best. You have to border on invincible, and more importantly, you have to impress him.

That’s why we aren’t just called enforcers in the Yurkov. We are assassins, and there is only ever a maximum of four with his team. It’s because that level of trust and such an impression doesn’t come by easy. The only other guy like me was Timothy.

We earned our stripes on the same day when we stopped an assassination on Grigori.

It was the slightest detail that tipped me off. The same way I aim for the head when I take a life, I always go for the eyes when I want to know if a man is telling the truth from lies.

If it’s a lie, his next minute of life is all he gets from me.

Damien is lucky, however, because I want to find out what he’s up to and how deep this lie may run. He’s lucky because I value him enough to at least want to find out the why of the lie.

As I stare at him, I don’t know if he knew before I told him that the secret was the reason for Timothy’s death or my parent's?

Neither makes sense, but I’ll find out the truth.

I rest my hand on his shoulder. With that, hope and trust die because I don’t know how to live in a world where I’m enemies with this man. But I’m going to have to.

“Okay,” I tell him, and we release each other.

He takes a step back and regards me. “Let’s meet on better terms, Lucca. Next time?”

“Of course.”

“Be careful.”

“I will.”

He turns and walks away. Just that action alone is another tell of the lie. There’s no way in hell he’d ever come here and not pay his respects to his son and his family. Yet he’s leaving.