Ruthless Stranger by Maggie Cole

16

Maksim

Aspen leaves for her lunch.I go back to my brothers. They all smirk at me.

"When did you meet Aspen?" Sergey asks.

"In Vegas."

"She's why you disappeared both nights?"

"Yes."

Dmitri's lips twitch. "How did you find her?"

"By luck. She works for the zoning office."

Boris asks, "Did you get anywhere with the meeting yesterday?"

I sigh. "I learned a lot. The mayor merged departments. Aspen is the one running the show in there...not that she's getting paid for it." The rage I feel over how much she's being taken advantage of stirs.

"What do you mean?" Dmitri asks.

"She knows more than anyone else who works there, but they won't promote her because she doesn't have a degree."

"That's such bullshit."

"Yep. Anyway, she created a list of things I need to do. I'll work with her to get it done."

Sergey grunts. "I'm sure you'll work nice and close."

I smack him on the back of the head.

"Ow!"

"Don't be disrespectful to my woman."

"Chill out."

I turn to Boris. "I don't think you came here to talk about zoning issues."

"I wish."

"What's going on?"

Boris's face hardens. "Giovanni Rossi's men found the evidence we planted. He's declared war."

My stomach pitches, and a knot grows in my throat. Giovanni Rossi is Lorenzo's father. He's in prison but still runs the Italian mob in Chicago and across the U.S. My brothers and I, plus Killian O'Malley, killed Lorenzo and his top three thugs. The O'Malleys believed Lorenzo murdered Killian and Nora's brother, Sean. That didn't sit too well with Killian or Boris, but he also tried to screw my brothers and me with the land deal. He sent a package with an arm in it to my house. But the final straw was when he crossed the line that a mob family rarely does. He threatened our women. He set fire to Nora's bar then got the city to shut it down. And then he tried to have another "gift" delivered to Dmitri's soon-to-be wife, Anna.

His father, Giovanni, is old-school and smarter than him. He knows not to cross the line with women and children. It's an unspoken rule between mob families that men are the only ones you go after. But Lorenzo was cocky. His father would be smart enough to know not to mess with an Ivanov or our women, but Lorenzo wasn't.

So we put our cousin, Obrecht, who is a tracker, on him. We took Lorenzo and his top three thugs out at a strip joint in Gary, Indiana. But we had to pin it on someone so Giovanni wouldn't assume it was the O'Malleys or us.

Boris insisted we set up Zamir to take him down once and for all. For years, we've wanted to destroy him and be completely free. We could never find a way. Zamir is the most ruthless mafia king in the world. Both Dmitri and I were hesitant about planting evidence on Zamir. We knew it would lead to a full-out war.

If Zamir wipes out the Rossi family, it gives him more power, and the Russian community is at greater risk. But the Italian mafia isn't one we want to gain more control, either. Things have been unstable the past few years between the O'Malleys and Rossi family. Little by little, the Rossis have murdered the O'Malleys, greatly diminishing their power. Now that Boris's baby will have both O'Malley and Ivanov blood, we can't ignore the danger on either side. So Boris decided it was best to let Giovanni and Zamir's families kill each other off. The only problem is, we are going to have to watch the balance of power and possibly intercede. If one side starts winning, the Ivanovs and O'Malleys need to quietly take more top guys out on either side to keep it in balance. The ultimate goal is to reduce the power of the Rossi and Petrov families to restore peace and safety.

It was a huge risk to set up Zamir, but Sergey and Boris were both insistent. Boris finally pulled his card and made the decision. Since he still pays for all our "debt" to Zamir once a year, plus his woman and future child were attacked, we couldn't go against his wishes.

"It took them long enough to find it," Sergey points out.

Boris and Killian kidnapped one of Zamir's guys. They spent the night torturing him until he finally confessed what they wanted him to into a recorder, which was that Zamir set up the hit on Lorenzo.

It wasn't true, but Boris can make a priest turn into Judas if needed. Zamir took to him and gave him extra training in torture when he was only sixteen. And sometimes I wonder if Boris is more dangerous than Zamir. When Boris tortures or kills, a sense of peace washes over him. It's a calm my other brothers and I have to fight to keep in check. And there is a part of Boris that enjoys what he does. If he believes it's justified, every slice of his knife or pound of his fist is tranquil liberation, as if it's sweet relief for him to continue to survive.

I have to bring out, then fight, the raging beast within me. I need him to do what I have to do. At the same time, I have to tame the animal inside me, and I struggle during every kill I've ever been a part of to do so.

When we killed Lorenzo and his thugs, I told myself this was it, and the killing was over. I knew deep down it wasn't. Zamir is still around. We were creating a mafia war. At some point, we will be stepping in to keep the powers in balance. At any moment, I will need to be able to drop everything and tap into the monster I wish didn't reside within me.

The more days that went by and the Rossi family didn't find the evidence, my nerves only grew. From time to time, my brothers and I would have short conversations about it. It always ended in us changing the topic since there was nothing we could do, except wait.

"The war has started. We must be prepared," Boris states, his eyes cold and emotionless.

No matter how much I waited for this day to come, chills still run down my spine. I didn't like it before I had my krasotka in my life, and now everything seems even more dangerous. It's why I would never have approached her in Vegas without the agreement I made with her friends. No matter how badly I wanted her, I warned her to run from me.

I should have tried harder to make her detest me.

Who am I kidding? I should have never touched her in Vegas. I was a goner the moment I laid eyes on her.

I'm a selfish bastard for allowing her to stay with me, but I can't let her go. Her protection will be my number one priority. Making sure Zamir goes down is more important than ever, and at some point, I'm going to have to tap into my beast, possibly more than once. After it's done, I'm not sure how I'll still be able to look at her.

I cross my arms tight to my chest, breathing through the stale air in my lungs. "I'll call Tolik. We need Obrecht back in Chicago to monitor the situation. Zamir will be recruiting harder to build his troops. Ensure our guys on our construction payroll know if they need overtime or advances, to talk to us. Nobody becomes so desperate they need to deal with Zamir or his men."

"On it," Sergey says.

"We need to solve this zoning issue ASAP. Our guys need to stay working," Dmitri states.

I pace. "We still don't have proof Zamir and Lorenzo were working together, but it's too big of a coincidence Lorenzo knew about our properties when he convinced the mayor to give him that lot. It reeks of Zamir."

"We're the largest employer for Russians, and even the Polish, in Chicago. He's been utilizing more and more of them," Boris points out.

The better people in our community do the less desperate they are. Zamir thrives on others' desperation. It makes sense he would try to create chaos within our company. He not only hurts us but those he wants to take advantage of. Now, more than ever, we have to keep our community of people working. "I'll talk to Aspen tonight to see if she has any other ideas on how to push this zoning issue through faster. The board doesn't meet for another three and a half weeks. There would have to be an emergency situation for them to meet sooner on this issue. I'm not sure how we could make that happen, but let me pick Aspen's brain."

Boris cracks his knuckles. "Might be time to have some discussions with the board members."

I step so close, I'm face-to-face with him. "We do not become thugs. Our businesses are legitimate. We have worked hard to not become men who we despise."

Boris's voice matches the darkness in his eyes. "We already are those men. When you go to sleep at night, you know who you are and what you are capable of. If it is for the greater good—"

"No! We do not cross the line in our business. We will not fall farther into the pit of hell."

"We're already in it, brother, and there is no getting out."

Boris is right. I can't kid myself about who I am when I shut my eyes. I do despise myself for all the men I've killed even though they were bad men. But I won't allow my brothers, or any other Ivanov, to become anything like Zamir, or the Rossis for that matter.

Sergey clears his throat, and I tear my gaze away from Boris. "I'll call the foremen today and put a schedule together to walk through all our sites this week. I'll talk to the employees one on one and feel them out. If Zamir's already started to recruit harder, we need to know."

"I'll help you. I'll take the North side crew, you take the South," Boris tells him.

Dmitri sighs. "We need to beef security up. I hoped we'd scrape by without having to deal with this until after the weekend. The last thing I want is Anna worrying on her wedding day."

"I'll handle it. We'll make sure everyone blends in," I assure him.

He gratefully nods. "Thanks."

I've got two days before the wedding to get Tolik's extra guys here.

The rehearsal dinner is tomorrow night.

It isn't as big as the wedding. Our local security can accommodate.

"Anything else? If not, I need to get on security," I say.

Boris nods. "One thing."

"What?"

"Killian has Liam watching Giovanni's visitors." Liam is Killian's third cousin, who's serving time with Giovanni. He only has a year left on his sentence. We grew up with him.

My gut drops. "And?"

"Bruno Zielinski showed up."

Dmitri's color drains from his face. "Visiting with Giovanni?"

"Yes."

My brothers and I stare at each other. Bruno is the head of the Polish mafia.

I finally say, "If the Zielinski family is making any alliances with the Rossis, we need to know."

"Killian is already on it," Boris replies.

My brothers leave, and I spend the next few hours dealing with security and reviewing my notes and task list I made during my meeting with Aspen.

When she walks through the door, I should go through zoning issues with her and find out if there is anything we missed that we could use to our advantage.

If intentions were all that was required, I'd be golden. But implementation is necessary, and the only thing I can think of when I see her is how much I missed and crave her. And I shouldn't kiss her. I have no control around her when I do. The moment our lips and tongues collide, the desire within me takes over, and I fall into the ecstasy of losing myself within her.

For several hours, I forget about all the stress of everything around me. The only thing that matters is her, and I do everything in my power to show her how much I want her to always be mine.