THE OUTLAW’S BRIDE Page 56

  William’s face twisted sourly. “I’m doin’ the best I can with—”

  “Go,” Alexei repeated softly, staring William down. “Now. And don’t come back without new information. Useful information.”

  William stood up angrily, not looking at Vlad as he stormed out of the room, his small fists tightly clenched.

  Alexei waited until William left, then turned to Vlad. “I want that kid and his sister on their knees in front of me before the week is out.”

  “His sister, too?” Paul blurted out, instantly regretting it as Alexei and Vlad looked at him.

  He wished his cousin, Patrick, had never suggested working for Alexei. It had been wonderful at first. He got to work with one of his best friends and make a ton of money doing it. But then they got jumped, and Paul had been sure Alexei was going to kill him. Patrick had paid Alexei off, but the appeal was gone.

  Paul was being forced to do things that made him more and more uncomfortable—like the bird he’d had to kill. Alexei ordered him to buy a bird from the pet store and leave it dismembered on Fiona’s front step. Paul had done as he was told, but he threw up after.

  “She killed Denis,” Alexei said evenly. “Do you think that’s something we can just forget?”

  “No. I only meant that our original problem is with Niko. His sister was just defending him,” Paul said slowly, carefully choosing his words.

  “So you think we should punish Niko for his sister’s actions? Interesting,” Vlad said, thoughtfully tapping a long finger against his cheekbone.

  That wasn’t what Paul meant at all, but he thought he would live longer if he agreed with Vlad, so he nodded.

  “They can both be punished for each other’s actions. Either way, I want both of them here,” Alexei said determinedly.

  “We get it.” Vlad sighed, bored. He was always bored. “Now, can we please get back to talking about what we’re going to do with our little problem downtown? These bikers are like ants,” he said imperiously, flicking a speck of invisible dust from his knee. “You may only see one or two, but there are a hundred more waiting beneath the surface.”

  Alexei picked up his glass from the coffee table, swirling the vodka around as he thought on what Vlad said.

  Paul held his breath. If Alexei decided to make a hard push against the remaining bikers, what would he be asked to do next? He imagined it would be a lot more than killing and dismembering a bird.

  Suddenly throwing back his drink, Alexei swallowed quickly, slamming his glass on the table. “Fine. They all die. We start with The Hell Brothers. They’re the strongest right now. Then we work our way from there.”

  Vlad sat forward, his black eyes gleaming. “Yes!” he hissed, grinning with anticipation. Soon he would have more than enough to entertain himself with.

  Paul closed his eyes as he realized what Vlad’s glee would mean for some poor soul. Could he do it? Could he kill someone? Someone who wasn’t even threatening him? In a few days’ time he was going to find out, and if the answer was no…Paul looked at Vlad again, who seemed more enthusiastic than he had in a long time. He felt sick again.

  Quickly excusing himself to the bathroom, Paul hurriedly shut the door behind him, slamming the dingy toilet seat up just in time. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve. What am I going to do? he desperately wondered.

  Chapter 6

  Ace had told Katie he was going to collect intel on Alexei so The Hell Brothers could set up a plan to get rid of him, but that wasn’t exactly true. In reality, he was going to look for some kid named Paul.

  Fiona had mentioned her brother had a friend who worked for Alexei. Apparently that was how Niko and Alexei had ended up crossing paths. Paul was tied to Alexei, so Ace figured technically, he hadn’t actually lied to Katie.

  Ace sighed. What am I going to do about you, Katie? Her outburst today had been totally unacceptable. He used to think she was a firecracker when she would pop off like that, always setting him on his ass.

  Katie would yell at him for being stupid, then he would fuck her brains out; that was their routine, and it was one he liked. Then why didn’t you fuck her this morning? You didn’t even kiss her when you headed out the door. It was like you couldn’t wait to get away, the voice in his head taunted. Ace pushed that part of his mind away.

  He revved the motor, accelerating down the highway as he mindlessly zipped through the lanes. His thoughts circled around back to last night again, and how nice it had been to have a woman do what he wanted her to do for once. Soon, she’ll want to do it, too, Ace thought lasciviously as he headed towards Uptown.

  Once he told Fiona all the info he was about to dig up on her brother, she’d forget all about his early departure this morning. His plan was foolproof—as long as he found Paul. The only problem was Ace had no idea what Paul looked like.

  Pulling over into a narrow alley behind a row of shops, Ace killed the engine, silencing the echoing motor. He pulled off his leather vest that claimed The Hell Brothers title, leaving him in just a tight black tee. He carefully folded the vest and placed it in one of the side saddlebags on his bike, throwing his do-rag on top.

  Tousling his auburn hair, Ace stuck one hand in his pocket and casually slung his backpack over his shoulder. He walked out of the alley, heading down the street to the warehouse district where he knew the Russians did their business.

  Finding an abandoned warehouse, Ace climbed up the fire escape to stand on the roof. The building was tall, making a good vantage point. He unzipped his bag and pulled out a pair of binoculars. He didn’t know where Alexei’s place was, but Alexei wasn’t a very smart guy. Ace was confident he could figure it out.

  Sure enough, in less than thirty minutes Ace noticed a steady stream of fancy cars heading in and out of one of the smaller buildings, as well as a suspicious number of men in graphic tees and leather pants that were far too snug.

  Twenty minutes after that, a young man exited one of the side doors and began to pace back and forth, looking extremely nervous. Ace had seen that look before—it was one of a man way out of his depth. He had found Paul.

  Ace quickly climbed back down the fire escape, taking the long way around to wind up on the same street as Paul. He didn’t want to walk too fast, or he would attract unwanted attention, but if he took too long, Paul would go back inside. Luck was with him today, and when Ace rounded the corner he spotted Paul, who was now agitatedly sucking down a cigarette.

  Staying in the shadow of the building, Ace pulled down his sunglasses to cover his eyes and began to casually wave at Paul, as if they were old pals, patiently waiting for him to notice. When he didn’t, Ace called to him from across the street, without a care in the world to who might be listening, apparently.

  Paul lit a cigarette, rapidly pacing back and forth as he tried to come up with a plan. Niko was going to die if he didn’t help him, and now his sister, too. But if he went against Alexei, it would most likely result in him only joining the two in a sudden, fiery car accident.

  He jerked his head up, hearing someone shout his name. Paul hastily looked around, spotting a dark-haired man in a black shirt on the street corner. He squinted, but couldn’t make out who the man was; he had a pair of over-sized sunglasses on that covered half of his face.

  He waved again, and gestured that he would cross the street to come to Paul. Paul felt his body temperature drop five degrees. That would not fly with Alexei. He’d kill this man for trespassing on his property, and beat Paul half to death for letting him.

  Paul waved back to the man hurriedly, motioning for him to stay where he was. The last thing he wanted was another accidental death on his conscience. He looked around to double check no one else was around, then jogged across the street to figure out who this man was.

  The second Paul stepped into the shadow of the building, and outside any watchful eyes’ view, Ace grabbed his shirt and slammed him into the wall.

  “What the fu—” Paul started to exclaim, frantically trying to shov
e the stranger away.

  Ace shook him firmly to hold still, cutting him off. “Are you Paul Ivanov?” he asked, or perhaps threatened.

  “Yes, m-my name is Paul,” he stammered out. He had a feeling the man would be able to tell if he was lying.

  Miraculously, the giant fists holding him hostage relaxed and let go. Paul knew they would have him again quick as lighting if he tried to run, though.

  “You friends with Niko Brown?” the man asked suspiciously.

  Is this a trap? Paul wondered. Does this guy work for Alexei? Maybe Alexei’s testing me to see where my loyalties lie. He looked at the man in front of him again. Paul decided to play it straight. He took a deep breath. “Yes,” he said resolutely. “Niko is my friend.”

  There was no reaction from the man, which meant he didn’t work for Alexei, Paul gathered. His shoulders drooped, all the bravado rushing out of him. He had gotten himself all worked up over nothing.

  “Niko isn’t around, so if you’re looking for him, I can’t really…” Paul stopped midsentence once again, this time because the man had removed his sunglasses and Paul now finally knew who he was. “Holy shit, you’re Ace Connor,” Paul breathed, right before passing out from fear.

  Ace looked at the unconscious boy at his feet. “Goddammit,” he said, sighing. He nudged Paul with his boot. Nothing. He nudged harder. Still nothing.

  Taking a quick look around, Ace hooked his elbows under Paul’s armpits and hurriedly dragged him into the alley behind the warehouse. He propped Paul up against the brick wall, wincing as the kid’s head scraped along the rough stone.

  Ace stood up, panting a little. He was in good shape, especially for a man in his early thirties, but he had to admit, things were beginning to ache.

  Paul groaned and began to stir. “Please don’t hit me again,” he pleaded, looking up at Ace. “I swear, I have no idea where Niko is.”

  “I didn’t hit you the first time!” Ace said indignantly. “You fainted!”

  “Well, that’s embarrassing,” Paul muttered. Ace offered a hand and he took it, pulling himself up. “What do you want with Niko? If it’s to kill him, you’re wasting your time. Alexei’s already on it,” he said, gesturing to the building across the street with one hand while rubbing the back of his head with the other. “You sure you didn’t hit me?” he asked skeptically.

  “To be honest, I don’t want anything to do with Niko,” Ace said, ignoring Paul’s comment, “but his sister, Fiona, came around a tad pissed off about Alexei wanting to kill her brother and looking for help. Thing is, I like to be informed before I go sticking my nose where it might get shot off, and Fiona hasn’t been very forthcoming with the details, see?”

  If Ace were to be perfectly honest, he would have mentioned he hadn’t really asked Fiona for any details. There wasn’t any point to it, really. She was too close to him to see the truth about Niko. That was why he needed Paul.

  “Why do you care what Fiona wants?” Paul blurted out.

  Ace scowled at Paul and grabbed him by the back of the neck. “Do you want to ask questions, or do you want to keep your tongue?”

  “Sorry!” Paul squeaked out.

  Ace glared at him for another minute to make sure he got the point, then let go. “Tell me what happened with Niko,” he ordered, folding his arms.

  “Well, I guess it all started out a while back when I met Niko, because, well, we were going to be heading to this place out in…the…” Paul’s voice faded as he noticed Ace’s menacing stare. He was nervous, and babbling because of it. “Sorry,” Paul repeated. “Um, Niko has a pretty bad drug problem, especially when it comes to the nose candy, if you know what I mean, and he was always short on cash. So when Alexei gave us the opportunity to run some drugs, well, we took it,” Paul admitted.

  Ace sighed. He could guess where this was headed. “Niko started tasting his own product, didn’t he?”

  Paul fervently shook his head. “No way, man. Niko might ride the white pony a little too often for me, but he was smarter than that,” he insisted.

  “Then what happened?”

  Paul looked at his shoes. “We got jumped. They took everything; our money and our stash. Alexei was pissed. Told us we were responsible for it.”

  Ace was nonplussed. “What happened to your guard?”

  “Our what?” Paul asked, equally confused.

  “Your guard,” Ace repeated. “You should have had a guard with you to make sure that exact thing didn’t happen to you…” He trailed off, seeing Paul wasn’t understanding anything he was saying. Come on, Alexei, Ace thought, aggravated. This is Drug-Running 101; where’s your head at? Unless…

  “Paul, do you know who jumped you?” Ace asked urgently. “Did they say anything?”

  Paul frowned as he thought back to that night. “No…” he said slowly. “Why?”

  Ace sighed. “Because Alexei rolled you two.”

  “What do you mean?” Paul asked anxiously.

  “It’s a fucked up thing to do, but then, Alexei’s pretty fucked up,” Ace said. “You send out a runner with no guard so they’re defenseless, then you send someone out after the runner to rob them. It’s easy because you know exactly where they are on the route,” he explained. “They come back and you demand they come up with the money or you kill them. Then they have twice as much, see? The only thing I don’t understand is why Alexei would pull this on Niko. There’s nothing to suggest Niko would be able to pay up,” Ace wondered aloud.

  Paul’s shoulders suddenly drooped.

  “What?” Ace asked suspiciously.

  “My cousin, Patrick,” Paul said miserably. “He’s rich—he paid for my share, and even some of Niko’s. Alexei must’ve been going after me,” he stuttered, clearly distressed.

  “Yeah, probably,” Ace agreed absentmindedly.

  This changed things considerably. It had been one thing to rile the gang up this morning, but as much as he hated to admit it, Katie had been right—they weren’t going to be swayed for long by some sap who couldn’t pay his debts. But if Alexei was intentionally rolling his own runners, well, that was a different story.

  The gangs of Chicago often hastily formed alliances and broke them just as quickly – that is, when there were enough gangs for an alliance to be necessary. These cease-fires, which were fragile enough to begin with, were most frequently broken when one gang jumped another gang’s runner. Attacking your own runner could inadvertently end a truce. Plus, it was just bad business—if you can’t protect your employees, no one will want to work for you.

  I can take this back to The Hell Brothers as a real issue. I can work this! Ace thought excitedly, purposely ignoring why he was so happy he was going to be able to help Fiona without putting too much strain on his role as the leader of the gang.

  “Ex-excuse me,” Paul stammered nervously, pulling Ace from his reverie.

  Ace snapped his head up to look at him. “What?” he demanded.

  “Can I help?” Paul asked timidly. “Niko was—is my friend, and if I didn’t have my cousin, Alexei would be hunting me down right now, too.”

  Ace didn’t think it was a good idea to bring someone of Alexei’s back to headquarters just yet, but he was glad to have a guy on the inside. He smirked, imagining Katie’s face when he told her he had a double agent. That’ll show her, he thought smugly.

  “What can you tell me?” Ace needed information, and quickly.

  “Uh, well, um.” Paul was struggling under the pressure to remember the conversation he’d overheard only an hour earlier. Ace took a deep breath, trying not to strangle the kid with his bare hands. “Vlad’s pushing Alexei to kill all you guys, well, not all, but enough that you won’t be able to do business anymore.”

  “I know that already,” Ace said impatiently. “What did he say about Fiona? And Niko?” he added hurriedly.

  “Oh, that. Alexei wants both of them by the end of the week,” Paul said. “I said something about maybe getting them to leave Fiona alone, but
they didn’t like that. I…I don’t think it’s about the money anymore.”

  Ace rolled his eyes. He could have guessed that much, as well. Paul was essentially useless. But that didn’t mean he always would be. “Okay, Paul, that’s great,” Ace lied. “Can you keep doing this? Can you keep telling me what’s going on with Alexei? If you do, I promise I will help your friend Niko.”

  “If it’ll help Niko—anything,” Paul said firmly. “Thank you, Mr. Connor.”

  “No problem.” Ace rubbed the back of his neck, hurrying to leave before the kid burst into tears or something.

  He needed to go to Fiona’s and talk to her about what he’d just found out, but he doubted she would want to see him right now. After he’d left so abruptly last night, he’d sort of been avoiding her. Ace angrily rolled his shoulders. What’d she fucking expect anyway? I’m not the kind of guy who brings a girl breakfast in bed, and if Fiona thought otherwise, that’s her own damn fault!