I descend into the calm and as soon as my feet hit the bottom step it’s like a switch is flicked. I no longer hear the ruckus of the party. Tension ripples over my shoulders and I shrug it off hoping it doesn’t come back as a raging headache later on.
With Volkov’s parting gift in hand, I grab a couple of shot glasses and head to the long table in the middle of the room. Automatic dome lights flicker on above as I move through the large open space.
Rage is the first to clamber down the stairs and grabs a chair to my right.
I pop the top and pour us both a shot. As vice president of the club he takes his place as my best friend and right-hand man literally and seriously. There is only one other person in the world I trust more than him.
We lift our glasses. “Na zdorovie!” we both say in unison and hit back our shots.
“Damn that’s good. Not like the usual shit you drink.”
He slides his glass my way and I pour us another.
Rage shoots off a low whistle. “You clean up nice, boss man. Maybe I should get some promo pics for the casino while you’re not wearing bike grease and have a clean jawline.” He shoots me a wink and I flip him off.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw you in cufflinks and shoes shinier than your ride either. Back home it was always shit kickers and jeans.”
I give a nod recalling the shit I used to do. My father would parade high-level diplomats to run-of-the-mill street thugs through our home, doing various levels of deals.
“Anything to piss off my old man, right?”
He nods and kicks back on the hind legs of the chair and rests his hands on his thighs. Typical Rage style. All like he has no care in the world when I know what goes on in that man’s head and it isn’t pretty by a long shot.
“Back home?”
“Yeah,” Rage grunts and easily slips into our native tongue. “YA dumal ob etom bol’’she.”
Huh. That has me pausing with my glass halfway to my lips. “And?” Rage thinking aboutRossiyaisn’t a good sign.
“I’ve been thinking about it more. How we left shit with your old man and mine.”
He’s got that same smelly ass cigar clenched between his teeth and I swear to God he looks like Eastwood in the early days with that half-eye squint going on. Or at the very least the son. Some scruff on his face lends to the dirty Harry look. Rough around the edges with a bigger chip on his shoulder than me given his name sits at the top of my father’s hit list just below mine. Something neither of us likes to talk about. Or the drug addiction he went through because of it. It’s a long story he hates getting into so I’m surprised to see him nostalgic.
“What the hell is that smell?” Three different perfumes permeate the space around him. “Did you roll around in the back flower beds?”
He puts on a shit-eating grin. “Club candy. Sweet, aren’t they? What can I say? Women love me and I love them right back.”
I lean my substantial weight against the back of my chair and pin him with a hard look. “Is that what you’ve been up to while I was gone?”
“Maybe.”
I chuckle. “Better be careful. One of them will expect to be your old lady before too long.”
He grunts and tosses back another shot before saying anything. “At any rate, my friend, glad you’re back after taking a trip into the devil’s ass. How did it really go?”
“I rub my jaw. Their amassing money and forging connections that will make them stronger and harder to take down if we wait much longer.”
Rage cocks his head. “What kind of timeframe are we looking at? A few months?”
I shake my head. “Nah. Weeks and that’s being generous to get this girl to help us. Much longer and they’ll have the ears and connections that will make them untouchable.”
We’ve kept our eye on these thugs as they’ve climbed up the ladder. At first, we didn’t see them as anything other than low-level threats. As long as they paid their dues to operate in our city in the districts, we designated all was well. And then almost overnight they shot up.
Rage’s grim expression matches mine and we get down to business as the other men file in. They usually disperse between the couches and chairs spread out around the room, but they take up positions along the sides of the table this time around. Riot, who came with me when I left Russia behind, walks in first with Devil right behind him.
I look each of them in the eye. “We secured the hacker. She’ll be here within the hour.”
“And?” Rage grunts, his brows high on his forehead.