The Volkov Bratva worked for The Lucaya Group. From what we’d gathered, the leader of the group was ex-KGB. My father had promised Damian and Bastian revenge.
But how do you find a ghost?
“They’re trying to sell Alex on the black fucking market. We better find those motherfuckers before that happens.”
He tugged at the ends of his hair, then placed his hand back on the steering wheel. “It’s my fucking fault. I’m the head of security. I knew better than to disable the encryption. It was only for a few seconds. I didn’t think…”
“We’ll fix it,” I assured him.
We had the best hackers in the world at our disposal and would find a way around the auction.
“Alex isn’t in danger at our estate. As long as she’s under our roof, no one can touch her.”
“We need more men,” Marcello insisted. “I’ll double the guards at the house.”
“The Five Families will help.” I threw out the idea as a last resort. “They hate the Russians more than we do.”
“No,” he said without a second thought. “They want too much. We will find another way.” Marcello flew down the hill, taking another hard turn, and the scent of the bay floated through the windows. “We can’t admit any new Knights until afterLegare. And after what you said to Alex before dinner, she’ll never agree to become our queen.”
“She’ll forgive me.”
“What is wrong with you?” Marcello shifted gears and punched the gas. “You think a woman wants to hear that you’ll break her finger to put your ring on it?”
“Fuck off. Don’t talk to me about Alex.”
“Your jealousy is fucking with your head.” He sighed. “It makes you irrational. She’s not yours, Luca. Alex isours.”
“We’re done talking about her.” I turned up the radio, and “Bring the Pain” by Method Man cranked through the speakers. “Focus on the shipment.”
I bobbed my head to the rap beat, ignoring my brother as the marina came into view.
“No, we’re talking about her,” he yelled over the music.
“Would it make you feel better if we took her to a safe house? Hmm, little brother?”
He turned off the radio and snarled at me. “Don’t fucking patronize me. If you don’t claim her first, it will kill you, won’t it? For as much as you hate her, you want her, too. Just admit it, you fucking jerk off.”
Avoiding his annoying comments, I flipped through my cell phone and opened the security app on my phone. I scrolled through the cameras in the house and searched for Alex and Roman. She laid on the floor in her bedroom, dressed in silk pajama shorts and a matching tank top.
Alex dipped the tip of her brush into a crimson colored paint and swirled it across the canvas. Another painting. I loved watching my girl create her masterpieces. She was so talented, a natural artist like my mother.
Roman sat in a chair by the door, watching her with his fingers a few inches from his gun. He was the only person on our security team I trusted as much as Marcello, but I needed to see her. To check on her. Stalk her like I had done from a distance for most of her life.
Alex met us right after her eighteenth birthday. But all four of us had known about her for most of our lives. We’d been waiting years for our queen to take her rightful place beside us. That didn’t stop us from hating her, from making her life hell.
Bastian and Damian didn’t have any personal grudges against Alex. But Marcello and I had every reason to hate her. It surprised me how quickly my younger brother was thawing out. It was because Alex reminded him of our mother, and he wanted to take care of her.
When we parked at the marina, none of the dock lights were on, which was a clear sign something was wrong. Where was the harbormaster? He was usually here waiting for us, anything to make a quick buck.
We dealt with routine shipments at the marina once a week. Most of the time, they went off without a hitch. But for the past week, I’d had to reroute a few of the shipping containers to accommodate last-minute changes from our business associates.
That was why I kept Alex locked in her room for days. All of us were busy trying to make the logistics work and didn’t want the stress of having to watch over her. She also needed a steady dose of her meds to level her ass out.
Win-win.
“Volkov’s men won’t stop until Alex is dead. They want their pound of flesh, and they will try to take it fromher.”
My brother shifted into park, then snapped his head at me. “Ever since she’s come back to Devil’s Creek, you’re all fucked up.”