Brain(82)

Ranger looked doubtful. “You made things right with the Russian Mafia, after they felt the need to capture and torture you, and you escaped?”

I nodded. “I didn’t have the names to give them when they tortured me, which is a good thing, because my cred went way up for not divulging. Plus, they’d have probably killed me once they had the info, and then I’d have never managed to escape. However, I knew something else they wanted to know, so I traded them that info, plus a job I knew they were struggling to handle. So far, they’ve kept their end of the deal, though they’d already set the NSA and FBI on me, which has been a bitch to live with.”

“You don’t seem eat up inside over being the cause of Ivankov’s son’s death.”

I smiled, and knew it to be what people had told me in the past was my ‘scary smile’. I saw the recognition in his eyes when he understood I’d kill in order to survive, and wouldn’t be sorry about it, and I told him, “His son was a bad man. My intention was for him to suffer horrible torture at the hands of his Mafia family, but I’m not sorry the man didn’t survive the ordeal. I was passed out and likely near death many times when they threw cold water on me, or put something under my nose to bring me back to consciousness. Ivankov didn’t let me die, no matter how badly I wanted to.”

“If we get him, he has to die, or you’ll always be looking over your shoulder after him.”

“I know.”

“I was going to offer to kill him for you. My soul has enough stains on it, one more won’t hurt it… but now I’m not so certain you’ll take the offer in the spirit it’s intended.”

I shook my head. “If you get a shot, take it, but don’t step in to save me from having to do it, if I have a shot.”

“Deal, but if I step in front of you to catch a bullet, it’s because I can heal from it, and you might not. Okay?”

I smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

I read for a few hours, and then relieved Brain, though he merely sat in a more comfortable chair behind me, his eyes closed. He said he just needed to be in the same room with me a while.

I kept an eye on things using his set up, and poked around on Ivankov’s IP address with my laptop proxied so he’d never trace back to me. I got into his computer, but all I learned was the man liked really sick porn.

Apparently, my smell changed when I saw it, and Brain was to me in an instant. “I’m okay,” I assured him, “just a little disgusted at his porn collection, is all.”

“You seemed okay interacting with Duke, making it look real. Anything you need to talk about?”

I shook my head as I looked through Ivankov’s other folders and files, and Brain watched from his seat beside me.

“Him looking different made it easier. Every time I see his face, I see him coming at me with that damned syringe, and feel the panic at being out of control and not knowing where I’d wake up.” I sighed. “You did it to me, too, but then you went out of your way to treat me with respect, even though I was your prisoner. It was about power and revenge for them. It was different, and I’m having a hard time moving past it.”

“You don’t have to move past it. When we finish here, you’ll never have to see them again, and I intend to have a discussion with Aaron that’ll guarantee we don’t run into this problem again.”

“No, Brain. Aaron’s right. They’re your family, and families fight sometimes, but they make up. I’ll figure out a way to be okay with Duke, eventually, and while I may never be okay with Gonzo or Bash, I need you to be able to join your family, again, so I’ll work it out enough I can be in the same room with them.” I ran my fingers through his silky hair and reminded him, “I was the bad guy at the time. Bash enjoyed humiliating me, and Gonzo was a cold assed bastard, but neither of them actually hurt me. I’ve survived worse, and Bash was probably a little humiliated in the dress today. Seriously, I’ll get over it. They’re trying.”

He shook his head and leaned down to brush his lips across my cheek. “I’ll leave you alone so you can snoop through his computer. If he has a log-in for the Mafia’s systems, he’s probably had the software remember his passwords, that’s where I’d head from here.”

“Already looked. I have the IP address he logs into, but nothing more. I installed a keylogger that’ll email me his strokes at three o’clock every morning, and I already put an exception for it in his firewall. If we don’t get something out of it in the next couple of days, I’ll decide whether I want in bad enough to hack in. Honestly, at this point I’m inclined to leave the organization alone and just focus on him.”