“He’s no ghost. Word is, he wants to kill Jackson Deveau himself. He put the word out that no one else can touch him. He’ll have to come out of the shadows to make his try and then we’ll have him.”
“You’re telling us this because?” Casimir said. “Deep undercover is for your protection, Viktor, not just those you care about. You shouldn’t have said a word of this to us, or anyone else.”
“I don’t get the fucker, you tell Gavriil and the others. They have to get him.” His gaze lingered on Lissa’s face. “You know enough to keep your mouth shut until there’s no other way.”
Lissa nodded slowly. Casimir could see that she was more inclined to feel favorably toward Viktor, although she still had a look in her eyes that indicated she wanted to rip into him and the temperature in the room hadn’t gone down in the least.
“Viktor, these men you have with you, are you certain they’ll stand with you? You take down the president of a club that size and you’re vulnerable. The members know you. They know your face. You’ve ridden with them for five years. Say you manage it, what’s to say they don’t come after you a year from now, and you’re hunted, just like the Sorbacovs are hunting us now.”
“They’ll stand with me. They’ve always stood with me.” Something crossed his face. Something dark and sinister. In that moment, Viktor looked every inch of what he was – what he’d been shaped into. It was dark and it was ugly. “That school, Casimir…” He shook his head. “We had to hold on to something or we would have died like the rest of them. We had to trust one another. We’ve been doing that since we were boys. They’re solid. They’ll stand with me, before it’s done. While we’re getting it done and after. They’ll be with me.”
“After?” Casimir echoed.
“We’ll get this last job done, and if you do manage to rid the world of the Sorbacovs, we’ll finally be free.”
“The club will send someone after you, Viktor,” Casimir repeated.
Viktor shrugged, his face hard, eyes dead and flat. “Let them. Sea Haven isn’t their territory. They can’t just ride around openly with their colors and not get retaliation from the local clubs. We’ll be together, and there isn’t one of my brothers that isn’t lethal. Most of us are too fucked up to try to live in society with society’s rules, but we have a plan. We’ll stick to it and we’ll be all right, looking after one another.”
“Do your blood brothers have any place in that plan of yours?” Casimir asked, trying not to be hurt. They’d all waited so long to be together. Casimir was risking his life to free them all, and it sounded as if Viktor didn’t plan on hanging around.
“I’ll be living right there on that sweet farm with you,” Viktor said, his gaze suddenly sharp. Piercing. On Lissa.
Casimir glanced at his woman, saw her eyebrows shoot up again, and this time she dug her nails into his palm.
“How lovely.” Her voice dripped sarcasm. “Gavriil’s dog just had puppies. I’m certain there’s room in the doghouse for you to stay.”
Viktor’s green eyes glittered with menace for a long moment and then he burst out laughing. “Your woman has a bad attitude, Casimir. You aware of all that sass before you married her?”
“Yes,” Casimir admitted. “And that makes me either the smartest man in the world or the dumbest.”
What in the hell is wrong with you? he demanded.
Her chin went up. He’d forgotten she could also be the most stubborn. Someone ought to kick him very hard in the shins. And when I say hard, I mean hard enough so he carries a big fat bruise for a month. He needs to wake up.
“I’ll take the doghouse until I get things straightened out,” Viktor said. “And trust me, little sister, when I decide to straighten things out, they get that way fast.”
14
“What was that?” Casimir asked as he opened the door to the villa overlooking the turquoise sea. He stepped back to allow her to precede him, his jaw set, eyes hard. Lissa lifted her gaze to his face. He could see the answering anger, the one smoldering in his belly, glittering in her eyes. That just brought that fire roaring to life. “Viktor is my brother. He came all this way to be with us. I can’t believe you would talk with such open hostility to him.”
“Your brother is a Neanderthal and he belongs in a cave somewhere.”
She stalked past him into the wide-open room. He followed her. Close. The fire inside of him growing with every step he took. He hadn’t seen Viktor since he was a little boy when the soldiers came and ripped his family apart. The tortures they’d all endured were indescribable. He’d never talk to her about his childhood, especially not when that door had been cracked open and he was close to losing control.