Ultimate Vengeance (Wanted Men Book 4)(114)

Vincente looked ready to explode as he walked away.

“And you guys?” Reynard said to Alek, almost appearing to be enjoying himself now. “Sergei got real brave a few weeks back and danced with the devil by poking his nose into Kirov’s biz. How do you think Eberto Morales knew to target the hot Dr. Mancuso at Coney Island Hospital? And his woman’s kid? Yeah. Sergei gave Morales the boy’s school. Said if his kid was dead, why should hers live?”

Thank fuck Maks wasn’t there. He’d have struck Reynard down right then.

“And then there’s our Pakhan,” Reynard went on. “Back when Sergei found out your uncle had a woman and kid, I don’t think I ever saw him so fuckin’ excited. It wasn’t even a week later that he had a plan in place to take out the little blonde in Seattle. Just after, when he saw Vasily and Gabriel in Rapture, he sniffed around the Italian’s past. How do you think Furio and Stefano learned about Vasily’s kid; your fucked up cousin sent the P.I. they hired a photo of Gabriel with her pretty face circled in the background. Sergei said the fat guy took over from there and found her in a bunch of other pictures he’d already taken.”

As Alek and Anton exchanged a look, Reynard grew quiet and dabbed at his lips with the tip of his tongue. An electric tension returned when Vincente did. The air all but crackled with it as it bounced off the shit already simmering between them all.

“Sergei said you pretended to fuck some pussy to get rid of your kid’s mother,” Reynard said casually, making Alek’s stomach turn. “Well, he didn’t pretend. He was dipping into a whore when he should have been at a soccer game picking up Renee and Evan. That’s where the guilt comes from. They waited at that field for over an hour. Renee knew why he wasn’t there, and she called one of her friends. Did you know she was planning on taking their boy and going back to Russia?” He looked at Alek then V before shrugging and going on. “What she didn’t know was that her friend was one of Artur Baikov’s women. When Artur learned a Tarasov wife and kid were alone in a park in the middle of New York, he told his old man, and they took advantage. Renee and Evan wouldn’t have died if your cousin hadn’t been consoling himself because his marriage was falling apart.”

The tragedy of it all became overwhelming then but Alek pushed through. “And you partnered with him on every job. Why didn’t you go to my uncle with any of this?”

“Why would I? Sergei lined my pockets more than Vasily ever personally did. You gotta know it was mostly about the money. I didn’t get my jollies pouring some shit into your woman’s body wash to poison her kid. But the five grand that was handed over afterward did a good job of knocking the shitty feelings away.”

Five thousand dollars? That was the value they’d place on Lekzi’s life?

Seeing red, Alek brought up the handful of syringes and punched them through the motherfucker’s sweater and into his chest, right over the empty cavern that should have housed a heart. He nodded for the boys to let Reynard fall and watched as the guy yanked the needles out and threw them aside.

With an image in his mind of Yuri inserting a tube down Lekzi’s throat and into her tiny stomach, he dragged a struggling Reynard to the edge of the roof. With Anton’s help, he got the piece of garbage over the railing. Alek held him by the ankles, four stories up, and enjoyed the sound of his shrieks echoing off the buildings around them.

“Even though I find it sickening, I appreciate your honesty, Reynard,” he said calmly.

Vincente bumped Alek’s arm and put his hands out to take over.

Without hesitating, Alek released the murdering cocksucker. But it wasn’t into V’s grip.

As windows began to light up, he and his boys walked away. Reynard’s scream faded…faded…then suddenly ended.

“Well, Jesus Christ,” V muttered as he came up on Alek’s flank as they headed down the stairs. “Interesting to see Vasily’s sovietnik at work. Too bad there weren’t more witnesses. All the bullshit questions about your commitment to the life would stop if you let others see this side of you.”

Sovietnik. The fact that Vincente dropped the label let Alek know Maksim had been talking. The title made Alek the most trusted individual to the Pakhan of their organization. It said he was to Vasily what Vincente was to Gabriel.

When they reached the street, they jumped into a nondescript SUV with dead plates. It would take them a few blocks over to where the Kombat waited with a driver. They would trade-off, and while they headed home, the SUV would be taken back to the garage. The plates would be destroyed and the vehicle painted. It would be ready for use again by the weekend.