Page 54 of Brutal Secrets
“Why the blast walls?” I look past the trees at the high concrete barriers.
“Bomb threats last year from some fucker who wanted to blow her up. All the press around the court case didn’t help. He said if they couldn’t be together, then no one else would have her.”
“And my daughter has grown up around this?”
Dex looks at the walls and then back at me. “She’s an amazingly normal kid, considering. Kesera walks her to school. She’s managed to carve out the semblance of a normal life in the midst of all this craziness,” he muses. “I admire her.”
I should have killed that slimy fucker Jimmy when I had the chance. I won’t make that mistake a second time. But random lunatics who want to marry the woman I made a child with? Christ. The mafia sounds like a picnic in comparison. At least you know who you’re dealing with.
As if he can read my mind, Dex turns to me. “And I hear you’ve got some less than salubrious friends who might want to pay us a visit.”
“If they know where we are.” I shrug. I wish I wasn’t a catalyst for more chaos.
“She doesn’t do press about this place. We could be okay. It depends on whether you were followed.” He looks around as if an assassin might leap from behind a tree trunk or drop from the branches.
“There was no one on our tail, and I’ve ensured my electronics are untraceable.” Given the enormous amounts of data on cell phones, that’s a weak link when the police are so corrupt. I pull the old Nokia out of my pocket. “I’ve only got my burner phone with me. Four people have the number, and two of them are with us. If anyone followed us last night, they’d be here already.”
“Um, boss.” Andrei kicks at the dirt and looks at the gravel like it might hold the answer to an important question.
“What?”
Andrei pulls a smartphone out of his pocket. He shrugs. “I was texting Katya. She wanted to stay in touch, and I?—”
“You stupid fuck.” I snatch the phone from his hands and throw it to the ground, grinding it under my heel. I wind my arm back as if someone has coiled a spring so tight that its forceful snap back is inevitable. “Google.” My fist hits his nose with a wet thud. “Apple.” His neck snaps back as I pound him again, raining blows down on his pretty-boy face so hard that Katya or whichever slut he was texting won’t be able to find his mouth to kiss it.
Dex approaches me from behind and holds my arms back without using much force, giving me time to catch my breath. Andrei doubles over, blood dripping from his nose to the gravel driveway.
“How could you be so fucking stupid?” I say.
“Sorry, boss,” he burbles through bloody lips. “I didn’t think.”
I hold up a hand to stop him from saying another word as I shrug out of Dex’s grasp. “Well, we’d all better start thinking. There’s a long list of people who are pissed off with me right now. The Italians. My boss.”
Dex nods. “This place is pretty easy to defend. We might be better staying put than trying to drive south when we don’t know who’s on our tail.” He strides into the house, and I hear him say, “Nadia’s not going to school tomorrow.”
Jesus. School. It’s like I’ve dropped through the looking glass into a different world.
On one hand, I’ve come here with a moron who couldn’t survive two days without texting one of our hookers. On the other, the first order of business is whether or not my ten-year-old will miss school.
My head’s spinning, but there’s no time to think of how to balance the two worlds, because my ears ring with the sound of a blast, and flames shoot from the other side of the walls.
“Kesera!” I shout her name as I run toward the house, my only thought the woman I’ve never been able to forget.
Chapter Thirty-Five
At the sound of an explosion, Nadia drops the Monopoly money she was stacking. Paper rubles scatter across the board, and wide eyes search mine for answers.
I lean over to take her hand and pull her to her feet. “Let’s go find Nona,” I say, leading her away from windows and into the hallway.
Vadim bursts into the house, flinging the screen door open behind him. He’s panting, rushing toward me with a frantic expression and grasping my shoulders with shaking hands.
My first—and most irrational—thought is to comfort him. I slide my hand up his scarred cheek as Nadia peeks out from behind me.
“It’s okay,” I whisper softly. “I know what to do.”
He pulls both of us into the circle of his arms for a second, and I can feel his heartbeat and smell the pine and salt on his skin as he mumbles into my hair. “It’s my fault.”
I take his hand. His huge palm wraps around mine, and I squeeze a couple of times as I lead him toward a wall panel beneath a light switch. After sliding it away, I push my fingerprint against the glass screen. The door to the bunker under our little house opens, an eerie blue light shining up from the steel steps. I push Nadia ahead of me.