Page 30 of Vicious Vows

"There was a problem at the handoff tonight. I don't know what happened. Shit was fine, and then all of a sudden people were shooting. We were set up," he explained quickly.

I fisted my hands and glared at him.

"You lost my shit?"

"Yes, and the money. Everyone was just trying to get out of there as quickly as they could. It was turning into a bloodbath."

I closed my eyes and mentally counted to ten. What I really wanted to do was put a bullet right between Yuri's eyes, but I needed more information first. Tonight I'd set up for three cases of small arms and one million dollars in Kuwait dinars to be exchanged. If what Yuri was saying was true, I was out of nearly five million dollars.

I opened my eyes again and slowly walked over to Yuri. I raised my hand. He flinched at the motion but didn't move away.

I flattened down his collar before I curled my fingers underneath the fabric and pulled him up so he was standing on his tiptoes, making the interaction as emasculating for him as I possibly could. I wanted him to know that I could toss him around like a fucking ragdoll if I wanted. I would do just that if he even thought about lying to me.

"You had one fucking job to do. Something I've set up countless times and have never had a problem. The one time I have other responsibilities, you can't get the shit right. So what you're going to tell me now is how the fuck you managed to lose nearly five million dollars of my merchandise. And if you don't have a good enough answer, I'm going to find someone else who does know, and you won't live long enough to watch him take your spot." I growled in his face, and he simply gulped down hard again.

"Dominic, I don't know what happened. I swear to you everything was going fine. Kumar and his people didn't even ask for you. They checked over the product, and before they could get the lid back down on the crate, someone had opened fire. It wasn't them either, at least not from what I could see. Cole was standing at the back door and didn't see anyone come in, so I don't think it was an outsider. Someone orchestrated this," Yuri offered in explanation, and even though it wasn't nearly as much information as I wanted, it gave me a heading.

I nearly laughed at the thought.

Someone from inside my team thought they'd rip me off? Thought they'd try their luck and undermine me?

That only meant someone had a fucking death wish. One I was more than happy to fulfill for them.

I wasn't too concerned about the five million dollars; sure, it hurt the pockets, but I'd recover. What I needed to make sure was that my connection with Kumar and the Middle Eastern exchanges was still viable.

That connection was one I'd set up without the help of my father, and I didn't want to have to give up on that extra bit of clout.

I let Yuri go and took a step back. He was telling me the truth. Yuri was one of my most trusted men, but he wasn't the smartest out of the bunch. He'd never think of something like this.

"You need to get me in contact with Kumar and send someone back to the drop point to see if there's anything left there that could be linked back to-" My eyes settled back on Yuri's face, he still looked as if he were sitting on a hot poker.

"What?" I asked, ready for him to tell me what more could have possibly gone wrong.

"That's not the worst part." Yuri sighed heavily and pulled his shoulders back, gearing up for whatever other bad news he had to deliver. "In all the commotion, people were running all around like I'd said before. I couldn't keep him in my sights. I wasn't there to watch his back."

My breath stilled in my lungs for a second as I tried to understand what Yuri was telling me.

"He got caught in the spray. Lionel was shot."

The words dropped like a five-ton weight in my stomach. I threw my head back, letting out a feral roar.

Someone had shot my little brother, and they were still walking free?

"Where is he? Is he dead?"

"No, at least he wasn't when we left him," Yuri added, "We revived him once before we got him here to Dr. Nelson; he couldn't help him here and had to take him to the hospital."

I shoved my hands into my hair and yanked hard on the strands before I turned in the direction of Dr. Nelson's room only to turn back toward Yuri.

"You useless fuck!" I yelled before I pulled my arm back and swung with all my might into his face. He crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes, knocked out with one hit.

The hit vibrated my bones but It wasn't enough to expel this all-consuming anger inside of me.

I turned back in the direction of Dr. Nelson's room, but I knew that I wouldn't find my brother there. Lionel was laying in some hospital room, maybe fucking dying while I was out at a goddamn party with Faye. Somehow, I'd gotten sloppy. Somewhere down the line, I must have missed a step, and now my brother was paying for it.

I glanced over my shoulder to Cole, who was smacking the side of Yuri's face trying to get him to wake up. "Where did they take Lionel?"

"Rockland General," he answered right away, probably too worried about feeling my wrath to hesitate.

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