Page 50 of Savage Justice

“He looks pleased with himself,” she observes as he saunters away to email his application.

“Yes,” I agree. “It’s amazing what a bit of attention will do for a kid.”

CHAPTER 13

Nico

“Did he have much to say for himself?” Ethan skims a disinterested gaze over the man strapped to the table.

“No, boss. But we weren’t exactly asking him anything. We know what he’s done, and why. This was about teaching him a lesson. Warning him off.”

Our boss pries open one of Borys’s eyelids with his thumb and peers into the glassy orb. “He’s out cold.”

“Yeah, but he’ll be back with us soon enough,” I assure him. “We can go a round or two more still.”

“That’s a relief. I haven’t missed all the fun, then. But we have a complication.”

I accept a stick of chewing gum from Aaron, who has flown over with his older brother. “What’s that, then?”

“Kristian Kaminski,” he replies simply. “Apparently, this piece of shit is his brother-in-law. Kristian wants him back. Preferably in one piece.”

“Kaminski?” I rifle through my brain. “I know that name…”

“The Warsaw Kaminskis?” Jack puts in helpfully. “Old Oscar?”

Ethan nods. “The very same.”

“Shit.”

The penny drops. The Kaminskis are our equivalent in their corner of Eastern Europe. They have interests primarily in gambling, casinos, construction, art fraud, and counterfeit currency. Their specialism has always been what I’d think of as white-collar crime, but they’re not above a spot of wet work when the occasion calls for it.

“Is Oscar still alive?” Jack wants to know.

“Apparently so,” Ethan confirms, “but he must be over ninety by now. Not in great health, last I heard. Lung cancer, the legacy of too many cigars.”

“Right. So, this Kristian…?”

“His son. More to the point, his heir. Oscar’s still in charge but more or less retired. Never leaves Warsaw these days, and Kristian runs the show.”

“Do you know him?” Jack asks.

“Not personally. I met him once or twice in the past, when we were kids. He’s a couple of years younger than me. My father did a lot of business with Oscar, though. They were decent allies, shared trade routes through Europe. The Poles supplied us with weapons once upon a time. Oscar was at our father’s funeral, but Kristian didn’t come with him.”

“No. He was doing a ten stretch for GBH at the time,” Aaron informs us. “Served two years then was let out on a technicality of some sort. Has a reputation for being a hard bastard.”

“I like to think, so do I,” Ethan mutters. “Anyway, Kristian wants a meeting.”

“When?” Jack asks.

“Today. He’s suggesting somewhere in Liverpool.”

“He’s here? In the UK?”

“Seems so. I’ve suggested Stanley Park as a neutral spot. We’re meeting him there in an hour.”

“Fuck,” Jack breathes. “What’s the rush?”

“Don’t think he trusts us to return his brother-in-law unharmed if we get to hang on to him for any length of time. Can’t say I blame him.”

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