Page 23 of A Monster Is Coming

“What did you find out?” Ivan asked, not even bothering to glance at the body.

I found this odd. Ivan was a mystery to me. On the one hand, he seemed to be the meddling sort, always sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. Then there were times he seemed to always be one step ahead of everyone else, while also maintaining this rather blasé exterior.

“Not a whole lot. Some stuff we already knew. He’s planning to start with your area six. Other than that, this guy didn’t get too close to Finn Byrne.” I thought it was clever of me to refer to all of Ivan’s Brigadiers as areas. It didn’t matter who was in control. Area six felt a lot quicker than, say, Oleg Pavlov’s territory before he died, very wordy. Area six was much better. The same area I knew Ivan had offered to me and … The Butcher.

There was no way I was sharing any territory with that bitch. She was a fucking nightmare. It was bad enough having to deal with the same problem with her.

I liked to think of myself as finesse, while she … well, it was a complete and total nightmare and shit show. The Butcher didn’t care about the mess she left behind, whereas I did.

“Makes sense,” Ivan said.

See, I just told him that another bad guy intended to take over his turf, and he didn’t seem to care. It wasn’t like it was news to him. I doubt it was. The man had been in charge of the Volkov Bratva, and where the previous Bratva had a small territory, they hadn’t thought big, like Ivan. He’d already made ten times the Bratva than his previous predecessor.

Like now, Ivan walked to take a seat in the corner of the room. He stared at the mess of the man that was now dead, and it was like he was staring into space. Death didn’t bother him.

“The word has been put out. Finn Byrne is looking for his daughter. It now doesn’t just extend to the bounty hunters. He’s got men and women, anyone who wants the reward.”

“How much is the reward?” Ivan asked.

I didn’t know if Ivan was curious because he wanted the reward, or if he was just curious.

“A thousand.”

Not going to lie, a thousand bucks to find someone’s daughter wasn’t exactly a great incentive. Finn Byrne was pretty much announcing to the whole world that even though he had a daughter and wanted her, she wasn’t that important. To me, this meant she could end up back in her father’s care a little more broken than when I found her.

“That it?” Ivan asked, and then laughed.

“Do you think he knows the danger he is putting his daughter in?” I asked. I wasn’t sure exactly how much Ivan knew of Finn. As far as I was aware the two had never crossed paths, not personally.

Ivan may have pushed Finn Byrne out of his territory, but he’d been losing it long before Ivan came along.

“He knows,” Ivan said.

Once again, he was this mystery man. I didn’t know if he was upset or didn’t give a fuck.

Tapping my fingers against my leg, I continued to stare at Ivan. He wasn’t exactly known for small talk, and I wasn’t used to having anyone look at my craftsmanship.

“Can I ask you a question?” I said. Even if Ivan said no, I was going to ask it. I was merely attempting to sound polite. Didn’t mean I was going to be polite.

“What?” Ivan asked.

“What does this girl mean to you? I mean, she’s no one. She’s not important. Even her father hasn’t put a high enough price tag on her head, and she also ran away, which tells me she is either a brat or knows what the hell she is doing.”

Ivan smiled at me, and it wasn’t a nice smile. This was the deadly side of Ivan. The one no one could read. “That’s none of your business.”

“Seeing as I’m here, cleaning up any problem Peter and Niamh might have, I figured I had a right to be in the know.”

Silence filled the space between us. If it were anyone else, I’d have killed them. Ivan wasn’t just anyone.

It took a lot for me to be afraid. Living my life, surviving day to day, the life I led, what I did for a living, I was used to basking in fear, and channeling it into my work. There was a price tag on my head, and so far, no one had been able to take me out. No one would either, that was how good I was. Also, the fear of what I’d do. Most people that put a hit out on me didn’t last the week. So, even though there was a price on my head, it never lasted.

I didn’t expect Ivan to answer, but when he started speaking I turned toward him.

“Let’s just say, Niamh helped me at a time that I needed it.”

I waited for more, but he didn’t say another word. So now, I had more questions than answers. How the fuck did Niamh Byrne help someone like Ivan Volkov?

Chapter Six

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