Page 4 of Nikolai (Kansas City Reapers)

“One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.” — Barbara Walters

The path to the top of the mountain of one’s life begins by taking the first step.

I just had no idea that my path forward would be filled with blood.

Chapter 1

Nikolai

“Gospodi, eto budet ad,”I mumbled under my breath.

“You know it’s bad when he breaks out the Russian.” Jax chuckled as he leaned in the doorway of my office. No doubt the rest of the team was not far behind him. I’d been going back and forth with the local police department for over half an hour now. Doubtless, they’d all realized that there was some kind of problem brewing.

A problem I had just agreed to help fix.

The issue was that I had made the agreement without talking to any of the rest of our little band of misfits.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

Rising from my desk, I made my way out of my office, absolutely not wanting to get into this whole mess right now. Unfortunately, the situation had escalated, and time was of the essence.

“So what’s the word, boss man?” Sully called from the kitchen. He stood at the stove, flowery oven mitts on his enormous hands as he waited for whateverheavenly-smelling dish was baking in the oven. Smelled like banana bread, if you asked me. Granted, I was a terrible judge, but I was also an avidly waiting taste tester. Sully, the hulking brute, couldn’t make a bad dish if he tried.

“We need to talk.” Immediately, groans filled the kitchen.

“That’s never a good sign,” Deacon, ever the quiet one, muttered under his breath as he took a seat at the table. It tended to be our gathering place to discuss things — that, or over in Jax’s surveillance lair. That room was a tech nerd’s wet dream, which made sense for Jax.

The lot of us gathered around the table. Our little band of brothers. Minus one. Carrick was away working undercover, for God only knew how long. But the four of us that remained sat around the table, three sets of eyes staring warily back at me.

“We are taking on a job—” I got no further as more groans erupted around the table. Deacon rested his head in his hands, elbows on the table, while Sully merely sat back in the chair that looked almost too small to hold his large frame.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jax grumbled.

“Hear me out, brothers. It’s for Quinn.”

“Quinn? Didn’t he go into police work after leaving the Corps?” Sully asked, leaning forward in his seat.

“Yeah, he did. He graduated top of his class from the police academy and went straight to the detective route. He got with the PD here in Kansas City, actually,” Jax prattled off in the way only Jax could. The kid was a tech genius, nearly a savant of his time. And he spoke like one, idly blathering on about this fact or that statistic.

“So, what does Quinn need our help with?” Deacon didn’t even bother to lift his head from his hands as he spoke, his words muffled by his position.

“There’s been a problem at the police department. Some woman stumbled across a murder that happened the other night, down in the West Bottoms. I don’t have all the details, but I guess she’s their new star witness, and they need to keep her safe for the time being.”

“Sounds like a problem for the police department,” Sully all but growled from his seat.

“It would be, but over the past few weeks, several of the PD’s safe houses have been systematically compromised, and they don’t want this girl to wind up like some of the other people who had been under their protection,” I explained.

“Sounds like a leak in the department,” Deacon’s head finally lifted from his hands, his eyes narrowed towards me as he thought through the logistics of the situation.

“That’s exactly what Quinn thought. Unfortunately, right now there’s no way to know for sure, much less identify how the information is getting out.”

“So how do we fit into this?” Jax asked.

“Well, the last of their safe houses got wiped out a few days ago,” I began.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” Deacon muttered. He’d figured out exactly what our role in this would be. “Are you serious, Niko?” I nodded, and Deacon’s temper flared. His hand hit the top of the table as he stood, the sound of the chair scraping across the kitchen floor making me wince.

“What did I miss?” Jax asked, looking between Deacon and myself.

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