Page 21 of Forced By the Bratva Beast

I find myself looking up in the front view mirror to the brick prison building, doom descending on me and my future.

I didn’t use protection with Andrei. What a rookie mistake. One that’s going to cost me my life, or at the very least flip it upside down.

Chapter Ten – Andrei

It’s eleven fifteen on the Criminal Courthouse of California Avenue clock, and I’m only a bag of money away from freedom. Standing beside my lawyer in my best suit, I exercise restraint as I look towards the old, jaded Judge Petrov. A long-standing Chicagoan who’s served in the courtroom for over fifty years, according to what I’ve heard. His face is worn, his eyes keen and sharp behind his small round glasses. He’s staring straight ahead at the people entering. I turn my head to see Ryan’s estate walking in.

Ready to lose bitches? We stand behind our chosen sides, my lawyer, Bennett, leans over to whisper to me. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve got this in the bag.”

Smirking with my hands clasped in front of me, I nod. “I know we do.” Averting my gaze from my enemies, I take note of the woman. Wife. She’s too young to be the mother. Or maybe sister. I knew about the father contesting from the estate, but not about the others.

A sharp dagger is delivered in my direction from the woman, but all it does is make things all the sweeter for me. She doesn’t even know what’s about to hit.

As they slip in behind their side, I take the time to look behind and into the crowd. Makar’s the only one from the team sitting in the gallery. I didn’t want any of my other Bratva associates on deck in case of implications or last-minute changes from the other side.

A sea of faces I don’t know from Ryan’s family side stare back at me, and I feel nothing. If Ryan told me what I needed to know maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.

Who am I kidding? I would have killed the mole anyway. He had the nerve to infiltrate the Bratva, so he had to pay the price. “Anything else you want to tell me before the judge asks me to approach the bench?” Bennett asks.

“No,” I whisper hoarsely, taking note of how voices carry throughout the drafty open space. If I wasn’t in the middle of a court case, I would probably take a little more time to admire the place. I can hear the frustrated whispers of accusations hanging in the air behind me, but I don’t give a flying fuck. You do dirt on the Bratva, then you have to be willing to sacrifice your life.

“Do I have to know about any witnesses crawling out of the woodwork?” I ask, covering all bases, in case I have to organize Makar to react accordingly.

“No. There are no witnesses I know about. They’ve got nothing. Only a CCTV tape that’s grainy at best. There’s so many holes in this case it’s not funny, and I plan on opening them all the way up.”

“Perfect. That’s what I like to hear.” It helps that the original CCTV surveillance tape was swapped out for a blurry version, and the real one destroyed by my associates. Money talks to the right people when it needs to. Bennett is as deceptive and cunning as I am, and the wicked glint in his eye has always led me to believe I hired the best of the best. He’s represented many criminals, including the Mafia and gotten them off. He would have been paid a handsome sum for his efforts, no doubt, but he’s exclusively enlisted as the Utkins’ lawyer at this point.

It helps to have somebody bury evidence, kill off witnesses, and find the necessary loopholes to crush thecompetition when needed. I look over at him as he adjusts his flashy red-and-white tie. He’s the clean-cut, all-American type with a Colgate smile, and if he were to ever cross me, he would end up under the jail himself.

I’m not a stupid boss. Hasty maybe, but never stupid. “Mr. Cleary, I’ll start with you. Please take your position with your opening statement. Thank you,” the judge requests cordially as Bennett approaches the jury. That’s the thing with a jury. You don’t need to pay off everyone, just enough people to sway the vote in your favor, and the one in front of me is no exception.

“Gladly, Your Honor.” I watch as Bennett stares at the floor as if he’s pondering something and stating his case. “It’s an easy thing to tarnish one person with the same brush because others around him have done the wrong thing. It can have a grave impact on your life.”

I watch as the jury listens to him paint a picture of fabrication, excited by his storytelling. Fuck, he’s good, and by the time he’s finished the statement even I’m hooked on the lie. By the time the defense starts their argument, they’re already on the back foot, and I feel sorry for them.

Time ticks by as the questions and witnesses start to roll on. All of them are weak and ones I know about from their side. “Darby how long have you been working at The burger joint behind the warehouse?”

The manager of the burger joint that I’ve passed so often shrugs. “About ten years.”

“And in those ten years have you ever seen anything untoward happening in the warehouse on Third Avenue?”

“I mean there’s been a lot of things happening there. Thugs shooting up. Fires started. I think the place has beenburned down at least half a dozen times. It’s a hot spot. I’ve complained I don’t know how many times to the council about knocking it down or cleaning it up.”

Bennett paces as I watch how he craftily builds the story. “Right. Would you say you’ve seen all kinds of types coming and going from the warehouse over the years. Safe to assume, yes?”

“Absolutely.”

“And what have you done in the past when you’ve seen something suspicious going on at the warehouse?” Bennett asks smugly as I glance over to a nervous defense, a thought popping in my head about Sophia, wondering what type of lawyer she wants to be.

She didn’t have any qualms rejecting me after learning about me. I didn’t tell her outright, but she would have read the files for herself. I know for a fact they aren’t pretty. I’ve endorsed them, after all. She wouldn’t be defense. She would have to be a prosecutor.

“Ah….”

“Answer the question, Darby.”

“I would have done nothing, alright? Nothing,” he slams out, hushed whispers resounding around the courtroom.

“Exactly. Because to you, it’s not out of the norm, is it? Thugs, deals, the homeless, in and out of the building.” Bennett paces.

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