Page 53 of Stay Toxic

“Okay…” He shrugged. “And before you ask, Lev’s not found anything either.”

I grumbled something under my breath and leaned back in my chair, my gaze now fully on Alexi.

He was wearing a Metallica t-shirt and jeans. His usual attire.

But he looked…

“Your wife got to you finally?”

“Ex-wife,” he repeated automatically.

I shrugged.

Ex-wife or not, Kira Petrov was once the woman he loved, and Alexi let her stay in his life despite being fully capable of kicking her out of it if he wanted to.

“I’m not the one that looks like he’s just been freshly fucked…” I pointed out.

“I made a mistake,” he grumbled.

Alexi was always making mistakes when it came to Kira.

But that was neither here nor there.

“What about Cayden?” I asked. “Did you see him?”

“When I got to his place, the entire thing was locked down tight. Not a single soul in sight,” he reported. “Do you want a suggestion?”

“Sure,” I answered.

“Call the meet with the Seven,” he suggested. “Something is seriously hinky right now, and the fact that Cayden was gone means bad things. Him not being there, being visible…shit’s gonna hit the fan really fuckin’ fast.”

“The Seven” as he called it was a group of seven men. All of them were masterminds of the criminal underworld. We all also had drawn a sort of truce, as you could call it.

All of us—or more accurately our families—had been feuding since before we’d been born.

Turns out, all of our parents had passed within about four years of each other, and we’d found ourselves with a brand new dilemma on our hands.

Did we continue a feud between us that was going to continue to kill our people? Or did we find a way to create a truce? One that would ensure that we always could count on each other, even if it was one of those truces that was shaky at best.

Cayden and I had gone into this with a solid front.

We had each other’s backs. Always.

But if he was missing, and he wasn’t anywhere to be found, the others needed to know.

That, and they might have an idea that could help us identify what, exactly, had killed my men and taken Cayden into hiding.

At least, I hoped he was in hiding.

“I’m already waiting for the conference call to come through,” I said. “I had a feeling your news would be weak at best.”

Alexi shrugged. “I gotta get home to my kid. If you need me, call me.”

I jerked my chin up at him, and he’d just closed the door to my office when my computer beeped, indicating an incoming call.

Thankful that Lev was able to help set up this system for me—although I was great with computers, I didn’t have the patience for the tediousness of it—and I pressed Answer on the screen.

I was the last to arrive, by the looks of it.

---