Page 54 of With This Ring

Vlad continues talking as if Carter didn’t say anything. “But he was a reckless kid. I have no doubt he said something to make himself a target. It was not the first time we have had to come to his rescue.” He meets our eyes in turn. “His family will not seekrevenge. They will take the money given and leave the area. As will we.”

He turns suddenly and swipes the knife across Mack’s throat. Blood splashes on the three of us, but none of us make a move to avoid the spray. Mack thrashes around, his eyes wide with panic. He got what he fucking deserved.

After Mack goes still and his eyes close with his death, I send the men at our backs upstairs. Now that the deed is done, we need to talk to Vlad alone. There is no other entrance down here that Vlad can see, so he won’t try anything, for fear that he won’t get out of The Fox Club alive.

Once we’re alone, Vlad wipes the blade on Mack’s tattered shirt and hands it back to me. “Thank you for making this right.”

Carter dips his head. “I’ll transfer the five million to whatever account you want.”

He nods and walks around the body, looking over Carter’s and my handiwork. “I was not jesting when I said we will leave. Our family has found new territory in Delaware that is a good market to tap into. Alexei has been operating there for a few months. After your war is over, we will leave.”

“Why not before?”

“Absences breed vacuums. During a war, your family or whoever is after you cannot bridge that gap. It will bring more people and more trouble.”

I can’t deny his logic.

If he leaves now, his territory will be up for grabs. We’d be worried about a family after us, as well as whoever heard that the Russian territory was vacant. It would bring a shit storm down on our slice of Jersey and have bodies dropping faster than the morgues can process them.

“I tell you this,” he continues, “so you know that we have nothing to do with your family’s troubles. If there is war, the Petrovs are not involved. We are packing up shop now to makeour move. We don’t have much, as the Fensters, Reyes and now St. Clair-Whitlock family has everything tied up. We have more in Delaware with less trouble.”

He steps around Mack and holds out his hand. “My family is tired of war. We want to live and retire and take gambler’s money.”

I shake his hand and Carter clasps it in turn. “You want us to walk you out?”

Vlad smiles sharply at us. “We can handle it. If your men are not as dishonorable as these, we will leave safely.”

We shake Alexei’s hand as well and they trot up the stairs. Manuel and a few other men from both the Whitlock and St. Clair family come to retrieve the bodies and clean up.

I turn to Carter with a raised eyebrow. “Do you believe him?”

He nods. “He stepped into the lion’s den with no back up. If he was involved, that’s a risk that might not have paid off.”

“And you believe the Dominicans.” Not phrased as a question, but Carter answers anyway.

“Yeah. They’re familiar with how war can hurt their family and they’re not eager to jump into it with a family larger than theirs. That leaves the Fensters.”

“The fucking Fensters.” I had my suspicions when we were eliminating families. They’re the only family that could even hope to match ours in strength and size. The head of the family is also cunning. He wouldn’t come at us guns blazing. He would try to destabilize us, try to get us off center so they can come in and attack while we’re confused and disoriented.

What he didn’t count on was me and Carter getting married and actually working well together. He didn’t expect us to band together to try to root them out. He probably didn’t expect us to reach out to other families for answers. It’s something he wouldn’t do, so it’s inconceivable to trust the word of another man.

As the men pass by with the bodies of the dead, I think about how much this will be in our future. There will be plenty of men dead, both ours and the Fensters. It’s the reality of war, and I don’t relish that so many of our guys will find their way to the grave.

Carter breaks the silence. “We’ll get with Declan about extra security. He should have men assembled into a patrol that will keep this family safe. Then we go on the offensive.”

I smile. I live for the offensive.

CHAPTER 19

CARTER AND KAI

Carter

“Where are we going?”Kai asks, touching the blindfold over his eyes lightly.

I slap his hand away, making him scowl in the direction he thinks I’m in. “Don’t worry about it. Leave the blindfold alone or you’ll ruin the surprise.”

He grumbles under his breath but lowers his hand.

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