Page 4 of Brutal Vows

Three branches of the most powerful crime syndicates working together, creating an even greater empire than our predecessors. We run everything from Nevada down to my home base in Florida. We all have our own ventures, running our branches independently, but the bulk of our empire is shared.

Adrian, who is head of the Volkov Bratva in Las Vegas, runs our casinos, starts new business ventures, and operates the legality of our businesses. Kenzo, who runs the Yakuza in New Orleans, likes to get his hands dirty. He takes care of our illegal brothels and escort services as well as our guns and drugs. Most of his meetings involve shady individuals and he thrives on it.

Meanwhile, I take care of the money laundering portion of our businesses, running the money through our legit businesses that offer high cash flow. I’ve always been better with numbers than people.

No one dares fuck with us. Which is why it takes me by surprise that Elio took a job no one would have dared. Even the most infamous hitmen won’t take a contract for one of us. What makes the girl in the back seat so special that Eliowould risk losing his life for her? She’s a sister he never knew he had.

I spend the next hour musing over it as we make our way through the snowy streets to the small private airstrip. The pilot and stewardess are waiting for us on the tarmac, along with the rest of my men. Diego parks the car, not bothering to shut the engine off since one of the local men will be taking it with him. Carefully, attempting not to wake her, I lift the girl into my arms, making sure to keep my jacket bundled around her small frame.

“Boss,” Hugo, on mycapo’sgreets me, a smirk tilting his lips. “Everything is ready to go. Hiro would like you to call him as soon as you can. Some shit went down at Kenzo’s wedding and he needs to pull some old data from a phone.”

“Have my equipment pulled out from the luggage rack,” I tell him as I walk past him. Hugo eyes the girl curiously but doesn’t comment. My men know better than to question things that have nothing to do with them. They trust me to fill them in if it is important and right now, contacting Hiro is more important than bringing him up to date with what we found. Dario can do that if he feels the need to.

Easing the girl into one of the plane’s seats, I turn toward Dario, who is already next to me with the provisions I need. A pair of handcuffs and several blankets. Within moments, I have her hands cuffed in front of her and the blankets tucked around her tightly. I cinch her seatbelt over the blankets to keep them from falling off during the flight and then take my seat across the aisle from her.

Hugo hands me the laptop and drive I requested. We all settle in as the plane taxis down the runway. I busy myself with setting up my equipment and about the time we level off, I am ready to help Hiro in any way I can.

“Sir.” Hiro comes on the line before the first ring barely finishes.

“Fill me in.” There is no point in wasting time with pleasantries. I need to know what happened at Kenzo’s wedding.

“Small ragtag group attempted to kidnap the boss’s wife right after the ceremony,” he tells me. “Nearly got away with her.”

“How is everyone?” There is a short list of things that cause my heart to race. This is one of them. The three men who I call brothers are the most important people in my life. There are very few people outside of our circle that I would die for that isn’t them.

“Evaline is shaken up.” That is understandable. Kenzo’s new wife wouldn’t be used to such violence, not the way we are. Like me, Adrian and Kenzo grew up with violence in their veins. Even Vanya, Adrian’s wife, who grew up in the Greek Mafia, is accustomed to violence. But Evaline? Her parents weren’t part of the mafia. They are rich, for sure, but Evaline and Kenzo’s arranged marriage came from a dark part of Kenzo’s father’s past. “Kenzo is ready to kill some people.”

No surprise there. He is always one for violence.

“What do you need from me?”

There is silence on the other line and then what sounds like the shuffling of papers.

“I need access to some deleted messages on Charity LaMontagne’s phone,” Hiro says. “She’s deleted everything, and I’m not sure how to retrieve it.”

Charity LaMontagne? That’s interesting.

“Isn’t that Evaline’s mother?” I ask him curiously.

“Yes,” Hiro confirms. “We think she is behind the attempted kidnapping. She miraculously disappeared rightafter the entire incident happened. Left behind her car and phone.”

A clear sign that she is running from something. Or someone. Lucky for Hiro, even if someone deletes their messages and call logs completely from their phone, if they didn’t do a factory reset, the data is still saved in the phone’s internal memory.

For the next half an hour, I walk Hiro through how to pull up the information he is searching for and help him sift through the data.

“When do you think you’ll get here?” he asks when we finish going through everything. I glance down at my watch.

“Sometime after midnight.”

Stirring from the seat across the aisle pulls my attention from Hiro and I miss what he says. Telling him I’ll be there soon, I hang up the call and stow my gear back in its bag before handing it off to Hugo. The rest of the trip is going to be very interesting.

Movement has me peering over at the small woman curled up in the seat.

Mypiccola cervais waking up.

Three

Meek.Quiet. Obedient.

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