Page 66 of Mountain Mens' Curvy Obsession

“Now comes the part where I politely ask you to let me do my job the legal way.”

“And I tell you to do whatever you have to; so will I.”

Mills knows what that means. I’ve rarely had to play this card, but the circumstances require it.

“You don’t have any authority in the matter. If Leo Sokolov comes to Seeley Lake, I’m going to handle him.”

“You could deputize my brothers and me,” I suggest.

“We’d need exigent circumstances for that.”

“Two attempts on Anya’s life don’t count as exigent circumstances?”

Mills sinks into his seat with a second double scotch. Inhaling deeply, he stares at the amber liquid in his tumbler, his gaze momentarily lost. “You know, when I first took this job, I figured most of my work would revolve around keeping the peace between drunken locals. Or keeping the lumberjacks from wandering onto the reservation to take wood that isn’t theirs. The region has a history on the matter.”

“Oh, I remember your first days in office. You were like a fish out of water,” I chuckle.

“But I was relieved. It was better compared to what I saw in the service.”

“I know, brother.”

“And when the three of you settled in, started buying up properties and businesses, replenishing the entire district, I really had hope, you know? Thought I might actually spend the rest of my days policing a trouble-free zone, where the worst issues I’d have to deal with is crazy old Sam Johnston and his fetish for women twenty years his junior.”

“We moved here for the same measure of peace,” I remind him.

“That girl is trouble,” he warns me.

“It’s not her fault. None of this is her fault. She got caught in the crossfire because of the family she was born into. Her brother was our best friend. I loved him like a brother. He was a good man, and he tried his damnedest to keep her safe. He’s gone now, and we made him a promise. We intend to keep it.”

Mills nods slowly. “I need to protect the people of this town, Nico. Maybe sending Anya away will keep Sokolov away from here.”

“She’s not safe anywhere but with us up there on the mountain, where few dare to venture. But don’t worry too much. The Russians won’t come in all gung-ho and guns blazing. They’re cautious. Organized. And they target their victims specifically.”

“If you keep protecting Anya, you run the risk of becoming victims, too.”

“Remember who we are,” I say. “This woman means the world to us. And the Russians have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. Besides, didn’t we just agree that we took the right precautions?”

“We did, but I’m still iffy. I just didn’t want Shane to worry about it. He’ll be useful as a star witness, if we do manage to help the Feds with Sokolov’s capture and indictment. That’s why I need you to help me keep this on the legal side of things. We don’t want their defense to have any ammunition against the federal prosecutor when the time comes.”

What Mills is saying makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, it runs in complete opposition to what I know we’ll have to do, if push comes to shove. I’m not worried about taking Sokolov and his cronies to prison. I’m more interested in wiping him and his syndicate off the face of the earth. Then again, watching Leo rot in prison for the rest of his life, stripped of his power and influence, does have a certain appeal.

“All I can do is promise that we will do our best to follow the law,” I tell Mills. “In the meantime, you need to alert your deputies about Leo Sokolov.”

“Already done. This isn’t my first day on the job, you know,” Mills says, his brow furrowed as he leans back in his seat. “I wonder how long it will take him to find Max.”

“The time he spends looking for his psycho brother will be time we use to our advantage. Now that he’s out of New York, your buddy Perez and the local Feds should be looking deeper into the Sokolovs.”

He nods once. “He’s already pushing to bump the Dalton investigation back to the top of the pile. But he wants to find Anya. Perez believes the rumors that she’s still alive.”

“Rest assured, as soon as Anya is out of harm’s way and has her memory back, she will gladly testify against them. Until then, we’ve got a dragon to slay.”

And this dragon has already proven himself capable of atrocities.

The mere thought of losing Anya to this monster again fills me with uncontrollable rage. It blurs the line between right and wrong, between legal and illegal, between good and evil. I’m willing to straddle both sides and lean hard into whichever side lets me keep her.

17

Anya

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