Page 40 of Dark Endures

“What do you want done if we find them? Because we don’t appreciate drug dealers in our town.”

It would be easy to just ask for Jordan and let them do whatever they see fit with his drug-dealing brother. But if Jordan’s life has been this hard, what was his older brother’s like? Maybe we can get him into rehab. “Locate and contain if need be.”

“Gotcha. I’m sorry we haven’t seen any signs of that woman, Marlie.”

Vex said it wouldn’t be that easy, but I can’t help hoping that we find her.

***

“You’re insane.” Jacko paces the office. “You did not call Aleksei Kamenev about a missing kid. Aleksei kill-you-where-you’re-standing Kamenev.”

“He sponsors The Street.” Between the money he ‘donates’ and the stuff we bring in from missions, The Street has absolutely no financial issues.

“That’s because of his mother-in-law, not because he loves kids. A sane person avoids him and hopes he forgets they exist. Why in the world would you bring his attention to us?”

The answer is simple. “Because he knows every illegal deal going on in the world. Or he knows someone that can find out.”

Jacko stares at me for a moment and then continues pacing in silence.

The door opens, and Jacko freezes. It’s not like this is the first time he’s seen Aleksei Kamenev, though Jacko isn’t invited to Vincenti events like I am.

Only it isn’t Aleksei who walks in. His son Sasha follows behind Cord.

What? Why isn’t the Bratva King here?

Sasha doesn’t wait to be introduced. He strides up to me. “My father was otherwise occupied, so he sent me in his stead. What do you need?”

My mind can’t process the child… the man standing in front of me. I was there at the party the day Sasha and his twin were born. Sasha is only sixteen going on seventeen, but I’d swear he looks older. Maybe it’s the jaded look in his eyes. “We’re searching for a missing child.”

“And you’re asking us for help?” Sasha raises an eyebrow, and I could swear it was his father standing in front of me.

“We think he might be with his older brother, who is a drug dealer.” I hand over a set of the same pictures I just handed to Havoc.

Sasha takes a moment to look them over. “What’s the priority on finding this kid? Do you think he’s at extreme risk?”

Extreme? “No.”

Sasha nods. “Anything else.”

“No.”

He turns and stalks out.

“That kid is intense,” Jacko blurts out. “I swear he could kill without blinking.”

“Aleksei Kamenev killed his father and took his job at the same age.”

Jacko’s eyes bulge.

Hopefully, Sasha doesn’t do the same, but I can’t rule it out completely.

And this is the man I asked for help. What was I thinking?

The Birds And The Bees

Maddox

“Hey.” Canyon walks in early for the council meeting.

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