Page 64 of Broken Promises
“Pearl,” Hannah said, “this is my friend, James. He’s going to take you and this sweet girl outside while we take care of things here. The men he’s leaving you with are good and honorable men who will protect you until I can get there. Is that okay?”
Pearl looked from Hannah to James, and then she stared at Skid briefly, who offered her a reassuring smile. “I’ll go with him.”
They hugged again, then Hannah stood with me, her hand linked with mine as we watched James and Skid escort the two innocent girls to the Death Hounds for protection. When they were safely outside, Hannah turned to me with a look of pure rage.
“That woman is my mother, and she said the man’s name is Sergey the second and, supposedly, he’s my brother.” Her words confirmed my suspicions. “He calls her ‘Mother’, but she’s not his mother, Rhys. Something’s seriously wrong, and we need to figure out what it is.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go outside with the girls? It’s . . . it’s going to get bloody, and I can’t promise your . . . she will survive.”
Hannah squeezed my hand and looked up at me with a hardened gaze as she replied, “Good.”
I would take her out if I saw it was becoming too much, but I believed she needed her revenge. Or maybe just a reckoning. Just as we got to the doorway leading to the banquet room, she tugged my hand and whispered, “He thinks he’s Sergey’s second son and has a place at the head of the table since the first son disappeared when the Syndicate broke up.”
I felt a smile push onto my face as I asked, “Is that so?”
She nodded and looked at me through her lashes, showing her bright blue eyes alight with merriment. She thought she knew what to expect, but with the madman, there was no telling what he would do with that information. I knew he would kill the little fucker, but how much he’d mentally tortured him beforehand was another story.
I kept Hannah’s hand in mine as we waited outside the door. There were muffled voices, and twice I heard a screeching sound. Turning to look at Hannah, she shook her head and explained, “Kelly thinks by getting louder, she’ll get her way. Shewas the exact same way when I was a kid, and usually, she could get some sucker to give her what she wants.”
“She’ll get nothing today,” I replied and opened the door.
The shaggy-haired man was sitting at the table with his arms crossed and one of Lucian’s men standing behind him. The anger in his eyes was clear as he stared at the man and woman across the table from him. Turning toward the other side, I saw Kelly trying to convince Devlin he was making a mistake, and the crazy bastard was listening to her, nodding at appropriate times like she was going to get her way.
The fake look of concern was comical, and when I turned to the other man, the one Hannah said was named Sergey, I could see hatred in his eyes directed at Hannah. If he kept looking at her like that, I was going to gouge his eyes out with my thumbs and shove them up his ass. I glanced at Hannah, and she was staring the little fucker down, silently daring him to make a move. Fuck, I was so proud of her strength, but it seemed they’d tapped into her anger, which I was curious to witness.
Lucian stood behind him with a gun pointed as his head. Otherwise, I had no doubt the asshole would have tried to get free. Hannah lifted her eyes to Lucian, and he returned an almost evil smile as he motioned for Johnson to cover the angry man. Inhaling deeply, he walked to the head of the table, pulled the chair back, and took a seat. His arms crossed over his stomach as he linked his fingers together and, slowly, he looked at everyone at the table before he began to speak.
“It’s been brought to my attention that you’re trying to resurrect the Syndicate, and I want to know why you think you have a claim to anything.”
The man went to speak, only to be drowned out by Kelly. When she started, I felt Hannah tense up next to me. Her mother wasn’t even looking at her as she spoke to Lucian. “My son is therightful heir, and I’m helping him fulfill a promise made by his father, Sergey Lenkov.”
“Who the fuck are you to fulfill a damn thing where his father’s concerned?” Lucian spat, and Kelly gave him a confused look.
“I’m Sergey’s wife,” she explained as she sat up straighter in her chair.
James entered the room behind us and whispered to me, “Stella and Hawk are on the way.”
I gave him a nod as I watched the shitshow unfold in front of me. Kelly was digging herself a hole she had no way to get out of, and the bemused look on Lucian’s face said just that, but he maintained the hard persona as he spoke.
“We both know that’s not true, Kelly, so why don’t you unravel this for me, so I can understand?” Lucian requested.
She placed her hands flat on the table as she began to speak. “How would you know anything? This has nothing to do with Hannah or her boyfriend, so why are you suddenly so worried about what I’m doing?” She paused and asked, “Who are you, anyway?”
Lucian leaned forward until he was face to face with her. The man tried to move, only to be pushed back into the chair by Johnson. “Since you have no manners, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lucian Lenkov, and you have some explaining to do.”
Chapter 28
Hannah
Iwatched as the gravity of the situation began to press down on Kelly and her eyes grew wide. Sergey turned to Lucian, and with more balls than brains, he spat, “You gave up your seat when you ran away, and as the second son, your place is rightfully mine.”
Devlin stepped to the side and Lucian gave him a look that was almost amusing. Rhys had tried to explain how Devlin and Lucian had darker sides to them, and that when I finally saw it, I would immediately recognize that part of them coming to the surface. The corners of Devlin’s mouth pushed up, and I saw the wheels turning as Sergey kept bragging, like promises from his dead gangster father were somehow valid.
“My father promised me my place in the Syndicate, but someone killed him before he could keep his promise. Mother is just doing what she promised, and you have no right to stop me. You gave that up when you pussed out on the family,” Sergey argued, and I could hear the whining in his voice.
I was beginning to see the bigger picture, but I was still missing some of the information to put everything together. Rhys leaned over and whispered, “What are you thinking?”
I glanced at him and softly replied, “Something else is at play here, but I can’t figure out what it is.”
