Ashes Read online

  I’d heard that immersion was a great teacher. Being surrounded by a Russian brotherhood, I would concur.

  Time continued to pass with Ruby and I in the compound. To me, its record was my daughter’s age. Ruby would be two years old at the end of the month, and even though I no longer stayed in the room attached to her nursery, I did my best to spend time with her every day.

  The suite where I now resided was much larger than the room I’d once called my own. Much like an apartment, we had multiple attached rooms. Sometimes I thought it would be nice to move Ruby into one, and then something would happen and a loud late-night debate would occur in the sitting room or Andros’s private office. Those instances reminded me that keeping her in the other wing was best for her.

  Lately, it had been more difficult to spend time with my daughter. As with Ruby’s first trimester, I was also plagued with severe morning sickness with this pregnancy.

  Displaying positive emotions, or truly anything that wasn’t anger or indifference, wasn’t Andros’s forte—with one exception. The day Dr. Kotov confirmed my pregnancy was the happiest I’d ever seen the leader of the Ivanov bratva. From that day until today, I’d been pampered beyond measure.

  It was difficult not to compare pregnancies; however, experiencing Andros’s joy made me constantly wonder how Patrick would have reacted if I’d simply told him instead of waiting for Kristine’s friend to confirm the pregnancy.

  As it happened, I wasn’t the one who told Andros.

  I had been given the confirmation by Dr. Kotov and was waiting for Andros to come back to our suite. I never knew if he would or not. Some evenings he arrived for dinner and others he didn’t. There were days that carried on into a week or more where he’d never show, not only missing dinner but being absent from our suite altogether. During those times, I believed he left the compound, perhaps traveling to other cities, states, or even countries. Truly, there was no way for me to confirm his whereabouts.

  I wasn’t to question but to simply be present when he summoned.

  Andros had provided me with a cell phone, but in no uncertain terms, I’d been instructed, was I to call him unless it was an emergency. Wondering if I would dine alone didn’t qualify.

  The afternoon after my appointment with Dr. Kotov, I’d succumbed to the immense exhaustion that had been afflicting me, now realizing it wasn’t only me but because of a new baby inside me. When I awoke, after a day of rain, the spring sky had cleared, giving way to a beautiful red and orange sunset. For a few minutes, I stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the courtyard.

  When I did, I always scoured the opposite corner of our safe outdoor haven for my daughter. That was where her room was as well as Irina’s. Sometimes, I’d catch sight of them walking amongst the pathways. I wrapped my arms around my torso with a shiver. Though the sun had come out, the temperature hadn’t risen much. Michigan winters, like Chicago ones, had a way of holding on.

  Going back into the suite with the knowledge that dinner would be soon, I decided to do what I often did. Shedding my afternoon clothes, I turned on the warm water for a quick shower, simply to freshen up. Wearing a long silk robe, cleaned, lotioned, and with refreshed mascara and light lip gloss, I had begun to brush out my hair when a loud noise startled me, echoing throughout the suite.

  The double doors to the suite banged against the walls as Andros’s voice boomed. “Madeline.”

  There was something in his voice that I didn’t recognize. My mind always went to the worst case.

  Was he upset?

  Was there trouble taking him out of town?

  Had I done something I shouldn’t?

  While I didn’t consider myself abused—does anyone?—Andros was quick to react. I’d been the recipient of his wrath in the form of a slap or a belt more times than I cared to recall. Truthfully, I blocked each incident away. But now there was a child inside me.

  Squaring my shoulders and placing the hairbrush upon the vanity, I made the decision to wait until I knew his state of mind before telling him the news Dr. Kotov had shared with me earlier.

  Wrapping the robe around me, I opened the bathroom door and called, “I’m in here.” I stepped through the bedroom.

  In four, maybe five, strides he was before me. Andros wasn’t alone as we met at the doorway between the bedroom and sitting room. Adrik and Sasha were a step behind. Beyond his broad shoulders, I could see that the doors to our suite were left agape.

  With my feet bare, Andros was easily a foot taller than I. He cupped my cheeks, pulling my face upward as his lips met mine in an unusual display of affection. His next words came in the language I was just beginning to understand, yet his meaning was clear.

  I didn’t love this man. Most of the time I didn’t even like him. However, in that one moment, I felt his joy, the excitement and elation. Though every word wasn’t clear, he asked me to confirm Dr. Kotov’s findings.

  “Detka, da?”

  I nodded my head, a sincere smile coming to my lips. “Da.” Yes, I was carrying his baby. There had been no one else since before Ruby’s birth. I still didn’t understand why he’d orchestrated that.

  Andros’s arms flung about as if he could fly.

  I’d truly never seen him show any emotion other than anger, and in this moment, that emotion was the farthest from his mind.

  Adrik and Sasha stood like statues, their feet spread and hands behind their back. It was as if even in the intimacy of our suite, they were at military parade rest.

  “Vne,” Andros ordered, saying the word over and over, sending his men away.

  That evening was nearly six weeks ago, and his joy hadn’t subsided. I wasn’t certain what it would mean to give him a child, and I worried that it wouldn’t be a boy as he proclaimed. We would learn once the pregnancy reached twenty weeks. Then again, Andros had a way of getting what he wanted.

  Now, with Adrik at my side, I had been summoned to do the one job I detested. I’d asked Andros to relieve me of the position, especially while pregnant. This morning he’d gone out of town and not mentioned that I’d be called upon. This afternoon Adrik informed me that there were two women I was to prepare.

  I wanted to protest and say no; however, even in my current state, my status was significantly lower than Andros’s second-in-command. Therefore, I did as I had done and dressed as I had been previously instructed. Thankfully, my midsection hadn’t yet enlarged to the point of needing maternity clothes, a luxury I hadn’t had with Ruby until the very end.

  Taking a deep breath, I looked up to Adrik’s gaze. Instead of compassion for my nausea, I saw something closer to impatience.

  With a nod, I stood taller. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

  As we approached the door to the room where the women were always left, Adrik instructed me to present them in the usual hall in an hour.

  “An hour?”

  “There are only two,” he replied dismissively. “And then you can rest. Mr. Ivanov would want that.”

  Only two.

  Only two women who would be raped, used, and killed.

  Two women who wouldn’t live to see tomorrow.

  I nodded as Adrik opened the door.

  At that second, a surge of unease raced through my circulation. Something wasn’t right.

  Not that there was anything right about the situation.

  The woman before me wasn’t drugged as they usually were. She was blonde and nude, sitting with her knees to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs. Her gaze narrowed as I entered. A quick turn of my head confirmed the door to the dressing room was uncustomarily ajar.

  “Hello, I’m Madeline,” I said, looking at the woman against the wall. When she didn’t respond, I continued, “Are you alone?” I thought Adrik had said there were two.

  A few steps toward the dressing room and I stilled. The lights reflected unusually from the floor, sending prisms of light and colors over the dull tile. I barely registered what I was seeing when a second woman also with
blonde hair came rushing from the dressing room.

  It wasn’t until after I’d been stabbed that I realized she’d been holding a large shard of the broken mirror. My hands went to my side as the deep crimson flow covered my fingers.

  Another stab and another.

  I couldn’t move away or even comprehend.

  The woman from the wall had joined the assault. Without a shard she plummeted me with her fists.

  The pain barely registered.

  Instead, I believe it was shock flooding my waning circulation as the women shouted. The words were not any I recognized. They weren’t English or Russian. I didn’t understand what they were saying as my knees gave out and I crumpled to the floor.

  Darkness covered the room like ink dripping over a page. Once white and clean, the ink, capable of recording words, was instead thick and opaque.

  Through a fog a shot rang out and then another. Men’s angry voices, their language no longer important until…

  When I woke, Irina was at my side with a damp cloth over my forehead as she stroked my hair away from my face. Though I spoke the question, I needn’t have. Irina’s solemn expression told me what I wanted to know. “My baby?”

  She didn’t speak; only her head moved from side to side.

  Grief washed over me in a flood as I mourned the child I hadn’t conceived in love but out of obligation. None of that mattered. I wouldn’t have loved him any less. And now my son was gone.

  Over an hour later, the bedroom doors opened and the emotion I was the most familiar with radiated from Andros, filling the air around him like a cloud.

  As usual, Adrik and Sasha were a step behind.

  “Why?” Andros asked me as he sat on the edge of the bed.

  My eyes were nearly swollen closed from the tears and trauma.

  “I was summoned for my job,” I managed to say.

  Andros’s dark eyes narrowed. “Nyet.”

  “Yes,” I argued. “I was told to go, that there were two women.”

  “You walked alone to the other side of the compound?”

  “No.” Though my head ached, I shook it from side to side. Moving about unaccompanied was against one of Andros’s rules. I knew my boundaries. In nearly two years, I’d learned them well. I lifted my chin to Adrik. “Adrik came for me.”

  Andros turned. “You did this?”

  “Nyet. I heard screams and saved her. She lies. I didn’t know she was there. The women hadn’t been drugged yet and I killed them…”

  I didn’t understand why he was lying to Andros, but he was. I lifted my bruised and bandaged arm and laid my hand upon Andros’s sleeve. When he turned, I simply shook my head.

  Who would he believe, me or his trusted man?

  I’d never seen a dead body or witnessed someone dying. Unconsciousness had overtaken me by the time my attackers were killed. When I lived on the streets there were often rodents, cats, and dogs, usually having been dead for a while, covered in flies or maggots.

  Andros stood and before I realized what was happening, he drew his gun. Quicker than the sound, the shot reverberated through our bedroom and before I could blink, Adrik fell, lying upon the carpet in our room.

  I gasped.

  “Dispose of him,” Andros told Sasha.

  Once we were alone, I reached out to Andros. “You killed him. You liked him.”

  “I killed him. It would have been you if I believed his story.”

  “What did he say?”

  Taking a deep breath, Andros sat again on the bed. Turning back the covers, he undid the buttons on my nightgown until my torso was exposed, completely wrapped in bandages.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “We will try again.”

  “I killed him because he killed my son.”

  Tears filled my eyes. “He was my son too.”

  “Rest. Heal. We will make others. And your job…”

  “Yes?”

  “Never again. I’d told them that after we learned of your condition. I didn’t send you there, Madeline.”

  My chin fell to my chest as new tears flowed down my cheeks. I hadn’t wanted to think that Andros had intentionally put me in that danger, but I couldn’t be certain, not until now.

  He cupped my cheek and lifted my face. “Ruby shouldn’t see you like this.”

  What?

  “Andros, I just lost my son. I need my daughter.”

  “She will be here when you’re better. Get better. That is again your job.”

  “Yes, Andros.”

  Patrick

  “I found out about Nikita Gorky and Sasha Bykov,” Reid said as we gathered on 2. “Some of the information was online and more about the command center of the bratva was from Ruby.”

  My neck stiffened. “You spoke to Ruby about the Ivanov bratva? She’s a kid.”

  “Relax, she’s not a kid,” Reid replied. “She’s lived her whole life in their compound. She volunteered some information in a conversation at dinner. She spoke about the infrastructure of the Ivanov home base.”

  “It started about snow,” Mason added, coming to Reid’s rescue. “She mentioned it was weird to stay indoors all the time, and to be up high in the sky. Someone asked about her school and that led to where she lived. The conversation was innocent enough, but it gave us some good intel we hadn’t received otherwise.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t like the idea—”

  “Relax, Patrick,” Reid said. “She didn’t have an issue talking about it. And it was the best way to get information. Ruby has no reason to lie or enhance.”

  “Are you saying that Madeline does?”

  “No, I’m saying that out of the mouth of babes and all that shit,” Reid replied as he displayed a satellite image on the screen above. “We found it.”

  Crossing my arms over my chest, the muscles in my neck and arms tightened as I stared up at the screen. We’d been right about the headquarters being in a populated area of the city. It appeared to be an affluent neighborhood. Unlike our command center that was isolated at the top of a skyscraper, Ivanov’s appeared large and isolated from the rest of the properties by tall concrete walls. From the aerial view, it looked as if there were four connected structures with a type of courtyard in the center.

  “Is the courtyard what Ruby meant about going outside?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Mason replied. “She talked about it being protected on all sides. She said she’d go out there in all seasons.”

  I inhaled, my gaze narrowing at the image on the screen. “So this is where they lived?”

  “And according to Ruby, it’s also where Ivanov works when he’s not away. She said there were a lot of people, mostly men, who came and went as well as staff, cooks, maids, and the like. I asked about Bykov and Gorky. She said they have both been around for as long as she could remember.

  “Apparently, Madeline did her best to keep Ruby away from this area…” Reid moved an arrow over the largest structure within the walls. “Ruby said she and her mother had an apartment in the opposite building, but when she was younger, Ruby liked to explore. The man she called Oleg would stay with her, trying to keep her out of trouble, and the other men left her alone.”

  “I think Ruby’s more broken up about Oleg’s death than she’s letting on,” Mason said.

  I ran my hand over my hair. “That fucker Hillman killed Oleg right in front of her. I’d take him out again if I could.”

  “Oh, about that,” Mason said, bringing another screen to life. “This is the visitor registration at the penitentiary where Wendell Hillman, Antonio’s father, currently resides. It seems that the sad news of his son’s death was followed by a visit by none other than Marion Elliott.”

  “Like a fucking bad penny,” I said, shaking my head. “He seems to keep showing up.”

  “He’s registered for the New Orleans poker tournament next weekend,” Reid volunteered. “The one that has Madeline listed.”

  “She’s not going to New Orleans or facing Elliott.”r />
  The door behind us slid open and Sparrow stepped into our command center. “We have over a week to decide that.” He looked at Reid. “When we have a break, go talk to Lorna.”

  Reid looked down at his watch. “It’s after midnight. She’s asleep.”

  “Yes,” Sparrow said, “and in the morning she’ll be the only uninformed resident regarding Madeline’s connection to dear old Dad.” His head shook. “Other than being extremely pissed that I hadn’t told her sooner, Araneae is thrilled to know our family has grown.” He shrugged. “She’s an only child of any of her parents, and we thought I was…I’m not.”

  My gaze met Sparrow’s as if to say, so you’re admitting it, but then I remembered something. “Shit,” I mumbled.

  “What now?” he asked.

  “Ruby also needs to be told.”

  “Fuck,” Sparrow huffed. Turning to Reid, he asked, “Tell me what you learned about Ivanov’s right-hand men. I want the fucker Ivanov gone. He made a threat against my city and bought and sold my sister. His days of breathing are seriously numbered. But I need intel to do this right.”

  “As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t a wrong way to kill him,” I said.

  “That’s because you’re not thinking,” Sparrow responded. “I don’t give a fuck how he’s killed. I care that we don’t open Detroit for a takeover we can’t control or at least align ourselves with. It’s fucking ridiculous for the bratva to think they can take over Chicago. They don’t have the manpower without Hillman’s recruits. As it is, the bratva is licking its wounds from Hillman’s deception. Somehow, Elliott is involved and at this moment, I don’t give a fuck. The Sparrows and the Ivanov bratva can work together as long as Andros Ivanov is out of the picture. We have the men and firepower to help the right man regain total control.”

  “According to our capos up there,” Mason said, “the tension is high. Hillman’s connections are varying between running scared and wanting total control themselves.”

  “Fuck no,” Sparrow said. “No one connected closely to McFadden is getting a goddamned foothold in any city within a thousand square miles of Chicago.”