people cross the street to avoid them, one of them even had a unibrow that they waxed in the middle to make two. They were scary looking, but the opponent wasn’t some street thug, it was a well-organized, crime lord who also looked like a Russian.

  My apprehension about the wedding, Melina and Telisa’s bonding, and my hungover Great Danes seemed nonexistent. The boogeyman was about to pop his head up and re-enter my life, even if he didn’t physically manifest in front of me. I didn’t want dinner. I wanted my bed and an Uzi. I also wanted a team of Navy SEALS posted around my house and for all the electronic security devices to work.

  “I need a minute,” I told them. Liam nodded. Sebastian patted my shoulder as he walked past. Alex and Zeke stayed. “Most of my security system is shot. Oleg Borisovich has an army at his disposal, a well-armed army. How do I protect my brothers? Or Alex’s father?” He currently lived in Russia.

  “My father will be protected,” Alex answered, digging out her phone. I knew she was calling our uncle Niko. He was currently the head of the secret police in Russia. He could put Alex’s father in protective custody. My mother’s mother had been a Soviet hero and the daughter of a prominent member of the Soviet cabinet. People didn’t mess with her or her family while she was alive. That protected status had continued even after her death. Few people dared to mess with the family, even after the word got out that some of them were working for the US Government. The Soviet solution had basically pack their bags for them, put them on a secret plane, and ship them here.

  All bets were off when dealing with a madman who had a personal vendetta. The one story I knew to be absolutely true was that Oleg Borisovich had dismembered a woman and sent her body parts to my Uncle Niko as a form of protest against Melina’s new life. Of course, it was hard to tie him to the dead woman, but Niko still worked on it when he had time. He’d even sent the Russian Mob after us. It hadn’t ended well for the Russian mob. Vasilii didn’t play by the rules, and he wasn’t the only one. Half the family were in security, investigations, and law enforcement; the other half were mercenaries with skills that went well beyond their Spetznaz training.

  “I’m not going home tonight, even with Sebastian,” Alex said after she hung up the phone.

  “Yeah, I don’t think any of us are going anywhere for a few days. When Kenzie gets back, I’ll make sure she gets escorted from the airport to here. I’d say Kenzie is a target just because she’s related to me and our friend.”

  “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is this Oleg Borisovich?” Zeke asked.

  “Remember about ten years ago, there was a massacre in Belarus that killed over a hundred people?” I asked.

  “Yeah, it was a major deal that was covered up fairly well. They blamed it on a bomber, but the damage was too extensive for a single bomb.”

  “The Russian Secret Police believe that Oleg Borisovich organized it and supplied the weapons,” I told him. “My uncle, Nikolai Igorovich, is head of the secret police, the bombing was targeted at him. However, to make sure the job got done, they set off seventeen bombs. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the memo that Vasilii had heard of the plan, and Niko wasn’t there. The Russians attempted to work with Belarus to minimize the damage, because they didn’t have enough notice to evacuate the place completely. They also can’t link it back to Oleg Borisovich.”

  “That’s not good,” Zeke said. “So, Anthony and Vasilii are going to kill him and frame him for Amanda’s disappearance.”

  “I think so,” I answered. “If anyone in the world can do it, they are the two I’d put my money on. It’s also possible that Oleg Borisovich will find out about it and bomb their hotel.”

  “How bad is Vasilii?” Zeke asked.

  “Let’s just say that you don’t want to irritate him,” Alex said. “People who piss him off have a tendency to disappear. He dabbles with the dark side and they know he feeds information to his father, Niko, but no one touches him. It was attempted, once, Vasilii killed over thirty guys in less than seven minutes. Oleg Borisovich left us alone after Anthony and Vasilii promised to not bust up his business racket. So, Oleg does fear them.”

  “I didn’t know that,” I said.

  “They did a deal with the devil to get us out of harm’s way. Vasilii, Anthony, Grigorii and Daniel paid him a visit. It worked out better for Oleg to agree to their terms.” Alex looked at me, then Zeke.

  “At least there was good news, they caught Amanda Reed,” I sighed.

  Brother #3

  “You were very quiet during dinner,” my mother commented.

  “Yeah, I have some interesting information,” I told her. We were currently cleaning up the dinner mess. The others were in the living room, trying to behave as if the world were normal.

  “About what?”

  “Oleg Borisovich is involved in this mess,” I told her. She put down the plate she was holding and looked at me. Her face was unreadable, but the corner of her eye twitched. I waited for her to say something, but she remained quiet. “Mom?” I asked after a few minutes.

  “I am thinking about who I need to call,” she responded quietly.

  “Vasilii has already been called and Vlad is on his way here,” I told her.

  “If that man lays one finger on any of my children, I will cut his balls off and stick them in his nose,” she said very calmly.

  “You know, you and Telisa will have to stay here until we get this sorted out,” I told her.

  “No I do not. That man will not hold me hostage with a threat. I’d like to see him try to come after you again. I couldn’t do anything about it while your father was alive, but now that he’s dead, I can do whatever I want to Oleg Borisovich.” My mother took in a deep breath. “Telisa, let’s go to my house and leave the kids to work on this mess. We have wedding plans to attend to.”

  Telisa smiled and hugged Zeke. She walked over and hugged me. My mother also hugged me. They both left.

  “That did not go as planned,” I said after I heard their car pull out of the drive.

  “Does anything ever go as planned with our mother?” Liam asked.

  “Well, no, but I thought this would go a little better than it did.” I looked at him. “Do you think she’d kill him?”

  “Oh yeah,” Liam said.

  “Maybe we should have taken her passport,” I thought for a moment. “And chained her to the plumbing in the spare bathroom.”

  Liam’s phone went off. He looked at it and smiled.

  “Kenzie and Vlad are both here,” he stood up.

  “Kenzie and Vlad are together?” I asked.

  “Vlad went to Spain today,” he said.

  “That’s like an eight hour flight.”

  “On a commercial airliner, you’re right. On a private jet, it’s a little shorter.”

  “Who has a private jet?” I asked.

  “Vasilii,” Liam answered. Of course he did.

  “How did this all get planned so fast?” I asked.

  “Well, when you called Vasilii, he called Vlad. Vlad called Devlin, Devlin called me, and then mom called all of us to tell us about your wedding. So, I used that as my excuse to come home. By the time you called us, Vlad already had a plan in motion.”

  We all went outside. Kenzie and Vlad were getting out of a rental car. Vlad was smiling, however, that didn’t mean much. My brother was terribly optimistic about everything. We seemed to live in two different worlds. In mine, everything that could go wrong, did. In his, everything that could go right, did.

  “Amanda Reed is in custody,” Kenzie said. “And after having a long talk with Vasilii before she was arrested, she’s agreed to turn state’s witness on the mob. You two are free and clear, sort of.”

  We all went into the house. The dogs sprang to life at seeing Vladik, their hangovers seemed to be improving. I handed Vlad a bottle of Pamprin and told him to give one to each dog. It worked wonders on h
angovers. He looked at me strangely, but did as I instructed. The dogs didn’t even seem to notice that he was feeding each of them a pill and not a treat.

  Kenzie laid out the course of events. Alex and I had moved Amanda and given her a new identity, which she had promptly ditched. She’d had six others already in her possession, all supplied by a man named Viggo Bronson. I had questions about who tortured their children with names like that, but I kept them to myself. Viggo was a Dutchman who forged papers for a lot of criminals. He could be linked to several organized crime syndicates.

  Since she had stolen money from the mob, she first went to South America and ingratiated herself with a cartel. With their protection and new papers, she’d moved to Spain to help them traffic drugs in and money out of Europe. However, this had gotten her in some hot water, as the Russians controlled a good portion of the drugs and money flowing in and out of Europe.

  That made me think of more questions. Particularly, I wouldn’t have minded if they brought back the show Deadliest Warrior and did Russian Mob v. South American Cartel. Gangs and the Italians had nothing on Russians and cartels.

  At that point, Vlad took over, explaining Oleg Borisovich had supplied information to Vasilii about Amanda Reed, just to get her out of the way. Of course, Oleg had expected Vasilii was looking to kill her, not turn her over to the authorities. Now, he was pretty sure Oleg was feeling double crossed as one of his aliases had left Russia an hour