CHAPTER FIVE
For a full minute, no one moved then Sazon charged after her. Yuri and the others glared at one another and then began putting the office back to rights. Even when they were finished, no one said a word.
A long time passed before Sazon came back but when he did, he was alone.
“Where is she?” Yuri demanded.
“I don’t know,” Sazon admitted in a low tone. “She got away from me. She just got into her car and left. I don’t even know where she’s going.”
“She’s going to Michael’s place,” Roman, his Bravta brother pointed out. “That’s been her objective all along.”
“Dammit, that’s why she looked at the envelope in his locker. She needed an address.” Sazon swore out loud.
“Why would she go there?” Dewey asked. “He’s not home at the moment. Our men found him in Houston last night. They’re keeping an eye on him while he’s there.”
“Michael took something from her family after he killed her grandfather and she wants to get it back,” Yuri gave a quick explanation.
“Is it something valuable?” Bear asked.
“It’s priceless and part of the reason she came here.” Yuri answered.
The huge biker, Bear whistled softly. “Well then, we’d better go to Michael’s too, don’t you think?”
Sazon went to his desk and grabbed a file from the bottom drawer. Opening it, he took note of the address Michael had on file. He looked up at Yuri and rattled off an address.
Yuri got on the phone and called in his security men to meet them at the address he gave them.
Then they all left the office.
Pappy and his men headed over to their bikes and started their engines.
Yuri, Sazon, Roman and Kosta went over to Yuri’s town car. Kosta got behind the wheel while the others got in the back seat. Moments later, the vehicles left the parking lot and made their way across town to Michael’s address.
When they got there, they found the security team already in place. Yuri spotted three of his men in positions in obscure areas yet looking over the entire street without being seen themselves.
Sazon looked around for Ana’s car but didn’t see it yet.
Roman came to stand beside him and offered his comment, “She doesn’t know this city as well as we do. She might not be here yet.”
Sazon nodded. “But if she sees all of us here, she may not stop at all.” Running his fingers through his hair, he looked at his brother and said, “I can’t lose her.”
Roman shrugged. “Then don’t. When you find her again and I know you will, hang on to her.”
Sazon looked lost for a moment. “Do you know that one moment when you’ve found something you can’t bear to lose? Something like the other half of your soul? Well, that’s what I found with her. I may not know her all that well but I know she’s the one I’ve been waiting for all my life. When I held her in my arms I found heaven.”
Roman smiled wistfully. “Then my friend you are indeed a fortunate man. I hope one day to find my woman, if she’s out there at all. Not all of us are that lucky, you know.”
Sazon slapped his brother on the shoulder. “She is out there looking for you the same as you are looking for her. I hope that day comes soon for you. But my woman is here right now and I can’t find her. How can I protect her if I can’t find her?”
Roman turned his head and smiled as he nodded toward the car coming their way. “Is that her?”
Sazon snapped his head around and saw the vehicle. Then he stepped out into the street and marched toward the land rover. When he was at the door, he wrenched it open and pulled her from the car. “Don’t you ever run away from me again,” he yelled at her. “How the hell am I supposed to protect you if you aren’t with me?” Then he brought his mouth down on hers and refused to let her go.
Ana moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck. She’d known almost from the moment she walked out the door this morning, she’d made a mistake, but she didn’t know how to tell him. When she’d seen him standing there on the street she was almost glad he was there.
When they broke away, they were both breathing heavily. Sazon lowered his forehead to hers and asked, “Are you ok?”
Ana nodded then looked around. “Is this where he lives?”
Roman had pulled her car over to the side of the road and shut off the engine. Ana snapped her fingers and when Dutcher joined them the four of them made their way inside the apartment building.
They went up to the third floor and found everyone standing around door number six. The door was open and while some of the men were standing in the hall Ana, Sazon and Roman joined the ones inside the apartment. Yuri, Kosta, Pappy Dewey and Bear were looking around the messy apartment.
Yuri looked up at Sazon and seemed happy to see Ana with him. Glancing over at her he asked, “What exactly should we be looking for? Are the daggers in a box like yours or what?”
She nodded and glanced around the room in dismay. Clothes and empty food boxes and empty beer bottles littered surface. “God, what a slob.” She exclaimed. Making her way into the other room she noted Michael didn’t make his bed. Dirty, grimy sheets and blankets half on the floor along with more clothes on the floor in here told her so much more about the man than anything else. The whole room smelled like dirty, sweaty socks and it was not a pleasant smell.
Looking around, she noticed an old wardrobe along the opposite wall. She walked over to the heavy wooden closet and opened the heavy doors. Inside the old wardrobe, she found a full size gun safe. Checking the door she found it tightly closed and locked. “Damn.” She swore. Yuri and Sazon joined her and stared at the safe.
“You wouldn’t happen to know a locksmith would you?” she asked Yuri.
“Let me look once,” Yuri suggested as he bent down to observe the safe.
She stepped back and watched, as he looked things over.
When he was done, he glanced up at her. “I don’t think we’ll need a locksmith.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t think Michael ever got into the safe to begin with. There are marks on the door that suggest someone been trying to get inside without any luck.”
“Maybe, maybe not but I’d rather be sure.” Ana glanced around the messy apartment in despair. “Then where are the daggers and his sword? This place is a pigsty, where would he hide something in here?”
Yuri moved off to make the call at her urging.
“Most likely where he knew no one would ever look.” Sazon scowled. “How anyone can live like this is beyond me.”
Ana went back to the wardrobe and stared at the safe then she lifted her eyes to the wardrobe itself. Taking a step back, she looked at the construction of the unit closely. That’s when she noticed the top of the wardrobe. She dragged a chair over from the corner of the room and stood on it peeking over the top of the wardrobe. Then she smiled.
Hidden behind the molding at the top was a hidden shelf. There on the shelf was the box containing the daggers along with a box she recognized. It was one of her grandfather’s boxes and as she lifted the cover, she revealed a sword inside the box. She recognized the blade as the one her grandfather had forged for Michael.
She looked around the room and caught Sazon’s eyes. “I found them.”
Sazon and Yuri rushed over to her and she passed down the sword box first. Yuri took the weapon from her and stepped back as she grabbed the box with the daggers and stepped off the chair. She placed her hand on the top of the box reverently.
Pappy and the others joined them in the bedroom and stared at the box in her hands.
“That’s what we came all this way for?” Bear growled. “An old box.”
Ana snapped her head up at his comment. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at the man. “No, we came here for what’s in this old box. Would you like to see the war daggers of old Russia?”
Bear just stared at her for a moment then looked away. A pink color tinged his cheeks.
“Hells bells girl open the damn box.” Calico, another Mc Member shrugged. “I’d like to see them.”
Everyone gathered around as Ana walked over to the bed and laid the box down on the mattress. Then she opened the box and showed them what was inside.
A beautiful set of jeweled daggers. When the light hit the jewels, they sparkled and the gleam of the blades almost blinded them. The blades were shaped like a lightning bolt with a wicked curve on the end. The steel still gleamed after a hundred years and the jewels were still bright in the light of the late morning. The edge of the blades looked wicked sharp.
“Holy hell,” Calico whispered.
Yuri leaned in closer but did not touch the blades. Lifting the lid of the box in his hand, he compared the two blades. While the sword in his hand was beautiful on its own, he could see a difference between the two. “Why are those blades so different than this blade?”
“These blades were specially crafted by mixing titanium with the steel he used. He folded the mixture over a hundred times to make sure the blades would be strong and would endure a lifetime. My great grandfather used the method from an old Chinese blacksmith he’d read about. He only used this method one time and this was it.” She ran her fingers along the edge of one of the blades carefully. “These blades are over a hundred years old and have never been sharpened but they will cut a piece of paper to shreds.”
“Are those jewels real?” Bear asked. “If they are those truly are the daggers of a king.”
Ana nodded. “They were given to my great grandfather from the Tzarina herself. She wanted Nikolas to have something extraordinarily beautiful and unique.”
“Well, if he’d ever gotten them he would have,” Yuri commented.
“So pretty lady,” Pappy asked her. “What are you going to do with them now?”
Sazon snapped his head around to glare at the older man.
Pappy held up his hands in a surrender position and wiggled his wedding band at the other man. “No offence man I just asked a question.”
“My grandfather wanted me to find Nikolas’s heir and give him the daggers. They really belong to his family. We’ve just been holding them in sort of a trust for a very long time.”
“How did this Michael guy even know you had them?” Calico asked.
Ana shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I think I do,” Yuri quipped. “There have been rumors about these blades floating around for years. The rumors are around for a while and everyone talks about them then there is much speculation about whether they ever existed in the first place, then they are all but forgotten for a long time. It’s a vicious cycle with something like this. The last time the rumors were rampant was about a year ago when everyone was speculating about who was brave enough to forge them. There was only one man during the time that they felt could do the job. I believe I heard the name being bantered around at the time and I thought to have that man forge the blades they would indeed be worthy of the Tzar.”
“What name did this man go by?” Dewey frowned.
“Vladimir Coucovic was the only man who could have done this fine a job,” Yuri admitted. “But no one seemed to know where he lived. When the KGB began looking for him, they couldn’t find him.”
Ana nodded. “Vlad did indeed forge these blades and the reason they could find him was because he came to this country. He fled Russia at the urging of his Tzarina. He came here and changed his name to protect not only himself but his future family as well.”
“But why now, man? How did he know where they would be at this time?” Pappy wondered out loud.
“We’ll have to ask him when he gets here.” Roman shrugged. “For now, I think we should get the daggers and the sword in a more secure location.” He glanced around the room and shook his head. “This is disgusting. How can a grown man live like this? Has he no pride?”
“Da, we should get them back to the hotel,” Yuri agreed. Checking his watch he announced, “We still have a couple of hours before anyone else gets here.”
Another man entered the room and Yuri glanced his way then motioned for him to come over to where he was standing. The other man joined them and Yuri introduced him to the others. “This is my locksmith, Paulo.” Glancing over at Ana he asked, “Do you still want the safe open?”
Ana nodded. “I have a feeling there is more this Michael is hiding. Why he didn’t put these in there is anyone’s guess.”
Bear scoffed. “He knew that was the first place we or anyone intent on robbing him would look, if we came looking.” He motioned at the chair. “Probably never thought you’d look on top the wardrobe.”
Yuri moved to the side and bid his locksmith get started on the safe.
When Paulo went to work everyone else moved back into the living room area. While they were there, another man came to the door.
This man was huge and he had muscles rippling all over his body. He was dressed in a tight black t shirt and a pair of sweatpants and both were drenched in sweat as if he’d been out running. His bald head was covered in a knitted beanie. His dark skin gleamed in the daylight streaming through Michael’s dirty windows. His dark eyes took in the group and then they spotted the small box in Ana’s hands and the sword Yuri still held. Then he glanced over at Sazon and nodded. “What’s going on here, boss?” he asked Sazon.
Sazon stared at the other man. “I didn’t know you knew Michael Tabrone, Grey.”
The man Grey Killian was a fighter in Sazon’s gym. He nodded. “Yeah me and Michael go back a number of years. We’ve been talking off and on for a couple of years now and he knew I was training to be a fighter for MMA. Then he contacted me a couple of months ago and asked where he could train to fight and I told him the best place was your gym.”
Sazon cocked his head to one side he asked, “Has he always wanted to be a MMA fighter?”
Grey chuckled. “No Michael has always been one for taking the easy way out, doing as little as possible for the most amount of money he could get. When I told him about your gym I didn’t think he’d actually come here. The first day he was here, he came to the gym and for the first time in his life since I’ve known him, he was interested in something he would have to work for.” Grey looked around the room at the different men standing there. “I probably shouldn’t ask this but is something going on here? Something Michael needs to know about?”
Ana sneered. “This is something Michael already knows about. I’m just taking something back he stole from my family.”
“Is he is some kind of trouble?” Grey asked. “The reason I ask is because when he first got here he said something about going underground for a while. He never would say why only just that he needed to disappear for a while and this seemed to be one way he could do that. He said no one would think to look for him here.” Grey shrugged. “I thought he was running from somebody’s husband or something like that.”
“Is this typical of how the man lives?” Roman asked as he motioned to the mess the room was in.
Grey glanced around and nodded. “Yeah, I believe it is. The guy is a real slob.”
“I would appreciate if you didn’t tell him we were here,” Yuri advised the other man.
Grey stared at the man for a moment then asked, “Now why would I do that? I was never here and saw nothing if you get my meaning. I just don’t want to be involved in this, whatever this is.”
Yuri nodded at the other man. He and the others watched as Grey turned and walked away from the apartment. He looked over at Kosta and gave his orders, “I want one man here at all times. We should get word when he leaves Texas but I don’t want anyone else coming in here and taking anything out. When Michael gets back, I want everything exactly the way it was when he left, except for the sword and the daggers of course. He may yet have more secrets we need to know somewhere under this mess.”
Paulo stepped into the doorway and motioned at Yuri.
Yuri joined him and together, they disappeared for a few minutes. When Yuri reappeared, he wore a frown of rage on his face. Sazon and Roman knew what it was and immediately, they grew alert to the danger of his mood.
“What did you find?” Roman dared to ask.
“We can discuss it when we get back to the hotel. Paulo will bag everything up and bring it there.” Yuri told them. Catching Kosta’s eye, he nodded at the other man. “Stay with him and accompany him back to the hotel.”
Kosta acknowledged the order while Yuri urged the others to leave Michael’s apartment. Roman rode with him back to the hotel while Sazon and Ana drove her vehicle there. Pappy and his boys rode their bikes following both other vehicles.
Roman looked over at his brother and had to ask, “So what was in the safe that got you all riled up?”
Yuri curled his lip but kept his eyes on the road. “Michael has been very busy and very bad. There was evidence in the safe that connected him to more than one murder and several attempts at blackmail. Plus, a rather large amount of cash. We’ll have to look into it of course, but I don’t think the world as a whole will miss this prick.”
“So you’re going to take him out of commission then?”
Yuri glanced over at the other man quickly then moved his eyes back to the street in front of him. “I am indeed. I don’t think Nikoli and Sergi would want it any other way. This needs to be done, quickly and quietly and I swear that man will never see the inside of an American prison. If what we found is true, he needs a hole in the desert where no one will ever find him and soon.”
Roman’s eye brow raised but he didn’t say anything.
“In fact, we may need Geordie to run background on this guy,” Yuri muttered.
Roman snapped his head around to stare at Yuri. “Geordie? Are you sure?”
Yuri shrugged. “I’d really rather not but we need whatever he can find on this matter. This may become bigger than any of us were looking for. We don’t know anyone else who can do the deep background check we’re going to need on this. ”
Roman sat back in his seat and thought about the news he’d just heard. To say Yuri and Geordie didn’t get along was like comparing apples to grapefruit. Both were good men on their own, they just didn’t get along together. He knew Yuri hated to call him in on anything but they might not have a choice in the matter. They needed someone with certain skills and Geordie was the only person they knew that had such skills.
A short time later, Yuri was joined by the rest of his group, Sazon, Ana and Dutcher, along with Roman, Pappy, Dewey, Bear and Calico. Members of his own security team were there as well. Paulo arrived a few minutes later with the bag of evidence he’d taken from the safe.
Yuri took charge of the bag and announced to the whole group, “Before we get into what we found in the safe we need more information on Michael Tabrone.” Running his fingers through his hair he told them, “Paulo discovered evidence in the safe that leads us to believe that Michael is not who he claims to be.”
“Just how do you think you can get this information, especially if he’s not Michael Tabrone?” Pappy asked.
“We’ll have to call in an expert hacker. I don’t like the man we have to deal with and he doesn’t like me but it’s the only way we have to check this out.”
“It may not be the only way,” Pappy told him the group quietly.
Dewey snapped his head around to glare at the other man but he didn’t say anything.
“What does that mean?” Yuri demanded.
“We have a very good hacker,” Pappy assured him. “Dewey’s wife is outstanding in what she does and so far, she has never been caught.” Pappy nodded at his second in command. “He may not want her involved but she’s the best at what she does.”
Yuri turned to the other man and stared at him for a moment. “Is this true?”
Dewey gritted his teeth. “Yes it’s true. Trudy can get you what you need to know and no one will ever know she was in their system.”
“There is only one person that good that’s I’ve ever heard of and he’s known as The Phantom. Not even Geordie is that good.” Roman concluded. “But no one’s heard from this person in the last few years.”
Dewey turned slowly to stare at the man. “Trudy has been in hiding most of her life because she’s that good. She’s pissed off a number of people over the years and the government would lock her away for their own use if they knew where she was. We’ve been hiding her skills behind a network of firewalls and misdirection to protect her and our own organization.”
“Your wife is The Phantom?” Roman gasped.
Dewey nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Your own organization?” Yuri questioned.
Pappy shrugged. “We are part of a nationwide network that watches for threats against our country. We work hand in hand with a secret part of the government that stops terrorism on home soil.”
Yuri turned to Dewey. “Can your wife work quickly and keep quiet about the results until we have the whole picture?”
Dewey nodded.
“Will you allow her to work with us on this? I want to have the information to present to Sergi when he arrives later today.”
Dewey looked disgusted the reached for his phone. “I’ll need to give her more information than the name Michael Tabrone.”
“Give her the names Caleb Stoner and the Ripper,” Yuri told him. “I’d like to see what she comes up with on that alone.”
“The Ripper?” Pappy questioned. “I’ve heard that name.”
Yuri nodded looking solemn. “We found several newspaper articles in the safe about the crimes of this man. There is more but that’s what we found. I want to know more about this case before any decision is made. But you need to warn your men to watch Michael carefully and not to lose him. If he figures out he’s being watched, he may do something dangerous and disappear completely. We cannot afford to lose track of him now.”
Pappy agreed, “I’ll let my men know to watch their backs. I’d rather not lose any of them either.”
“He’s not one I’d trust. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill them in order to get away. Dangerous men are reckless when they are cornered.” Yuri turned to Ana. “And you, we need to put you under protection immediately.”
Ana frowned. “Why? Michael doesn’t even know I’m here yet.”
“I wouldn’t make that claim at all. Grey might not tell him we were there today but he might have others watching out for him.” Yuri shook his head. “He must have known his actions in New York would follow him wherever he went next. He did tell Grey that he needed to go underground for a while.”
“If he gets wind of us at all he could just disappear and wait to come back here to gather his things,” Roman pointed out. “I doubt a man like he is would leave anything to chance.”
Yuri nodded. Looking over at Pappy he said, “Maybe we should just transport him back here and confront him on our terms. We could hold him until we have the facts and Sergi determines our next move.”
“I can call the compound and get a van to Houston in a few hours. My men will watch over him until we get transport there. Once they get him in custody, they can bring him here,” Pappy assured them.
“Hopefully by that time, Sergi will be here and we will have more evidence of who he really is,” Yuri concluded.
“What about my brother and his wife?” Ana asked. “If you think I need protection, don’t they as well?”
“Nikoli told me several members of the MC your brother made first contact with are traveling here with them.” Yuri shrugged. “Maybe they have more information on that matter. We’ll just have to wait and see what they know and what they did before coming here.”
“I’m sure Deke has things under control,” Pappy assured them.
“But if they don’t know about what we just found how can they protect Drago and Gretchen and the new baby?” Ana wailed.
“Honey, I’ll make a call and see what’s being done about this.” Pappy reached for his phone.
Sazon frowned at the older man. The other man was entirely too informal to suit him. He wrapped his arm around Ana and held her close while Pappy made his call.
A few minutes later Pappy ended his call and looked over at Ana. “I spoke to a man named Mountain. He was left in charge while Deke, Sam, Gator and Jethro traveled here with Sergi and Nikoli. He’s going to send some men over to your place to watch over your family and stay with them until this matter is resolved.”
Ana smiled. “Thank you so much.”
Yuri ended a call and looked over at the others. “That was Nikoli, they are about two hours out and closing fast. He was most interested in what we found at the apartment. They want as much information as we can get before they arrive.”
“But that isn’t enough time.” Ana fretted.
“It will have to do,” Yuri stated.
Dewey answered his phone and called out to Yuri, “Trudy needs a fax number to send us the info she’s got already.”
“What could she possibly have at this time?” Roman frowned.
Yuri gave him the number and before long, they were receiving pages from Texas. When he glanced over at Dewey, the other man shrugged. “She’s good. She can hack into any system, find what she needs and get out before anyone realizes she’s even been there.”
Yuri began reading the pages in his hands and before he even got to page three, he was swearing in Russian. Passing the pages along the line of men waiting to read them he took a second batch off the printer and began reading them. The information she was sending them were official police reports as well as newspaper clippings following a serial killer the press labeled The Ripper, named after Jack the Ripper from history of the old English killer from well over a hundred years ago who has never been caught. To this day, the authorities could only speculate as to who the original Jack the Ripper really was and what became of man himself.
“Would there be any chance of getting something to eat any time soon?” Pappy finally asked. “I don’t know about the rest of you but my belly is wondering if my brain remembers what food is.”
Yuri chuckled. “Of course. With everything that’s happened this morning, I think we can all use some nourishment. We’d better eat before the others arrive anyway. Once they get this information they may not think to stop to eat for hours.”
Over a buffet, as Yuri called for service since he owned this hotel, more pages came in from Trudy and the news was worse than anyone thought. Pappy got a phone call from his men in Houston. They had taken Michael off the streets and were bringing him to New Orleans in the back of a van. He’d been uncooperative in the capture and not only was he wounded but one of Pappy’s men was hurt as well.
Pappy found this news unacceptable and swore long and hard.
Yuri knew this frustration, so he went over to the bar and poured several drinks. Carrying one over to Pappy, he handed the glass to his and lifted his own in a toast position. “This bastard will pay the full price for his actions. Believe that if nothing else makes sense right now, believe in that.” He touched his glass to the other man’s, lifted it to his lips and slammed the liquor down this throat.
Pappy gulped his drink down as well then asked, “So who are we waiting on?”
Yuri placed his glass down on the table beside the sofa and glanced at the four men from Sabine Pass, Texas. “You may or may not be aware of the fact that my brothers and I are Bratva. It is similar to your Italian mob, only the Bratva is Russian. We have people we have to answer too in our homeland, Sergi Constantine is one of those men. He and his son Misha are here visiting family and they were in New York when Drago called his friend Jethro Ryan to help watch over his sister. Sergi, Nikoli and Misha along with four members of the Sin’s Bastards MC are the ones we are waiting for.”
Pappy nodded. “I know Deke and his dad Sam. In fact, I served with Sam in the Marines a life time ago. I met the rest of his club some time ago when we came through New York. They’re all very good men to watch your back. I’d trust any of them with my life.”
Yuri nodded then added, “Sergi is also my wife’s grandfather and Misha is her father.”
Pappy raised his eyebrow then chuckled, “Boy I do not envy you that connection. You fuck up and its over for you isn’t it?”
Yuri chuckled. “Almost happened already. I fucked up once and it wasn’t just a small fuck up, no it had to be big time but Raven forgave me. I think I was more afraid of her than those two.” He smiled. “She made me a father a few days ago and that shit is as real as it gets. Sergi and Misha are here to watch the next generation grow up.”
Pappy grinned. “Yeah, I thought I was too old to have a kid too, but my woman showed me just how wrong that thought was. She and my baby daughter are my whole world now and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”