Chapter Six
“Your brother?” Nikoli frowned.
Raven turned to Yuri. “Please I have to go home and talk to him first. He deserves to hear this from me.”
Yuri shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that. Not with Carlos roaming the city. If he found you or your brother unprotected, he would seek his revenge on you.”
“Why would Carlos want to hurt either of them?” Nikoli demanded.
“Ten years ago, Carlos had Raven steal our medallion. She didn’t turn it over to him and that’s the only thing that’s stopped him from taking our place with the Council,” Yuri informed them.
“What?” Both Nikoli and Kosta shouted.
Nikoli stomped up to her and raised his hand to slap her but Yuri held him back. Nikoli turned to him and snarled, “Why did you stop me? She’s nothing more than a thief.”
“Oh, I think she’s more than just a thief,” Yuri informed the other man. “I think she has much more to tell us if we care to listen first and ask questions later.”
Nikoli turned back to Raven. “Where is the medallion? I demand that you return it immediately.”
Raven shrugged. “I never wanted the damn thing anyway. I kept it to keep it away from Carlos. He didn’t deserve it and I didn’t know you all well enough to give it back.”
“Where is it now?” Nikoli demanded.
“It’s safe,” Raven assured them. “But I need to speak to my brother before I say anything else.”
“Then let my men bring him here,” Yuri ordered.
Raven shook her head. “He won’t come here with anyone but me.”
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Nikoli insisted. “We don’t have any answers yet, and I don’t trust you to return.”
Raven shook her head. “I’d give you my word but I doubt you’d take it.”
“You’d be right about that,” Nikoli confirmed her statement.
Raven drew herself inward. Turning to face the window, she asked, “Then how do you want to play this out?”
“Tell us what we wish to know and we might let you go to your brother,” Nikoli compromised.
Raven shook her head. “I need to speak to my brother first. Then I’ll tell you anything and everything I know.”
“Write a note to your brother and my men can deliver it. Then they can bring him here.” Yuri offered. “Then you can tell us what we want to know and everyone is happy.”
“And if Carlos sees your man bringing my brother here?” Raven played devil’s advocate. “He’d take my brother hostage and force me to turn over the medallion. Then he’d kill me and my brother in retaliation.” Shaking her head, “We’d all lose then.”
Nikoli frowned. “What is it you aren’t telling us, child?”
Raven turned away without saying a word.
Yuri growled and grabbed her shoulders glaring at her. “Write your damn note. I’ll send three men to get him. Carlos won’t dare attack three of my men. They will bring your brother here and you can speak to him then.”
“They can try but if they lead Carlos to my brother, he won’t make it back here. Carlos doesn’t care who he has to kill to get what he wants.” She walked over to the desk and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. Quickly writing a note, she folded it. She wrote an address on the outside of the paper and handed it to Yuri.
Yuri opened the letter and read the words she wrote. He frowned because the message didn’t make sense to him. “Is this some sort of code?” He handed the letter to Nikoli.
Nikoli seemed just as confused by the message.
“Gold star to you, Mr. Anatoly,” she said sarcastically.
Nikoli reached out and slapped her before anyone could stop him. “I’ve about had enough of your sass young lady.”
She just glared at him and turned her back on the whole bunch of them. She stared out the window and could see the lights come on all over the city.
Yuri shook his head and spoke quietly to Kosta. Handing him the note, he watched as the other man left the room.
Nikoli walked over to the bar and poured a couple of drinks. Handing one to Yuri, they watched her as they sipped their drink.
“What do you think she knows that’s so important she won’t tell us?” Nikoli asked in Russian.
Yuri wished he knew. This had been a very strange day. Some of the things they’d learned bothered him a great deal but he had a feeling there was more to come and not all of it would be pleasant. “I don’t know. But I have a feeling this day is far from over.”
“I have a feeling you could be right about that, my friend.” Nikoli slammed the rest of his drink down his throat and poured another.
An hour later, Yuri’s phone rang. When he answered it, he listened for a moment then handed it to Raven. When she answered it, she spoke for a moment then handed it back to Yuri. When she was done, she went back to the window and stared outside.
A short time later, she saw a dark SUV pull into the front of the hotel. Instead of stopping at the entrance, the SUV pulled into the private parking area. As Raven watched, another SUV pulled in behind the first one and she saw Carlos Lopez step out of the second vehicle. She watched as he marched up to the entrance and came inside.
Without turning around she told Yuri, “You’re about to get company. Carlos is here.”
Yuri placed his glass on the table and together, he and Nikoli waited for the knock on the door. He pulled his phone out and called his man Kosta. He didn’t want Kosta and the brother to be seen by Carlos.
Moments later, the knock came and Yuri called out, “Come in.”
The door opened and Stephanou ushered Carlos into the room. Carlos looked around, first at Yuri then to Nikoli and finally he noticed Raven. He curled his lip at Raven but turned to address Yuri and Nikoli, “Gentlemen, my name is Carlos Lopez and I want to inform you that I am calling for a place at the Council. I plan to prove that your Bratva is no longer in possession of the medallion and that I possess it now.”
“Prove it.” Yuri demanded. “Show us that you possess the medallion and we will consider your request.”
Carlos smiled carefully. “I don’t have to prove anything to you, only to the rest of the Council.”
Raven took careful steps toward Yuri. When she stood in front of him, she unbuckled her belt. With her eyes on Carlos, she flipped the belt around and moved the back plate. When it popped open, she reached inside and grabbed the round metal disk inside. She handed it to Yuri and went back to her place by the window.
Yuri was stunned and when he opened his fingers, the chain dropped down between them. He then placed the medallion around his neck.
Carlos’s face flushed dark red when he realized the medallion was now around Yuri’s neck. He turned to glare at Raven. His hand went to the inside of his jacket and he brought out a gun. Before he could cock the piece, Stephanou rushed over and pushed him against the wall. His arm pushed into Carlos’s throat.
Yuri grabbed the gun out of his hand and pointed it at Carlos. “Don’t you come into my hotel and threaten a member of my staff.” He growled at the other man. “I could kill you right now and no one would say a word against me. The police would call it self-defense and no one would mourn your death.”
“You’re a dead woman, you bitch!” Carlos croaked out. The arm across his throat barely let him breath. “Even if he does kill me, the others will hunt you down and take you out. You betrayed me and no one who does that lives.”
Yuri struck him in the mouth with the gun. Then he looked at Stephanou and said, “Take him down to the cells in the basement. Maybe he’ll reconsider his position after a night or two behind bars.”
“My friends know I came here tonight. They’ll come after me. You won’t be safe and neither will she!” Carlos screamed out as Stephanou dragged him through the door and down the back stairs.
Yuri turned to glare at Raven. “You had the medallion this whole time?”
Raven shrugged. “The only place I knew it would be safe was with me. I couldn’t let anyone else find it.”
“Thank you for returning it.” Yuri nodded at her. “Now it is my turn to keep it safe.” Holding his hand out to her he said, “Come along, your brother is waiting for you upstairs.”
Raven joined his and together with Nikoli, they went upstairs to the penthouse. When they all got to the apartment, Yuri opened the door and they went inside.
A young man turned to watch them and when he did, Nikoli gasped.
The young man turned curious eyes to the older man and the two of them searched each other’s face for along moment.
Yuri, Kosta and Gregor looked over at Nikoli then turned to the young man. They all saw the same thing. The young man looked a lot like Nikoli. They were both tall and had dark hair. Both men shared the same contours of the face, the high cheekbones the angular nose, the same high forehead, and the same strong jaw. The only difference was their eye color. Nikoli’s eyes were dark while the younger man’s eyes were a brilliant blue color.
“Who are you?” Nikoli whispered.
The younger man turned to Raven with a pleading look in his eyes.
She went toward him and led him to the couch. “I think we should sit down and talk. I have a story I need to share with you all.”
Then men all sat. Kost and Gregor guarded the door.
“This is a story I’ve never told anyone before so you’ll have to forgive me if I start at the beginning.” She held Nicky’s hands tightly within her own. “When I was just a baby, my mom and I lived with my grandmother most of the time. It was my grandma that took care of me most of the time. My mother couldn’t be bothered. She was too busy trying to find a better life for herself. Every once in a while, she would move us away from my grandma’s. When she did that, we stayed in a trailer park over in Lake Charles. When I was almost five, my mom moved us back over to the trailer. She and my grandma had had a huge fight and mom was pretty mad at her. We moved over there and one day, she came home with a tiny baby boy. He couldn’t have been more than a day or two old. She told me he was my brother and that it was my job to take care of him.” She shrugged. “I didn’t know any better being only five, so I did what I was told. I took care of the baby. She called him Nicky. For a while, after she brought him home, she was in an ugly mood, so I kept us as far away from her as I could. She wouldn’t let me go outside and she kept herself hidden from the world for a long time. The phone would ring and she never would answer it. My grandma came over but she wouldn’t let her come inside. Neighbors would come over but she wouldn’t let them in either.”
The men all nodded as they listened.
“Then one day, when Nicky was three, she took the both of us over to my grandma’s house. She told my grandma she needed a safe place for us to stay for a few days while she figured stuff out. Grandma said we could stay and mom left. We never saw her again. Grandma home schooled us the best she could because she didn’t trust the trouble mom was in. She didn’t know what mom had done but she knew there was a reason mom wasn’t coming back. We lived in fear for the next four years. Then when I was twelve, four men came to grandma’s door. Nicky and I hid but we could hear everything that happened. Grandma was crying and the men were yelling, they kept asking her where Mom was but Grandma didn’t know. She tried to tell them but they wouldn’t listen, then she stopped talking and the men left. Nicky and I stayed hidden for a long time after it got quiet. When we finally came out, the police were there and grandma was covered up. They took us away that day. We went into the foster system because the police couldn’t find mom.”
“What was your mother’s name?” Nikoli finally asked. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off the young man Raven called her brother.
Raven hung her head. “Her name was Andria Waterson.”
Yuri gasped, as did Kosta and Gregor.
Nikoli turned dark angry eyes on Raven and he curled his lip. Then he turned back to Nicky. “Is this the baby she brought home with her? Is this my son?”
“I think he might be,” she admitted.
Nicky got to his feet and back away from Nikoli. Sweat beaded at his temples and he shook his head. Turning to Raven, he whispered, “But I’m your brother. I’m not his son. I’m your brother. I’ve always been your brother!”
Raven got to her feet and wrapped her arms around him. “You will always be my brother. I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and I’ll love you more tomorrow,” she whispered in his ear. Tears ran down her face. “That will never change for any reason. But I have reason to doubt what mom did. She was never pregnant before you came to us. She was gone for about three months before she brought you back with her and she was very secretive after she came back.”
“That doesn’t make him my father!” Nicky exclaimed stubbornly.
Raven chuckled. “Have you looked in a mirror lately?” she asked him. “You are a younger version of him.”
“You have your mother’s eyes,” Nikoli told him. “My sweet Bethany had the same color eyes.”
Nicky turned to look at him. “Who are you exactly?”
Nikoli got to his feet. “My name is Nikoli Gregor Silvanoc.”
Raven felt her brother tremble in her arms. She tightened her arms around him and whispered, “Tell him,” she encouraged him.
Nicky stared at her for a moment then turned to face Nikoli. “We’ve had many names but I was told my real name is Nicholas Gregory Waterson. The woman I thought was my mother called me that until I was three.”
Raven nodded. “When mom left us at grandma’s, she told us our names were different. She told us to call ourselves Raven and Nicky Casseni. She didn’t want anyone to be able to trace us back to her. She too, changed her name. She told her mother her new name was Andi Brighman. She said she would change it every three months or so and that she would try to tell us where she was.”
“And did she contact you again?” Yuri asked.
Raven shook her head. “We never heard from her again.”
“Then you don’t know where she is?” Kosta wanted to know.
“Oh, I know exactly where she is,” Raven replied. “I found her about a year ago.”
“Where is she?” Nikoli growled.
“What happened to my real mother?” Nicky asked suddenly. “All these years, I thought Andria was my mom but now I know she isn’t. What happened to her?”
“That is a very sordid tale,” Nikoli told him.
“Long story short…” Raven didn’t think he had to know all the details, just enough right now to get him through the worst part of this mess. They could fill in the blanks at a later date. “She died giving birth to you. Andria stole you when you were hours old. Your father has been looking for you this whole time.”
Nicky went back to the sofa and sat down with a heavy sigh, then he looked at Nikoli and asked, “Are you really my father?”
“Da, I think perhaps I am.” Nikoli nodded. “Are you going to be okay with that?”
“I don’t honestly know. It’s just been Raven and I my whole life. She’s always taken care of me and kept me out of trouble. I don’t know how to be someone’s son.”
“Before this goes any further, I think we should hear the rest of their story.” Yuri reminded everyone. “We need to hear about their time with Carlos. He might become a bigger problem than we realize.”
Raven came back to the sofa and sat down. “I was twelve and Nicky was eight by the time we went to stay with Carlos and his wife Rachel. He had handpicked Nicky and I to go live with him. It wasn’t because he loved us or anything. It was because we didn’t have any other family. We had no one to care if we lived or died.” She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and continued her story, “Carlos taught us from day one, that we were going to learn a trade from him and we were going to learn it well. He taught us how to steal. Nicky learned to pick pockets and I learned how to break into homes and businesses. Being small, I could fit into small places, I could get through air vents and such. He taught me how to use a grapple hook and how to climb up the side of buildings. He taught Nicky how to lift a wallet, so the victim never felt it. He taught us both how to open a safe and what to steal that would bring him the most money.”
“He would use us against each other as well,” Nicky took over the story telling. “He would tell me that Raven was getting to the age where she could go to work for a friend of his, Big Jimmy. He said she was getting to be a woman now and she needed to up her game. He couldn’t use her to break in to homes anymore, she was getting too big. He would tell me he was going to sell her in another year or so.”
Raven nodded sadly. “He would tell me that Nicky was getting old enough to go foster with a friend of his. This man liked boys about the age of nine or ten. He would teach Nicky all the pleasures he would need to learn to satisfy a real man’s pleasure.” Raven shuddered as tears formed in her eyes. “Carlos liked to lock us up in a small windowless closet for punishment when we pissed him off. The last night we were there, he tore Nicky away from me and locked him in that damn closet. He told me if I refused to do this job, he would be gone in the morning and I’d never see my brother again. I did the job and when I got back to the house, I could hear Carlos talking in the garage. That’s when I found out he was going to sell Nicky that night. He told his friends that I was going to Big Jimmy’s as well.”
The men all around her looked enraged. Nikoli had his hands curled into fists.
She took a deep breath and let it out as she spoke, “I wasn’t going to lose Nicky, not like that and not to a man that would abuse him in that way. I snuck in the house and hit Rachel, his wife over the head. She was standing guard over the closet. I got Nicky out of there and we took off. We lived on the streets for several years moving around the state. We never stayed in one place very long. We changed our names every time we moved. Then about three years ago, we came back to New Orleans. We kept out of trouble for the most part.” She turned a glare on Nicky.
Nicky chuckled. He blushed a bit and told everyone what she was talking about, “I try to stay clean but every once in a while, I take something that doesn’t belong to me. That’s how we got caught this time.” He glanced over at Yuri. “I lifted your wallet the other day. I didn’t know who you were and when I found out, Raven brought your wallet back. She said she left it in the penthouse and I thought we were safe.”
Yuri turned to her. “So you were here last night?”
Raven nodded.
“Have you been here before last night?”
Raven blushed. “Yes, I have been here a couple of times.”
“Why?” Yuri asked with an arched brow.
“Yes, Raven why?” Nicky asked teasingly. “You always yelled at me when I lifted a wallet. It’s good to know you haven’t been without blame.”
“The reasons don’t matter,” Nikoli told them. “You do not have to steal wallets anymore and you will cease breaking into someone’s home. Neither of you need to steal anymore.”
Raven shook her head. “You may have a claim on Nicky but you don’t have one on me. I don’t belong to you.”
“You’re still my sister,” Nicky reminded her.
Raven shook her head as a lone tear fell down her cheek. “But I’m really not.”
Nicky wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear, “I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and I’ll love you even more tomorrow.”
Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as she hugged him back.
“You have watched over my son like no one else could,” Nikoli stated with reverence in his voice. “You have protected him against the world and for that, I will always be grateful. You may not actually be siblings, but you have grown up together and I will not tear you apart now.”
“We have yet to deal with Carlos,” Yuri reminded them all.
“Yeah, he followed us to their apartment. He rushed in to try and take the boy,” Kosta told his boss. “We took out a couple of his men but he may have followed us back to the hotel.”
“He did.” Yuri sneered. “He even came to my office and tried to tell us he wanted our place on the Council.”
Kosta gasped. “And how did that turn out?”
“He bragged he had the medallion and that he could get us kicked out of the city.” Yuri chuckled.
“What did you say to him?” Kosta knew the medallion was missing and had been missing for the last ten years.
Yuri smiled and pulled the medallion out from under his shirt. “Raven took the medallion ten years ago just before she left Carlos’s house. She returned it in front of him. Needless to say, Carlos was very angry with her.”
“The stupid man pulled a gun on her and would have shot her if Stephanou hadn’t rushed him,” Nikoli explained. “As it was he threatened her life in front of us.”
Kosta turned to Yuri. “And you let this man live?”
“I had Stephanou put him in a cell in the basement. Tomorrow, the Council will decide his fate and those he swears who will come after Raven for her betrayal.”
“If they fail to give us justice, I know of a place that will carry his carcass to the underworld.” Kosta nodded. He turned to stare at Nikoli. “What are we going to do about Andria?”
Nikoli turned to Raven. “I know she’s still your mother. I wish for justice for my Bethany and for what she did to Nicky. I will understand if you want to plead for mercy.”
Raven didn’t have to think about it. “No, she stopped being a mother to me a long time ago. Even before Nicky, she wasn’t my mother anymore. She may have given me life but she was never my mother in any true sense of the word. From the day I was born, my grandmother was the only one who loved me. Until Nicky came into my life, that is. Then it was him and me against the world.” She paused then lowered her head. “You do what you have to do to her. She deserves your rage. She should pay for what she did.”
Nikoli put his hand under her chin and brought up her face to his level. “Are you sure, child?”
Raven nodded. “I suppose I should feel something for her, she is my mother after all, but I can’t. She left us behind with no thought to our safety or wellbeing. She left us alone and she never looked back. All she ever cared about was herself. She killed your wife and stole your son and then she threw him away. She threw her own child away too. It was like her own life meant more to her than ours ever did. For that, she needs to be accountable for something in this lifetime.” She shrugged. “That may sound harsh but it is how I feel. She had the choice to walk away from everything, Nicky and I, we didn’t have a choice.”
“Very well then. So be it.” Nikoli nodded.
Raven turned to Kosta. “She’s living as Doreen Oliver. She and her new husband live in Gretna at 404 North Main Street. His name is Felix and he works as a broker here in New Orleans at the Commodities Exchange.”
Kosta got to his feet. “Thank you. I’ll bring her back here in the morning.”
After he left, Nikoli got to his feet and looked down at Nicky. “Can we go to my penthouse and talk for a while? I’m sure there are questions you need to ask, and I have many to ask you. I want to know everything that has happened in your life so far.”
Nicky got to his feet. He stared at the man for a moment then warned him, “Our life has not been an easy one. In fact, most of it sucked but we survived.”
Nikoli shrugged. “Life often is not easy and you have to do what you have to do to get by. The mere fact that you did, tells me a lot about your character.”
Nicky snorted. “Not my character, Raven’s character. After we left Carlos’s house, she fought every day to get us both through it. I was a nine year old kid and she was barely fourteen and the only skills we had were those of thieves. Not that she would let us use those skills, she was determined to give us a better life than what we had. We struggled at first but in the end, she was right. We worked hard to survive but as we got older, we got by without stealing and when we did that, our lives got easier. It wasn’t great but we got something back we never let go of. We got our self-respect back and for the first time, we could hold our heads high and look people in the eyes.” He turned and reached into his pocket. Then he held out his flatten hand to Yuri. On the tip of his fingers was a small brass key. “This fell out of your wallet but I didn’t notice it until after Raven left to bring it back. It belongs to you and I want to apologize for my actions of that day. I saw you walk past me and I saw you had something I wanted one day and I just couldn’t help myself. When I found out who you were, I couldn’t force myself to return it, so Raven had to. I can honestly say that your wallet will be the last one I take.”
Yuri accepted the key from him and shook his hand. “I thank you for the return of the key. Nikoli and I both understand how sometimes, life gets very hard and there are times when you have to wonder if you will survive it. I’m very glad you had Raven to keep you safe and whole.”
Nicky nodded. “No matter what she says, she is my sister in every way that counts. She’s been the one constant in my life so far, and I won’t forget that.”
“Nor will I,” Nikoli vowed. “But it grows late and I would like to tell you about your mother.”