CHAPTER SEVEN
Sazon held her for a long time. He wondered where her thoughts were. He’d like to think they were about him, but he wouldn’t fool himself. He knew she was in pain and misery. He saw that tape of her grandfather’s murder. It would be in her mind for a long time to come. Finally, he nuzzled into her neck and whispered, “Are you okay?”
Ana smiled faintly. “I guess so.”
“You guess so?” he queried quietly. “You don’t know?”
Ana shook her head. “I may never be ok again and I will always hate what this man has done to my family but I know it must be faced. I must confront this man and find out why. Why did he have to murder my grandfather?”
“And the daggers?” he asked. “Don’t you want to know why he took the daggers?”
Ana shook her head. “I don’t care about the damn daggers. They are just material things. They don’t matter.”
Sazon scoffed. “Others might not think so.”
“But they’re not important to me. My grandfather raised Drago and me. He believed in family over everything else. Everything else is just material things, they weren’t important, only family mattered. He would say. ‘Family will be there for you when you’re down on your luck or need a helping hand. Family will protect you from the cold or from the fears that haunt you. Material things are cold and have no soul.’ ”
“Your grandfather sounds like a man I could admire. I was alone in the world until I met the men that became my brothers. We aren’t related by blood but by something more intense. We became blood brothers by choice but your grandfather was right, family does have your back and you can rely on them. How did you come to live with him?”
Ana sighed. “I remember it was the summer. I was seven and Drago was eight. It was another time when rumors of the daggers were going around and there were all these people coming around our house asking questions. To get away from all the crazy, my parents took us to Pops’ house. They were on their way back home when someone broadsided them. My father was killed outright but my mother lingered long enough for the bastard to ask her some questions. He demanded to know where the daggers were, how he could find them and where her other children were. We have said publicly since then that it was a drunk driver, but it wasn’t. It was someone after the daggers and we couldn’t tell people the truth.”
“Her other children?”
Ana looked at him with more tears in her eyes. “She was carrying our younger brother at the time of the accident. When he heard the sirens coming, the bastard took off and told her not to tell anyone he was there. She told most of this to my grandfather right before she died. It wasn’t long after that she joined my father in death and my grandfather was left to raise us. But he never let us forget who we were or who our parents were. He buried them in a small cemetery hidden on his property. His father and mother are there as well. Drago and I buried him there too, next to our grandmother.”
“Do you know who the man was that killed your parents?” Sazon asked.
Ana looked him in the eye and whispered, “Yes, we know who he was.”
“Was?” Sazon questioned.
Ana wouldn’t say anything but from her silence Sazon knew the bastard had faced justice, old fashioned Russian justice. He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead. “We should join the others and try to figure out what’s going on. They may have more information on this bastard by now.” Sazon went and got a warm washcloth and gently cleaned her up. He went into the bathroom and then came back out.
They got dressed without saying a word. As he escorted her back out to the living room, they saw the men gathered around the dining room table. On the table was the information Trudy had sent them by fax.
Yuri looked up when they returned and nodded at the table. “Your boy has been very busy.”
“What does that mean?” Ana asked.
Yuri grunted. “I don’t know where this Trudy got this information but she cracked this case wide open. The man who claimed his name was Michael Tabrone is really Caleb Stoner. He is also a serial killer known to the police and the press as the Ripper. From what we’ve been able to track, he began his murder spree fifteen years ago when he killed his stepfather Sam Weston in Port Arthur, Texas. We haven’t been able to find out his entire past yet, but I have no doubt that Trudy will find out everything about his past.”
“How did his stepfather die?” Ana asked.
“Caleb stabbed him fifteen times then when he was almost dead from blood loss he cut the man’s heart out,” Sergi informed them.
Ana gasped, her hand flew up to cover her mouth.
“What happened next?” Sazon questioned.
“Four years later, he turned up in Miami, Oklahoma. We don’t know how long he lived there before he murdered a young woman by the name of Gena Crane. He disappeared again for two years where he showed up in Kansas City. He murdered Michael Tabrone there and went underground again. She found out he’d been going under the name Michael Tabrone since the real Michael was murdered. He didn’t kill anyone else for seven years that we have found anyway. There was another murder in Cincinnati where he brutally murdered Glory Mattias. “
“Then what happened?” Ana whispered, not sure she wanted to hear the rest.
“It was two years later when he found your grandfather,” Yuri took up the story. “These murders have only one thing in common and that’s the way they happened. There is no link available yet to tie them all together.”
“Do we know where he’s been for the last two months?” Ana asked.
“Trudy did find another murder only weeks after he left New York,” Dewey stated. “This one was in Cave City, Kentucky. He murdered a young man named Jordan Willias. Then a few weeks later, he showed up here still using the name Michael Tabrone.”
“He’s come full circle hasn’t he?” Ana whispered.
“Full circle?” Sazon frowned.
Ana nodded. “He’s come home again hasn’t he? He started out in Port Arthur, Texas and now he’s here in New Orleans. He’s almost home.”
“But why?” Sazon asked. “Why did he ever come back here? He would have been better off to just keep going.”
For a moment, no one said anything as they thought about why the killer had come back here.
Suddenly, Ana turned around to stare at Sazon. “He’s coming home to kill his mother.”
“What? Why would he do that?” Sazon frowned.
“I don’t know, maybe he feels she betrayed him at some point in his younger life, but in a weird way it makes sense doesn’t it?” she said after reading the report about Caleb Stoner. “I mean think about it. His father died when he was three years old and it was just the two of them, then a dozen years later, his mother marries again and he doesn’t like the new man in her life. He kills him and goes on the run.” She shrugged, “Maybe he couldn’t stop killing once he started no matter how hard he tried. Over the last fifteen years, he murdered five more people.” She began to pace as she thought about the way her grandfather died. She frowned then looked over at Yuri. “Just moments after he stabbed my grandfather the last time he dipped his finger in one of the wounds and said a prayer over his body, then he made the sign of a cross on his forehead. Did he do that to any of his other victims?”
Yuri shook his head. “I don’t know. None of the other reports say anything about this.”
“But you don’t have the autopsy reports do you?” Misha asked. “All you have is the police reports. Maybe that was the one thing the police held back.”
“Held back?” Ana questioned.
“The police often hold something back pertinent to the investigation so they can weed out the crazies,” Misha explained. “It’s usually something only the killer would know about.”
“I wonder if that’s why the police haven’t connected the cases before now,” Yuri stated.
Dewey reached for his phone. “Let me see if Trudy can get her hands on the autopsy reports and we can know for sure.”
Pappy’s phone pinged and when he looked at the text, he looked over at Yuri. “My men are just outside of town and wondering where they should bring the bastard.”
“Tell them we’ll meet them at the gym. Sazon and I will be there to make sure he’s put where he belongs,” Yuri assured him.
Sazon turned to Ana. “I have to go but I’ll be back.”
Ana smirked. “I think I can handle the brief separation.”
Sazon stepped close to her and murmured in her ear, “Don’t be a wiseass or you’ll regret it when I get you home. My brothers will protect you until I get back. Don’t try to leave the penthouse, you won’t get very far. You belong to me now.”
Ana patted his chest. “Like I said, I think I’ll survive without you. I have Dutcher to protect me if I need protection but with Michael in custody, no one else cares about hurting me.”
When the dog heard his name, he came up between them and nudged Sazon away from his mistress.
Sazon took note of the dog’s position and turned his head to glare at Roman. “Do not allow her to leave this penthouse. I don’t care if you have to tie her up. Do not let her leave.”
“Sazon, you’re being a bit unreasonable don’t you think?” Sergi noted. “Where do you think she would go?”
“She wants her two minutes with Michael but now is not the time.” Sazon growled as he stared into her eyes. He could read the truth in there and he knew he was right.
“You won’t stop me,” she told him quietly. “I will face him or rather, he will face me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Sergi scoffed. “You wouldn’t stand a chance against this man. He’s a monster.”
Ana turned her head and sneered at him. “I respect your position but you have to stop telling me what to do. You may be a leader of the Bratva but I don’t belong to your organization so you can’t tell me where to go, what to think or what I can and cannot do.”
“Oh, but you’re wrong little one,” Sazon told her. “As my woman you do belong to the Bratva and he can tell you what to do.”
“You said I belonged to you I never agreed to that!”
Sazon grabbed her upper arms and brought her close to him. “Never doubt for a moment that you belong to me, body and soul.”
Ana started to say something but Sazon never gave her the chance. He crashed his lips down on her mouth and took her breath away. He forced his tongue in her mouth and kissed her until she couldn’t think any more. When he broke the kiss and set her aside, he turned and walked out of the penthouse, shortly followed by Yuri.
No one else in the room spoke for a long moment then Sergi walked over to the table and poured himself a drink. Lifting the glass, he didn’t look at her but everyone knew who he was talking to when he said, “You have been claimed by one of us and only death will be your way out of this. I will not tolerate disrespect so do not think to challenge or disrespect me again.”
Ana’s fingers curled into fists as she glared at the older man. “It was not my intention to challenge you or disrespect you. My grandfather taught me better than that but I will not be dismissed either. To you, I may seem to be nothing more than a woman but I am so much more than that. My Pops taught me everything I know about the blades he made. I’ve watched him forge the steel since I was seven years old. When I was twelve years old, I forged my first blade and it met with his approval, and let me tell you he was an exacting man. He demanded perfection in the blades he presented to the world, the same blades he put his name on. He taught Drago the same as me and Drago began forging blades at the age of ten. Of course like you said before, he was bigger and stronger than I was but our grandfather also taught us to respect those older than us and those who had great power, but he also taught us that with great power comes great responsibly as well.”
“You are correct young lady.” Sergi nodded swinging his head to face her. “I do owe those who work for me a responsibility. I care about what they do and how they represent my interests not only here but in Russia as well. Normally, I do not interfere with how my men work but these five men are different, they are my family. Yuri found and returned my only granddaughter to my son and I. He didn’t have to do that but he fell in love with her and he wanted her to be whole. Each of these men mean something to the other and they are stronger together than they ever were apart or on their own. I have learned that the hard way but I do learn from my mistakes. You are new to our ways and I will give you some leeway but not much.”
“I will meet with this man. I do not care what he did to the others along the way but I do care what he did to my grandfather,” Ana vowed. “I will have my justice for at least the one life he took. It is my right. It is my due to avenge my grandfather.”
“As Sazon has claimed you that will be up to him,” Sergi assured her with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “He will not allow anyone to injure you and he will protect you until the day he dies, that, my dear, is part of his claim.”
Ana scoffed as she looked angry. “Michael may be bigger and stronger than I am but he does not know the sword my grandfather forged for him. Not the way I know it. I helped Pops forge the blade and I was there when he balanced it. I was the one who practiced with it day after day until it was the best it could be. I know how to use it to my advantage. Years of sparring has taught me all I ever needed to know. There is more to forging the blades than pounding out the steel. I have that knowledge and I doubt Michael does. He’s only had the blade for two months. I’ve had a lifetime to get to know them. My grandfather taught me to be the master of the blades and I learned those lessons very well.”
“We will see little girl, we will see.” Sergi shrugged. “But for now what do you plan to do with the daggers?”
Ana lifted her head and glared at the man. “My grandfather’s dying wish was that they be returned to Nicolas’ heir. There must be a member or two of his family left alive, even after all this time. The daggers were commissioned by the Tzarina and we have held them long enough. Now it’s time to turn them over to the family.”
Sergi nodded. “I agree but the family may not want them. They may object to what they represent.”
Ana shrugged. “I don’t care. I will respect Pops’ last wish. What the family does with them is not my concern. He or she can throw them in the ocean for all I care.”
“How can that be?” Misha asked. “Your family has held the daggers for over a hundred years, surely they mean something more to you.”
“They cost me more than they were worth when Michael murdered my grandfather for two pieces of steel and my parents were murdered for the same reason. I never want to see them again.”
“Let us take care of Michael before we start talking about turning over the daggers,” Nikoli suggested.
“Do you think Michael’s friends might become a problem?” Pappy asked. “My guys did suggest they may have been followed from Houston. They didn’t see anyone but one of the guys felt as if someone had followed them.”
“Until we know for sure what we’re dealing with, we all have to stay alert and watch the shadows,” Deke suggested. “We don’t want any more bloodshed than possible.”
“That’s true enough.” Sergi nodded. Looking at Deke and Pappy he said, “Get your men in position. I’ll have Yuri do the same. We must watch over this city and bring this matter to closure as soon as possible.” He glanced over at Roman. “As much as it pains me to deny myself her company, I suggest Raven and the others stay with Barshan and Mikial. Tell them to watch over my granddaughter and great grandson with care as both her and her baby are very precious to us.”
Roman smiled. “She is very special to Yuri as well and Barshan will guard her with his life. I can send some more of Yuri’s men over to protect them if you wish.”
“Good, good.” Sergi yawned then glanced at his son and Nikoli. “I suggest we get some rest. Until we know more about this Michael character, we cannot move forward anyway.”
“We’ll take first watch, so you and your men can get some rest,” Pappy offered to Deke.
“That would be great.” Deke nodded.
“I’ll have some room keys brought up for you and your men,” Roman offered. “Sergi, Misha and Nikoli will of course stay in the penthouse across the hall.”
Ana walked over to the window and looked down at the city below. She knew she was stuck here for now but soon, she would get her chance to face the man who killed her grandfather. She knew in her heart what she had to do, she may not want to do it, but she had no choice. She had to get her justice. She had to protect the family she had left.
She’d killed before but no one knew this. Not even Drago. That was her secret, one she would take to her grave. All his talk of killing changing a person. If he only knew, he was speaking too late. She had tracked down the man who killed her parents. It’d taken her years before she found him but she did find him. That was one meeting she knew she would never forget. His screams would haunt her dreams until the day she died. She’d already done that deed years ago and she would take care of this man too. No one hurt her family and remained free to tell about it. No, this Ripper was a dead man…he was just unaware of this fact.
Yuri and Sazon got to the gym about the same time as a dark colored van pulled up to the parking lot. When three men got out of the van and walked over to where they stood one of them asked, “Are you with Pappy?”
Yuri nodded. “I’m Yuri Anatoly and this is Sazon Demicoff. The gym belongs to him.” Yuri motioned at Sazon.
“I’m Recon and these guys are Viper and Lone Star. Gunner is still inside with this bastard Michael.”
“Well Recon, let’s get him inside. There is a cage in the basement we can put him in that will keep him under control,” Yuri suggested. It was then he noticed the bruises on Viper’s cheek and jaw. “I take it… it wasn’t an easy collection and containment.”
Recon frowned. “No it wasn’t but Michael got the worst of things.”
“Does he need medical attention?” Sazon asked.
Recon shrugged. “He might have a few bruised ribs, a broken nose and a broken jaw but I think he’s ok. It made things interesting for a little while but nothing we couldn’t handle. We did worse in the sandbox back in the day.”
Yuri stared at them. “You have military training?”
Recon nodded. “Every man jack of us has served in one military branch or another.”
“And proud of it,” Viper swore.
Yuri nodded. “We all served a different military for a time then joined the Bratva. The Bratva was much harder to live through believe me on that.”
“Is someone going to tell us why we brought this scumbag all the way to New Orleans?” Lone Star asked.
Yuri glanced over at Sazon then back to the three men waiting for answers. “What did Pappy tell you?”
Recon shrugged. “Not much. He gave us a picture and had us track the man down then he told us to persuade him to come along with us, the hard way if we had to. That’s all we knew.”
Yuri nodded. “This man has murdered at least five people, probably more than we know about at the moment but his last victim was an eighty two year old man, who he stabbed in the back. He was killed for a pair of daggers and a sword. His granddaughter followed him here and she wants justice.”
“And because of her, this is my fight now,” Sazon stated. “I appreciate your help in this matter.”
“Hey, no sweat.” Recon smiled at the other men. “This is what we do for a living. This might not be the sandbox we all fought in at one time but we’re protecting our own on home soil now.”
Sazon nodded and led the way inside the gym.
Gunner and Lone Star held on to Michael as they went down to the basement. Michael fought them all the way but couldn’t escape. His hands were tied behind his back and his face was darkened with black and blue bruises and dried blood. His right eye looked swollen shut and his shirt was torn. Bruises adorned his chest and stomach from his bruised ribs.
Sazon stopped in front of a large room and unlocked the door. Behind the door was a large metal cage that took up the entire back wall. The room was lit by huge lights along the ceiling but they didn’t go into the cage part. There were no windows as the room was underground. Inside the cage was a cot with a thin mattress and a basin for a toilet. A blanket lay folded up on the bottom of the cot but there was no pillow. The entire room was desolate but clean. There was a slight chill in the room, almost as if the walls had seen too much—too much violence and too much blood.
Sazon went to the door of the cage and unlocked it.
Pappy’s men walked Michael to the entrance and threw him on the floor. Lone Star reached out and cut the ropes that bound his wrists then stepped back and Sazon slammed the door shut. Turning the lock, they all heard the click of the tumblers.
Michael laid there for a moment then groaned as he pulled his hands to the front of his body. “You all have made your last mistake,” he threatened as he got to his feet. His movements were jerky and he grimaced the whole time but despite this, he turned to face the group of men on the other side of the steel bars.
“How do you figure that?” Yuri asked. “You’re the one in the cage.”
He sneered. “Yeah, but I’ve got friends and they will get me out of here and when they do, I’ll come looking for you. I’ll find you one day and then I’ll kill you all, one by one.”
“Will you stab us in the back like the coward you are, like you did to an eighty two year old man? Or will you face us with honor?” Sazon growled. “Does a man like you have any honor or are you a coward through and through?”
“You won’t see me coming but you’ll be dead all the same,” Michael assured them.
“There is your answer Sazon, this man is no man at all.” Yuri scoffed. “He’s nothing more than a coward and the worse kind of cockroach in a man’s body.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” Michael growled at them. “I’m not a coward.” He paused then asked, “How the fuck did you know about the old man? I left no trace behind when I left.”
“You were caught on a hidden tape recording, you idiot,” Yuri informed him with a sneer. “The old man’s granddaughter came looking for you and we found her first. When we saw the evidence and we stepped in to help her.”
“She’s here?” Michael licked his lips. “I can’t wait to meet the little bitch. I saw her once from a distance when I was there. Maybe I’ll have to take her once before I kill her. Maybe I’ll even kill her like I killed her grandfather. Yeah.” He nodded his head. “That’s what I’ll do. I’ll get the sword back and I’ll use it to kill her. That would be a fitting kill.”
“A man with no honor will always be a coward,” Yuri seethed. “You stabbed an old man in the back and then you took your time to torture him for something he had hidden from the world for a very long time.”
“How did you know about that?” Michael frowned as his eyes got a certain look in them. It was a look of beyond crazy.
More than one of them standing there watched him and each and every one of them knew Michael was slipping over the fine edge between sanity and insanity.
“His granddaughter showed us the video from that day,” Yuri informed him after a moment. “We know everything you said and did.”
Michael flexed his hands and gritted his teeth.
“We also found the daggers you stole from them,” Sazon informed him as he failed to hide his smirk.
“Now you are lying.” Michael glared at them. “What daggers did I take?”
“That’s the difference between you and us.” Yuri shrugged. “We don’t have to lie. We found the daggers and the sword you used to kill the old man.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Michael insisted. Now he wouldn’t meet Yuri’s eyes.
“We found them hidden on the top of your wardrobe in that pigsty of an apartment you had,” Sazon replied as he glared at the other man. “Have you no pride man? How can you live in squalor like that?”
Michael shrugged. “It never mattered before. No one ever came to my apartment before. No one ever knew where I lived. How did you find my apartment?”
“That doesn’t matter now,” Yuri assured him. “We found the sword and the daggers and so much more.”
“What do you mean more?” Michael stared at both men.
“We found the safe,” Sazon replied smugly.
“What safe?” Michael began to sweat. His eyes flitted from side to side as if he were searching for a way to escape.
“I think you know what safe.” Yuri crossed his arms over his wide chest. “And you know exactly what else we found.”
“You had no right!” Michael screamed as he grabbed the steel bars around him. “You can’t hold me here and you can’t keep what you took from me. Those things are mine and I demand them back!”
“The daggers were never meant for you and the sword was never paid for. It never belonged to you.” Yuri scoffed. “The rest of what we found was never yours either. You took it from your victims.”
“I will get it all back,” Michael vowed growling at them like a wild animal. “And when I do, it will be your blood on the blades along with the old man’s.”
“You will never leave this cage alive.” Sazon gripped the bars with white fingers. “I will see you in hell first.”
“My mission isn’t finished yet.” Michael curled his lip in disgust. “You can’t kill me until I finish my mission, then we’ll see who dies and who walks away from here.” Then he walked carefully over to the cot holding his arm close to his injured ribs and laid down. Closing his eyes, he ignored the men on the other side of the bars.
When the six men left the gym, they found four other men waiting outside, Yuri’s security men. He assigned them guard duty. He put one man outside the room Michael was in, another man at the back door and he put the other two men in the woods at the back of the parking lot. He bid them to watch the area well as they didn’t know what to expect and he wanted to be prepared for the worst.
Then he turned to Pappy’s men. “If you’ll follow us back to the hotel you can get food and drink and a place to rest. We may have a battle to prepare for and you need the time to wind down and get ready.”
Recon nodded and glanced at his men. Then he looked back at Yuri. “The battle may be sooner than you realize. We didn’t see anyone following us but Gunner had this feeling of dread. Now when we were in the sandbox his feeling of dread was something we learned to be alert to. It saved our asses on more than one occasion.” He shrugged. “You may not believe in it but we do.”
Yuri slapped the other man on the back. “Who am I to turn my back on something like that? Believe me I do not. Some things cannot be explained and sometimes feeling are all we have between us and certain death. I have a network of people all over the city that can keep watch for us. If they notice anything out of place, they will alert us and we can be ready for anything Michael has planned.”