Page 52 of Like An Animal

THE SHADOW

A s soon as the call disconnected, Xavi continued speeding back to Newark while I made a bunch of calls. We had already started driving back as soon as Massimo texted me that my grandfather was up to something nefarious.

There’s nothing in the world more important than my family, which is the only reason I haven’t lost my shit yet.

I hate to say it, but Bronwyn was right and I was fucking wrong. Dimitri had no control over that Isaac fucker and that cost Massimo his life.

I will avenge my brother, but it’s not my top priority at the moment. I have a list I’m working off of and I have to stay focused on it to avoid losing my shit right now.

The top priority is getting my wife back and that one requires an urgency that only myself and Xavi will understand.

No one else in my ranks has been briefed about The Fathers of Jephthah. I only brought in Xavi and Massimo on that front, but I’ll have to do a quick brief before we rescue Bronwyn.

“Can we go any faster?” I ask, feeling antsy, but Xavi doesn’t answer.

“I should’ve stayed behind,” he mutters, full of guilt.

“No. You would’ve been killed, too. It was an ambush.

They weren’t prepared because we all put too much faith in Dimitri.

If anyone is at fault here, it’s me. He struck now because I wasn’t there.

He knew I had left and took advantage of the opportunity.

This was Dimitri’s plan and we’ll make him pay for what happened.

Max deserves at least that and I bet Bron will demand more. ”

Rage covers his face. “I want them all fucking dead. We lost our brother and they took Bronwyn. I want that band of pedophiles burned and I want Dimitri and his guards who stood by and did nothing tortured until they beg for death.”

I blink at him a few times because that’s not the Xavi I know. He sounds just like…me. I’m the one of us always out for blood, but I shouldn’t be surprised. We just lost the two people who served as a bridge between us, the bridge that connects us through our differences.

We were bound to meet in the middle. Now I’m the one trying to remain level-headed and Xavi is becoming more unhinged as the minutes tick by.

I place my hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “They’ll get what’s coming to them. You have my word on it.”

I called Silva to make sure she took Charlotte to the panic room located in the compound.

The one here is much bigger than the one my wife hid in.

It’s meant for extended stays. There’s a TV, movies, and board games.

Charlotte will be entertained and safe until I make sure her safety is never an issue again.

Based on the tracking device hidden perfectly at the juncture between my wife's ass and her thigh, they’re still moving which means I have time, but I have a general idea of where she’ll be. She must be headed to Texas.

The compound is close enough to the old house that she was kidnapped around the corner from Xavi’s house, was taken to their hideout, forced to watch Missy’s demise, and brought back home in the span of three hours.

She never told me exactly where it was, but now we have an idea of how long we have until they reach their destination.

Xavi and I walk into our safe house and stroll into the kitchen where Dimitri is bound to a chair, duct tape slapped over his mouth and…Massimo’s lifeless body is laid out across the kitchen table. Our doctor stands at the head of the table, a frown across his face.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Borza. It was just too late when he got here. The bullet pierced straight through his heart. He was gone before he hit the ground.”

The beating muscle in my chest would be breaking if I had the freedom to let it. I can’t fall apart right now. We’re on a timeline.

“Has anyone called Nikolai?” I ask, looking around at all of my soldiers around the room.

“He’s on his way to collect the body and make funeral arrangements, sir,” one of the men says, not looking as unaffected as I would expect.

“And, where are the traitor’s guards?”

“In the torture room in the basement waiting on your command.”

A lot of these men used to be Dimitri’s soldiers, but their loyalty is to the family, not exclusively him. I think some of them have realized that there has been a shift, even if not officially yet.

“Leave them hanging and starving until we return with my wife. Get all the other guards and foot soldiers together in the pool room in ten minutes and ready to roll out in thirty. That’s an order to all of you. Anyone who isn’t present by then will be shot on sight. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, boss.” The men speak in unison before filing out of the room.

Ignoring Dimitri completely, I walk over to Massimo, taking in how pale he is, and my chest tightens.

I’ll make sure they pay for this, Max. You have my word.

Xavi stands by my side and I think his mind may be going the same direction. Massimo gave us over two decades of loyalty and friendship, and he gave his life protecting Bronwyn.

He earned way more than we can give him.

“Where is he?” The stiff voice calls from outside of the kitchen before Nikolai Aronin walks in, rage across his face. He glances at Massimo’s body before he charges for me. Grabbing onto the collar of my shirt, he shoves me back against the wall. “What the fuck happened? What did you do, Borza?”

I guess whoever called him about what happened did not explain that it was the other Mr. Borza that’s responsible for this.

I don’t blame him. We’re all hurting. Massimo was important to me, Xavi, and Nikolai, but I don’t think I could ever truly understand his pain unless I went through the same thing.

“Stop, Mr. Aronin! This wasn’t Jeremy’s doing. We just got back. When Max warned us that something was going on, we turned around. We weren’t even in the state.” Xavi grabs Nikolai’s arm and peels his fingers off of me.

Nikolai’s expression softens a little but not enough to say he’s relaxed.

“What the fuck happened?” he demands and I walk right over to Dimitri before ripping the tape from his mouth. He throws his head back, screaming from the way the tape tears through the top layer of skin.

“You tell him,” I growl, anger filling every pore in my body.

“You can’t do this to me–” Dimitri tries to go the high and mighty route, but I’m not fooled. I wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze until his eyes bug out.

Leaning into his ear, I let out all of my pent up rage in a single burst. “Fucking tell him what you did!” I release his throat and punch him hard in the stomach as he struggles to catch his breath.

I shove two fingers in his open mouth and drag down his jaw as far as I can, growling into the side of his face.

“Tell him you double-crossed your family, how you had my wife kidnapped and how you let his son be killed protecting Bronwyn. Own up to what you did!”

I release his mouth and he spits onto the ground. “I did what I had to do. I did what anyone else would. He wasn’t supposed to be there, but she decided she needed some protection. If you want to blame someone, blame your whore, syn.”

I spit in his miserable fucking face before Nikolai’s hand lands on my shoulder, gently pulling me back.

I look up at him, seeing the cold, calculating stare in his eyes no one ever wants to see.

“Are you responsible for my son’s death, Dimitri?” he asks, his voice level.

“No! Even if I was, you couldn’t do anything about it. Don’t forget that I am the bratva. You can’t touch me without starting a war.”

“Wrong again, asshole.” Xavi steps up. “Maybe you weren’t paying attention, but you lost the respect of all your foot soldiers for what you did.

All the others are waiting to be tortured and killed.

You may have the title right now, but based on the way they reacted to Jeremy’s orders, he’s the new bratva and you’re nothing but a rat who got the new bratva’s wife captured by sex traffickers and got another family’s heir killed.

You’re a dead man. You didn’t pull the trigger, but you stood by and did nothing until he was already gone.

You are just as guilty as this Isaac fucker. ”

He’s not wrong at all.

Grabbing Dimitri by the hair on the back of his head, I pull it back as far as I can make it go before speaking, “And, there are no second chances where my fucking wife is concerned. There are just as few chances when it comes to my friends and you fucked with two of them. Bad call. Also, Bronwyn may be a whore but she’s only a whore for me, asshole.

” Then, I punch him right in the nose, letting the blood run down his face.

“Where’s the duct tape?” I ask and Xavi grabs it off the table, next to Massimo’s feet.

“What are you doing?” Nikolai asks.

“We’ll deal with him and the others when we get back.”

“Back?!” Nikolai explodes as he grabs my wrist, making me look at him. “We take care of them now .”

“No. If you want the one who pulled the trigger and to be involved, you will wait. I have my priorities and they’re the ones Max would want me to have.

My wife, the woman Max gave his life to protect, is in danger and every moment I’m not there is a moment where she is being tortured,” I explain before Xavi pipes in.

“And the only reason she was captured was because she was trying to save his life. She gave him a few extra moments before he was killed. We told her to stay hidden, but she was so concerned with what would happen to Max that she didn’t listen.

She sacrificed herself trying to protect him.

As his father, that should mean something to you. ”

Nikolai’s gaze shifts between me and Xavi before he questions, “Who is this girl that would be that important?”

Xavi takes the duct tape from my hands and puts a fresh piece over Dimitri’s mouth.

“Bronwyn Borza, previously known as Bronwyn Durst.”

Nikolai’s eyes flash with recognition before his gaze moves to Massimo’s body.

A million emotions race across his face before he concedes.

“Max loved that girl like a sister. He used to talk about her all the time. She meant everything to him…Fine, but I’m coming with you.

I’ll have my contact at the funeral home come to collect his body. ”

Xavi blanches. “You want to come with us?”

Nikolai nods. “I’m gonna finish the job my son started. He wanted to get the girl home safely. It’s what he would’ve wanted me to do.”

He’s not wrong. Even after she tried to frame me for murder, Massimo was constantly worried about her and how she was doing. It almost got to the point where it was annoying. Little did we know, she was going through the worst torment of her life.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Xavi, Nikolai, and I walk into the pool room to find the nearly hundred men standing around, talking amongst themselves like this is a social call.

Bringing my fingers to my lips, I let out a loud whistle to get their attention and like that, the room falls dead silent. All eyes fall on me.

“We have a rescue mission under way,” I announce, my eyes narrowing on every individual face.

“We need as many men as we can possibly gather to travel to Texas and completely decimate a sex trafficking ring dressed up like a cult. They’re called The Fathers of Jephthah.

One of their members, a man by the name of Isaac, murdered Massimo Aronin in cold blood and captured my wife.

That’s all the information you’re going to get.

Who’s on board?” I ask and I notice one man take a step back as if to say “fuck no”.

Instead of letting it go, I pull the gun out of my holster under my blazer and shoot the fucker in his kneecaps. He drops while screaming, grabbing his legs.

“Any takers?”

Everyone looks at their fallen comrade and immediately throws their hand in the air, volunteering.

“That’s what I fucking thought,” I grumble under my breath. Turning my head, I mutter to Xavi, “Pick ten to stay behind to protect Charlotte. Keep them stationed around the house. We don’t want anyone who could come looking for her to realize where the panic room is.”

Xavi nods. “Got it.”

I let out a deep breath before muttering, “We might also need your jet to transport all of these people.” I turn my head to look at Nikolai and he nods.

“Whatever you need.”

We’re coming, baby. We’ll be there before you know it.