Page 29 of No Longer Mine (Rags & Riches #2)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Dimitri

Alexei was waiting for us when we made it to the discreet warehouse on the other side of the Bronx.

His arms were crossed, leaning against a rusted metal table, his expression unreadable. The dim overhead light flickered, casting jagged shadows across the concrete floor.

“You took your time,” Alexei mused, his voice lazy, but his sharp eyes locked onto the unconscious form slung over my shoulder. “Did he put up a fight, or were you playing with your food?”

I dropped Tony onto a chair with a satisfying thud. His head lolled forward, drool slipping from the corner of his mouth.

“Not really.” I cracked my knuckles. “But he’s gonna wish he had.”

Don yanked out a roll of duct tape and started securing Tony’s wrists to the arms of the chair. Alexei stepped forward, crouching slightly to get a better look at our guest, his fingers tapping against his jaw in thought.

“He piss himself?” Alexei asked, nose wrinkling.

“Not yet.”

Alexei smirked. “Give it a few minutes.”

I turned to Benson, who was already setting up a laptop on the metal table. The glow of the screen illuminated his face, his glasses catching the light as he scrolled through what I assumed were Tony’s financial records.

“I pulled everything,” Benson said without looking up. “Bank accounts, shell companies, offshore holdings, burner phone records. He’s got ties to someone higher up, but he’s smart—doesn’t keep direct evidence.”

I exhaled sharply, dragging a chair over and flipping it around so I could straddle it, my arms resting on the backrest.

“That’s fine,” I said. “We don’t need direct evidence.”

Alexei raised a brow. “You got a plan, brother?”

My eyes met Alexei’s dark ones. “Well, of course I do.” Tony started to groan while I continued to talk. “I like to rip dicks off.”

Benson let out a whistle. “What’s wrong with you?”

Alexei rolled his eyes. “He’s enjoying our collective torment.”

I smiled at all of them as I bent down to Tony’s eye level. “So would you like to be missing your dick soon or would you rather tell us who you work for?”

Tony’s partially bald head rolled around on his shoulders. “Ugh. What’s going on?” Then his eyes shot open, and he paled further. “Fuck. Fuck.”

Alexei bent down beside me. “The last thing you’ll be doing is fucking if you don’t answer the question, Tony.”

A chill went through me as I smiled down at the terrified man. I loved this entirely too much. I couldn’t believe I’d given it all up for politics.

Revenge. I reminded myself.

Tony’s lips trembled. “If I tell you, I’m dead.”

I smirked. “Wrong answer.”

Alexei huffed out a chuckle. “Should we start with fingers? Or go straight to the main event?”

Tony’s face turned a sickly shade of gray. “Please?—”

“Please, what?” I interrupted, cocking my head. “Please be gentle? Please let you go? Please not rip your dick off and feed it to the fucking rats?”

Tony let out a strangled whimper.

I sighed again, rubbing my temple. “You’re not making this fun for me, Tony. I’m trying to be patient. But I really don’t like being patient.” I was lying. I loved this shit.

Alexei pulled a knife from his pocket, flicking it open with an audible snick. Tony’s gaze darted to the blade. Then to my face. Then back to the blade.

“Okay,” he breathed, voice barely above a whisper. “Okay, I’ll talk.”

I smiled. “That’s more like it.”

Tony’s breath was ragged, his fingers twitching against the armrests, the reality of his situation sinking in.

He wasn’t getting out of this. Not unless he gave me something worth letting him live for.

Alexei twirled the knife between his fingers like it was an afterthought, his gaze was bored and detached.

He was bored. Me, on the other hand? I lived for this.

Benson, still casually scrolling through files, let out a small noise of interest. “His name is Cavalier. His name pops up in connection with some pretty hefty real estate purchases in the city.”

I quirked a brow. “Legitimate or under the table?”

Benson smirked. “What do you think?”

I turned back to Tony, gripping his jaw and forcing his head up so he had no choice but to look at me. His pupils were blown wide with fear, sweat dripping down his temple.

“You know, Tony,” I mused, my voice soft, dangerous, “I don’t want to kill you.”

His lips parted, hope flickering in his eyes.

“But I will.” I squeezed his jaw tighter. “Unless you start talking.”

Tony shuddered, his body shaking under my touch. “Cavalier—he’s not just a name,” he stammered. “He’s a fucking ghost. No one meets him directly. He operates through middlemen, through shell corporations, through money that disappears the second it enters the books.”

Alexei clicked his tongue. “Sounds like a real pain in the ass.”

Tony swallowed hard. “He’s making moves, Cristof. Big ones. He’s buying up territory—clubs, warehouses, shipping routes. He’s positioning himself to take over the entire underground market. Drugs, weapons, imports. All of it.”

I stilled. “And you’re working for him?”

Tony hesitated.

I let go of his jaw and straightened, my patience razor-thin. “Wrong answer, Tony.”

“I don’t work for him,” he rushed out, shaking his head. “I work for someone who works for him. I swear, I don’t even know who the fuck he really is.”

Benson’s fingers danced over his keyboard. “If he’s moving this much money, there’s got to be a trail. Somewhere.”

Tony scoffed. “You think you can track him? People have tried, Cristof. They disappear.”

I grinned. “Cute. You think that scares me?”

His throat bobbed.

I leaned in again, lowering my voice to something dark, something that slithered beneath his skin like a promise of violence.

“You should be more scared of me, Tony. Because, unlike your little ghost, I’m real.

And I don’t just make people disappear. I rip their dicks off and then release them back into the wild.

Do you think you could live without your dick? ”

Alexei’s eyes widened. “You’re a sick fuck.”

I shrugged. I’d never done, it but it sounded like good fun. “I have my talents.”

Every man in the room, besides me, visibly shuddered.

Tony exhaled shakily. “Look, I—I don’t know much. I just pass along information. I collect debts, I keep the shipments moving, I?—”

“Where?” I cut him off, my tone sharp. “Where are the shipments coming from?”

He pressed his lips tightly together, and Alexei slammed the knife into my hands. Tony shook his head and closed his eyes as he began praying under his breath. I let out a sigh. “Prayers won’t help you here, Tony. Answer the damn question.”

Tony squeezed his eyes shut, as if that would somehow make this all go away. “The docks,” he finally muttered. “Pier 23. Late-night shipments. Unmarked containers. I—I don’t know what’s inside them. I don’t ask.”

I exchanged a look with Alexei. Pier 23.

That was our dock. Our territory.

So Cavalier wasn’t just making moves. He was making moves on us.

I exhaled through my nose, shaking out my hands. The rage simmering under my skin was like an old friend— comfortable and familiar.

Tony’s wide, panicked eyes darted between us. “I told you what I know,” he pleaded. “You said I’d get to live.”

I tilted my head. “Did I?”

His entire body went stiff.

I sighed, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Relax, Tony. You’re gonna be just fine.”

Alexei laughed under his breath.

Benson shook his head. “Poor bastard.”

Tony’s shoulders sagged with relief. “Oh, thank God?—”

I cut him off with a swift punch to the temple. His body slumped forward, unconscious again.

Alexei stood, wiping his hands on his jeans. “So, what are we doing now? We can’t just leave him here.”

I adjusted my cuffs, rolling my neck. “We’ll make a call. Let him wake up somewhere else. Somewhere that makes him realize how lucky he was that we let him walk away.”

Alexei grinned. “You’re getting soft, brother.”

I smirked. “I like my games to last.”

Benson shut his laptop with a snap. “So. When are we hitting the docks?”

I cracked my knuckles, adrenaline singing in my veins.“Tonight.”

Alexei tapped his fingers on his knee in the SUV beside me.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as Don expertly maneuvered traffic to the docks.

Benson was somewhere out there driving his own vehicle.

I wondered if he would even show up at the docks.

It was wild enough that he was at the warehouse when I got there.

He didn’t typically like to be in on the action, but things were shifting with him lately; he seemed to be growing antsy—bored.

“What’s being delivered at the docks?” I asked my brother.

Alexei leaned back in his chair. “We don’t use them anymore.

We own them, but as far as I know, we don’t move anything there.

Which explains how they moved in without us knowing.

” Alexei rolled his head in my direction.

“Look, I know you aren’t one to go in guns blazing, but I need you to be prepared when we go in there. ”

Before I could answer, Don slapped a gun down on the center console. I smiled at my driver. I hated the things, but it was good to see my protective detail was doing his job. “I have several and ammunition for them too.”

I glanced at the gun, my lip curling slightly.

Alexei snorted, watching my reaction. “You’re such a fucking snob about this.”

“I don’t like them,” I muttered, nudging the gun to the side without touching it. “They make things too easy. Too impersonal.”

Alexei gave me a flat look. “You say that like you aren’t about to sneak into a goddamn smuggling operation in the middle of the night with your bare hands.”

I shrugged, stretching my fingers. “It’s more fun my way.”

Don exhaled through his nose, turning down an empty street that led toward the docks. “One day, someone’s gonna get the drop on you, and you’re gonna wish you had one of these.”

I smirked, tapping my temple. “Not if I get the drop on them first.”