Page 31 of Pistols and Plush Toys

Vicki Vitale had chosen their meeting place, which just so happened to be one of her clubs. When Nikolai arrived it was late, well after three in the morning, and the club was empty.

One of the closing staff let Nikolai and Alex in, and showed Nikolai to a table in front of the stage.

He took a seat, tense and ready as Alex lurked in the background.

Nikolai wasn’t wearing a wire but Alex was, with Gerard on the other end and close by with reinforcements, ready to intervene if shit went sideways.

Nikolai was hoping this wasn’t going to come to that.

The stage curtain moved.

The woman who stepped out from behind it was small.

Even in towering pink heels, Nikolai guessed she’d only come up to his shoulders.

She was wearing a sparkly pink halter dress and heart sunglasses, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night and she was indoors.

Her dark curls were piled up on top of her head in a messy but stylish way.

Is this Vicki? Nikolai wondered as she clicked down the steps. A messenger? Certainly Nikolai shouldn’t be judging on appearance, but in previous interactions with the Vitales, he’d been met with suits and smart dresses.

Still, the woman walked with smooth confidence, self-assured and most likely dangerous. Even if this was just a messenger, Nikolai needed to be on guard.

The woman plopped herself down into the chair opposite of Nikolai and pushed her heart sunglasses up into her hair.

“Vicki Vitale,” she said, in that Italian-English accent the Vitale family was known for. She snapped her gum as she offered a pink manicured hand. “Nice to finally meet you, Nikolai Tkachenko.”

“Is nice to meet you.” Nikolai shook her hand. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

Vicki wrinkled her nose when she sat back against the chair. “Yeah well, you do good business and we have a common… problem.” Her expression was sharp, calculating, but not aggressive. “You took my cousin’s boyfriend, and now he’s having a very public tantrum.”

Nikolai leveled a steady gaze back at her. “Your cousin is wanting to bring drugs and girls into the city. He steps on my business to wash his money. Is not our agreement.”

“I’m aware,” Vicki said, sounding disgruntled. She tapped her nails on the tabletop.

Nikolai waited.

Finally Vicki said, “I’m also aware that Mattia is causing trouble for more than just you. And most of the family is not happy about it.”

That was actually good news, to get confirmation that other Vitales didn’t appreciate Mattia’s methods. “Most?”

“His parents are being stubborn,” Vicki said, with a twist of her mouth.

Nikolai allowed himself his own frown. “I’m not wanting a war. But this is my city. I won’t let him ruin it. What I built here, I will not let go easy.”

Vicki snapped her gum again, tilting her head. Then she waved two fingers.

The employees that had been nearby tidying up stepped away, disappearing from the main floor.

Vicki looked at Alex, then to Nikolai. “Do you mind?”

Nikolai weighed it for a moment. Gerard would kill him later, but so far Vicki seemed… agreeable. And Nikolai wanted this meeting to go well.

“Alex,” he said, not taking his eyes off Vicki. “Outside.”

“Or,” Vicki gestured over her shoulder, pointing toward the back. “If you’re hungry, Jesse can turn the fryer on.”

Alex was standing behind him, so Nikolai didn’t get to see his reaction to that offer.

“You do onion rings?” Alex asked neutrally.

Vicki smiled, all even white teeth. “He does, hon. Go ahead, we’re just going to talk shop. Your man’s not in any danger here.”

There was a grunt of agreement from Alex before he walked to the back, behind Vicki.

Once Alex was out of sight, Vicki leaned forward in her seat. “I’m sure you trust your guys, but I’m being careful. I would rather what I say here not get leaked, if you get me.”

Nikolai expected as much. Alex had worked for him for six years and Nikolai couldn’t imagine the man betraying him, but if Vicki wanted to be cautious, he didn’t blame her. Not if they were about to discuss what he thought they were. “You say Mattia is causing trouble for the Vitales?”

“He’s blowing up buildings and involving the cops,” Vicki said, giving him a flat look.

“Which pissed off just about everyone. It puts more eyes on the fact that he’s growing more unstable.

” She snapped her gum again. “And he’s not that good at his job, he got it because of his mommy and daddy, not because he’s any sort of leader. ”

Nikolai snorted.

“Plus,” Vicki said, giving him a fierce look. “He’s trying to bring in girls who don’t want to be working for him. I want him gone.”

So did Nikolai. But… “I’m not wanting to start war, I say this already.”

“Mattia started the fight,” Vicki said, nails tapping on the table again.

“Breaking agreements, messing with your side of town. We all know you showed remarkable self restraint for a Tkachenko by trying to solve things with a simple kidnapping. Then he got the fucking cops involved. If you finished the fight, the Vitale family won’t come after you. He made his bed.”

“What about his parents?” Nikolai asked carefully.

“Let me put it like this,” Vicki said. “The only reason I haven’t put him down myself is because if it gets back to his parents, that leads to all sorts of messy drama. And I don’t like messy.”

“Is not causing drama if I do it?” Nikolai asked, just to be sure.

She shook her head. “Everyone else is in agreement that it’s just desserts for the shit he’s been stirring up. His parents won’t have support to retaliate. You have my word.”

Nikolai thought that over a long moment.

“Is Vicki Vitales's word worth something to a Tkachenko?” He asked curiously.

“It could be,” she said, examining her nails.

“Mattia was gunning to be next head of the family, and he played real damn dirty trying to make himself look the best. There’s a lot of us who’ll be happy to see him gone.

” She looked back up at him. “Who’d be, shall we say, grateful to the guy who got it done without infighting and family drama. ”

Certainly it couldn’t hurt to have multiple Vitales owe him for putting someone down. And if someone had to die…

Better that be the man Mattia was. Rotten through.

Nikolai kept his expression neutral and held out a hand. “Then we have new agreement, Vicki Vitale.”

“Glad to hear it,” she said, and shook.

***

“Boss?” Alex’s voice dragged Nikolai out of his thoughts as the car came to an abrupt stop. It was a tone that had all of Nikolai's senses slam into heightened awareness.

He looked out the window. They’d stopped short of his gate, and he saw the issue immediately.

Pyotr, who should’ve been at the gate, wasn’t there.

The gate was wide open.

“Call him,” Nikolai snapped in Russian. A second later he could hear the phone ringing through the Bluetooth car speaker.

The call went to voicemail, and Nikolai cursed.

“GPS says his phone is here, five hundred yards that way.” Alex gestured off behind the gate, toward the side of the house.

Nikolai pulled his gun out of its holster and clicked off the safety. What had happened? Was Elliot safe?

“I didn’t get any security alerts,” he growled.

Alex was already flicking his phone over to the app where the camera feeds were. Nikolai only had cameras outside his house because he wanted that privacy, but when Alex rolled back the footage, the cameras had caught a car exiting the gate. Before that, two figures getting into the car.

Elliot. Being roughly dragged forward by—

“Is that fucking Horace?” Alex spat furiously.

Elliot was gone. Elliot had been taken. There was no gentleness in the way Horace had shoved Elliot into that car.

“Let’s go,” Nikolai said, shutting down his blinding worry. “Guns out. They might have left surprises. And I want to… find Pyotr.”

Only two figures had left by car. Meaning Pyotr was on property.

Nikolai swallowed bile and just hoped that he’d be breathing.

As Alex eased out of the car, Nikolai took a few precious seconds to text Gerard and Meredith his emergency codes. Then he followed Alex, gun at the ready as they followed the GPS signal for Pyotr’s phone.

They found Pyotr restrained and bleeding from a gash in his forehead on the side of the yard. Alex hurried over to him, crouching to pull the gag out of his mouth. Nikolai turned his back on them to keep watch.

“It was fucking Horace,” Pyotr hissed the moment he could speak. He had been twice cuffed to the metal gate. “Him and some other guy. Working for Vitale. I think they got the kid—I heard a car leave.”

“Get the bolt cutters from the car,” Nikolai told Alex. He was fairly certain no one else was on the property, but he’d rather have Pyotr on his feet before they went to the house.

Alex didn’t argue, and he went to fetch the cutters.

Once he’d returned, they cut Pyotr free and helped him to his feet. He looked gruesome with all the blood.

“Can you still hold a gun?” Nikolai asked.

Pytor nodded grimly, and Nikolai gestured to Alex, who pulled his second weapon and handed it over.

The three of them silently rounded to the back of the house and went in.

Pyotr and Alex led, clearing rooms while Nikolai protected their rear. He knew what they were going to find, but he still felt his heart drop when they got to the room where Brooks had been staying.

The door was open, the lights on. A lump of blankets and sheets were pulled haphazardly off the bed.

“How did this happen?” Nikolai gritted out, furious with himself. He approved every hire, and if he’d overlooked some connection between Horace and the Vitale family, that was his fault.

This was his fault.

“Boss, weren’t we looking at returning the kid anyway?” Alex asked carefully. “If he got rescued early…”

Nikolai didn’t answer, stepping around Alex to where the sheets were tangled on the floor.