Page 43 of The Bratva's Christmas Bump

There’s no sign of him. The lounge, kitchen, and downstairs bathroom are empty. The back door leads to a backyard covered in untouched snow barring a few bird footprints and the pawprints of a local cat. Stu’s footsteps thunder back down the stairs and he jogs into the kitchen.

“Place is empty, Boss.”

“Figures. Bring a team in. I want this place picked apart until I know what color of underwear that bastard is wearing.”

Two hours later, Vinnie’s home is picked apart by the best team of investigators I have on hand. They’ve found more than I ever have and with it comes some semblance of the truth. Vinnie Antonva is really Vinnie Tetnova. The Tetnovas are a small family that presumably died out five years ago during a bloody territorial war between my family and another prominent Russian family, greedy for power. They challenged my father for power and lost spectacularly. So did all the other families that chose to back them. My father cleared them all out like bad garbage, but it seems he missed one.

“You think this is revenge?” Stu leans against the kitchen counter, flicking through a gross scrapbook discovered under the floorboards. “He was tailing these girls for some time.”

“Revenge against me?” I shake my head. “Unless one of them told him, I don’t see how he’d know I’m so involved with the girls. The way I see it, he’s pissed that his family line was wiped out and buddied up with Hector to take out his anger on the only part of our world he had access to. My girls.”

My stomach flips at the sheer number of pictures of the girls at Plumme. Even more alarming are the pictures of Zoe and her son. I send a quick text to her guards to ensure they don’t leave her hospital room and check in with the men watching her son and mother. All are safe.

“What about these?” Stu flicks the page. Pictures from three of our other clubs, Rhinestone, Marigold, and Revenge, fill the page. “More targets?”

I drag my hand down my face, pressing my fingertips into my aching muscles. “Shit. You think he’d target someone else?”

“Fuck knows. I don’t understand the mind of someone pulling sick shit like this. He’s either running cause we popped Hector, or he’s oblivious and our girls were a trial run.”

“Alright. I’ll call Rex. We’ll double the weight at all of those clubs and our two others.”

“You’re spreading us thin. Igor’s going to start asking questions.”

“And?” I meet his gaze. “You want me to abandon them?”

“Not at all. I’m just warning you. Your father isn’t going to care about two dead dancers.”

“Yeah, well, he’s never had his priorities right.” As if he heard us, my phone lights up with his face and name as he calls. “Fuck. Alright, wrap up here and see if we can find out if Vinnie had ties to anyone other than Hector.”

“Got it.”

Outside, the wind picks up as I walk into the street and answer. “What?”

“About time,” Dad snaps down the line. “Any longer and war would have broken out while I tracked down why my son can’t answer his phone.”

“I’m busy.”

“With what?”

“Club business.”

“Supply issue?”

Of course his concern is the drugs, not the girls. “Something like that. I’m sorting it out. What’s up?”

“Have you come to your senses yet?” Something rustles in the background. “Is that bitch dead?”

“You mean mywife?”

“Don’t give me that,” he snaps. “You know you spat in Zak’s face by marrying some slut and not his daughter?”

“Zak and I both know his daughter isn’t interested in me, Dad. That was your deal.”

“A deal I worked hard for!”

“So what? Now you have to pay the man a decent cut rather than us tying the knot. It’s not an unsolvable problem.”

“Do you have any idea what it’s going to cost us?” Igor snaps. “Millions that could have been saved with two words from you.”