Bloodline (Bratva Blood Brothers Book 1) Read online

  Nicky sat down in the chair hard. He hadn’t seen Carlos in almost a decade and didn’t miss him at all. They’d spent their last few years in the system with Carlos and his wife Rachel but he’d been a kid back then. He hadn’t understood everything Raven had done to keep him safe from Carlos and his unsavory friends until much later. The fact that Carlos taught him how to steal had impressed the young boy he was then, now as a young man not so much. “What happened to the flash drives?” Nicky wanted to know.

  “I hid them all these years,” Raven admitted. “I couldn’t put us in danger by giving them to Carlos. As soon as he got his hands on them, he would have killed us. That’s what his plans were.”

  Nicky nodded. “I know, I heard him and Rachel talking after they locked me up. They had buyers all lined up. I wanted to tell you but I couldn’t, you were already gone by then and when you came back, there wasn’t time. You grabbed me and we left. After that, we were already on the run and I didn’t think about it again.”

  “We were trying too hard to survive.” Raven nodded. “Staying under the radar while trying to survive was really hard wasn’t it?”

  Nicky smiled. “Yeah but we did it, didn’t we? Working together, we can do anything.”

  Raven walked over to her brother and took his hands in hers. “That’s why right now, we have to be smart. We can’t afford any mistakes and lifting Yuri’s wallet was a mistake. We both need to stay under the radar. If we watch ourselves, we can make it. We changed our last name, now we just have to fit in.” She gripped his hands tighter. “Nicky, we can make it together if we can just stay out of trouble.”

  Nicky flopped back in the chair. “I get it, I get it. No more stealing,” he grumbled.

  “Oh Nicky, I didn’t mean to come across like that.” Raven closed her eyes. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t know if I would survive without you.”

  “It’s been you and me against the world since we were kids huh?” Nicky noted the obvious. “I don’t know what I would do without you either. I guess you’ve been watching out for me since I was born.”

  Raven grinned. “Yeah that’s true, but I’d do it all again, if I had too.”

  Nicky glanced at the clock. “You’d better get some rest. It’s late and you have to get up for work soon.”

  “Yeah…” She yawned. “I have the early shift at the restaurant.”

  Nicky watched her move to her bedroom and when she closed the door, he reached inside his pocket and drew out a small brass key. It had fallen out of Yuri’s wallet and for some reason, he’d stuck it in his pocket. He should probably have returned it but he didn’t.

  Yuri growled when the wallet didn’t show any prints, not even his own. His money was gone too. Someone had lifted it from his pocket and then returned it. He wanted to know who it was. When his phone rang, he was distracted enough not to check the ID before he answered, “Hello.”

  “Yuri, this is Nikoli. I’m coming to see you in a couple of days.”

  Yuri straightened his shoulders a bit. “Of course, Nikoli. Has it been almost a year already?”

  “Da, it has been. Has anything changed at all?”

  “No but we’ll review it again, maybe there is something we missed. We’ll get word out on the street and see what pops up. She has to be out there somewhere.”

  “But where?” Nikoli growled. “We’ve been searching for the bitch for almost twenty years now and we haven’t found any trace of her. Every single lead we do get, never pans out. Not one single sighting of her or the boy. Makes me wonder if either of them are still alive.”

  “You can’t think like that.” Yuri hurried to assure him. “They’re out there somewhere and we will find them both.”

  Nikoli sighed. “Perhaps, perhaps not. We haven’t found them yet and it’s been too long. I fear we’ll never find either of them, not alive anyway.”

  “We’ll find them,” Yuri assured his boss. “Both of them and if she’s hurt the boy, she will pay.” He hesitated then reminded the other man, “We did find her mother a few years ago.”

  Nikoli scoffed, “Yes, I remember and look how that turned out.”

  Yuri closed his eyes. “Yes well, we weren’t expecting her heart problems but she did tell us she hadn’t seen her daughter in a number of years.”

  “Yet another dead end.” Nikoli growled. “That’s all were have is dead ends. I’m tired of not knowing whether my son is dead or still alive.” He growled again. “I want that bitch found and turned over to me. I guarantee she’ll talk to me.”

  “When the time is right, we’ll find her. I honestly believe that.” Yuri tried to reassure the other man.

  “After twenty years, I doubt that very much. It’s been too long already,” Nikoli told him. “I’ll be there in two days.”

  “I’ll be ready.” Yuri hung up the phone and glanced over at his security department. “Go through the tapes for today. I want to know when and who lifted my wallet and I want to know who broke into my home. I want answers people, and I want them before the sun comes up.” Yuri looked over to his bodyguards. Kosta and Stephanou and nodded at the door. When they joined him outside, he told them, “Nikoli is on his way here. We need to update our files on Andria Waterson. Check through everything and run the programs to search for her.”

  “I cannot believe we will find her, not after this long.” Kosta shook his head.

  “It does seem unlikely, but she has to be somewhere,” Yuri urged. “What ever happened to the baby? Did he grow up? Is he still alive or did he die all those years ago? Nikoli just wants to know what happened and to find that, we must find the woman.”

  “After twenty years, it will take a miracle to find her,” Stephanou cautioned.

  Yuri nodded. “Then let’s pray for a miracle. I’m not certain Nikoli can take much more. He needs answers and perhaps closure.”

  Kosta nodded. “I’m not sure I would have handled it this well. Anyone who messes with my family would be hunted down right away.”

  “As did Nikoli but Andria had a plan in motion from the moment she took the baby,” Yuri assured them. Nikoli was heartbroken from the death of his wife, to the point he didn’t receive word about his son for several hours after he was taken. The night his son was born several other women had babies as well, so everyone was busy, too busy to notice a woman had come into the neonatal part of the hospital and simply walked away with one of the newborns. She was dressed as a nurse so no one paid her any mind. It was only by reviewing the security tapes that we found her. We have been searching for her since that time.”

  “That’s insane.” Kosta shook his head. “How did a woman like that even get close enough to get Nikoli’s attention?”

  “She brought herself to his attention three months before when she introduced herself to him at a nightclub. She told him almost right away, that she wanted to be his mistress but Nikoli refused her advances. By then his wife was around five months pregnant and he was not looking for someone to fill his bed. When he told Andria that he loved his wife and wouldn’t seek another woman’s bed, she didn’t care. She figured if she wanted it bad enough, he would just sleep with her and she would become all important to his future. It got so bad that Nikoli banned her from his places of business and had her arrested on several occasions. Then she got it into her head that Nikoli wasn’t paying attention to her because of his wife. Andria attacked Bethany the night she was killed. She stabbed Bethany causing her to go into premature labor. Just after she delivered her son, Bethany died and Andria took the baby.”

  “And she’s never been found?” Kosta asked.

  “Like I said, she had a plan already in place before she took his son.” Yuri nodded. “Everything has been well thought out and executed on her end. We’ve found very little on her since then. Several years ago, we did find her mother but that didn’t pan out either. While questioning her she had a fatal heart attack and died before we could gain any information the whereabouts of Andri
a.”

  “Did the mother say anything useful?” Kosta wanted to know.

  Yuri shook his head. “Nothing we could use. She did tell us she hadn’t seen her daughter for about four years and she had no idea where she was living.”

  “There was no word on the boy?” Kosta asked.

  “They never got the chance to ask about him,” Yuri explained. “The old woman was literally scared into a massive heart attack, almost from the moment the men got inside. She told them that she knew this would happen one day. She knew Andria would do something that would come back and bite her in the ass. While in great pain, she told Andre that she hadn’t seen her daughter in four years.”

  Kosta rolled his eyes. “I can see Andre frightening an old woman. He’s not exactly a gentle man.”

  Yuri flinched. “Yes well, I sent Constantine and Hemi with him.”

  Kosta chuckled. “I can understand her fear now. Those three would frighten the bravest of men, let alone an old woman.”

  “They searched the house and found evidence of young children but found no one there. They had to leave in a hurry because one of the neighbors had called the police when the old lady began yelling,” Yuri informed them.

  “So the boy could have been there at some point?” Stephanou asked.

  Yuri shrugged. “He could have been but there was no sign of him or any other child that day.”

  Kosta ran his fingers through his hair. “What a fucking mess that woman left. She deserves everything Nikoli does to her when she’s found.”

  Yuri glanced over at Stephanou and motioned toward the security room. “You stay here and wait for the face of the one that lifted my wallet. Kosta and I are going to review the file and see if we can find something new.” Yuri turned and walked toward the elevator.

  As usual, Kosta was two steps behind and when the doors closed he commented, “Do you ready believe the boy is still alive?”

  Yuri shrugged. “What can I say? For some reason I do.”

  Kosta looked uneasy and wouldn’t meet his boss’s eyes.

  Yuri paused then asked, “What is it?”

  “It’s nothing,” Kosta insisted.

  “It is something if you are unwilling to speak about it.”

  Kosta squirmed a bit under his scrutiny. “There are rumors going around about Nikoli’s state of mind.”

  “What kind of rumors?” Yuri crossed his arms over his massive chest. He stood six inches over six feet and weighed in at three hundred fifty pounds. His hair was still black at the age of forty-two, although a few silver threads were making themselves known around his temples. He was a handsome man and a player as he carried the weight of his office well. People might not know he was head of the Russian Bratva outright, but they did know about the power he carried.

  “There is one man who is making waves about his obsession with this woman. The things he is saying is making others start to listen. It could become a problem at some point.”

  “Who is this man?” Yuri demanded.

  “Grigori Demencoff from New York.”

  Yuri scoffed. “Grigori is hoping to step into Nikoli’s shoes. He figures if Nikoli is displaced, he will step in with no problems.”

  “Could that happen?” Kosta asked nervously. Everyone in the Bratva knew Grigori’s temper and that under his rule, the essence of their organization would change drastically. Grigori was a harsh taskmaster and loved to rule his empire with fear and terror. Nikoli was a strong leader but only used fear against those who truly deserved it.

  Yuri shook his head. “Russia would never let that happen. They don’t care for Grigori’s methods any more than we do.” He rubbed his hand down his face. “We have to find this woman and the boy. That will get Nikoli back on track and put Grigori out in the cold.”

  “So how do we find a woman that’s been hiding for twenty years?” Kosta asked.

  “We go back to the very beginning and review everything we know about her, her family, her contacts, everything.”

  “And if we can’t find anything new?” Kosta asked.

  “Then we go over it again until we do,” Yuri assured him. “There has to be something we missed all these years. Something that will allow us to find her.”

  Chapter Three

  It was almost dawn before Stephanou came to Yuri’s home office in the penthouse. He handed him a photograph and waited while Yuri viewed it. The photo showed a young man with dark hair. As soon as he saw it, he remembered the young man. It was the same man that had bumped into him when he was going to lunch. He hadn’t thought anything about it as the man immediately apologized and moved away but now, he realized it that was when he lost his wallet. The man had been good, he hadn’t felt a thing, certainly not the man’s hand in his pocket. “So this is the face of a thief.” Yuri looked up at Stephanou.

  The face was in profile and the quality wasn’t the best but the side of his face could still be seen clearly enough to identify.

  Stephanou nodded. “We ran his face through our recognition files and nothing showed up. He’s either clean with no record or he’s just never been caught.”

  “Be discreet but check with the police records, maybe they have something we do not.” Yuri tapped the photo. “Give this man a name and then find him. He has to be somewhere in this city.” Yuri stared hard at his man. “Then when you find him, bring him to me. I want him unharmed. I have questions for him.”

  Stephanou nodded and left just as the phone rang.

  When Yuri answered the call, it was his day manager. Grabbing the photo and the file on Andria Waterson, he went downstairs for his early meeting.

  A few minutes later, he entered his office and saw his day manager June Harrow was already there waiting for him. He went around the corner of his desk and sat down the photo fell to the floor and June bent over to pick it up for him. When she laid it on the table, she glanced at the photo and grinned.

  Yuri’s gaze sharpened as he noted her reaction. “Do you know this young man?”

  June looked up and nodded. “Sure, he’s Raven’s younger brother. He doesn’t come in very often but she introduced us once. I think his name is Nicky.”

  “And who is this Raven person?”

  “She’s the hostess of the Tea House,” June informed him.

  The Tea House was the restaurant that was part of the hotel Yuri ran as a cover for his business. As soon as she mentioned the hostess, Yuri thought of the small dark haired woman who greeted him each time he entered the restaurant. Usually, he was in too much of a hurry to pay her any mind but suddenly he wanted to know more about her. “How long as she been in this position?”

  June’s smile began to fade a bit. “She’s been working for us for about three years now. She started waiting tables and advanced to hostess about a year ago. She’s been very good at her present job.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” Yuri commented as he remembered the woman in question. “She always has a smile and a very easy manner about her.”

  June nodded. “Everyone has nothing but good things to say about her. She remembers everyone and greets them by name.”

  “When does she come to work today?”

  “She works the early shift, so she should be here anytime.”

  Yuri nodded then picked up his phone to speak to Stephanou. Because he didn’t want June to know what he was saying, he spoke in Russian.

  When he hung up the call, June shifted is her seat. “Raven isn’t in trouble is she?”

  Yuri smiled. “Not at all. I just need to ask her a question.”

  June nodded slowly. “Okay, well she should be here soon.”

  “Is everything else going according to schedule?” Yuri asked her. He just wanted to move on and get Raven in his office.

  “Yes sir.”

  “That will be all.” Yuri dismissed her.

  A few minutes later, Yuri got to his feet and went back upstairs. He had asked Stephanou to escort Raven to his office upstairs. He didn’t want to r
isk anyone bursting in on them down here.

  When he settled at his desk, the door opened and Stephanou ushered in a petite dark haired woman. As Yuri observed her, he rose to his feet and noted she was of small stature, her dark hair was pulled back from her elfin face and hung to the lower part of her back.

  Her clear green eyes stared back at him. She almost looked like a child but her body was that of a woman. Her breasts were full, round, her waist tiny, while her hips were round and lush. Her work uniform strained slightly against her woman’s body. Her dark shirt was neatly tucked into her skirt. The buttons down the front barely hid her full breasts. The skirt fell about halfway to her knees and her legs were bare under it. With her low heels, she was barely five foot if that. The Tea House crest flashed high on her shoulder. She wore a belt at her narrow waist. The belt didn’t belong with the uniform but looked neat and tidy with its flat long rounded buckle just above where her belly button should be. The silver color of the buckle went well with the rest of the outfit.

  Yuri was pleased at her tidy appearance.

  Her eyes watched him while he took her in. They studied him intently while giving nothing away.

  Yuri knew what that meant and could appreciate where she was coming from. He’d seen that same look in others. Ones who’d been beaten down by the past, as if they were waiting for the other shoe to drop and didn’t know if it were going to kick them or help them. Yuri was curious as to why this young woman would be so haunted. “Please have a seat Miss…?”

  She heard the question but didn’t give her last name.

  He motioned for her to sit and he waited until she sat down to again sit, behind his desk. Folding his fingers into a steeple, he rested them against his lips and watched as she simply stared at him. “Do you know who I am?”

  Raven still looked alert as she answered, “You are Yuri Anatoly.”

  Yuri nodded. “I know your first name but not your last name. I could look it up of course, but I’d rather you just told me.”

  Raven looked away and the action told Yuri something important. When she looked back at him, he could see the blankness in her eyes. “My name is Raven Casseni.”