“I’m so sorry, Nina. So very sorry.”
Brutas hugged her, and she held on to him and cried. She’d feared something like this could happen one day. Now it was real, and she was left all alone. There was no one. No one left of her family. No one who truly cared like Zinc had. She thought of Dominion and felt sick. Why would she think of a man she had never met and wasn’t even blood? The validation that she was truly alone in this world kicked in, causing an instant pain to her stomach. What was she going to do now?
* * * *
Storm showed up in Chicago to try and decipher what the hell was going on. Karlicov had a daughter. She’d been abducted and then vanished. Cosivan and his team were trying to find her. There was some chatter of inside informants trying to sabotage the clubs, and Storm had men removing those problems.
He looked at Brutas Nolan. “What do you have so far?”
“I don’t have shit that’s con
crete, just talk on the streets.”
“What are they saying?” Storm asked him.
“I’ve heard that Zinc and Cobra were seen with some members of the Malfetto gang.”
“The Cubans? Were they doing something for the family?”
“Not that I know of. They do their business, and we do ours. Zinc and Cobra were in their territory.”
“Maybe whoever took them out thought they were up to something and didn’t realize who they were? Mistaken identity?” Storm asked, hoping it was that simple. But considering what was going on with Karlicov and his daughter, plus the attempts on other people’s lives in the family, it didn’t sit well with him. Something major was going on here.
“I don’t think so. It’s looking like Zinc was making a deal, maybe drugs or something, and that deal went sour.”
“This could have nothing to do with the family, then, but what about Cobra?”
“He was with Zinc. He had to be killed, too,” Brutas said to him.
“I don’t like it. Those two had been spending a lot of time together, and if Cobra was killed, too, then they were in it together.”
“Well, you’re not going to like the fact that a couple of the guys saw men following Nina. They were part of Ponopolous’s gang.’
“Polo’s gang? What the fuck?”
“Care to share any connections to that?” Brutas asked.
Storm looked at him.
“I don’t know what the connection is. I do know that when Viktor and Zinc found Nina, after looking for her all those years, she was working for one of Polo’s main guys at his club that Nicolai took over.”
“Maybe it’s revenge then? Perhaps they blame her and think she set them up to be taken over?”
“Then why wait this long to attack? No, there’s more to this. Zinc has always been on the up-and-up. Something isn’t right.” Storm rubbed his chin and thought about what to do next.
“Nina could be in danger,” Brutas said.
“I know. I’m going to call Viktor and the guys and give them an update. We’ll see what they want to do.”
“It may be better to get her out of here while we figure things out, at least a few weeks, considering the other shit that is going on with the family,” Brutas said.
“I think so, too. Keep on this, and I’ll let you know the next step. You keep digging.”
Chapter 3
“He chose us? Why?” Atlanta asked Corona, their leader. They were at their warehouse, where they kept supplies and vehicles and lived in the building’s multiple upstairs quarters. It used to be an old firehouse, years ago.
“Because he knows that we are taking some vacation time, that Jessup needs a bit of recouping after the last mission, and he knows that Salvation is safe.” Corona gathered their bags and prepared for Viktor to arrive so they could fly out of here.