Ryan Renewed: New York Ruthless: Book 5

My hand trembles as I dial Vlad’s number. At least it was his number over twelve months ago and I hope he hasn’t changed it. I glance at Shane and Conor who sit at the desk opposite me. They are here with me but they have agreed to let me handle this.

He answers after a few rings. “Jessica?”

“Jessie,” I remind him.

“Of course. My apologies. Old habits die hard,” he says softly. “What can I do for you?”

“What do you know about the brotherhood of the firebird?”

He sucks in a breath and there is a few moments pause before he answers. “As much as you do, I suspect. But why are you asking me this?”

“Because they used to be the Bratva’s elite assassins.”

“Used to be,” he interrupts me.

“And they tried to kidnap me yesterday.”

“What?” he snarls and I feel like I have his undivided attention suddenly. He curses in Russian and talks to someone in the room with him, who I assume is one of his sons.

“What do you know about them, Vlad?” I ask again.

“They have been dormant for years…” he says with a sigh.

“But?”

“Recently we have heard rumors that they are active again.”

“Active? But they are the Bratva’s assassins? And you are the Bratva.”

“This is not the kind of conversation I want to have over the telephone, Jessie,” he snaps.

“Of course,” I say with a shake of my head as Conor and Shane bristle at the change in Vlad’s tone, but I understand his reasons. “Neither do I. Can we meet?”

“Yes, I think that would be wise,” he says immediately and it makes my stomach drop, because that means he knows something bad is going on.

“Can you come to the club? After what happened yesterday, I don’t really feel like leaving the safety of this building.”

“I assume your husbands are listening?” he says.

“We are,” Shane snarls.

“I know you are a man of your word, Mr. Ryan. Can I have your assurances that we won’t be ambushed if I agree to this meeting?”

“You have my word if I have yours that you will come in here unarmed and without your army,” Shane replies.

“My sons will be with me and they will carry a weapon each. I can’t travel unarmed. But they will not use them unless my life is in danger.”

“Fine,” Shane snaps. “Can you be here in two hours?”

“Yes,” Vlad replies and then he abruptly ends the call.

I lean back in my chair and look between Shane and Conor. “He knows something about the brotherhood to agree to meet us like that.”

“Yeah.” Conor nods his agreement.

“Let’s tell Mikey and Liam and get ready for this meeting then,” Shane says as he pushes himself to his feet. “You’ll let me handle it, Jessie?”

“Yes,” I reply with a nod. He’s much better at this kind of stuff than me. I mean it’s kind of what he lives for.

“You know I’m not going to play nice?” He arches an eyebrow at me. “At least not until I know for sure he’s not behind what happened yesterday.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less.”

“Good girl.” He winks at me and I thank the heavens that I have these four incredible men in my life.

Two hours later, I’m sitting in the brother’s nightclub, with Conor and Liam on my left and Shane and Mikey on my right as we sit opposite Vlad and his sons. He was true to his word and only his sons are with him. Their armored car is in our basement, signaling that Vlad trusts us too, not that he would admit that yet.

“Who have you told that Jessie is Jessica Ivanov?” Shane snarls as his opening question.

“Nobody,” Vlad replies.

“So how the fuck does some kid we’ve never heard of turn up here, claiming to be Alexei’s son, looking for his half-sister?”

“Alexei’s son?”

“Yes,” Shane snaps.

“I had no idea he had a son.” He blinks and he’s either a very good actor or he’s telling the truth.

“Well he does. And the slippery little fuck set Jessie up yesterday.”

“Tell me what happened.” Vlad looks to me but Shane goes on talking.

“Two of the Bratva’s elite assassins tried to kidnap my wife is what happened,” he growls. “Now how the fuck do they even know who she is?”

“They are not working for me.” Vlad turns his attention back to Shane. “And we have not told anyone of Jessica’s existence. Why would I?”

“Because you want to eradicate any threat to your position of power.”

“Jessica is no threat to me,” Vlad replies coolly and Shane’s fists clench by his side, “because she does not exist. And I have no intention of causing Jessie any harm.”

“So who activated this brotherhood again?”

Vlad narrows his eyes at him. “I don’t know.”

“Sure it wasn’t you?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Vlad snaps, the vein in his temple bulging.

“Care to tell me why the fuck I would believe you?”

Vlad leans forward in his chair, his hands on the table in front of him as he stares down Shane Ryan. Shane stares right back and the atmosphere in the room becomes so thick, I swear I can taste it as the two of them face off, each ready to declare war on the other if they have to.

“With respect, Mr. Ryan,” he snarls. “If I had wanted Jessie dead, I wouldn’t have fucked it up. It would be already done.”

The vein in Shane’s neck pulses as he clenches his fists tighter. I sense Conor and the twins bristling beside me too and I swallow hard. This I going to turn into a bloodbath if things get any more tense. “Is that so?” Shane snarls.

“Yes,” Vlad snarls back. “But as I said, I have no intention of causing her any harm.” He turns to me then and gives a slight nod of his head as though to reassure me and I shake my head.

“So why are the brotherhood after me then, Vlad? Any ideas?” I ask, needing to ease the tension before someone gets their face blown off. I see Mikey twitching from the corner of my eye and worry that his trigger finger is going to get just as twitchy if we don’t ratchet the tension down at least twenty notches.

He runs a scarred hand over his beard and some of the tension slips from his shoulders as he addresses me. “There have been rumblings of a takeover. We have been trying to deal with it for some time now. It seems that some people believe I am not the rightful head of the Bratva.”

“And so who is?” Shane snaps. “Who else knows that Jessie is alive?”

“I have already told you that I don’t know. The information of her existence did not come from me or my sons,” Vlad barks. “If I wanted…”

Conor cuts him off before he can finish his sentence. “Yeah, if you wanted to cause her harm you would have already. You kinda told us that, but the thing is, no the fuck you wouldn’t because I would fucking kill you and every person you have ever so much as spoken to before I would let you harm a single hair on her head. And besides that, I just don’t buy it.”

Vlad narrows his eyes at Conor.

“If you’re so shit hot at what you do, why didn’t Alexei send you to find his daughter? He sent the brotherhood and they fucked it up. Then he sent the Wolf, and he didn’t exactly cover himself in glory either.” Conor leans forward now too. “So if you are so fucking good that you think you could take our girl out if you wanted to, why didn’t Alexei ask you to find her?”

“I did find her,” Vlad shouts back. “I found her before any of them!”

“What?” I stammer as I look between him and my irate husbands. “You can’t have.”

“I did, Jessie,” he says softly. “About six years after your parents left Russia.”

“But…” I blink at him.

“You were living in a trailer park in Idaho. Your trailer had a bright green door. Your mom had a herb garden on her window ledge. And you had a cat called Nugent,” he says.

I shake my head in disbelief, but there is no way he could have known that if he wasn’t there.

“Why didn’t you tell him?” I whisper.

“Because you all seemed so happy. Your parents had the twins by then, and I knew what Alexei would do to them. So, I warned your father and I told Alexei that you could never be found.”

“I remember we left that place in a hurry. We even left Nugent behind because he’d gone on one of his wanders and he wasn’t there when we were leaving. I cried for days.” I swallow hard at the memory.

“Alexei called off the search for two years after that, before the brotherhood persuaded him you could be found,” Vlad gores on.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I frown at him.

“It was insignificant,” he says with a shake of his head.

“Not to me,” I whisper.

He nods, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallows hard before he turns back to Shane and Conor. “You see, I have no reason to want Jessie dead. I have looked out for her whenever I could and I would do so until my last breath. She is a light in this world of darkness and demons, just like her mother before her.”

A sob catches in my throat but I swallow it down.

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Shane says as he takes my hand and laces his fingers through mine and suddenly the tension in the room has dissolved and we are all on the same side.

“How can we get hold of this brotherhood?” Conor asks.

“My sons have some leads.”

“Hmm,” one of them grunts in agreement.

“They will be planning an…” he searches for the right word, “encounter with some of the members very shortly. Perhaps you would like to assist us?”

“Maybe.” Conor frowns, still suspicious of Vlad’s motives.

“It seems right now they are our common enemy.” Vlad raises an eyebrow at Shane who nods his agreement.

“It makes sense. But we want our time with them first. I need to know what they had planned for Jessie and who told them she was even alive.”

“Of course.” Vlad nods his head.

“Then you can kill them in whatever fashion you desire, preferably the most painful one imaginable,” Shane adds and that is met with smiles and grunts of assent from Vlad’s sons.