Page 54 of Forced By the Bratva King
“Enough,” Sierra said again.
“Or else what? What’re you gonna do?” Donovan rose to his feet, glaring at me as though he was ready for anything.
The man was really pushing his luck.
“I dare you to keep talking like that, and you'll find out.” I followed his lead, standing.
“I saidenough!” Sierra’s voice thundered across the room as she shot up, fuming profusely. Her eyes were practically burning red, and her lips twisted back into a scowl. She was mad,veryfucking upset. “What the hell is wrong with all of you? Each and every one of us in this room knows that we have a common enemy, the same one who sent that assassin after me.” The anger in her voice was palpable as she spat out those words, not caring that she was the youngest in the room—not to mention, the only female.
For some reason, I was proud of her boldness, spunk, and guts. She was starting to understand the power and authority that came with being the wife of thePakhan.
“While you’re in here arguing over stupid and irrelevant things, he’s still out there, probably plotting God-knows-what. And I’m not gonna sit here and wait for him to make another move. The plan was to kill me; he failed, so that means he’s definitely gonna try again.” The words were spoken in an angry rush, her voice rising and falling as she demonstrated with her hands.
The room fell silent one more time, the weight of her words settling heavily on each of us, and although her rebuke was brutal, it was honest.
“Can’t you see?” She sighed softly, a bit calmer now. “Thisis what they want—whoever they are: for you to keep fighting. And sadly, it’s working. It’s been working for a long time now.” She looked at me and then at Donovan. “Isn’t it concerningthat two great organizations are nothing but pawns on someone else’s chessboard?”
As much as it pained me to admit, she was right. The real enemy was out there, and they had been playing us for a very long time. The idea of being a pawn in someone else’s game was infuriating, and I couldn’t wait to channel my aggression to this mastermind, whoever the fuck he was.
The anger in Donovan’s expression softened; he knew, deep down, that Sierra was right.
“Can you two please set aside your differences and talk like civilized people?” She shifted her gaze between us, and her eyes eventually settled on me. “Let’s find this bastard and put him in his place, once and for all.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but I like the sound of that,” Jacob said.
It took a lot of courage to finally agree to reason together with Donovan.
“Fine,” I said, retreating from him.
“Thank you,” she said.
He did the same, and we all sat back in our chairs.
“Alright,” she began, “first things first: What do we know about this guy?” Sierra placed a photo of the dead man on the table.
“This is the guy who attacked you?” Niall asked, picking it up for a closer look.
“Yes,” she replied. “And he has the Irish mob symbol on the back of his neck.”
“Which is, by the way, the reason we concluded he was one of your own,” I said, directing my statement to Donovan.
“Itisour tattoo, but he’s not one of us.” Donovan passed the photo to Jacob.
“I know this guy,” Jacob said, looking at the photo.
My wife and I exchanged glances.
Jacob continued, “His name is Jeffery Finch, a local mercenary who’d work for anyone with a dollar bill. The Irish have never done business with him because he was the type of guy to turn on you the moment he got a better offer. The world’s a better place without the sneaky bastard.”
“So, since Jeffery Finch isn’t one of us, how do you explain the threats we’ve been receiving from the Bratva?” Donovan asked.
“What threats?” I asked him, confused, as it sounded strange to me.
Donovan looked at Jacob, and the latter went ahead to further explain. “For months now, we’ve been getting threatening emails watermarked with the Bratva symbol.”
“I’d never send you threatening messages via email, let alone watermark it with our symbol. I’d simply attack you, just as I did at the warehouse,” came my reply.
The last statement sounded degrading, and there was a sense of unease that hovered over us for a moment.