Page 56 of Forced By the Bratva King
“Looks like there’s an exchange with someone using a code name:Zeus,” she replied. “There are no other identifiers, just a bunch of encrypted texts.” She looked up at me. “Whoever this is, they’re careful—no traceable metadata. I’m impressed.”
“What now?” Jacob asked.
“Now, I’ll have to dig into the messaging platform’s servers, crack their logs, and cross-reference IP addresses,” she replied, her fingers a rapid blur of movement.
“English, please,” Donovan said, rubbing his eyeballs.
She peered up at him. “I’ll have to trace the origin of these messages.”
“You could’ve just said that,” he muttered to himself.
Watching Sierra work was a great privilege, and I realized that I hadn’t given her much benefit of the doubt. She was clearly good at what she did, and the fact that she was having fun while at it was remarkable. Within these last few minutes, my confidence in her had grown exponentially. If there was someone who could find this Zeus guy, it was her.
“Got him,” she announced, her voice laced with triumph.
The image of the man plastered on the laptop screen was shocking, and my blood boiled at the identity of the one responsible for turning me and Donovan on each other.
It was Chris, my supplier.
“Fucking backstabbing son of a bitch,” I growled, frowning at his deception and betrayal.
Sierra shook her head. “Glad Madelyn dumped your ass.”
“He’s your weapons dealer, isn't he?” Donovan asked me.
“It all makes sense now,” Sierra began, turning to look at me. “That night at the club, Chris was the one who told me to go through the back door to get what I forgot. He must have known that I was Niall Donovan’s daughter, and he also must have known that you were gonna be killing that guy in the alley around that same time.”
“He wanted you to witness it,” Jacob said to her.
“Exactly,” she replied. “Because one of the rules of the Bratva is—”
“No witnesses,” Yuri finished her statement.
“Chris orchestrated all of this,” she continued. “He wanted Artem to kill me for being a witness. That way, it would provoke you into taking action.” She settled her eyes on Donovan. “But what hedidn’tanticipate was that Artem was going to show mercy and eventually marry me, so he tried again by using Finch.” She paused and continued, “But the question remains: Why? Why go through all this trouble just to turn the Bratva and the Irish mob against each other?”
“Because he wanted the two mafia families to crumble,” I replied, his motive finally kicking in. “Chris has always been ambitious. I guess he got tired of being a supplier and wanted to get us out of business so he could take over.”
“He doesn’t know we’re onto him, which means we have the element of surprise,” Jacob pointed out. “I say we pay him a visit.”
“On that, we agree,” Yuri grumbled, concurring with Jacob for the first time in history.
“He messed with the wrong families,” Donovan said through gritted teeth. “Let’s go kill that son of a bitch.” He walked away and Jacob followed.
Yuri left after them, and as I was about to step away, Sierra held my hand, gently gripping my wrist. “Be careful.”
I saw the concern flickering in her gaze, and it warmed my heart. Truly, she cared for me, and deep down, I knew that I cared for her, as well. I was wrong in believing she’d betrayed me.
“Come back to me,” she added, a palm on my cheek. “I’ll be waiting.”
I gave a faint smirk and slowly walked away, determined to fix things when I returned. She’d proven beyond reasonable doubt that she was mine, and I’d never been more proud of her.
**********
The Irish mob and the Bratva working together was a sight I hadn’t thought I’d live long enough to see, but here we were, fighting side by side, with me and Donovan calling the shots.
Chris had his own men, but they were no match for both our gangs combined, especially now that we’d taken them by surprise. The shooting didn’t take long, and soon, all of his men were down.
I kicked down the door to his office, and we barged in on him standing by the window with his gun pointed at us.