Page 73 of Deadly Aloha
“Then give me a reason,” I shot back at him. “Tell me why Kalea would want me, her daughter, and her unborn nephew dead.”
“She didn’t,” he argued almost immediately. “She wouldn’t.” Tangaloa sighed, “But she might want me dead. Or,” he hesitated with a slight grimace, “her new man might.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “And why would they want you dead?”
“I was married to her. I have a connection to her that no one else does.” Bacon and I exchanged a look, neither of us impressed with this reasoning. Tangaloa clearly saw this. “I’m not crazy!” he nearly shouted. “This has to do with her, and I’m going to prove it!”
I certainly wasn’t convinced, but since I had no definitive proof it was anyone else, I shrugged. “Fine. Just leave Pua out of it.”
Tangaloa’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not a fucking idiot.”
I begged to differ, but kept my mouth shut. Tangaloa had been through a lot with Kalea and Pualani. He had a right to be a bit insane when it came to one or both of them.
I was about to say that I was going to go find my woman and take a fucking nap when Neo came running back into the house. Their eyes were wide as they frantically looked for me. Bacon was blocking their view of me until I stood upright off the back of the couch.
They came racing over, short of breath like they’d just come running from the old barn. “I found him. I found Denis Baranov.”
We moved fast.I called Jameson to inform him that we had a lead on Baranov. While he wasn’t familiar with the name, he was familiar with the location Neo said Baranov was. We were headed to a place in Russia I couldn’t pronounce. Just like when we went to Amsterdam, I was suddenly thehaole.
Jameson had some contacts that were able to smuggle us into the country and meet us at the airport with supplies. To say it was fucking cold would be an understatement. I was built for heat, not frosted winds, snow, and ice. I was pissed off about being forced into this fucking cold tundra and planned on taking it out on Baranov’s hide. The twins had brought their watermelon peeler.
Lu was not happy about being left behind. But no fucking way was I bringing her when I didn’t know what we were walking into. I wouldn’t have even if she wasn’t pregnant. I swore I’d keep her in the loop every chance I could.
While Kalea had not given me a good explanation as to where she’d been, she did apologize for disappearing and she signed the paperwork for the farm ownership. I wasn’t happy about it, but I had bigger priorities. This was the first solid lead we’d had on Nishi in months and I was not going to let that pass me by.
I would deal with my sister when I got back. She took Pua, which was her right and her choice. With the exception of this past week, she was an exceptional mother to Pualani. It was not my place to state otherwise.
Tangaloa, however, did. Quite loudly. It was one of the reasons he was with me now in Russia and not back home protecting Lu and Holly. But Tangaloa had no rights to Pua. He’d had himself removed from her birth certificate during the divorce proceedings. He had even less of a say about Pua and Kalea than I did.
Spirit, Tommy, and the twins completed our overseas party. Tommy had spent some time in Russia in his youth, so he had a better insight than the rest of us did about the country. Spirit was a hell of a tracker, regardless of the environment. And the twins? Well, I had a feeling we were going to need to scare more than the shit out of these Russian thugs.
Baranov’s estate sat atop a hill. The building itself used to be a church and it was old enough that it predated any records Neo could find on the internet. He did find references to catacombs underneath, and we decided that was our best entry point.
Spirit was heading down first to see what we were dealing with. Baranov could have a dozen guards or he could have hundreds. The Black Market Railroad gave their captains so much free rein that they all ran things differently. It made for alot of confusion when you weren’t the captain in charge. A lot of Royal Bastard Chapters had had run-ins with the Black Market Railroad, and all had different experiences.
Bacon had Hops, Lucifer, Tick, Saga, and Mako, along with our two new Prospects, Mouse and Barnacle. He was to see to it that the ladies were protected and to track down the remaining four Bloody Scorpions. Neo wasn’t a fighter, and I wanted them at their computer setup to help both teams as needed.
Per Neo, I was going to need to get them an assistant soon. As well as a pay raise.
We were waiting in a dark alley. I was not only in boots and long pants, but I was also wearing a hat, a jacket, and gloves. This fucker was going to suffer for making me put on socks.
Tangaloa was next to me, silently fuming. I needed his head in the game, though. Spinning around, I pinned him to the old brick wall behind us and barred my arm over his throat.
“Shut the fuck up,” I snapped, my voice barely a whisper. The others stepped away to give us a semblance of privacy. “Ever since Kalea came to the farm last week, you have been acting like a whiny little bitch. You don’t want to forgive her, but you think she sent the Bloody Scorpions to kill you. You claim you felt nothing when you looked at Pualani, yet you are pissed that I gave her back to Kalea. Make up your fucking mind! Either you want them in your life or you don’t, but stop doing one thing and saying another. It’s giving me fucking whiplash!”
Tangaloa snapped his mouth shut. In the dim light of the frosty night, I saw him nod. I held on a second longer before I backed off and lowered my arm.
“You can be a jackass all you want,” I told him. “But not here and not now. Put your personal shit aside. Nishi is our priority and should be theonlywoman on your mind. Do you understand me?”
“Is she the only one on yours?” he shot back at me.
“Unless you put your cut on Kalea when I wasn’t looking, it’s not even close to the same thing,” I growled low.
A soft whistle, something that could easily be mistaken for a birdcall, came from down the alleyway. I stared Tangaloa down another heartbeat before I turned to head down the alley.
Spirit was back.
The catacombs were colderthan the fucking alleyway. How did people survive in this? In the low light we had to guide us, I could see icicles dangling from the low ceilings. I’d rather climb down into a volcano than live in a place with this much ice. Our boots sounded like we were walking drums, announcing our presence.
