Retribution (3 page)

“Probably the same she
feels about me; distrustful and angry. She’s had them before,
though, maybe not of your caliber, and it’s been a few years, but
enough to be able to tolerate them.” Peter smiled without emotion.
“She’ll do it though. She witnessed her sister’s death. She’s
frightened. However, you’re smart. I know you can handle
her.”

Handle her? Like he thought
before, how hard could it be? She was probably a sheltered spoiled
princess and would just need to be told the rules. He was certain
she wouldn’t be a problem. Besides, she was his way in. If there
was resistance, he’d make her listen. His agenda was more important
than a socialite’s safety.

Ryan also didn’t ask what
happened. He already knew. His superiors gave him everything on
Peter Nickolov and his family. Both women were abducted outside a
nightclub and the younger was found three days later tied, gagged
and left near one of Peter’s whorehouses. The older, found dead,
washed up on a beach. None of the intel he had on the family knew
what had happened. He only knew about the autopsy on Anna Nickolov.
The surviving sister was questioned, but she said she didn’t see
their faces or hear anything. She was kept bound, gagged and
blindfolded the entire time. Ryan knew that wasn’t true. You always
hear something, see something, or smell something that you would
never forget. He knew this for a fact. She was lying because she
was terrified. That would work in his favor. She needed him and he
would do his best to protect her, but his priority was his
brother’s killer.

CHAPTER ONE

The morgue was cold. It
wasn’t the first one he’d been in, but this time it was
different—horrid. The chill ran deep this time, all the way to his
bones. One of his superiors, and a good friend, Ned Sampson, stood
beside him with his hand on his shoulder for support. Ryan didn’t
show any emotion when the coroner placed his hands on either side
of the stark white sheet at the head of the body and smoothly
folded it back to reveal the handsome face of the dead man on the
slab. A man, that was once a child he played with, fought with and
shared a brotherly bond that was unbreakable. Icy fingers wrapped
around his heart as his eyes studied the man beneath. Nothing in
his expression stirred, but the anguish was deep. He swallowed hard
to curb the emotions. They cleaned him up for the viewing, but it
didn’t hide the bullet hole in his forehead. Execution style. A
mixture of rage and devastation hit him like a sledge hammer to the
gut, and he actually felt his knees go weak for a moment. Still,
you wouldn’t know it by the lack of expression on his
face.

“Sir?”

His eyes went to the
coroner. “Yes,” he finally said calmly. “That’s him.” He felt Ned’s
fingers squeeze his shoulder.

“I need you to say his
name,” the detective said.

Ryan shifted his gaze to
man who stood opposite of him beside the coroner, Detective William
Kinsley. He’d introduced himself when they met outside the morgue’s
double steel doors. He’d almost forgotten he stood there. He’d been
silent until now, out of respect. He was there doing his job, and
he could see sympathy in the man’s eyes. Not just for him, but for
the man on the cold slab—one of their own.

“That’s Georgy Lavoie, also
known as George Casey, but he kept my mother’s maiden
name.”

“Why?”

Ryan moved his eyes back to
his brother. “To make sure no one knew he was my brother.” He
returned his gaze to the detective. “To protect his
family.”

The detective’s eyes
narrowed. “What exactly does that—”

“—
We’re done here. If you
have any questions you can contact our office,” Ned interrupted as
he handed a card to the detective. “Although, that is probably all
the cooperation you are going to get Detective Kinsley, because
that’s all he knows. You have your ID of the body. Your
interrogation of my employee ends here.” Ned’s words were absolute,
and held an air of authority no one could match.

The detective took the card
and looked at it. “This is blank except for a phone
number.”

“Yes, I know. Call that
number and you’ll get all the information that you would get here.”
Meaning, nothing. He patted Ryan on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of
here.”

Bill knew exactly what that
meant. He could feel this slipping away from him and he really
wanted to close this case. They wouldn’t have even known he’d had a
brother if it wasn’t for Georgy’s widow. She had some phone number
in case of emergency, but nothing else. She’d never even met the
man, but she couldn’t bear to see her husband the way he was—a
corpse. “Mr. Casey, please,” the detective said. “Just a moment
alone—off the record. He was a good cop. I want to close this out
of respect for his family, for us.”

Ryan paused and thought for
a moment. Yes, Georgy was a good cop, and a good detective and
family man. He was honest, righteous and had integrity. He wanted
to save the world, just like their father did. Then he went into
undercover work despite having a young family. He worked in the
narcotics division. Why would he risk such a thing? He was angry
with him, but he was dead, and there was nothing he could do to
bring him back. Finally, Ryan looked at his boss and nodded that it
was okay.

“You have sixty seconds.”
He exchanged firm glances with Ryan and the detective, then
left.

“Thank you,” William said
stepping up to Ryan while flipping pages in his
notebook.

“You heard him, sixty
seconds.” Ryan repeated and near flinched when the coroner slid the
slab containing his brother back in the drawer and shut it with a
metallic snap.

“I’ll be quick. Do you know
anything of his undercover work?”

“No. It may surprise you
Detective, but I haven’t talked to my brother in almost ten years.
You’ll have to talk to his superiors.”

Bill sighed. “I have
already. They won’t give me a damn thing. Did you two have a
falling out?”

Ryan found it in him to
smile. “I didn’t kill him. If you hadn’t figured it out by now, I
work for a very—distinct division. I stayed away from him to
protect him. We were as close as brothers get. We would have done
anything for each other.”

Bill stared at the other
man for a moment. He’d served five years in the Marines and could
easily recognize another war veteran. Only, despite the brief
glimpse of grief he’d witnessed, which was barely discernable, he
was unreadable. This man was specially trained beyond what he knew.
“Special Forces?”

Ryan took a deep breath and
stared at him. “A long time ago, it seems. But yes, I was. Now I
work deeper than that. I’m untouchable Detective, if you hadn’t
noticed, so I have nothing to lose. I didn’t kill my brother and if
you ask for an alibi, I can have twelve people claiming to have
been with me the night he was killed, in your office, in an hour;
one of them being a close relative or friend of yours. Those dozen
people could produce photographs, receipts and film footage of
places I’d never been.” Ryan noticed that the man didn’t even seem
surprised at that confession.

“Yeah, I figured that out
after five minutes of meeting you.”

Ryan shrugged. He had
nothing to lose by telling him what he knew. “I loved him. He was
my only family left. Now I have to worry about his two children and
his widow. Three people I’ve never met. Georgy wasn’t stupid.
Whatever he got caught up with was smarter than him. He was an
honest man. He believed in things that some people give up on—like
justice.”

Bill nodded. “I lost my
father in the line of duty Mr. Casey. I know the pain you feel now.
I also know that your father served thirty five years as a
detective in Chicago. He was decorated the likes I’ve never seen.
We are a dying breed of honest men, like your brother. Even my
current partner takes kickbacks to look the other way. I can’t
trust him. So, off the record, I’m asking that you do me a
favor?”

Ryan thought for a moment.
This conversation was off the record. Even if it wasn’t, he
couldn’t be touched. “What is it?”

“I met him once, your
brother. He was everything you just told me. I know that you think
me just a man assigned to this investigation, but I became a
detective for the same reasons as your brother.” He looked over his
shoulder to make sure they weren’t within hearing distance of
anyone. “All I want for you to do, when you’ve taken care of the
person who did this, that you bury the body deep, so it doesn’t
land on my desk. I’m not a fan of paperwork and you are too damn
calm not to let this affect you. I’m not stupid either Mr. Casey. I
also have a brother.”

Ned opened the door at that
moment. “Time is up.”

Ryan nodded that he’d heard
him but kept his eyes on the detective. Then, finally, he spoke.
“My pleasure.”

That was several weeks ago.
Now, he was working for the organization that he knew was
responsible. It was a lot of research and intelligence on his part,
but he was certain it was the Nickolov organization. His resources
were solid. His superiors gave him leave to seek retribution. They
really didn’t have a choice. He was going to do it anyway. Then,
almost as if it were meant to be, there was an opportunity when the
two daughters were kidnapped.

A week went by before Peter
Nickolov’s oldest daughter’s body washed up on Miami Beach.
According to the coroner her body was tortured, sexually assaulted
and mutilated. Her hands and her face mutilated beyond recognition.
Her father identified her by a tattoo. Ryan went and paid a
personal visit to the body of Anna Nickolov himself. Or what was
left of it. The torture was gender specific and horrific. He’d
worked overseas and had seen this handiwork before. The killers
were from the Middle East. This was a statement. Apparently there’s
some serious competition for the Nickolov family.

The day after the older
sister’s body was discovered, the younger sister was found alive.
She’d spent the past few weeks under guard at the hospital
recuperating. He’d seen the news footage. It was high profile
because of the wealth the family had and the status of her father
with the city of Miami. She was a mess; battered and bruised on the
outside, and there’s no telling the mental anguish she’d
experienced. Public support was immense, and it disgusted Ryan. It
boosted his popularity. Only if the people knew what this man
really did.

Well, he’d seen worse
things happen to innocent people. Some things were hard to erase
from his memory, but he didn’t let it affect him. He was good at
what he did. Still, when you think you’ve seen it all, you realize,
you haven’t. As for Peter’s daughters, it wasn’t his business and
he didn’t ask anything about it because he probably already knew
more than Peter and he had another focus. Peter seemed to
appreciate that.

“I think you’ll do just
fine Mr. Casey.”

Ryan stood up and adjusted
his suit, “Which hospital?” He already knew, but he had to play the
part.

Peter waved an arm toward
his man. “Ivan will fill you in and provide the
transport.”

He’d just been dismissed.
That was fine with him. He could barely stand being in the same
room with the man. Ryan turned to leave when he heard his
name.

“She knows what I do
because during her captivity she was told, so I’m letting you know
that she hates everyone right now. She blames me for Anna’s
death.”

Ryan blamed him too. He
could hear the sadness in his voice and honestly didn’t give a
shit. He came in there knowing about the murder of his oldest
daughter and the trauma of the youngest and he just didn’t care. He
just couldn’t lose sight of why he was there or who this man really
was.

Public sympathy was
outpouring for Councilman Nickolov when the media got a hold of the
story. They painted him as a distraught father. What the public
didn’t know, is that he was responsible for more deaths than car
accidents in the last year in Miami alone. This didn’t even factor
in the prostitution and murder. He was a powerful man who
controlled more than half the drug trade on the east coast with
plans on controlling it all. He made more than a hundred million a
year according to his taxes, but that is only a fraction of his
real income. The rest was laundered through dummy companies. So,
there were many reasons Ryan wanted to bring this man down, but the
most important was one of Peter’s men murdered his brother. He knew
Peter gave the order, but he wanted the trigger man.

His superiors wanted him
for another reason. Peter had political connections deep enough to
get his hands on that file. It was dangerous having a man like
Peter have ties that deep in powerful circles.

After Peter got wind of his
file, he was on a plane forty-eight hours later. Returning to Miami
where his brother was murdered, did not make it a pleasing trip. At
least the flight gave him time to get his emotions back under
control. He would not ruin this by showing the man any crack in his
exterior.

He was met at the airport
by one of his drivers; big, Russian, and ugly, and wearing an
expensive suit. It didn’t change that the guy was a thug. Just a
thug that made money. He was holding a card with his name. Ryan was
just going to get a car, but apparently Peter wanted eyes on him
from the time he landed. Well, he had a luxurious ride in a very
expensive limousine, but he wouldn’t be fooled by the man’s wealth.
He had a purpose.