Redemption (The Volkov Mafia Series Book 4) Read online

  I reach for my phone and search the call log. I save the number and store it in my phone. Then I hit the little message icon at the top. I need to let her know one more thing before I try to get myself sorted.

  Alek: I’m going to do this for us, you’ll see.

  I put the phone away, not wanting to be eagerly awaiting her reply.

  I hear the ping of an alert, telling me that I have a message. I ignore it for now, holding on to the hope that she is still with me for a little while longer. I don’t want to lose that as well, because if I do, I will be a man that has lost everything in life that’s worth living for.

  I’m sat in a café somewhere in London. The greasy spoon is safe for now. I nurse the coffee in my hands, taking little sips often, knowing that if I take a big gulp it is going to hurt like a motherfucker. I’m lucky that this is a twenty-four-hour place, because I have been sat in here since I woke up in the alley. Every muscle in my body fucking hurts. All I want to do is go home, grab the whiskey, and crawl into bed. But I now know that won’t be happening any time soon.

  Time to face the music, I guess. I dig out my phone and see a text, but it’s not from Emma.

  Vlad: If you need somewhere to crash and help you figure this shit out, you know where my place is. I will be there after work today. Will bring supplies.

  Well that was unexpected. To say that I am pleased is an understatement; the sixty pounds in my pocket wouldn’t have got me very far in London, that’s for sure. I hit reply.

  Alek: What time will you get in? I will be there. Thanks, mate.

  I press send. I’m a little disappointed to see that Emma hasn’t replied to me, but I guess she has the kids to deal with today. I just hope I hear from her when she can message me undetected for now. I hate that she feels obligated to stay, but what else can I do? I can’t go in and demand Damien to hand her over. She doesn’t belong to me. I don’t own her. And I won’t treat her like a slave, even if in theory that’s what Damien is doing to her.

  My phone pings again.

  Vlad: I will be there at six. I’m doing it for her as well. If it was just you I wouldn’t give a shit, but she loves you, even if she won’t admit it yet.

  I sit and seethe for a bit. What the fuck did he mean ‘I’m doing it for her as well’? He better not be getting any designs on my girl. I know I don’t deserve her right now, but one day I’m going to.

  Alek: See you at six.

  At least I have somewhere to go for now, but I hope Damien doesn’t find out … or Jonny.

  I need to recover for a little bit, keep my head down and formulate a plan to deal with this shit once and for all. I hope that Vlad will be ok with what I have in mind.

  *****

  The days pass slowly. I wander around London to pass the time. I don’t think I’ve ever really just took the time to stop and appreciate the beauty that is the capital.

  I walk over Tower Bridge, slowly I might add, because of the pain I’m in.

  I pass museums, pubs, tourist shops, libraries, and even Buckingham Palace. As I wander down I’m drawn to the beauty that is the River Thames. It’s stunning to watch. There’s so much life going on; people earning a day’s wage, tourists enjoying a trip along the river. It spans such a distance, so much so that if you’re not really taking the time to look, it will pass you by in the blink of an eye. Even Big Ben has me at a loss for words. Do you know that’s not the actual name of the clock? It’s the name of the big bell inside the clock. The real name for the clock is The Great Westminster Clock, but the tower is called just that, the ‘clock tower’. You would be amazed at the things you can find out when you have the time to explore.

  As I make my way to Vlad’s place, I grab myself a bite to eat. Nothing special, just a portion of chips.

  I notice the street first; a long row of identical houses line both sides, with trees on the pavement that follow the road. The huge bay windows draw the eye. The immaculate front yards have an array of potted plants and bistro tables in the front. The brick work varies in colour. Some are the original red brick and a lot have been painted in a variety of colours, ranging from blue to pale yellow, but the majority seem to be white.

  I reach my destination – number 311. I have only ever been outside before so I’m not quite sure what to expect when I get inside. I see Vlad getting out of his car before heading up the path to his front door. He sees me waiting, leaning against the brick wall that separates his house from the one next door. He cringes at the sight of me. Shit, do I look that bad? I hadn’t really noticed people staring at me throughout the day, but I was more focused on the sights than the people.

  “Fuck, you look like shit, dude,” he says to me whilst grabbing his keys out of his pocket and opening the front door.

  “Yeah, I feel like shit too, mate,” I tell him. I’m about to say more when he stops me in my tracks.

  “Now look, there is something you need to know before I invite you in. What you see inside these walls stays here, do you understand? This is bigger than just me.”

  I must look lost because right at this moment, I have no clue what he is talking about. I just nod my head. What else can I say?

  We walk into the bright white hallway. It leads off to a couple of rooms downstairs. As we walk through to the living room I see a woman sat on the sofa. Her hair is in a neat bun and her clothes are pristine. I quickly look up to Vlad; I didn’t know he had a girlfriend or wife. She stands upon our arrival.

  “Daria is sleeping, sir. I put her down about thirty minutes ago. Will that be all, Mr. Sokolov?” she says in a very broken accent.

  Huh? I’m really confused now. He nods his head and sees the woman to the door. First thing’s first, who the fuck is Daria? And what the hell am I missing here?

  I wait for him to come back. I want to find out what’s going on.

  “You’re probably wondering what’s going on. Here, follow me. It will be easier to show you, Alek.”

  I follow him out of the living room and up the flight of stairs in the hallway. We get to the top of the landing and I see four doors, all of them open except one. We approach the closed door. I’m wondering what I will find inside. Does he have a sick wife that needs help, or a mother that is dying and is with him to live out her final days? All these thoughts are running through my mind as each step we take brings me closer to finding out.

  He quietly opens the door and we walk inside. The first thing I see is pink! It’s bloody everywhere. I see a little pine bed in the corner of the room and a big white dolls house on the floor. It stands about four-feet tall and the front door is open, showing beautifully decorated walls and furniture. Even the little lights work. I look over to the bed and notice the tiny lump under the covers. Well this isn’t what I expected. He has a little girl.

  “Well, now you know. This is my daughter Daria. She is five years old.” His eyes show a dark sorrow buried deep within them. I’m fearing there is more to this story than meets the eye.

  “Yeah, I see that. Are you sure it’s wise having me here if you have a family to think about?” I ask, because I am genuinely worried about the problems I could cause by being here.

  “Look, no one knows about her. You are the only one who has ever seen her. That’s why I told you, what you see in this house, stays in this house.” He looks serious.

  We make our way back downstairs. Sitting in the chair in the living room, I look at the glass of whiskey in his hand. He offers me one too. I take it from him eagerly and throw it back.

  “So, you want to know what happened then?” I say to him.

  “Yeah, it might help me understand a little more. All I have is the snippets of what Damien and Emma have told me.” I suppose it’s only fair that I give him what he wants, then he might open up to me about what has caused his turmoil.

  “I borrowed money from Jonny ‘The Butcher’ Haynes. Ten grand to be precise. But when the time came to pay it back, I had gambled it all away. So I took a last minute Poker match t
hat I thought I could win easy. Turns out it was fixed as Jonny was playing too. He beat me on the last hand and I lost it all. His goons then took me out back and gave me a pasting, telling me I had twenty-four hours to get the money or else. And the next thing I knew, I woke up in an alley. I walked to the café around the corner, then you text.” I lay it all out there for him so that he knows I’m not hiding anything else.

  “So what you’re saying is that everything everyone went through last time to sort all your crap out, you turned to gambling again and it’s backfired on you. But what’s worse is you’ve put a price on Emma’s head if you don’t pay up. You’re a fucking dick. You think of no one but yourself.” He doesn’t hold back, but it’s what I’ve been waiting to hear from someone else other than Damien.

  “I know I’m a dick and I need to get this sorted. I won’t risk losing Emma. I fucking love her, Vlad! I need your help. I need to bring Jonny down and take him out. I want his turf and his crew.”

  He looks at me with an expression of pure shock on his face. Like I’m talking in fucking riddles. Is it really that hard of a concept to grasp? I can’t get the money to pay him off, but I sure as hell can take him down and there is no one better to help me than Vlad.

  “You’re crazy if you think you can take down Haynes on your own. What will this change if I help you, Alek?”

  His words hit me deep. His question resounds in my head, what will it change? “Everything,” I say to him. “This is going to be the start of what I need to break away from my brother.” I speak with conviction. I just hope that my honesty is enough for him to see through the bullshit.

  “I appreciate you being honest with me. I suppose if we do this then both sides have to come clean and bare their deepest secrets.”

  I nod at him, not sure if this is wise or not. To know a man’s deepest secrets is the key to either failure or doom.

  “It was a late November night,” Vlad starts. “Daria was only three months old. I was at work and Anna had gone out with some of the girls. We had a babysitter looking after Daria until I got back from work. All was well, or so I thought. She never came home that night or the next. I was heartbroken at first, I thought she had left me. But I quickly realised it was so much more than that. She loved Daria and me with all of her heart, she would never willingly leave us. So I went looking for her; I went to the bar she was last seen in, only to be told that no one could remember her. I found a string of missing girls’ cases that the police had let turn cold. They told the families they had done everything in their power to find the girls, but in actual fact they just couldn’t be bothered. My thoughts are they knew exactly what was happening but they just turned a blind eye to it all. I searched for months, taking Daria with me. Our search brought us here after finding out that they had been stealing the girls to use as Russian brides. I tracked a few of the others down and helped them get back home. But I couldn’t find another lead on Anna. It seemed she’d just disappeared without a trace. I had told Damien that I needed to find this girl and he said he may be able to help me locate her. What I didn’t tell him was the reason why my love had disappeared and left me holding the baby, so to speak. What was I to do? I thought it would help. I have known Malc for years and have been with Damien about two years now on and off. When he sent me to go and help in Russia that’s when I became a permeant fixture in the Volkov household. I still haven’t found Anna. Daria asks about her mummy every day. I hate not being able to tell her what happened to her mother. She thinks her mum left her because she didn’t want her anymore, that she didn’t love her enough. It kills me every day to get up and leave her to go to work and try to progress a little further in my search for Anna, but each time I come home to nothing new and it cuts me deep, to the point that I latched on to Emma in the hopes that it would ease the ache, that I would be able to move on and draw a line under it. I can’t believe I tried to kiss her this morning. It was wrong. It felt like I was kissing my own sister. It was something that shouldn’t have happened. I just want this nightmare to end.”

  I don’t let him carry on. With tears streaming down my face, I feel every ounce of his pain, and I want to be able to help him, let him find the peace that he so badly craves. But first I clench my fist at my side. Just as he turns to look at me I bring it around, quickly catching him on the jaw and knocking him down with one blow.

  “You don’t ever kiss Emma again,” I say to him as he lays sprawled out on the living room floor. But when he wakes we can draw a line under it. I know what it’s like to try and find something that will take away the pain. He just can’t have Emma! No one touches what’s mine!

  Chapter Twelve

  Alekzander

  I sit in the chair nursing another whiskey. He’s not out long, just a few seconds really. I wait for him to gather his bearings; well, that punch did just knock him the fuck out.

  “Yeah, I will give you that one, but that’s the only free punch you will land,” he says groggily. Chuckling, I get up and slap him on the back.

  “You ok? Didn’t expect you to drop like a sack of potatoes.” I’m still laughing when he pushes against my shoulder. Vlad grabs the whiskey from my hand. I let him have it, he probably needs it more than I do right now.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. So what do you want to do then?” he asks. He takes a sip of the whiskey then proceeds to swill it around in the glass in his hand. The ice clinks against the sides.

  “I need to rest up for a couple of weeks, get myself back to full strength, but while I do that I want you to teach me all you can about shooting and fighting. I need to be better at this if I’m going to take on Jonny. I must be on top of my game and I want you to help me with that. You’re one of the best with a sniper rifle, and in hand-to-hand combat you’re exceptional,” I tell him. No point dancing around the subject. He has to understand what I need from him, and how he can best help me.

  “You do realize that it takes months, even years of training and practice to become the best at what you do. It isn’t going to happen overnight, Alek.” His look is one of knowing what a true struggle is, having to be the best every day and fight harder than anyone else just so you make it through to the next day. I understand that look, but I need something else to focus on instead of the gambling. Reclaiming my life and my woman seems like a damn good thing to focus on. If that means I have to be up at the crack of dawn training so that I can be in the best shape of my life, then so be it.

  “Look, Vlad, I will do whatever it takes to make it up to Emma. If that means I’m your student for the next ten years then I’ll do it.” Realising it’s the truth makes me pause for a minute. I will do anything to have the life I should have had, not the one that was forced on me because my father couldn’t face up to having me.

  “Ok then, but what’s in it for me? I mean, I have to go behind Damien’s back to do this.” His voice shows some sorrow. I know I’m asking a lot from him to go against my brother, but it’s time to make a stand. He can’t have the happy ever after and still be in this life if he isn’t fully committed to it. That’s the one thing I do know about my brother; yes, he goes through the motions and we have to deal with shit every day, but the only time he ever has fire in his belly about this life is when Faith or Anya are involved. Most of the time he does it half-heartedly because he has to, not because he wants to.

  “I will find out what happened to your wife, that’s a promise, and I won’t make you wait. I can assure you that as soon as we are set up and stable, we will find out what happened and then do everything we can to make it right.” I know what it’s like not to have closure on something so I feel his pain, and it must be even harder for him because he has his daughter to think about as well. That can’t be easy on any parent. I only know this because my mum had to make so many of the same choices regarding my father.

  “You’re right, you know. I have jumped through so many hoops for him in the hope that he would make a start, but it was never going to happen soon. So, what I’m tryin
g to tell you is get yourself some rest because you’re going to need it.”

  He makes his way towards the stairs. I guess he’s going to bed now. I lay myself down on the couch, getting myself comfy in what will be my home for the foreseeable future. I feel a sense of relief knowing I have at least one person willing to stand with me. I just hope it’s all worth it in the end.

  I pull over the throw, wrapping my body in its warmth. It’s not cold, but nothing beats the feeling of security, knowing nothing can get to you.

  Pulling out my phone, I scroll down to Emma’s number. It’s late and she probably won’t reply, but I have to try. I can’t not see her, or keep wondering how she is doing. It will just end up driving me crazy, more than I am already.

  Alek: I know you don’t really want to hear from me right now, but I just wanted to let you know I’m with Vlad and I’m safe. Things are looking up. I promise I won’t gamble again. You probably don’t want to hear this, but it’s you that’s going to get me through this…x

  I must have typed and retyped it four times before I hit send. But once I do, I instantly wish I could recall it and add more.

  Emma: What do you mean?

  The ping of her reply catches me off guard. I didn’t expect a response so soon, or even one at all. I answer her before I have a chance to doubt my words.

  Alek: Can we meet and I will tell you everything? Don’t shut me out, Em. X

  Emma: I’m not looking after the kids tomorrow. Meet me in the village park at noon. I will say I’m going for a walk, but I won’t have long. This is your only chance! Don’t fuck it up.