Page 2 of Merciless Wager
“She’s here in Boston,” Cillian added.
“Ahh.” It now made sense. “And you want me to make her disappear?”
Again, they exchanged a look between themselves. Cillian cleared his throat before responding. “We actually want to dangle her in front of him. Leon’s empire has been crumbling for years, and he not only needs the protection of the Bratva, but he also needs money, and lots of it. They’re willing to pay a lot for the girl.”
“Which family is it?” I’d done a lot of research on the Bratva as a whole and had even had some run-ins of my own with them over the years.
“Bocharov,” Kingston said. “And Ekaterina’s father had clashed with them over the years, so she knows the lengths they will go to in order to get what they want. They intend to use the Sicilian girl as a wife for one of the sons. Once the union takes place, their alliance will be in effect, and all hell will rain down on us.”
“And you know this as a fact?” I had to ask.
“Yes. They’re extremely dangerous. More to us than Barganella and his organization.”
“They want the girl, so I’ll make sure that neither gets her,” I responded.
“Not exactly. Our use for her will be decided soon,” Cillian said.
“Okay. You got a name for me?” I asked them.
“Aurora Winslow. She’s twenty-four... a labor and delivery nurse at Mass General... lives in Cambridge... graduated from BU.... has no children... and is in a relationship with her college sweetheart, Drake Smythe,” Cillian provided.
“Tensions are escalating between Barganella’s organization and ours, and they can absolutely not have the Bocharov empire on their side as well. We cannot allow another massacre like those in the past in New York, Cleveland, and even here in Boston. We need to get our hands on her, then draw Barganella out of his fortress so we can make them both disappear.”
“Why do the Bocharovs want her that badly? If the Barganellas are experiencing hardships, what do they have to offer the Russians?”
“Mainly legacy. Their bloodline is dwindling, and like our own grandfather and your great-grandfather, they are desperate to produce heirs.”
“I’m sure there are other Russian families with women for them,” I said.
“They want to expand their own empire, which is why they’re willing to get into bed with the Sicilians. We have a lot of resources tied up on the Southern coast of Italy, so we can’t allow Leon Barganella and his empire to expand.”
“I’ll get the girl,” I told them both.
“We knew you would. My brother would be very proud of the man you’ve become,” Kingston told me, referencing my father, Princeton.
I just hoped he was right, because I’d never once met my father as he’d died before my birth. I’d been fed glowing tales about him during my youth, so it’d been quite the surprise when I realized the reason he’d been on that street that night. He’d dishonored the Brannington name, but I’d erase that shame one of these days. This would go a long way in doing so, at least where other Irish were concerned.
I’d spent the next hour talking to the other men before they left. Once they did, I forgot about the fight I had tonight. It was one of the few things I truly enjoyed in life. Feeling as if I were always under someone else’s thumb, unchecked violence I couldadminister brought me a certain level of control, and it allowed me to unleash this never ending wave of frustration inside of me that only got deeper with each day that passed. All that would have to wait tonight though because I needed to find out everything I could on my target—Aurora Winslow. A beautiful woman whose life now had an expiration date.
“October’s weather is shaping up to be a mixed bag as Halloween grows near. We’ll see a combination of cool, crisp evenings with breezy, but warm, afternoons. There’ll be some occasional rain rolling in this weekend, and a few of these storms will bring heavy rainfall...”
I rolled my eyes at the forecaster as he droned on about the weather. Halloween was a little over a week away, and I had already picked out my costume for this year. Well, costumes. I would naturally have one for work at the hospital, and another for the costume party that our college friends from Boston University threw every year. This was one of my favorite times of the year, and I could feel the excitement building within me.
I loved the cooler weather, including snow. Born and raised in New England, there was nothing more beautiful than the leaf colors in Autumn, warm apple cider, and snowboarding in the winter. And Boston came alive for the holidays. The hospital even sponsored a window in one of the storefronts that visitors and residents alike flocked to each year.
Despite my love for the drop in temperatures, I naturally stayed cold from October through March. A lot of it was due to my barely controlled iron-deficient anemia and Raynaud’s syndrome. While annoying, it was controllable. I just had to make sure to bundle up when outside and keep my condo warm.
And I loved the location of my condo, including the unit itself. It was located in Cambridge, and not too far from the hospital and all the hotspots I frequented with my friends and boyfriend. Drake. We’d met when we were freshmen, but by our sophomore year of college, we’d become an item and had been ever since.
Drake was still in medical school, while I was already practicing nursing at Massachusetts General. Once he completed this final year, he would do his residency, then come to the same hospital where we would work together. It was the final step before living together, and once that happened, there would be nothing stopping us from getting married and starting the family we had always talked about.
My cell phone rang and I snatched it up off the table. I was only slightly disappointed that it wasn’t Drake, but I was still somewhat happy at the sight of my bestie’s name on the home screen.
“Hey,” I said to her as soon as I answered.
“You about ready, Rory?” Braelynn asked.
“I am. I’ll meet you outside.”
