Hotbox (77 page)

The other thing was the color all
around
the house. The place was very nicely landscaped, and there were endless amounts of
spring
flowers in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Although I had never known her to do much gardening, I knew she had done a little bit of work at her father’s house. But when he wouldn’t let her plant more than just a few flowers (taking away the
“
manly charm
”
of the residence) she insisted her own home would someday be chockfull of flowers—as ma
ny as she wanted. This home definitely had Jayden’s touch.

My
passenger door opened and I nearly had a heart attack. I had been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed Kenny parked behind me. His look was unpleasant, and I instantly remembered that I had not only disobeyed an order, but I had also hung up on the boss.

He wedged his elbow against the windowsill and leaned his
temple
onto
his iron fist
. He watched me from this position for quite a while until I looked into his dark eyes, and glanced over his permanently scarred cheekbones.

Finally he shook his head. “Ty, what are you doing, kid?” his deep voice questioned.

I didn’t know if it was because of Kenny’s occupation, or just that it really
was similar
, but
he sounded exactly like Rocky Balboa. Kenny had even recited several lines from the movies, causing us—on the rare occasion there wasn’t someone around to ruin our
fun—to laugh our butts off
as he
box
ed
and act
ed
out some of his favorite scenes.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

He sighed. “You know you screwed up, right?”

I swallowed. “Yeah, I know.”

He was silent for a long moment. “You hung up on him?” he asked with disbelief. Then he
chuckled
and shook his head. “Ty… You gotta get a grip.”

“I know.”

“Well? What’re you
doin
’ here? What’re you gonna do? You gonna go see her?” he motioned with his head. “You gonna knock on her door and say, ‘I’m back, but I’m still the same
dumbass
,
puttin
’ your life in danger.
’
”
He shook his head. “Come on, Ty. Don’t be an idiot.”

He was absolutely right, but his honesty made me want to argue. “So what if I did? What if I just got out of the car, walked over to her house, and knocked on the door? Would you stop me?”

“No.”

“Then what are you doing here? Tallying up my stupidity to make the punishment more severe?
Waiting for me to make the
ultimate
screw up
instead of just
thinking
about it?
I guarantee I’m suffering enough. There isn’t anything you can do to me to make my life worse.”

“Now you’re
talkin
’ stupid. Listen to yourself. You know who we’r
e dealing with? Now I know you ‘n’
the boss have a special relationship ‘n
’
all, but get real Ty. Why would you risk her life again?”

I swallowed and stared ahead through the windshield. “I’m going crazy, Kenny,” I said through clenched teeth. “I can’t take this anymore.”

“Just do as you’re
told
and things will turn out
.”

I sighed a very heavy sigh, but the weight of the world I carried was
just too much
and I stuck my face into my hand. I rubbed my eyes with my finger
s
, trying to make the moisture disappear. I heard Kenny sigh beside me, and then his hand
somewhat
gently gripped the back of my neck.

“Come
on, kid,” he said softly. “
Things’l
l
look up. I- I don’t know when
but…you just need to go home, okay?
You can’t be seen
around here
.”

I
grunted
. “It’s a little late for that. He already knows I’m here.
You’re
here, right? –To make sure I’m punished just to please Dean and—”

“We’re not protecting you from Dean!” he bellowed.

I flinched at the strength of his voice, but before I could respond, he cussed at me and shook his head.

“Only you, Ty. You’re the only one that makes me break the rules,” he growled
, still shaking his head
. He
cursed
again and looked right at me. “It isn’t Dean that we’re protecting you from. Sure he thinks it’s that
way, but we needed him to do some work for us
.
But something happened, Ty. I don’t know what, but something has really pissed off some of
Kristof’s
enemies. All I know is that we’ve all been put on high alert—all of us associated with
Kristof
. That also means you, Ty.
They could be
looking for you, too.
And you know how this works. H
urt ‘
em
where it counts, right? If they know you’ve got yourself a pretty little thing like her,” he nodded ahead, “you won’t know what
sufferin
’ is until they’re through with her. You knock this off, Ty. You get out o
f here, do you understand? G
et the hell out of here!”

The blood must have drained out of my body because I felt dead at that moment. I felt lifeless as Kenny’s warnin
g cinched me up without a fight
and dropped me into an open grave. That’s what all of this was about? Olevsky’s war was moving in on our own turf? He was protecting
us
from a rival mafia?
But
why me
? I wasn’t even a player in
his
organization
. Why would anyone care anything about me?

Kenny grabb
ed my face rather roughly and made me look at him. “Ty. Jayden is safe, okay?
You
are safe—well, at least you
were
—so get out of here and let me take care of this, al
l
right?”

I nodded my head—at least I think I did—and Kenny got out of the car. I started the engine and flipped a u-turn, heading out the way I came in. I wasn’t even sure
how
I came in, so I just started driving. I
finally
found the freeway a half an hour later, and
drove
north.

Chapter Forty-Two

I
didn’t forge
t a word
that
Kenny
said because our conversation repeated in my mind, over and over. My father wasn’t the least bit surprised when I told him what I had done. It worried him, and he was thankful nothing happened to me, but instead of chastising me for my stupidity, he carefully listened to what Kenny told me.

“Meinikov,” he replied softly.

“Huh?”

“Aleksey Meinikov.
Kristof’s
very
bitter rival.”

I stared at my father with
surprise
, unaware that he held this knowledge. He cleared his throat and sat back against the couch.

“Meinikov and Olevsky used to be business partners back in Russia,” he continued. “From what I’ve heard, they were pretty close, almost like brothers. I have no idea what happened between them, only that it was so severe
,
they both wanted each other dead. If you think Olevsky is a wicked man…” He shook his head and scoffed. “Meinikov
would torture his own mother
and enjoy it
.”

I glowered at the thought, but at the same time, I was carefully trying to fit more of the puzzle pieces together.

“So…do you think Meinikov is actually over here? And Olevsky is over there? What are they doing, seeing how many
people
they ca
n massacre on each other’s home field
?”

“No, I don’t thi
nk so.
If
Meinikov is
intent on doing some dama
ge, c
ertain p
eople will start disappearing—key figures, ones that would really make a statement.
I’m sure
Olevsky’s
employees hav
e scattered, even though
his
organization really is pretty
covert
. He’s created quite the cloak-and-dagger operation. He’s one of the best. If people are being targeted, I guarantee there has been some major deception going on behind his back. Few are capable of doing such a thing.
I have no doubt that Olevsky is in Russia because he has the best possible protection. He would remain in the safest place he could be, which I’m sure he owns several estates that
would assure such protection…
”

Suddenly m
y father’s face seemed to turn slightly pale.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

He swallowed. “Uh, well…”

“Dad? What is it?”

“That’s why he wants you there? To protect you?” He seemed to be asking me if it was true.

I sighed. “I have no idea. He just…claimed he could enlighten me on a few things. I have no clue what that means.”

“I don’t understand, Ty. Guys like us are a dime a dozen. We don’t hold any significant weight within the organization. Yeah, if you’re talking about guys like Dean or Kenny, or maybe one of Olevsky’s other key operatives—which, by the way, I don’t know most of them—then I can see why they’d have cause to worry. But you and me… We’re pretty low on the pole.
”

We were both quiet for a moment before I
reverted the subject.
“How do you know about Meinikov? I’ve never even heard of him.”

My dad shrugged. “When you’ve been around this for a while, you tend to learn things you don’t want to know.”

I silently agreed. There
were
plenty of
things I didn’t want to know.

“Besides,” he continued, “you may already have known, you just didn’t
realize
it at the time. Did
Kristof
e
ver mention anything about the ‘
great and dreadful day?’
”

It did sound familiar and I ever so slightly nodded my head. I always thought he was talking about the end of the world.

“It’s his term for when he finally faces Meinikov.
He compares it to the Two B
rothers, except in my opinion… T
here is no Savior in this account.”

I was reading scriptures later that night, particularly Revelations. My skin was actually crawling just at the thought of such devastation wrought upon the earth. The last few months had brought me a greater understanding of God, and being that I was sort of a researcher by hobby
from
since I could read, I had completely turned my world upside down to get a better knowledge of things I didn’t know.
I felt helpless in my current situation, and since no one around me could help, I decided that maybe God really was the
only
one to turn to.

I
continued to ponder religion more often, even attending church with my dad. Somehow I felt like I was doing Jayden a favor, and I hoped that I could some day share my experiences with her. I even read scriptures daily and prayed a lot. I didn’t know if it helped me at all, and I really didn’t know if there was anyone even listening to me, but I guess I felt like
someone
had been watching out for me over the years.

I was working in the shop on a Saturday afternoon
the second week in
May
. Kent had been there most of the day, but he took off at four o’clock and asked me to lock up when I was done.
Cole
was there
as we
ll, the
guy that Kent had hired just after he hired me
.
Cole
was a pretty quiet guy; he never spoke to me unless it had to do with the work we were doing. I was a little surprised when we were cleaning up the shop to leave and he asked if I wanted to go get something to eat with him.

“Uh,
s
ure, that sounds good,” I replied.

He nodded without expression, stripped off his coveralls, and began cleaning up at the sink. When we got in his truck I expected to at least be give
n a decent conversation. After
month
s
of working together this guy had never struck up so much
as a casual exchange with me. I thought this was his way of making an effort, b
ut he still didn’t say anything.