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“Klive Simpson is the name that Brewster Pushkin gave us as the leader of their little pack,” I answered. “There are twenty of them and have no ties to Kotov. In fact, they’re a hodgepodge of misfits for the most part. They’re dealing in drugs and guns, but nothing big. Before I cut out his tongue, Brewster also mentioned that Klive wanted to dabble in the skin trade, so that’s why they’d been checking out our docks.” I shrugged. “They sound like a bunch of hotheads, though with nothing to lose at this point.”
Nero looked pensive. “That doesn’t make any sense.” I just smirked. “There’s not a criminal or upstanding citizen in the city of Port Townsend that doesn’t know how things work here. In fact, most every powerful person in the state knows who pulls the strings around here, so why pick a state or city that is already controlled by other organizations?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” I agreed.
“And you’re sure that he wasn’t tied to Kotov?”
I nodded. “Avgust would never have someone so weak in his organization.”
Nero grabbed his cigarettes from his pocket. “There has to be more to it,” he murmured. “There are three separate outfits ruling the state of Maryland, even if we operate out of Port Townsend. There has to be another reason that they’re here. Twenty men aren’t going to unseat the Irish, the Russians, or us. Plus, I understand wanting access to our ports, but why not pick a smaller city, then work their way over after they’ve recruited a few more people?”
“I already have Morocco looking into everything with Brewster Pushkin’s name on it,” I informed him. “Klive Simpson as well.”
“Did Pushkin say where they were hiding out?”
I shook my head. “Surprisingly, that’s the one thing that I couldn’t get out of him. He just kept saying that they stayed wherever they could.”
Nero lit his cigarette, then inhaled before asking, “So, what about Savina? What’s the plan?”
As much as I’d been trying, I couldn’t get her words out of my head. “If you take away my chance to stare him in the face while I get my revenge, then I’m always going to be his victim, Aurelio.” As someone that understood revenge well, I’d be a hypocrite to argue against her need to get even with that sonofabitch. Nevertheless, the man in me couldn’t allow her to get anywhere near him ever again. Knowing that he had abused her in the worst ways, he shouldn’t ever be close enough to her to even share the same air.
“She wants to go back and kill him herself,” I answered.
“Understandable.”
“She’s even planning something, though I have no idea what.”
Nero arched a brow. “You need to put a guard on her,” he said, not saying anything that I didn’t already know. “If she goes rogue, then she can create bigger problems.”
I eyed my best friend. “She told me that she will always be his victim if I take away her only chance to face him as she gets her revenge.”
“She’s not wrong.”
“What would you do?”
A deep look appeared in his eyes as he thought about his wife, something that always happened whenever Kasen was on his mind, and then he said, “I’d find another way to help her heal.”
I nodded, knowing his answer would match mine. After all, we weren’t best friends for nothing. Nero and I were close because we were both like-minded, though our executions might differ a bit. Nonetheless, we both knew that there was no way that I’d be able to live with myself if Ashton ever got near Savina again, and that was the priority here. I’d be good to no one if guilt ended up leading me to put a bullet through my head.
“Set up a meeting with The O’Brien,” I said. “I don’t want to wait any longer.”
Nero gave me a terse nod. “Not a problem.”
Eyeing him some more, I asked, “How did you do it? Hell, how do you still deal with it?”
Nero snorted, knowing exactly what I was referring to. “What makes you think that I’m dealing with it?”
That got a grin out of me. “Well, before Kasen got pregnant, you allowed her to go back to work and have a life,” I pointed out. “I’m just wondering how you managed it.”
“By reminding myself every hour of every day that I need to put her happiness above mine, or else I’ll lose her,” he answered.
“She’d never divorce you,” I reminded him.
“You can lose someone way before divorce even enters the picture,” he replied evenly. “Kasen threatened to withhold her love from me once, and that one time was more than enough for me to figure out a way to make it work.” That look came into his eyes again. “I’ll suffer every fucking day if it means that she won’t be.”
“Savina’s going to hate me,” I remarked truthfully.
“For a while, maybe,” he replied. “But Savina’s not a stupid girl. She’ll eventually want to choose happiness, and she’ll know that the only way to do that is to move on.”
