A Silent Reckoning: Sinner's Empire Read online

  I won’t be coming home, Jozef signed. When I’m released, I’ll be moving to the club.

  Jozef referred to the building he owned in Prague where the club was located. An old five-story brick and concrete structure in the heart of the downtown sector. Prior to his imprisonment he’d used the non-club floors for meetings and storage. After his imprisonment, knowing he couldn’t go back to the Koba estate, he’d ordered Havel to overhaul the top floors as both work and living space. As far as he knew, he had an apartment ready and waiting for him in Prague.

  Jozef pushed away from the table and stood. Let Havel know how much you spent greasing the authorities. The money will be transferred back to you tomorrow. Don’t bother sending a car. I’ll find my own way.

  Jozef turned to leave.

  “Jozef Koba!” Krystoff snapped, also rising from the table, his chair clattering as he shoved it back. “This is ridiculous. You’re imagining this vendetta. Not a single member of our family would have betrayed you. Please come home, your aunt has been distraught.”

  Jozef turned back to face his uncle. Find the person who poisoned my woman and we’ll talk. Until then, I’m removing myself from your organization. You can keep your business in the city, I will take the international contracts.

  “Generous of you,” Krystoff couldn’t keep the sarcasm from his voice.

  I don’t wish to go to war.

  “Then don’t,” Krystoff growled. “Don’t splinter everything we’ve worked for.”

  Jozef wanted to point out that most of what the Kobas had came from the work of Jozef and his team. Instead, he said, I will have to maintain a few legitimate businesses in Prague for appearances. Other than those, you can keep Prague.

  “You can’t walk away from us, Jozef,” Krystoff growled, frustrated with Jozef’s refusal to compromise. “We’re family. You don’t leave family for a piece of ass.”

  Jozef tensed, the breath freezing in his lungs. He forced every muscle in his body to lock so he wouldn’t end his uncle’s life in a fit of rage. He was closer to the edge than he’d ever been. Jozef was the picture of control in every situation, but when it came to Shaun, he was on the razor’s edge of slaughtering every single person in between him and her.

  He turned to face his uncle.

  You don’t speak of her again, understand? His blazing eyes must’ve alerted Krystoff that the feral dog was about to go offleash. A threat to her is a threat to me.

  Krystoff nodded and reassured Jozef, “I care about the girl too, son. She helped my grandson when he was injured and was kind to every member of our family while residing with us. This isn’t about her, it’s about your position in my organization. You can’t give it up.”

  Jozef didn’t bother speaking. His silent why echoed through the room louder than a clap of thunder.

  “You’ll lose everything.” Krystoff spoke quickly, desperately. “Not just the family, but the money, the prestige, the power.”

  Jozef laughed, the sound cool and unpleasant. His face quickly straightened. The difference between us, is that I never cared about the prestige and power. I only cared about my family. I would have given my life for any member of the Koba family, but you tried to take someone I love more than any amount of money.

  “So that’s it,” Krystoff demanded. “You go your own way now, to hell with the people who took you in and raised you?”

  Jozef stalked back to the table, pointing at his uncle, then at his throat, touching his finger to the scar marring his flesh. Whoever did this was trying to steal my voice without killing me. Who would want to do such a thing, Uncle? Who would want to kill the parents and leave the child, voiceless but alive? I can think of only one person.

  Krystoff drew his eyebrows downward in a thunderous frown. “Now you go too far. I grieved for my brother, for both of your parents. I took you into my home and raised you as my own.”

  Despite Krystoff’s protests, Jozef noticed his uncle didn’t deny the charge.

  Then tell me what happened the night my parents died. You’ve only ever told me an enemy killed them and somehow you managed to rescue me before I could be killed too, but not before I was disfigured. What happened?

  “I’ve told you what happened. An enemy of your father’s killed your parents and tried to kill you too.” Krystoff shook his head. “I don’t know why you’re rehashing history. This has nothing to do with us. We took you in, we raised you into the man you’ve become, a strong and powerful enforcer. Don’t throw it all away, son.”

  Jozef thought over what he was doing, what he was giving up. As the Koba’s enforcer he had unlimited resources and power. What his uncle didn’t know was that, while still loyal to the Kobas, Jozef had been quietly building his own empire. He’d never been quite sure why but had chalked up his desire to become financially and emotionally independent after the loss of his parents. Now he wondered if it had more to do with a subconscious mistrust of the family who had taken him in.

  I’m sorry, uncle. I’m not ungrateful for the sacrifices you’ve made for me over the years. My love for you, my aunt, and my cousins remains intact. If you wish to invite me to your home strictly as family, then I will come. But we are no longer business associates.

  Krystoff’s shoulders slumped and he nodded. “So be it. I’ll cut you loose, as you wish. But if you ever need an ally, you must come to us. We will always have your back, son.”

  Perhaps he was being too harsh. These were the people who’d raised him. They nurtured and loved him, learned sign language for him and backed his ambitions. Perhaps he should reconsider his position.

  Shaun’s face filled his imagination. He could remember every detail, from the flawless ebony skin to the arched eyebrows, expressive golden eyes and quick-to-smile lips. Even in the worst of circumstances, she’d been able to find happiness. They’d been happy together… sometimes.

  Jozef hadn’t known happiness until Shaun. He would do anything to hold on to that feeling. Including cutting his family off.

  Without looking at his uncle, Jozef banged on the door and left.

  Chapter Two

  “Move the light about an inch to my left and tilt 45 degrees.” Shaun lifted her shoulder to catch a bead of sweat pooling against her neck, then rolled her shoulders to ease the strain.

  Shaun and her team had been in surgery for three hours working to remove a glioblastoma from a 62-year-old female patient. There was an estimated three more hours left in the surgery. They would take a ten-minute break to drink something and walk off the muscular tension before returning to surgery. The surgery itself wasn’t complex for someone of Shaun’s experience, but she had to be incredibly careful not to do any damage while removing the mass from her patient’s brain.

  Doctor Olivia King, one of the resident surgeons moved the light as requested, then glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Fifteen minutes until break.”

  Shaun blinked several times and took a few deep breaths before easing the scalpel back into her patient’s brain. “Make it twenty and we should be able to remove the larger section before break.”

  They worked for exactly twenty more minutes until Shaun felt her patient was stable enough to be left. Stepping back, she spoke to her team. “Ten minutes then scrub back in.” She glanced at her anesthesiologist, one of the best in the country. “You good without a break?”

  He nodded. “We’ll be fine, she’s doing great. Go work the kinks out and we’ll get this finished.”

  Shaun smiled gratefully behind her surgical goggles and backed out of the operating room. She removed her gloves, goggles and mask and tossed them in the hazardous materials disposal bin. She would have to start over fresh, but it was worth getting a few minutes of fresh air after a long surgery.

  Shaun headed for the nearest exit, flexing her fingers to ease the stiffness. It didn’t matter how many surgeries she did, nervous tension always wracked her body. She managed to push the emotion aside until her job was completed, but the stiffness always got to
her after.

  She pushed her way through the exit and stepped out into the cool Montréal afternoon. Her mother greeted her on the other side with a wry look and a smile. She extended the lunch bag she was holding, and Shaun took it with a grateful smile. Since Shaun’s return to the city, Fatima had made it her mission to stalk her daughter. She wanted to be as close to Shaun as she could, calling often throughout the day and spending most nights in the guest room of Shaun’s townhouse.

  Shaun had to admit that her mother’s vigilance was a balm to her soul. She’d been so screwed up after returning home from Prague that she hadn’t been able to leave the house for weeks. It had been Fatima’s patient, unquestioning, undemanding care that had pulled Shaun through her fear and depression. Gradually the nightmares subsided, and, after a few months, life returned to normal. Or as close as it was going to get.

  They’d had one discussion about Jozef, which had gone so badly they hadn’t spoken about him since.

  Fatima didn’t understand why Shaun refused to testify against him. She thought Shaun was being selfish by not wanting to help put a killer in prison.

  Shaun had argued that she wasn’t needed to help put Jozef in prison, that there was plenty of evidence. She’d lied and told her mother she couldn’t stomach going back to Prague for the court appearance.

  The truth was that Shaun couldn’t handle the thought of being a party to imprisoning Jozef. He’d been her lover…. they had been in love with each other. Maybe she was selfish, maybe she was a monster, but she couldn’t be the final nail in his coffin. She couldn’t think of him as a murderer, even though she’d seen it with her own eyes. The real Jozef was a blend of intense lover and hardened killer who felt remorse for the lives he took.

  “I was starting to get worried,” Fatima admitted as she sank onto the concrete step next to Shaun, who was pulling a sandwich out of the lunch bag.

  “It’s a complicated surgery. I couldn’t leave until I was sure the patient was stable.” Shaun took a big bite out of the pastrami sandwich and chewed hungrily. She’d lost her appetite for months after returning home and had lost enough weight to worry her mother and colleagues. Lately, she’d been eating and sleeping better, though she still had bad days.

  Fatima sighed and nodded. “I know, and you were only a few minutes late. I just worry about you.”

  Of course Shaun knew her mother worried, which was why she hadn’t gotten impatient with Fatima’s overbearing mothering.

  “Thanks, mom.” She grinned at her mother and finished her sandwich as fast as she could, her mind on her incomplete operation. Surgeries, especially the complex ones, consumed her completely. Obsessed her mind. She loved pulling her patients from the brink of death and giving them a new lease on life.

  Wiping her hands together to get rid of the crumbs, Shaun stood up, handing the bag back to her mother.

  Fatima shook her head. “There are some carrots and a pudding cup in there. Keep it and eat after the operation. I’m sure you’ll want to stay until the patient wakes up, and who knows how long that might take. Bring the bag home with you.”

  Shaun thanked her mother, gave her a quick hug and flashed her hospital identification card over the metal reader. The door lock clicked open and Shaun went back into the hospital. As she strode down the corridor, her mind back in the OR, she nearly ran headfirst into a man walking toward her. Barely glancing up, Shaun murmured an apology and stepped around the man.

  Then his scent hit her; leather mixed with Jozef’s brand of aftershave. She looked over her shoulder and saw a tall man, around Jozef’s height, with dark hair, a leather jacket, jeans and boots, striding away from her. She froze, her heart taking flight and her body going into a cold sweat. Dread and anticipation slammed into her, stealing her breath.

  He made it to the end of the hall before she was able to find her voice. “Jozef!” she called out.

  Without pausing, the stranger walked through the door she’d come in and out into the cool afternoon. She stared, battling the urge to run after him. To look into his face and assure herself that it wasn’t Jozef in the hospital, in Montréal, Canada. How could it be? He was in prison, somewhere in the Czech Republic.

  Slowly, she turned away and walked down the hall towards the OR, her thoughts on the mystery man. She knew it wasn’t Jozef. Her mind had been playing tricks on her since she felt safe enough to resume her old life. Whenever she left the house, she felt as though someone was following her, watching her. When she looked up, she saw Jozef. Everywhere she went she saw him. Standing in line at the grocery store, sitting in the waiting room at her dentist’s office, even once at a playground while she was playing with her cousin’s children. Every time she stepped foot in the hospital, she saw him. Whenever she picked up an implement in the operating room, she would turn her head to the side, expecting to see the barrel of a gun.

  Of course, it was never Jozef. Her counsellor assured her that the hallucinations were normal. They were a manifestation of her fears. Her fear of being kidnapped again, held at gunpoint, forced to take part in a sham engagement. The counsellor was partly right. Shaun feared all those things, but what she feared most was never seeing Jozef again. Her heart had broken when she’d opened her eyes to strangers in the hospital in Prague.

  The first word out of her mouth had been his name. That was when she’d discovered the men surrounding her were police.

  “You’re safe now, ma’am,” one had kindly reassured her, touching her arm. She’d jerked it away, still confused and upset. “Jozef Koba has been arrested. You won’t have to see him again.”

  Over the following week, Shaun had been reunited with her mother and forced to answer question after question. She’d been too upset by the poisoning and Jozef’s arrest to pay much attention to what was going on around her. Thankfully, the hospital staff had become protective of Shaun once they realized she was the missing doctor from Luhansk. They kept the investigators at bay and allowed only the guests Shaun wanted to see into her hospital room.

  Knowing she wouldn’t be able to leave the country unless she made some kind of statement about her ordeal, Shaun had sat down with the two lead investigators and given them a statement. She’d told them everything that she could remember surrounding her kidnapping from the hospital and the murder of Danilo Melnychuk. Though guilt ate at her, she couldn’t do Danilo the injustice of lying. Her heart might belong to a killer, but she could still tell right from wrong.

  Though the police officers were happy with her statement regarding the actual kidnapping, they were less happy when it came to her lack of details about the Koba family. This was the only time Shaun had lied. She told them the truth about her engagement to Jozef but refused to tell them that her cooperation was forced. She also refused to give any details about the family. Though the entire Koba clan had certainly been complicit in her kidnapping, they were not involved in Danilo’s murder, which meant she could protect them by muddying the truth of her time with them.

  She told the men pressuring her into giving up more details, that she’d been locked in a room for almost her entire stay with Jozef. She hadn’t known where she was, and she never saw single member of his family. Only Jozef. None of it was true.

  Shaun played the Stockholm card. She didn’t go overboard by professing her love, but she allowed the police to think a bond had formed between Shaun and Jozef due to the shared experience and his care of her. They tried to keep her for questioning, even going so far as to ask for her passport, for safekeeping they said. Shaun knew better. She knew it was time to leave the country.

  Her saviour had come in the form of an unlikely source.

  Havel had met her outside of the hotel where Fatima was staying. He’d opened the door to one of the family’s black SUVs and stood silently until she got in. Shaun had halfway expected to find Jozef, but the vehicle was empty except for the driver. Havel got in beside her.

  Shaun stiffened and reached for the other door. Havel terrified her more tha
n any other member of the Koba organization. He was big, gruff and liked his weapons way too much. He’d argued with Jozef when Jozef had hesitated in killing her. He’d called her a ‘job’ and Shaun hadn’t been able to bring herself to forgive him, though he was completely loyal to Jozef, and wouldn’t harm her unless ordered to by Jozef. This fact didn’t make Shaun feel any less uneasy in his presence.

  Havel put his hand on her arm to stop her from climbing out of the car. He wasn’t exactly restraining her, but silently asking her to stay. Shaun took a deep breath and turned to Havel, asking him the one thing she’d been dying to ask since waking up in the hospital and finding out she’d been poisoned.

  “How is Jozef?”

  She’d found out he’d been in prison for a week, having been arrested at the hospital.

  “He’ll be fine,” Havel assured her, then his gaze sharpened, and he added, “You know he did it for you?”

  Shaun nodded. “I figured it out. Taking me to the hospital was a risk. He had to have known I’d be recognized and he’d be linked to the kidnapping.”

  Havel’s shoulders seemed to relax. “Smart girl.”

  “Doctor,” Shaun automatically corrected. “Do you think he’ll actually be convicted?”

  Havel dipped his big bald head in a nod. “Yes. Interpol has become involved and they’ve been salivating over him for years. He travels, works on a global level, which makes him more exposed to authorities.”

  Shaun’s stomach took a dive at hearing that Jozef would likely do hard time. She quickly ran her fingers under her eyes, drying them before the tears could fall. Now was the time for strength, not falling apart. She would do that when she got home.

  “Is there anything I can do?” she asked.