Nicolai

It's Sutton's wedding day.

There's something so fundamentally wrong with that sentence. Sutton shouldn't be having a wedding that doesn't include me. The fact that she's being forced to walk down the aisle with someone else when we're in love has to be the worst form of torture possible.

And that I can't seem to find a goddamn way to stop it is worse.

I tuck my crisp black shirt into my tuxedo pants, zipping and buttoning them before selecting a tie—black of course. This entire outfit is black because this isn't a wedding.

This is more like a funeral.

I've combed through those documents Sutton found in her father's office at least ten times, googled Jason's name, Xavier's name, Wicked Sins, and different combinations of the three, but have come up with nothing. Nothing that will make Sutton basically fuck her father over. No matter what he's done, she still won't give him up to the people he's indebted to. Not unless I found a smoking gun that she couldn't ignore.

And I haven't. I've fucking failed her.

Again.

The least I can do is be there to torture myself with the pain of seeing her tie herself to Jason Kincaid. I deserve that.

***

I'm parking my car behind the cathedral when my phone dings in my pocket. I pull it out to see a text from an unknown number.

I know you've been looking for something. I have the information you need. Meet me in the park across from Saint John's in five minutes.

What the fuck? My head jerks up and I look around, trying to spot the person who's clearly watching me right now. Who the hell would be texting me like this, and do I trust them?

I check my watch. I have thirty minutes before the wedding is scheduled to begin, and I have no idea what this person's intentions are. What if I go over there and they club me over the fucking head?

I lay my hand over my .22 hidden underneath my tuxedo jacket.

No problem. I think I can take them out first.

My phone dings again.

Hurry up, the wedding starts in 29 minutes. This isn't information you're going to want to sit on.

Fuck. I don't waste another second to think; I lock my car and jog across the street to the park, keeping an eye on my surroundings as I walk down the pathway. It's quiet as death in here, and I'm surprised it isn't busier at this time of day.

My phone beeps.

Keep walking. Gazebo near the pond.

I can't help but feel a little creeped out by this person watching me and I have no idea who they are and what they want. It dawns on me that this is how Sutton must have felt back when she was being followed. And then to know it was Jason. And now he's getting to have her. He won. Fuck, it makes me sick.

"Nicolai."

Hearing my name from such a familiar, soothing, paternal voice shocks me to my core for a moment, and I have to shake off my shock before I fully realize who it belongs to.

Anthony Banks.

"Srangje, Anthony," I say, and before I can even give it a second thought, I rush over to him and pull him into a tight bear hug.

He chuckles and returns the embrace, patting me twice on the back. "Nicolai, my boy. It's good to see you too," he says before pulling back, looking me in the eyes while gripping my biceps. "Are you okay?"

I shake my head and don't even bother lying. "Not even a little bit. Everything is so fucked up."

"It is and it has been for a long time. You have to stop her from marrying Jason, Nicolai."

"How did you know it was today?"

"Dom. When I answered her call that day and we talked, she told me the date. And I knew I had to try and help you stop it if you hadn't already. I was hoping you had so I wouldn't have to get involved." He kicks at a rock on the ground in front of him. "Fuck, I don't want to get involved."

I roll my lips between my teeth and inhale, attempting to quell the emotion rising in my chest. "I know. But how can I stop it? I've tried to find anything, any proof of something heinous Jason and Xavier are doing that will make Sutton abandon ship, but you know how loyal she is to her family. She thinks she has to do this to play her part in getting her dad out of debt."

He cocks his head to the side. "Did she never wonder why I left? No one was more loyal to my big brother than I was."

"She definitely wonders where you are and I know she wishes she had gotten to say goodbye. I don't know if it's dawned on her that it must have been difficult for you to leave too."

He scoffs. "It wasn't difficult. At this point, I hate Xavier. But it was definitely not what was expected of the Captain's brother."

"What was your title, anyway? I don't think I ever knew."

"I should've been his Second," he says, and there's bitterness there. I can tell it's not fresh, it's not something he still dwells on, but it's something that's been buried down deep for a long time. "But I was technically just an Associate." Another scoff. "I suppose I still am. There's really no getting out. I just left the city."

"You were an Associate?" I ask incredulously. "How is that possible?"

"Jason fucking Kincaid. That's how it's possible. I used to be the Second. He didn't want me involved in any of the decision making. He talked Xavier into every single possible way of demoting me. If there was a bullshit rule he could find to indict me on, he did it. Even if he had to make shit up. He took my power away little by little until there was nothing left. Eventually, he turned my own brother against me. I didn't always hate Xavier, but Jason made that happen."

"Jesus Christ," I mutter.

"And then how Xavier handled Pamela's death... that was a fucking joke. Poor Sutton, she thought for years she had done something wrong," Anthony adds, and I see red all over again.

"You know it was Jason who checked her out of rehab the last time, right?"

Anthony nods once. "Does Sutton know?"

"She knows about her mom now. She knows how she died. And that Xavier lied about everything. And she suspects about Jason but doesn't know for sure. She was devastated."

"Well, I've got something else that shows how evil they both are," Anthony says, stepping closer to me. "And if this doesn't make Sutton call this whole thing off, then I don't know what will."

"What?" My heart races, foolish hope rising in my chest.

"That ring they're running? I know you guys thought it was a weapons ring. It's not. That would be less dangerous."

"It's a drug ring," I say. "I figured as much. But why would that—"

"It's not just any drug ring, Nicolai. It's heroin. Laced with fentanyl."

"Wh—what?" I stammer, stunned into silence as I stare at him with my mouth agape.

"You heard me."

"But—his wife—Sutton's mother—she died. She overdosed on that drug. It's nothing but poison. Why would—they can't know it's laced, right?" I'm blabbering, yammering on and on because if I keep talking, it can't be true, they can't be that horrible.

"Of course they know it's laced. In fact, it's preferred. They can make it more potent for cheaper, and in some cases, they can even pass it off as counterfeit opioids. That's what they were starting to experiment with before I left. I couldn't take it anymore. It made me sick to watch," Anthony says, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair.

My head is spinning. Xavier and Jason are selling fentanyl. Knowingly. At levels that could kill someone. Hell, they probably already have.

Wait.

"Anthony, how long have they been running this ring?"

"They were running drugs when you worked for the Ring, Nicolai," he says with a shrewd expression on his face.

"How long have they been running the fentanyl ring?" I ask again. "It didn't just start in the past few months, did it?"

Anthony shakes his head. "The meeting you and Ezra listened in on was just Jason and Xavier getting more sectors involved. Making it bigger. That's what this phase is about. Making even more money."

"How. Long?"

"Jason and Xavier started dabbling with fentanyl when Sutton was about, oh... thirteen years old," Anthony says, his bright blue eyes trained on mine, and when he ever so slightly cocks his head to the side, I know he's confirming my worst fear.

One of them gave Pamela the fentanyl that ended up killing her.

"Jesus fuck," I curse, running my fingers through my hair and gripping it at the roots. "Which one?"

"Xavier. But Jason and Pamela were shooting up together that day. Pamela just happened to get the tainted batch."

"What a couple of fucking assholes. I can't let her marry him, Anthony."

"No. You can't." He checks his watch. "I figure you have about fifteen minutes left to stop it. Do you think this is enough for her to leave the loyalty behind?"

I nod slowly. "Fuck yes."

He presses something into my palm and closes my fingers over it. "Then go get her."