Milena had a brother, Micah. We’d met once when he was giving Nick some shit at a bar, and I put myself in the middle of it. I might have taken him out that night, but Nick didn’t want me to go after him. Ou
t of respect, I didn’t, but he was still on my kill roll. I had planned to discuss it with Rinaldo before taking any further action but hadn’t gotten around to it before I went off the deep end. If I couldn’t get into Greco’s organization directly, maybe I could get in through the Russians.
It was the best option I had at the moment.
I picked up my phone and selected one of the contacts.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, Eddie-boy,” I said, “it’s Arden.”
“Hey, LT,” a sleepy Eddie-boy replied. “You know it’s three in the morning, right?”
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“No you aren’t,” he replied. “What can I do ya for?”
“Micah Severinov. I need contact info.”
Eddie-boy, the communications expert deployed with me in Iraq, was my key information guy outside of Rinaldo’s organization. He had come in handy on several occasions. He was military-loyal through and through, though he didn’t have much love for the law or the government. As his former commanding officer, he would have done anything for me.
“In Chicago?”
“Yeah.”
“No problem.”
He called back just a few minutes later with an address and cell phone number, and I wired him some cash.
“Hey, LT—you doin’ all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Oh.” There was a long pause. “I just heard…well, I heard you had a little trouble.”
“All a misunderstanding,” I told him. “Now the guys across the street know not to have such a loud fucking garage door.”
Eddie-boy laughed and hung up.
Now I had to figure out how to approach the guy and what to do with Lia while I was taking care of business. Unlike Odin, I didn’t think she’d be too happy with the idea of going to a boarding facility.
I snickered to myself at the thought.
Still, she needed to be close to me but not too close. Trent still knew exactly where I was, and I was going to have to change our living space for a lot of reasons. Rinaldo owned the building I lived in, and once he got wind of what I was doing, the apartment I’d lived in for the last couple of years was going to become a warzone.
I switched from looking at people’s information to looking at apartments for rent. There were actually a few decent options with nice, open balconies with good, tactical views of the surrounding area. I also checked into those that would have a good view for Lia because she wasn’t going to be able to go out much—too dangerous. I wrote down a couple addresses to check out the next day.
Odin snuffed and sneezed all over my boot then looked up at me expectantly. As soon as I started going toward the leash, he started running around in a circle by the door. I paused for a minute, not sure if leaving Lia asleep and alone was the best of ideas, but Odin hadn’t been out for a while, and I didn’t want to wake her. I’d only be in the park behind the building.
I snapped the leash onto Odin’s collar and quietly closed the door. I made sure it was bolted before heading to the elevator and down to Lake Shore East Park.
As soon as I walked into the green area, I glanced around a little to see if anyone was nearby. It was the middle of the night and no one was out, but I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone would recognize me as the guy who shot up the place a month ago if they did see me. There weren’t any other people or dogs in the dog run, so at least I wasn’t going to meet up with the woman with the terrier I tried to shoot.
I took off Odin’s leash and watched him run around, sniff, and water the trees. He took a big dump right in the middle of the place, which I cleaned up with one of the plastic baggies from a dispenser on the fence before I sat back on the bench and lit a cigarette. I cradled the glowing tip against my palm to keep it less visible.
Being in the same area where I’d lost my shit not all that long ago felt odd, to say the least. My nerves were frayed, and I kept glancing all around me like I was waiting for enemies to pop out from behind one of the bushes and start firing. It was similar to the way I felt before the doctors at the military hospital put me on medication, and I didn’t like it at all.
I pulled my gun out of my shoulder holster and checked that there was a bullet in the firing chamber before putting it back.