Betraying The Bratva King

Landing in Paris

She was in Paris. Every single one of her nerve endings were zapping as if she were being electrocuted. Evander had confirmed there was no arrest warrant ever issued for her. Nobody in Lyon or Paris had even reported her absence to the police. There also had not been any charges laid against her sister in France either.

Her sister, according to Evander’s research, had gotten arrested in London, England, three months after Briar had disappeared. He’d given her a full file of the articles. Sully had gotten hooked up with another powerful man while in London. It turned out he was the leader of a local gang of criminals, and she had been present when he’d murdered an undercover cop. She was an accessory to murder and was doing twenty years in prison as a result and was now halfway through her sentencing. Her testimony had included her refusing to cooperate, lying on the stand, and professing bluntly she loved the leader and was ready to go to prison for him.

She felt badly for her sister’s imprisonment yet wondered how it was she’d managed to get away from Liev without punishment from him. She shuddered with the thought. Thinking of him while being in the same country where he had once brought her was causing her skin to itch uncomfortably. With luck, he was on one of his many trips out of the country he used to take or at his estate in Lyon and would never know she had stepped foot on the continent. She grunted at herself to get her s**t together and to focus on the kids she was supervising.

She gave a nervous breath as she collected her luggage and regarded the excited group of teenagers bouncing all around them. She noted Dante appeared overwhelmed and she pulled her pitch whistle from her pocket and blew it quickly, deciding it was hilarious how quickly the kids all moved to stand together in a group and immediately simmered down.

“Now I have your attention,” she made wide eyes, “I expect you to keep tight. You all have your partners with you. Grab your bags and then move to the pillar over there,” she nodded her head in the direction where Evander was leaning with his back against the post. “Wait with Mr. Westbrook and Mrs. Charlton and we will do another head count. If you leave this group, I’ll confine you to your room at the hotel. If you think I won’t, you are wrong. I’m not playing,” she gave a pointed glance at one of the guys who rolled his eyes, “I’m not. Also, for any of you who don’t remember, may I remind you I am very experienced in the world of sneaking out and doing stupid crap. I have forgotten more than most of you will ever learn. Do not for one minute, think anything you are planning, plotting, or intending to do is anything which I haven’t already tried and completed successfully. I know your every move, ladies, and gentlemen. Do not make me embarrass you by beating you at your own game. If any of you doubt my skills, please have a very real conversation with Ms. Dylan and Ms. Snider about what happened when we went to nationals in Washington.”

Casey Dylan, a redheaded teenager with bright green eyes grinned, “I still can’t figure out how you managed to be inside the club waiting for us.”

“It was creepy as eff,” Shayla shivered. “She was there with that damn whistle.”

Briar noted Evander’s chuckle behind the group and smirked back. “Get your bags and get in place. We have to go meet our ride to the hotel.”

“Where are we having dinner tonight, Ms. Rose?” one of the boys asked. “I’m starving.”

She looked to him with a smile, “you’re always starving. We have dinner at seven at the hotel in the restaurant there.”

“Can we have wine?”

“Nope.”

“Please?”

“Definitely not.”

“But it’s legal here.”

“Let me remind you of what I said before we left Baltimore,” she looked around the group. “The rules of Maryland apply to you when we travel. I don’t care if we are visiting Mars and they feed infants whisky in their bottles with a chaser of meth. There will be no drinking, no drugs, no s*x. I’m not going back to Maryland with pregnant, hungover, and high students. Keep it clean.”

“No s*x?” The same boy whined, “what if I meet the French woman of my dreams?”

“She will most assuredly not feel the same way, Dwayne, so no worries there,” she cut him to the quick.

Dante laughed as the young man pretended to be hurt by her words, “enough you horny and hungry example of a stereotypical teenager. Get the bags before she decides to put us all on lockdown and the rules end up applying to me too.”

The group groaned as they realized they were not going to get her to bend any rules. This was of course why the parents had insisted she accompany the teenagers. She noted her last bag on the carousel, grabbed it and then moved to stand next to Evander. “They hate me already but there isn’t one of them worth getting fired over.” She grinned at him when he gave a bark of laughter. Over the last two weeks she’d had multiple conversations with the man and was becoming comfortable with him.

“I assure you, Briar, I agree completely.” He motioned to her bag. “Do you need help with it?”

“No but thank you.” She looked around, “it might be quicker if I grab a trolley or two and have the kids all stack their luggage onto them. It might allow us to move quicker through the airport.” She looked around, “think you can keep an eye on them and Dante while I scout out a couple of trolleys?”

“Of course.”

She made her way beyond the carousels of baggage to where the buggies for luggage were stacked and she attempted to grab two of them. Swiveling them around she almost struck another airport visitor with one of them and she gave a gasp. “Oh, so sorry.”

“It’s okay. No harm done.” The woman said kindly.

Briar nodded at her and then stopped as the beautiful brunette stood in front of her and stared at her curiously. “Can I help you?”

“You are familiar to me.” The woman’s thick French accent was riveting as she stared at Briar with dark curious eyes.

“Sorry. Just one of those faces,” she shrugged. She had never seen this woman before, and she was good with faces. One of the things her parents and sister had drilled into her most of her youth was never forget a face.

“No. No. I know you.”

“I am not from here, so I doubt it. I’m American.”

“American.” The woman frowned.

“A teacher,” she motioned to the kids who were all getting noisier by the second. “Will you excuse me? My charges are a bit excited to be in a foreign country.”

“Of course, but I,” the woman was still staring at her as Briar walked away.

“Are you okay?” Evander met her to grab a trolley. “Who was she?”

“I have no clue,” she shrugged.

“She’s still staring.”

“Let her stare. I don’t know her from a hole in the wall. She is not familiar to me at all.”

“You’re certain.”

“Hundred percent,” she meant it. She didn’t know the woman but when Evander commented she was still staring at Briar she looked over her shoulder and noted the woman was indeed still watching her. She frowned as the woman held up a finger and tapped her chin as she studied Briar hard. She shifted her train of thought. She didn’t know this woman and it wasn’t worth getting worked up over. She already had a lot on her mind with worrying about Liev finding out she was in Europe. She took a breath and then blew her whistle. “Ladies and gentlemen, load up your bags and when your bag is on a trolley, step aside and go with Dante.”

Dante gave a whistle and a flourish of his hand, “I want you in formation beside me. First person to my right can choose a song.”

Peyton bustled her bag fast and raced to push past Dwayne, sending him flying. She lifted her fingers up at him, “too slow, sucker!” She jumped and landed next to Dante. Immediately she looked at him and belted out “First I was afraid, I was petrified, kept thinking I could never live without you by my side.”

Briar chuckled as Dwayne grumbled and joined in to sing, I will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, his growly voice a stark contrast to the warm honey tones of Peyton’s. Part of her and Dante keeping the kids in line was allowing them to sing almost anywhere they went. Music of their choice was permitted, so long as, depending on the audience, it was cuss-word free. Most places didn’t seem to care if a bunch of teenagers were singing while standing part of a choir, which these kids were.

Only once had they gotten into trouble when they’d been accused of busking where none was permitted until both she and Dante confirmed for the officer, no money was accepted by any student. They were simply singing to pass the time while they waited. The officer had taken a collection at his precinct and sent it to the school.

She gave a snort of laughter as Casey stepped into the song and began a medley of the tempo from what the duo were singing to merge it with It’s Raining Men. She and Evander pushed the trolleys towards the waiting bus which would take them to the hotel as the students filtered in lines of two behind them, half singing I Will Survive and the other singing It’s Raining Men and Briar couldn’t help but laugh when one of the young men of the choir, a rough fella named Eric always decked out in leather and who drove a motorcycle everywhere he went at home, took over the lead of It’s Raining Men putting on a performance which made Dante applaud loudly.

“I think he’s doing that to throw me off,” Evander grunted at her as they approached the bus.

“Why’s that?” She met his eyes laughing.

“Because if he’s singing of men falling from the sky with the vehemence he is, I won’t notice he’s the one my daughter keeps trying to sneak off with.” Evander shook his head. “Why she likes the bad ones, I’ll never know.”

“Could be worse than him,” Briar gave a half-shrug. “She could be like Dwayne and be here to find love. She could be off with a Parisian man who will ply her with the best of red wine, baguettes, and cheese and then she won’t want to come home with you.”

He knocked her hip with his, “not funny. I’m expecting you to keep the Parisian men away from my little girl.”

“Mm,” she chuckled, “don’t worry. I know all their tricks.”

“How do you know so many tricks?”

“Sully,” she shrugged at him, finding it nice to have someone who knew her past. “We snuck me into so many clubs and out of so many situations it bordered ridiculous but also, Sully had a best friend when we lived in New York. I watched them sneaking in and out of the house a lot. They would lie to say they were at each other’s house. My parents were strict with Sully because they wanted to sell her innocence and she did the same with me. I learned a lot from them. She also kept me on lockdown a lot because she was protecting her own investment.”

“Well, use your power for good not evil, would you?” He laughed loudly and then gave a grunt. “The lady is still watching you. She followed us out here and she’s watching you. I even think she might have taken a photograph of you.”

“Maybe she thinks I’m famous,” Briar tossed her hair over her shoulder feigning indifference. “I really don’t know her at all. A spy from another choir maybe?” Competitions could be brutal.

“Not from your sister’s mess? You’re sure?”

“No. I met maybe ten people the entire time I was there other than security and then his immediate family and best friend. When he had guests in, I was usually by the pool or in my room. I don’t think anyone even knew he was married let alone had his wife’s kid sister on the premises. Nobody other than his security team or his parents knew we existed. I’m sure of it so if she knows me it is unlikely to be from him.”

“You really think it’s simply she thinks she knows you?”

“Yeah. I mean I really don’t know her at all.” She looked back to the woman who, as Evander stated, was staring at her intently. She boldly waved goodbye and the woman didn’t seem fazed at all. She turned back to Evander. “She’s really odd.”

“She’s definitely a local,” he commented as the brunette spoke in French feet from them.

“Which is another reason why I’m sure I don’t know her.”

“Why?”

“Because my brother-in-law was Russian, not French.”

“What?” He frowned at her in confusion. “Russian?”

“Yeah. He brought us to France because Sully said she had always wanted to visit France and as the mother of his child, she was given whatever she wanted. His main home was split between Moscow and Saint Petersburg though he also spent a lot of time in London and New York.”

“Huh,” he scratched his temple as he appeared even more perplexed. “I presumed he was French. Look at me being a lawyer who forgot to ask the most basic of questions.”

She met his eyes as they loaded the bags into the bottom of the bus and the kids got aboard, “it didn’t even dawn on me it was important. It’s not important, is it?”

“No. The only thing we needed to know was whether you are in any data base here in Europe and you’re not.”

“Good. Then let’s get these hoodlums off the street and get to the hotel.”

As she looked over her shoulder, she noted the brunette who had been watching her was now walking away without further look in their direction. Briar watched as the woman walked to the far end of the sidewalk and climbed into a black car. As the car passed by, Briar watched it, but the woman didn’t even spare another glance and she breathed a sigh of relief. It had to be mistaken identity.

The large squeals of laughter as one of the kids tripped over a bag and landed on his ass, distracted her from the thoughts and she pushed it to the back of her mind. A week. She was here a week, and she could do this.