Chapter Nineteen

It was a real good thing Seth had been so determined to cut his painkillers down. If he’d been going through withdrawal right now, this situation would really suck.

Outside the shack, a new round of arguing in fast, fluent Serbian had begun. He could only assume the Corovic brothers had finally arrived on scene.

The Russian girl had failed to put the bag over his head again while she was giving him water. Maybe next time she could accidentally loosen some of the zip ties strapping his arms to this lawn chair he’d been left in.

Without the bag, Seth could see that he was sitting on a dirt floor in a wooden shack. The air smelled faintly like stale beer and bird shit, and random pieces of wood and litter were scattered all over beneath his feet.

He was pretty sure he’d been held overnight. He’d nodded off a couple times with the bag over his head, and sun was shining through the cracks in the walls.

If he had to guess, Seth would say he’d been taken up to an old mine somewhere high above Canyon Bluffs.

That was mistake number one. Old mines were relatively easy to find on maps and access by logging roads. They were prime party spots for kids with dirt bikes, and the Park Service patrolled them pretty regularly to keep the eyes of the law on everybody.

Mistake number two was bringing the Russian girls along. They weren’t really contributing to whatever was going on here, other than making sure Seth stayed more or less alive and intact.  They were getting whinier and whinier as the morning wore on. Seth couldn’t figure out what it was they were pissed off about, but he could make a few educated guesses. This was a long way from the mall, and it was liable to get everyone involved in deep trouble with the law.

Mistake number three was trying to get anybody in Seth’s family to do business by phone.

The Corovic nephews had at least been smart enough to bring Seth up to a place that was well out of cell phone range. Mikhail kept having to go down to a spot that had service, make a few angry calls, and then come back to bitch at his brother about their plan.

As far as Seth could tell, Yuri was in favor of just shooting Seth and getting out of town. They’d overestimated the generosity of the Novak family, they weren’t going to get anything they wanted, and they would be better off trying to cozy up to the Scorpions.

Mikhail, though, was not willing to let this thing go. Every time he got back from trying to negotiate with Seth’s family, he sounded more and more infuriated. His honor was at stake here, and he kept bringing up their uncle and some kind of inheritance.

Now, that was the part that Seth wasn’t quite understanding. So far in his acquaintance with the Corovic clan, it had seemed like the uncle said, ”jump” and the nephews didn’t even have the standing to ask how high. Seth had kind of assumed that everything they did, they did with his explicit blessing.

From what he was parsing of the brothers’ arguments though, it didn’t really seem like they’d filled him in on this little kidnapping situation. If that was the case, then that would be mistake number four.

***

The sun was still shining when one of Seth’s kidnappers came into the shack with Yulia. The big bald guy held an impressive semiautomatic rifle; Yulia had a gas station ham sandwich and a box cutter. She freed Seth’s arms, and the bald guy kept his gun trained on Seth’s head.

Seth’s shoulders had never felt as good in his entire life as they did now, stretching from one side to the other.

The bald guy jabbed his rifle barrel forward. “Eat,” he said.

“Give me a second,” Seth said. “Jesus.” His captors had left the door open, and Seth could see that he was indeed in an old wooden building with beer cans and cigarette packets strewn on the floor. He could see other mine buildings through the doorway—this looked like the Callahan Claim—but it could have also been any of half a dozen old mines around these parts.

Yulia thrust the sandwich at him, and Seth took it. Chalky white bread and imitation cheese had never tasted so good. The sandwich was gone within seconds, and Seth would have eaten three more if he’d been given the chance.

“You got something to drink?” he said.

“Later,” the bald guy said. “Mikhail is coming back with one of your brothers.”

Seth grinned. “Is he, now?” he said. He knew that this was going to be over before shit got really bad. These clowns could play tough all they wanted; they hadn’t come prepared to deal with the Double Eagles, and it was about to show in a big way.

He didn’t fight or fuss as the bald guy tied him back to the chair with yet more zip ties. The only thing he needed to do right now was wait.

***

It was a few hours, by Seth’s best estimate, when the rumble of engines came back up the winding road. The sun was still shining, but the light had become cold and grey. Most likely the sun had dipped behind one of the hills close by to the west.

When the engines cut off, Seth could hear Cody’s voice arguing with the Corovic brothers. The argument cut out as their footsteps came closer to Seth’s prison.

Someone flung the door open; Seth had to squint for a second while his eyes adjusted to the light.

“Here he is,” Yuri said. “Alive and no harm done.”

“Afternoon, brother,” Seth said.

“How the hell did you get yourself into this?” Cody said. He was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face.

“I was trying to make things right,” Seth said.

“Like hell you were,” Cody said. “You’re turning into a goddamn liability for this Club, you know that?”

“I didn’t know I was the one getting us involved with a trafficking operation,” Seth said. “That’s not our way.”

“I don’t think it’s gotten through your head yet, Seth,” Cody said. “You don’t really get a say in ‘our way’ anymore.” He shook his head. “I think you’re coming to take our good humor for granted, here, and I’m getting a little sick of bailing your loudmouth ass out of bullshit you shouldn’t be involved with.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Seth said.

“Your days as an Enforcer are over,” Cody said. “And getting you out of this mess is not my first priority right now.”

“You can say what you want,” Seth said, “but I’ll be your goddamn brother until the day I die.”

“Maybe you should have put loyalty to your family first when you were getting into this situation,” Cody said. “You got another one of us put in the hospital, and the family’s gonna want payback for that.”

“Payback from who?” Seth said.

“We’ll see,” Cody said. “In the meantime, these motherfuckers are going to keep you unharmed as long as we don’t come for any of theirs.”

“Wait, what the fuck,” Seth said. “You’re just going to leave me here?”

“You can’t get anybody else killed from here, is the way I see it,” Cody said. “Whatever happens from here on out is your own goddamn fault.” He turned his back and walked away from the shed.

“You son of a bitch!” Seth said. “That’s the lowest of the low, betraying your own fucking family!”

Cody didn’t even slow his stride. The bald guy slammed the door on Seth, leaving him in darkness to process what had just happened to him.

***

He fell asleep in fits and starts a while after the sun set, and then only into an uneasy sleep. He didn’t even get into the part where he started having nightmares. He got stuck with those bizarre, visceral dreams you get when you’re just falling asleep, where you’re doing something and suddenly you slip and fall and your whole body jerks awake.

The jerking awake part wasn’t fun in Seth’s current state.

His chair was still set in the middle of the room he was in, so he didn’t really have anywhere to rest his head while he fell asleep. He kept drifting in and out of consciousness, not really sure which things he was dreaming and which things were happening to him in real life.

So, when he felt someone shaking him by the arm, it took him a while to respond.

“Mr. Novak,” a girl was saying. “Mr. Novak, it’s me, it’s Masha. Mr. Novak, are you awake?”

Eventually, Seth figured out that he needed to respond if he wanted it to stop.

“Yeah?” he said. “Yeah, what’s…”

“I got you some, uh, some shit.” The thin, bright light of a phone flashlight illuminated Masha’s thin form. She was holding out some blue-speckled pills in one thin hand.

“Aww, thanks,” Seth said. “I’ll take one.” Hell, he may as well take all three of them and take a chance on throwing up all over himself. Being a grown-up about his pain medication so far hadn’t gotten him anywhere. Maybe he ought to try living like his Aunt Tracey, see if his family would start bailing him out then.

“Are you sure?” Masha said. “It’s my...it’s my stash, yeah?”

“Hold on.” Seth looked at the pills in this girl’s hand. Something about this scene wasn’t quite clicking, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. A weird, dark feeling came over him. He shook his head. “Hold on,” he said. “Something’s not right.”

“They will kill you in the morning,” Masha said. Her voice was panicked and trembling enough that Seth could tell she was dead serious. “Yuri is sick of waiting.”

“No, I know that,” Seth said. “I mean something’s…” He shook his head. “Do you hear that?”

In his stressed-out and half-asleep state, it took Seth a good part of a minute to figure out what he was hearing. He’d gotten sort of used to the sound of motorcycle engines heading up and down the roads here.

“That’s a truck,” he said.

“I’m sorry?” Masha said.

“Ssh.” Seth shook his head and turned an ear toward the door. Gas motor. Shit bouncing in a metal truck bed.

“Take my pills, okay?” Masha said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Outside the shack, he heard gravel flying as someone ran toward them. Yulia was breathless as she ducked into the shed, dressed in skimpy pajamas with cartoon characters on them.

She whispered something frantic in Russian to Masha, crouching like a hunted animal.

Masha did a double-take between Yulia and Seth.

“Oh-kay,” she said. “Now I see.” She pocketed her pills and stood up. She was using her phone flashlight to scan the ground for something while Yulia kept up her panicked whispering.

“What are you doing?” Seth said.

“Someone called cops,” Masha said. “We cut you free and get out of here, yeah?”

“Cops?” Seth said. “For real?” That weird, nails-on-a-chalkboard feeling was weighing on his mind here. It wasn’t really worry as much as the sense that something wasn’t adding up. If the cops were here, who called them? And why were they coming up in a truck?

“Here!” Masha picked up a piece of tin and started working on the zip ties. “We have to leave. We have warrants.”

“Of course you do,” Seth said. “Prostitution?”

Masha shook her head. “Drugs,” she said.

“That was going to be my second guess,” Seth said. He strained his arm to help the girl out sawing him free. “Why are you sticking around to help me, then?”

“Because this is, how you say,” Masha said. “Dirty.” She nodded at Seth.

“Yeah,” Seth said. “This whole deal is pretty fucking dirty.”

Truth be told, getting shot in the head by the Corovic brothers was a simple, relatively easy end to the situation. He didn’t know what the fuck he was going to do if he survived this, especially if the cops wound up being his rescuers here.

Wait, did Cody have something to gain by calling the cops himself? Was Seth getting set up to be framed as a snitch?

Yulia ducked out of the shack, and then back in. “Hurry!” she said. “People are coming…”

Both girls shrieked at the sound of a pistol firing and an automatic rifle returning the favor.

“Shit!” Seth said. Instinct made him struggle against his bonds, like there was anything he could do once he got out of them. “Fuck!”

“I’m sorry,” Masha said. She was still sawing at the zip ties like a trooper. “So sorry, so sorry…”

Outside the shack, all hell was breaking loose. People were screaming at each other in three and a half different languages in between bursts of gunfire.

“This ain’t cops,” Seth said.

“Huh?” Masha said.

“Keep cutting,” Seth said. “Cops don’t operate like this.” His heart was racing. He didn’t want to say it out loud in case it jinxed the situation, but the image was there in his head: Cody had come after all, and he’d brought the cavalry.

He realized he was grinning into the darkness. Maybe there was something up Cody’s sleeve, some evil genius plan that required him to make a show of turning his back on his own brother. Maybe the Corovic boys had just started living through a nightmare of their own making.

Whatever was happening, Seth wasn’t going to ask questions about it. As long as he was out of this shack, away from these psychopaths, and back with his family, he’d be happy to shut the fuck up and take orders for at least the next week.

“Go, motherfucker!”

That wasn’t Cody’s voice. Actually, that sounded like Jessica’s voice. More gunshots, and the sound of a heavy vehicle rumbling up toward the shack.

“I’m in here!” Seth said, raising his voice as loud as it could get. “They got me tied up!”

Someone was screaming in a language Seth didn’t speak. It sounded pretty bad. He could hear heavy footsteps running up to the shack, and the door burst open.

Even with the light of Masha’s phone flashlight illuminating his form, it took Seth a couple of seconds to comprehend that Pete was standing in front of him.

“You’re alive!” Pete said, rushing forward with a knife in one hand. “Holy shit.”

“Here, they got my arms and my legs,” Seth said. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” Pete said. He went to work quickly with the knife, holding Seth’s legs steady while he cut the restraints away. “Also, I, uh, I think I might have hit someone with that truck.”