Andrei
It had been a whirlwind of a few hours. I tried to drive north, but I couldn’t find them, so I gathered all of my men together and then sent most out to scavenge the city. I wanted Kelly found, and I wanted her found yesterday.
Then I called Aleksey. He didn’t answer — which wasn’t a surprise. He normally didn’t, not when he was undercover like he was now, seducing Vasilev’s daughter. But I called him back again and again until he finally did answer.
“What’s up?” he asked in that slow, lazy way of his that told me he had just finished seducing the daughter yet again.
“I need you,” I snapped.
“At the house?”
“No. Our normal meet up.” I hung up. I couldn’t stand to be behind these walls another second. I left my servants and Lucas strict orders to call me if Kelly returned and to not leave the premises. Then I called up another one of my men and sent him to join Kelly’s mother. I felt better if she had another bodyguard on hard, just in case.
This is all on me. All of me. I never should have told her about killing that guy. Not unless I wanted to tell her everything.
It didn’t take a genius to realize she had wanted to leave me, and I couldn’t blame her. A few times, I had considered telling her everything, all about my past, all about my present, all about my desire for revenge, but I hadn’t wanted to be that open.
Why?
Because of fear. I didn’t think there was any way she would want to stay with me if she knew the truth. I was a mob boss, heavily involved with fights and gambling. It wasn’t a glamorous life, but it was my life. It was also a dangerous life. I wanted to keep her separate, to keep her safe. But mostly, I just wanted to keep her. I wanted her.
This was new — this feeling of wanting and needing another person. After losing my parents, my family, I had closed myself off to people. Other than Dima and Aleksey, I didn’t let people in. Not even them, not fully, and not the rest of my men either. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to get hurt again. I didn’t want to feel helpless. I didn’t want to accept that I needed others.
But I did. I needed my men to help me find the one I needed most of all — Kelly..
Would I be able to save them both — Kelly and her mom? And the baby Kelly was carrying, too?
Life used to be so uncomplicated, back before Vasilev resurfaced, when I had no cares, no worries, and access to any woman I wanted.
Did I want to go back to those carefree days?
No.
I rushed to my car and drove to our meet-up spot. Every month, I changed it to a new one. Couldn’t be too careful in this business, though my not being careful with my mouth was what got us into this mess in the first place.
When I freed Kelly, I’d kill every last one of Vasilev’s men and then him, too, and be done with the lot of them. Then I’d sit Kelly down and…what? Tell her everything? I wouldn’t even blame her if she wanted nothing to do with me, and if that were the case…I’d let her go. With my child. I’d provide for them both, without a doubt, and it would kill me to do it, but I would step aside. I would never force Kelly to stick by my side. Next chance I got — once she was safe, of course — I’d rip up the contract.
It took me much longer to reach the meet up point than I would’ve liked. Traffic conspired against me. Fuck, it felt like the entire world was conspiring against me.
As soon as I pulled into the vacant lot at the back of a bunch of foreclosures on the south side of the city, I knew something was up. I had a small scar near my ear from a knife fight when I was sixteen and had been too big for my britches. An older guy held me down and cut me with his pocketknife. In the end, I managed to knock the knife away and pin him in a wrestling move. Didn’t threaten him at all, just claimed his knife as my own. The scar he left behind often itched when danger was afoot, and it had happened too many times with eerie accuracy, enough to make it a legit warning system for me.
The scar was itching now, almost burning in intensity.
The feeling and my apprehension grew as I climbed out of my car. Aleksey’s car was parked a little farther back, and I rushed over. Why wasn’t he getting out of his car?
I rounded the car to his side, and that’s when I discovered why.
Aleksey was dead. A gory, bloody death. Around his neck was a rope and tied to it was a note.
Another body will be delivered if you don’t give up the search.
The search for Kelly? Or the search to discover the real motive for Vasilev’s return to my town?
My cell rang. No number popped up. Blocked call.
With a grimace, I answered. “Yes?” I asked tersely.
“I take it you got my message.”
Mikhail Vasilev. I might not have heard his voice in years, but it was instantly recognizable — guttural, low, insanely deep.
“What the fuck—”
“Listen to me,” he barked. “We have your girlfriend. Your pregnant girlfriend. I know you will do anything to have your precious heir. Heard about your little offer about finding a woman to bang until you knocked her up. Your desperation reeks, little Petrov. I can smell it from here. How badly do you want your whore and your heir?”
I was seething mad, practically foaming at the mouth. Before I could lay into him with a long and bitter foul-mouthed tirade, he started to laugh, the sound grating and irritating me to no end.
“Either you get me ten million,” Vasilev added, “or your whore and your baby will die.”
And he hung up.