Beautiful Russian Monster, page 23
“I managed to put someone on the boat, but they couldn’t find it. There are over nine hundred containers on that ship. They didn’t know where to start looking. That’s when we decided to work with Blaire.”
“Why did you think Blaire could help?”
“We squeezed the captain pretty hard, and suddenly he admitted that the grandfather said that if something went wrong, Blaire would show up. But we weren’t sure he wasn’t just saying that to get us off his case. Regardless, it was a lead we were willing to pursue.”
I shook my head. “You know, this is why people have a healthy distrust of the government. What a complete fuck-up.”
“We made a tactical error when we sent the grandfather in alone to get the USB drive back when he was in Manila. And since it was blowing up in our face, we could afford no paper trails. We needed to send Blaire in with a skilled individual who could make it happen. You should know that your reputation—as one of the best in the business—precedes you.”
“I’ve left that life behind.”
“Sometimes that life doesn’t let us leave.”
This prick was getting on my nerves. “Who has the grandfather?”
He looked regretful. “We think the broker figured out, in part, what was going on. They still want that information—so they took the old man for leverage.”
“Why not just go get the grandfather yourself? He knows where he hid the flash drive.”
“At first, we weren’t sure where he was or even if he was alive. We decided to focus our resources on retrieving the data ourselves.”
“You realize that your logic and strategy are so flawed it’s almost laughable.”
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t know why you are complaining—this all worked out.”
“Who has the grandfather now?”
“The broker contracted his capture out to a third party. A particularly vicious group is holding him down at an old canning factory near the Ballantyne Pier building.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “He’s in Vancouver?”
“I found out recently that he’s been here since before you left.”
I shook my head in disgust. “You could have saved him.”
He seemed genuinely confused. “Why do you care so much about him?”
This whole situation disgusted me, reminding me of why I had left this world. “When are you sending in a team to extract him?”
He shook his head. “Nice try, but we didn’t get sign-off. Upper management doesn’t want any part of this stink trailing back to them.”
“Fucking cowards. How much time do I have?”
He shrugged. “Two hours? Maybe three? And then I think the gig will be up. Our mole will be arrested, and the broker will know the deal is over.”
I yanked off the chain around my neck and tossed it at him. It held the flash drive. “The sniper that followed us never made a move. Is he one of yours?”
His mouth tightened. “That’s classified.”
“What can you tell me about him?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
His body jerked in a familiar way before he was knocked practically off his feet. A second later, the piercing sound of a bullet whizzed by my ear.
I dove to the ground, rolling behind a large wooden box. Around me, Drake’s men shouted. Gunfire lit up the building, and the sound was so deafening it sounded like thunder.
I crawled on the ground and grabbed Drake’s coat collar, pulling him along the ground until he was out of the sniper’s scope.
He was wheezing pretty badly. “How bad is it?”
I covered his chest wound with both my hands, but I could feel his lifeblood spurt out with each pump of his dying heart. “Hang in there, Drake.”
He reached up and pulled me closer to his face. “I have a cat. I don’t want her going to a shelter.”
“Don’t you have any friends?”
He stared at me with fading eyes. “You’re my friend, remember?”
I fucking hated cats. “What’s her name?”
His voice was a near mumble. “Beatrice… She likes having her chin scratched. She needs a lot of cuddles.”
I gritted my teeth. “Okay.”
He wasn’t looking too good; he started to wheeze. “Now the sniper is here for you, not the USB drive.”
“What?” I leaned in closer. I could smell the mint of his breath mingled with the sharp coppery smell of his blood.
“You’re the one the sniper is hunting. Word is he’s gone rogue, and he won’t stop. Not until he’s done with you.”
“Why is he after me?”
“Because of Beirut,” he gasped on his dying breath, and then he was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
BLAIRE
I waited in that house for two agonizingly long hours, staring out the front picture window while my thoughts tortured me. Was Viktor safe? Would he come back okay? Would Drake keep his word and tell him where my grandfather was? Now that we were back in Vancouver, I had an overwhelming urge to contact my grandmother, but my role was to wait.
The car appeared in the driveway, and then I heard the sound of the garage door open.
I raced to the hallway. I could hear a car door slam, and then the door swung open. Viktor, who seemed larger than life, stepped into the hallway.
The relief of seeing him alive and safe nearly made my knees buckle. I started toward him, but he held up a hand.
“Don’t touch me.”
There was something in his voice that made me stop. “What’s wrong?”
He refused to answer my question and instead moved past me and disappeared upstairs.
I slowly followed him. He hadn’t shut the door, and he was standing in the bathroom staring into the mirror. His expression looked so weary. When I moved to the entrance to watch him, he started to strip off his clothes.
He pulled off his shirt and dropped it to the floor. My hands covered my mouth when I realized that his chest and arms were stained with dark blood.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. Between the blood and his own bruises and scratches, he looked like something out of a slasher movie.
He gave me a hard look. “It’s not my blood.”
“Whose blood is it?”
“Drake’s.”
What the hell happened? Did something go wrong with the exchange? What did he find out about my grandfather? Did he kill Drake? I tried to remain neutral. “I see.”
He sounded grumpy. “I didn’t kill him.”
“Okay.” That didn’t explain why he had come back literally covered in another man’s blood. I didn’t know how someone could lose that much blood and still survive.
Still wearing his pants, he reached into the shower and turned it on. With the bruises on his ribs, he looked like he belonged in a hospital. I couldn’t imagine how much he was hurting.
I needed to know what happened. “Is Drake going to be okay?”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t killed. I just said I wasn’t the one to do it.”
Just when things were starting to feel normal, crazy shit derailed my reality. I struggled to hold on to the facts and not just ride my emotional response. “Drake is dead?”
“Yes.”
Oh my god, what about my grandfather? Stay calm. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“He told me where your grandfather is.”
“Is he…?” I couldn’t bring myself to ask if he was also dead.
“He’s being held in Vancouver, but we need to go get him. We don’t have a lot of time.”
I could feel my heart thud heavily in my chest. “He’s alive?”
“For now.”
All the breath escaped out of me. “Oh, thank god. What about the USB drive?”
“I gave it to Drake’s men.”
“What can I do?”
“I’ve got some friends coming over to help. They’ll be here soon.”
Friends who could help sounded like the best plan yet. I was extremely concerned for Viktor’s safety. I honestly wasn’t sure how he was still walking around like he was. “Are you okay?”
His hands hesitated on his belt. “I just need something to eat.”
“I can make you something. There is canned food here.”
He leaned over and dropped a light kiss on my lips. “Thank you. I’ll be out in a minute.”
I stood at the stove, heating up some soup I found in the cupboard, when the side garage door opened. Before I could move, I heard male Russian voices coming down the hallway toward me.
Frozen, I watched as six huge men filed into the kitchen. They were all wearing black clothing and had big guns attached to various parts of their body.
They all stopped speaking when they saw me.
A handsome man with dark hair and stunning eyes casually spoke. “The calvary is here. You must be Blaire Asterdam.”
His eyes took in the scene around the kitchen. My bare feet, my knapsack and the pot of bubbling soup on the stove.
“Yes.”
“Where’s Viktor?”
“He’s upstairs in the shower.”
“I’m Andrusha.”
This was Viktor’s friend. I studied him a bit closer. “Viktor was trying to save you and your wife.”
“He did save us. And now, I hear, we are going to save your grandfather.”
Tears blurred my vision as I fought emotion. The thought of seeing my grandfather again just made me weepy. “That would be really incredible if you could do that.”
Viktor came down the stairs. His hair was wet, and he was wearing fresh, dark clothes. I wanted to rush to his side and tuck myself under his arm, but I felt shy in front of all these men.
He glanced at me before he spoke to Andrusha. “How was the spa?”
“It seems my week was more relaxing than yours. You look like shit.”
“Been worse.”
“You need the doctor?”
“At some point.”
Andrusha looked over his shoulder and gave one of the men a slight nod. I watched as the man stepped back and then spoke quietly into a cell phone. I had no doubt that he was calling the doctor.
Andrusha stood next to the island table and rolled out a map. “Where is Mr. Asterdam?”
“Drake said he’s being held at the old canning factory, near the old Ballantyne Pier building.”
“Did he say how many men?”
“He didn’t, but we need to move fast.”
“You want to take point?”
“Sure.”
I carefully ladled the soup into a bowl and placed a few crackers on the side. I carried it to the table and set it in front of Viktor. He was speaking in Russian to the men, and they all stood, paying attention around the table.
Not wanting to get in the way, I stepped back to clean up.
Andrusha moved to lean against the counter with his arms crossed. He watched me work.
I knew he was observing me for a reason, but what that reason was, I couldn’t hazard a guess. “What are they talking about?”
“Viktor is organizing our team to extract your grandfather.”
That sounded promising. “Okay.”
“Would you like to come along?”
I whipped my head toward him. “Yes!”
“I’m going to be running the surveillance from the van. No reason why you can’t come in the van and sit with me.”
I glanced over at Viktor. His big arms were crossed and his legs were planted as he stood and listened to one of his men speak. “He’s hurt.”
Andrusha’s eyes narrowed. “How bad?”
“He was in a fist fight with this man, and that was one of the worst fights I have ever witnessed. And he mentioned something about a motorcycle accident, and he got shot in the leg. His body has taken a beating.”
He looked at me a bit closer. “You care.”
I flushed deep. “He’s saved my life a few times.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What the hell happened over there?”
Viktor chose that moment to walk over. “What do you know about Beirut?”
Andrusha shook his head. “Almost nothing. I overheard the men speaking. They said that your past in Beirut was following you, but they didn’t elaborate.”
Viktor looked grim. “Drake said much the same thing.”
“What’s been going on?”
“There is a sniper. I’m not sure how he’s connected, but he just shot Drake.” Then he deliberately switched to Russian, cutting me out of the conversation.
I hated not understanding what was going on. I stepped a bit closer. “What are you saying?”
He touched my shoulder. “It’s okay. This whole thing is almost done. You just have to wait here.”
“I told her she could come in the van with me,” Andrusha cut in.
Viktor looked at him with incredulity. “Absolutely not.”
“She’ll be safer there with us than alone here.”
“That’s not your call to make.”
“No, but it’s the right one. Plus, the grandfather would probably appreciate a friendly face.”
I looked at Viktor with pleading eyes. “I’ll do exactly as you tell me, just don’t leave me here.”
Viktor didn’t look happy, but he spoke to me directly. “You stay in the van, you listen to Andrusha at all times and you don’t ask any questions.”
Andrusha laughed. “He’s a bossy fucker, isn’t he?”
Viktor said something in Russian, and Andrusha laughed again.
“What did you say?” I asked Viktor.
Andrusha answered. “He said you’ve been running the show since day one.”
Viktor and I made eye contact, and I could see the amusement in his eyes. He was teasing me. I was used to having him by myself. I didn’t know how to act when his life and his people were bustling around us.
“I’ll follow all your rules.”
“That will be a first.”
Andrusha laughed again.
An hour later, I sat in the back of a van with Andrusha. We were parked slightly down the road from the old cannery. Fifteen minutes earlier, Viktor and the other men had left the van and disappeared into the darkness.
Beside me, Andrusha was on a laptop. He was wearing a headset, and he spoke in a quiet voice in Russian to the men.
I waited in the dark on the bench beside him. In a short time, my grandfather would be in my arms. I could bring him back to my grandmother. I couldn’t think past that moment, so I just focused on being able to hug him and ask him if he was okay.
“Are you cold?”
It took me a moment to realize that Andrusha was speaking English, and another moment to realize he was speaking to me. “No. I’m okay. What’s happening?”
He turned the laptop toward me and showed me a screen that had six different camera views. “Right now, the men are getting in place around the property. We’re trying to determine if your grandfather is in there, and if so, how many men are holding him.”
It all looked very official and high-tech. “And then they’ll go in?”
“What we find inside will determine our approach.”
I had seen enough of Viktor in action to know that he operated in a different world, but now I was seeing him in an even more professional setting. “Is this the kind of stuff you do on a regular basis?”
“We provide security. Bodyguard service, property security, and vetting events. Believe it or not, most of the time we create environments to avoid the necessity of extracting a hostage.”
“Oh.”
“How long have you and Viktor been together?”
I froze. “Did he tell you that?”
“Is that something you think Viktor would talk about?”
I felt like Andrusha knew something I didn’t. “No.”
“I’m good at reading situations. And I’ve known Viktor a long time. My wife tells me that Viktor is gentle and patient. But at work, I have never seen him show a lot of that.” He sounded wry.
“Oh.”
“Until tonight.”
I felt myself flush, but his words pleased me. I knew his friend could offer me a lot of insight into the mystery I called Viktor. “What side of him do you usually see?”
“Resilient, ruthless, relentless. Unstoppable.”
I swallowed. I realized I had seen all of those sides of him too. “I’ve never met anyone like him before.”
“Are you serious about him?”
Andrusha was speaking casually, but he was observing me and all of my reactions. “Obviously I am.”
He laughed. “Hang on to that spunk. You’re going to need it.”
I decided to angle for more insight. “Have you met a lot of Viktor’s girlfriends?”
“Not a single one.”
He touched his headset and started to speak in Russian. When he was done, he looked at me.
“They’re going in.”
I startled. This was happening faster than I thought it would. “What, right now?”
“There are not that many men watching, and they are pretty spread out. So we’re going to use tranquilizer darts.”
I spoke slowly. “Because you don’t want to kill anyone.”
He grimaced. “Yup. We made a pact to try not to kill, and it’s been a pain in the ass, if you ask me. And a lot more dangerous. But we’re not exactly the police, and we can’t run around shooting people anymore.”
Anymore. “Are they in danger?”
“They have live weapons too, if it comes to that. But they all know to use their weapons as a last resort. Look. Viktor is getting into place. Come scoot closer if you want to watch.”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
VIKTOR
I quietly climbed onto the top of the building and went through a roof hatch. Aware that my body was hurting, I used extra care when I climbed down onto one of the main roof rafters. The old wooden building below me had been gutted years ago, leaving most of the space open. This meant I had a very good visual on most of the building. I silently set up my rifle and scope and calibrated it before I set up the high-powered dart rifle.
“I’m in place,” I whispered to my team.
“Alpha, you’re up first.” Andrusha’s voice came over the comm.
“Why did you think Blaire could help?”
“We squeezed the captain pretty hard, and suddenly he admitted that the grandfather said that if something went wrong, Blaire would show up. But we weren’t sure he wasn’t just saying that to get us off his case. Regardless, it was a lead we were willing to pursue.”
I shook my head. “You know, this is why people have a healthy distrust of the government. What a complete fuck-up.”
“We made a tactical error when we sent the grandfather in alone to get the USB drive back when he was in Manila. And since it was blowing up in our face, we could afford no paper trails. We needed to send Blaire in with a skilled individual who could make it happen. You should know that your reputation—as one of the best in the business—precedes you.”
“I’ve left that life behind.”
“Sometimes that life doesn’t let us leave.”
This prick was getting on my nerves. “Who has the grandfather?”
He looked regretful. “We think the broker figured out, in part, what was going on. They still want that information—so they took the old man for leverage.”
“Why not just go get the grandfather yourself? He knows where he hid the flash drive.”
“At first, we weren’t sure where he was or even if he was alive. We decided to focus our resources on retrieving the data ourselves.”
“You realize that your logic and strategy are so flawed it’s almost laughable.”
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t know why you are complaining—this all worked out.”
“Who has the grandfather now?”
“The broker contracted his capture out to a third party. A particularly vicious group is holding him down at an old canning factory near the Ballantyne Pier building.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “He’s in Vancouver?”
“I found out recently that he’s been here since before you left.”
I shook my head in disgust. “You could have saved him.”
He seemed genuinely confused. “Why do you care so much about him?”
This whole situation disgusted me, reminding me of why I had left this world. “When are you sending in a team to extract him?”
He shook his head. “Nice try, but we didn’t get sign-off. Upper management doesn’t want any part of this stink trailing back to them.”
“Fucking cowards. How much time do I have?”
He shrugged. “Two hours? Maybe three? And then I think the gig will be up. Our mole will be arrested, and the broker will know the deal is over.”
I yanked off the chain around my neck and tossed it at him. It held the flash drive. “The sniper that followed us never made a move. Is he one of yours?”
His mouth tightened. “That’s classified.”
“What can you tell me about him?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
His body jerked in a familiar way before he was knocked practically off his feet. A second later, the piercing sound of a bullet whizzed by my ear.
I dove to the ground, rolling behind a large wooden box. Around me, Drake’s men shouted. Gunfire lit up the building, and the sound was so deafening it sounded like thunder.
I crawled on the ground and grabbed Drake’s coat collar, pulling him along the ground until he was out of the sniper’s scope.
He was wheezing pretty badly. “How bad is it?”
I covered his chest wound with both my hands, but I could feel his lifeblood spurt out with each pump of his dying heart. “Hang in there, Drake.”
He reached up and pulled me closer to his face. “I have a cat. I don’t want her going to a shelter.”
“Don’t you have any friends?”
He stared at me with fading eyes. “You’re my friend, remember?”
I fucking hated cats. “What’s her name?”
His voice was a near mumble. “Beatrice… She likes having her chin scratched. She needs a lot of cuddles.”
I gritted my teeth. “Okay.”
He wasn’t looking too good; he started to wheeze. “Now the sniper is here for you, not the USB drive.”
“What?” I leaned in closer. I could smell the mint of his breath mingled with the sharp coppery smell of his blood.
“You’re the one the sniper is hunting. Word is he’s gone rogue, and he won’t stop. Not until he’s done with you.”
“Why is he after me?”
“Because of Beirut,” he gasped on his dying breath, and then he was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
BLAIRE
I waited in that house for two agonizingly long hours, staring out the front picture window while my thoughts tortured me. Was Viktor safe? Would he come back okay? Would Drake keep his word and tell him where my grandfather was? Now that we were back in Vancouver, I had an overwhelming urge to contact my grandmother, but my role was to wait.
The car appeared in the driveway, and then I heard the sound of the garage door open.
I raced to the hallway. I could hear a car door slam, and then the door swung open. Viktor, who seemed larger than life, stepped into the hallway.
The relief of seeing him alive and safe nearly made my knees buckle. I started toward him, but he held up a hand.
“Don’t touch me.”
There was something in his voice that made me stop. “What’s wrong?”
He refused to answer my question and instead moved past me and disappeared upstairs.
I slowly followed him. He hadn’t shut the door, and he was standing in the bathroom staring into the mirror. His expression looked so weary. When I moved to the entrance to watch him, he started to strip off his clothes.
He pulled off his shirt and dropped it to the floor. My hands covered my mouth when I realized that his chest and arms were stained with dark blood.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. Between the blood and his own bruises and scratches, he looked like something out of a slasher movie.
He gave me a hard look. “It’s not my blood.”
“Whose blood is it?”
“Drake’s.”
What the hell happened? Did something go wrong with the exchange? What did he find out about my grandfather? Did he kill Drake? I tried to remain neutral. “I see.”
He sounded grumpy. “I didn’t kill him.”
“Okay.” That didn’t explain why he had come back literally covered in another man’s blood. I didn’t know how someone could lose that much blood and still survive.
Still wearing his pants, he reached into the shower and turned it on. With the bruises on his ribs, he looked like he belonged in a hospital. I couldn’t imagine how much he was hurting.
I needed to know what happened. “Is Drake going to be okay?”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t killed. I just said I wasn’t the one to do it.”
Just when things were starting to feel normal, crazy shit derailed my reality. I struggled to hold on to the facts and not just ride my emotional response. “Drake is dead?”
“Yes.”
Oh my god, what about my grandfather? Stay calm. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“He told me where your grandfather is.”
“Is he…?” I couldn’t bring myself to ask if he was also dead.
“He’s being held in Vancouver, but we need to go get him. We don’t have a lot of time.”
I could feel my heart thud heavily in my chest. “He’s alive?”
“For now.”
All the breath escaped out of me. “Oh, thank god. What about the USB drive?”
“I gave it to Drake’s men.”
“What can I do?”
“I’ve got some friends coming over to help. They’ll be here soon.”
Friends who could help sounded like the best plan yet. I was extremely concerned for Viktor’s safety. I honestly wasn’t sure how he was still walking around like he was. “Are you okay?”
His hands hesitated on his belt. “I just need something to eat.”
“I can make you something. There is canned food here.”
He leaned over and dropped a light kiss on my lips. “Thank you. I’ll be out in a minute.”
I stood at the stove, heating up some soup I found in the cupboard, when the side garage door opened. Before I could move, I heard male Russian voices coming down the hallway toward me.
Frozen, I watched as six huge men filed into the kitchen. They were all wearing black clothing and had big guns attached to various parts of their body.
They all stopped speaking when they saw me.
A handsome man with dark hair and stunning eyes casually spoke. “The calvary is here. You must be Blaire Asterdam.”
His eyes took in the scene around the kitchen. My bare feet, my knapsack and the pot of bubbling soup on the stove.
“Yes.”
“Where’s Viktor?”
“He’s upstairs in the shower.”
“I’m Andrusha.”
This was Viktor’s friend. I studied him a bit closer. “Viktor was trying to save you and your wife.”
“He did save us. And now, I hear, we are going to save your grandfather.”
Tears blurred my vision as I fought emotion. The thought of seeing my grandfather again just made me weepy. “That would be really incredible if you could do that.”
Viktor came down the stairs. His hair was wet, and he was wearing fresh, dark clothes. I wanted to rush to his side and tuck myself under his arm, but I felt shy in front of all these men.
He glanced at me before he spoke to Andrusha. “How was the spa?”
“It seems my week was more relaxing than yours. You look like shit.”
“Been worse.”
“You need the doctor?”
“At some point.”
Andrusha looked over his shoulder and gave one of the men a slight nod. I watched as the man stepped back and then spoke quietly into a cell phone. I had no doubt that he was calling the doctor.
Andrusha stood next to the island table and rolled out a map. “Where is Mr. Asterdam?”
“Drake said he’s being held at the old canning factory, near the old Ballantyne Pier building.”
“Did he say how many men?”
“He didn’t, but we need to move fast.”
“You want to take point?”
“Sure.”
I carefully ladled the soup into a bowl and placed a few crackers on the side. I carried it to the table and set it in front of Viktor. He was speaking in Russian to the men, and they all stood, paying attention around the table.
Not wanting to get in the way, I stepped back to clean up.
Andrusha moved to lean against the counter with his arms crossed. He watched me work.
I knew he was observing me for a reason, but what that reason was, I couldn’t hazard a guess. “What are they talking about?”
“Viktor is organizing our team to extract your grandfather.”
That sounded promising. “Okay.”
“Would you like to come along?”
I whipped my head toward him. “Yes!”
“I’m going to be running the surveillance from the van. No reason why you can’t come in the van and sit with me.”
I glanced over at Viktor. His big arms were crossed and his legs were planted as he stood and listened to one of his men speak. “He’s hurt.”
Andrusha’s eyes narrowed. “How bad?”
“He was in a fist fight with this man, and that was one of the worst fights I have ever witnessed. And he mentioned something about a motorcycle accident, and he got shot in the leg. His body has taken a beating.”
He looked at me a bit closer. “You care.”
I flushed deep. “He’s saved my life a few times.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What the hell happened over there?”
Viktor chose that moment to walk over. “What do you know about Beirut?”
Andrusha shook his head. “Almost nothing. I overheard the men speaking. They said that your past in Beirut was following you, but they didn’t elaborate.”
Viktor looked grim. “Drake said much the same thing.”
“What’s been going on?”
“There is a sniper. I’m not sure how he’s connected, but he just shot Drake.” Then he deliberately switched to Russian, cutting me out of the conversation.
I hated not understanding what was going on. I stepped a bit closer. “What are you saying?”
He touched my shoulder. “It’s okay. This whole thing is almost done. You just have to wait here.”
“I told her she could come in the van with me,” Andrusha cut in.
Viktor looked at him with incredulity. “Absolutely not.”
“She’ll be safer there with us than alone here.”
“That’s not your call to make.”
“No, but it’s the right one. Plus, the grandfather would probably appreciate a friendly face.”
I looked at Viktor with pleading eyes. “I’ll do exactly as you tell me, just don’t leave me here.”
Viktor didn’t look happy, but he spoke to me directly. “You stay in the van, you listen to Andrusha at all times and you don’t ask any questions.”
Andrusha laughed. “He’s a bossy fucker, isn’t he?”
Viktor said something in Russian, and Andrusha laughed again.
“What did you say?” I asked Viktor.
Andrusha answered. “He said you’ve been running the show since day one.”
Viktor and I made eye contact, and I could see the amusement in his eyes. He was teasing me. I was used to having him by myself. I didn’t know how to act when his life and his people were bustling around us.
“I’ll follow all your rules.”
“That will be a first.”
Andrusha laughed again.
An hour later, I sat in the back of a van with Andrusha. We were parked slightly down the road from the old cannery. Fifteen minutes earlier, Viktor and the other men had left the van and disappeared into the darkness.
Beside me, Andrusha was on a laptop. He was wearing a headset, and he spoke in a quiet voice in Russian to the men.
I waited in the dark on the bench beside him. In a short time, my grandfather would be in my arms. I could bring him back to my grandmother. I couldn’t think past that moment, so I just focused on being able to hug him and ask him if he was okay.
“Are you cold?”
It took me a moment to realize that Andrusha was speaking English, and another moment to realize he was speaking to me. “No. I’m okay. What’s happening?”
He turned the laptop toward me and showed me a screen that had six different camera views. “Right now, the men are getting in place around the property. We’re trying to determine if your grandfather is in there, and if so, how many men are holding him.”
It all looked very official and high-tech. “And then they’ll go in?”
“What we find inside will determine our approach.”
I had seen enough of Viktor in action to know that he operated in a different world, but now I was seeing him in an even more professional setting. “Is this the kind of stuff you do on a regular basis?”
“We provide security. Bodyguard service, property security, and vetting events. Believe it or not, most of the time we create environments to avoid the necessity of extracting a hostage.”
“Oh.”
“How long have you and Viktor been together?”
I froze. “Did he tell you that?”
“Is that something you think Viktor would talk about?”
I felt like Andrusha knew something I didn’t. “No.”
“I’m good at reading situations. And I’ve known Viktor a long time. My wife tells me that Viktor is gentle and patient. But at work, I have never seen him show a lot of that.” He sounded wry.
“Oh.”
“Until tonight.”
I felt myself flush, but his words pleased me. I knew his friend could offer me a lot of insight into the mystery I called Viktor. “What side of him do you usually see?”
“Resilient, ruthless, relentless. Unstoppable.”
I swallowed. I realized I had seen all of those sides of him too. “I’ve never met anyone like him before.”
“Are you serious about him?”
Andrusha was speaking casually, but he was observing me and all of my reactions. “Obviously I am.”
He laughed. “Hang on to that spunk. You’re going to need it.”
I decided to angle for more insight. “Have you met a lot of Viktor’s girlfriends?”
“Not a single one.”
He touched his headset and started to speak in Russian. When he was done, he looked at me.
“They’re going in.”
I startled. This was happening faster than I thought it would. “What, right now?”
“There are not that many men watching, and they are pretty spread out. So we’re going to use tranquilizer darts.”
I spoke slowly. “Because you don’t want to kill anyone.”
He grimaced. “Yup. We made a pact to try not to kill, and it’s been a pain in the ass, if you ask me. And a lot more dangerous. But we’re not exactly the police, and we can’t run around shooting people anymore.”
Anymore. “Are they in danger?”
“They have live weapons too, if it comes to that. But they all know to use their weapons as a last resort. Look. Viktor is getting into place. Come scoot closer if you want to watch.”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
VIKTOR
I quietly climbed onto the top of the building and went through a roof hatch. Aware that my body was hurting, I used extra care when I climbed down onto one of the main roof rafters. The old wooden building below me had been gutted years ago, leaving most of the space open. This meant I had a very good visual on most of the building. I silently set up my rifle and scope and calibrated it before I set up the high-powered dart rifle.
“I’m in place,” I whispered to my team.
“Alpha, you’re up first.” Andrusha’s voice came over the comm.
