Chapter 15: Friday: Frustrated

By the time Friday came around, I was exhausted and on edge from barely sleeping. I had successfully stayed away from my Little Miss Trouble but the effort it took to do so was taking its toll.

Whenever I closed my eyes I replayed every minute I had spent with Sonia from the moment she had emerged from the pool like Aphrodite, right through to when she had run from the car in tears. I felt like shit, and I was sure I looked worse. Luckily, despite grumbling about me being a surly bastard, Ash had not taken too much notice of my bad temper and long stretches of silent fuming. Thankfully, he had been too occupied with looking for his Little Miss Hot Mess.

However, if I kept this up for much longer, he would soon be demanding to know what the hell was wrong with me and so I needed to pull myself together quickly and do a better job of hiding my feelings. God knew I was doing a piss poor job of it so far and that was why I was here pacing inside my flat waiting to hear from him.

Ash had gone to meet with a Somali informant and afterwards was planning to finally see his Little Miss Hot Mess again. He had been acting like he was walking on clouds all morning since Anton had called to say he knew where his Little Miss Hot Mess, whom we now knew was actually called Gracie, would be working tonight.

Gracie was apparently due to work a shift at a pub called the Old Bell Tavern this evening, so Ash intended going there after the meeting to ask her out on a date. I smirked. I was sure he was hoping for way more than a simple date. I had never seen him this interested in anyone before. Since losing Krissa he had become cold and almost emotionless at times, the total opposite of how he used to be. He blamed himself for Krissa’s murder and no matter what any of us said, he couldn’t seem to let his guilt go.

It was good to see the effect his Little Miss Hot Mess had on him. Just talking about her had him smiling. They had shared only shared one messy kiss but since then he had been obsessed with her. I hoped Gracie agreed to date him, he needed some happiness in his life. I might have an impossible love life which was depressing the hell out of me, but that didn’t mean I wanted that for anyone else.

Ash had thought he’d likely made a bad first impression on her. After kissing her and running off without even getting her number, I had to agree. So, he was determined to make a good impression tonight and informed me that, between my scowl and the ominous tension coming off me in waves, I’d probably scare her off and wouldn’t let me go to the meeting with him. Ass!

However, he had promised to call straight after the meeting and check in with me. That was the only reason I allowed the bugger to go alone to meet that Somali bastard despite my reservations. I didn’t like the guy. Mohammed had provided us with a few bits of information but nothing that had been all that helpful, to be honest. I didn’t know what it was about him, but I didn’t think we could trust him.

Of course, I never fully trusted informants who would rat out their family, friends, or brotherhood for money. The ones with a good reason, like Juana, I could understand.

Juana had a gripe against her cousin Siri because he had given her sister Jadwa to a Somali diplomat as a sex slave. The perverted swine had then taken her to Somalia with him and she hadn’t been seen or heard of since. Naturally, Juana wanted her sister back. She provided us with information on the Malia Boys because she hated Siri but also because we were helping her look for Jadwa. I could understand her reason for betraying the Malia Boys’ secrets and I even respected her for the risks she took in doing so.

Those trading information simply to make money, like Mohammed, were a whole different type of person. They had no honour and no loyalty and simply couldn’t be trusted. Nevertheless, Ash thought I was worrying too much over the guy and refused to let me go with him. Ash could be very stubborn at times. I rubbed my eyes which felt dry and gritty. I really needed to get some sleep but not until I was sure my cousin was safe.

Worry was making me angsty. I poured myself a shot of vodka, throwing the contents back and downing the liquid in one, savouring the slow burn as it ran down the back of my throat.

Checking my watch yet again, I slammed my hand down on the kitchen counter. Where the hell was he? I should have heard from him by now. It was unlike him to fail to check in, but I supposed with how obsessed he was with Gracie, he might have forgot in his haste to go see her. That was probably it I told myself. Unless something had happened to him the ominous voice in my head said.

Fuck. I raked a hand through my hair and scratched at the back of my neck, as I rang his mobile, cursing when it went straight to voicemail. I gave it a couple of minutes and tried again but got the same result. Shit.

“What’s happening?” I texted him.

No reply. I texted again, “Answer your bloody phone or text me!”

After waiting a couple more minutes with no response, I called him again. Still no answer.

My gut churned, a feeling of dread washing over me. The longer I didn’t hear from him the more I thought that ominous voice might be right. I should have gone with him no matter what he said, or at the very least, I should have followed him. I let my thoughts of Sonia distract me all week and put me in a bad mood and then I let Ash insist on going off alone, something I would never normally do if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with my own thoughts.

How could I have been such an idiot? The Somali bastard wasn’t to be trusted yet I let Ash go to meet him alone. Anything could have happened. Mohammed could have betrayed him, or maybe Ash spiralled out of control after hearing whatever information he had and ended up getting himself into trouble. Of course, I could simply be overreacting. He might just be too preoccupied trying to sweet talk his waitress to think straight. I prayed that was the case, but I needed to be sure.

Feeling desperate, I called the Old Bell Tavern and spoke to some guy there who told me there were no new customers in, just some regulars, when I asked him to check for Ash. I’d asked to speak to Gracie too, but he she was apparently on her break alone, so I guessed Ash hadn’t arrived yet. Which meant there was only one conclusion. Ash was in trouble!

Fuck, this was my fault! There was an unknown enemy out there and I had let Ash go off on his own. What the hell had I been thinking? I berated myself again as I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. If anything had happened to him, I would never forgive myself.

There was no sign of him at the meeting spot and the sense of dread I’d been feeling was now so thick it threatened to choke me. Unwilling to succumb to my worries, I called Sean to have him locate Mohammed.

Sean was one of our best intelligence gatherers on the street. He knew everyone. He also handled our main informants. He was great at recruiting people with grudges, like Juana, who were in a position to provide us with important information on our biggest enemies and he had contacts everywhere. Mohammed was one of Ash’s own informants but even though Sean didn’t handle him, he would be able to put the feelers out for information. If anyone could locate Mohammed fast, he could.

Heading off on foot, I searched everywhere including the Old Bell Tavern. I didn’t even need to walk in, I just looked through the window and could see immediately that there were only two staff inside, one of them was Gracie herself, and a handful of old guys. It was obvious Ash hadn’t made it to the pub.

As I searched the area around the pub, I rang a few of my own informants, but none knew where Mohammed was, or more importantly what had happened to Ash.

After an hour, with no sign of where he could be, I had to admit that it was looking more and more like something sinister had happened. There was nothing left to do but call Miki. I didn’t relish the task, but I had put it off long enough. I’d wasted enough time trying to establish that he was genuinely missing and now we needed to ramp up the effort to find him.

Miki answered after the second ring.

“Ash is missing!” I informed him straight to the point. The bellow of rage in response nearly shattered my eardrum. Fuck!

Crashing and more bellows followed. The minute he calmed down enough to hear what I was saying, I gave him a quick rundown of the situation.

“Marko, with me now!” Miki shouted before mumbling something to someone I assumed was Vlad, then I heard a few more shouts in the background before finally he returned to the phone.

“We’re on our way!” Miki said before giving me the ear bashing of my life. I cringed at his tirade. He was so incensed at both Ash and me I could barely make out a thing he was saying, just bits and pieces… fucking pair of idiots…lose anyone else… kill you my bloody self…

Miki ranted throughout the forty minutes it took to reach me from the Estate. God, he was spitting mad! He had only just stopped yelling at me when a couple of SUVs pulled up and he stepped out with his bodyguard Vlad, and a couple more of our men. Sonia, Marko, and Luca climbed out from the other car and followed behind. Miki strode towards me with narrowed eyes, and I gulped as his fist flew at my face. My head jerked back with the force of the blow, and I tasted blood as my lip bust.

“That’s for being a bloody idiot and letting the other bloody idiot go off alone!” he said before talking a steadying breath as he turned away from me to issue orders.

A second later, a van pulled up as Anton and some of his men arrived to join us.

We split into teams, and I was glad I wasn’t with Sonia. I needed to concentrate on finding Ash and I wouldn’t be able to do that if Sonia was with me.

Sympathy shone in her eyes as she asked me if I was okay. I wanted to tell her no, I wasn’t okay, without her I would never be okay, but I didn’t, I just nodded and looked away. Every time I was near her my resolve to not pursue this thing between us became shakier. I wanted to be with her so much, but it still seemed hopeless, so I turned away from her and stomped off with Anton and one of his men to look for Ash.

The atmosphere was grim, all of us very much aware of the similarity of this night with that fateful night two years ago when Krissa went missing, and all praying the evening didn’t end in the same way. I wasn’t one to pray but I sent a silent request out to the universe in the hope something or someone might hear it anyway. Ash needed to be okay. We really couldn’t deal with the death of another family member.

We searched through the night everywhere we could think of but couldn’t find any sign of Ash anywhere. Someone must have taken him and while that was a bad thing, it at least gave us hope that he might still be alive. We just needed to get to him while that was still the case.

The situation was becoming more desperate as the hours passed. Nobody knew where Mohammed was, and we could only assume he had Ash. But where? And why?

As dawn approached, exhaustion was setting in and with nowhere left to search and no other leads, Miki sent Marko back to the Estate with Sonia while the rest of us headed to a safe house to regroup. Neither of them wanted to go, arguing to remain, but Miki insisted. They finally conceded when he told them he needed someone back at the house with Nonna who would be worrying alone and in case it turned out that this was a kidnapping and the kidnappers got in touch. That was a long shot, but it was possible. We were rich businessmen as well as Mafia after all.

After they left, the rest of us climbed into the back of Anton’s van and spent the next couple of hours putting together a plan to attack the Malia Boys’ headquarters and either free Ash from there or force that bastard Siri to tell us where Ash was. Mohammed worked for Siri so if Mohammed was involved, then it was likely Siri was too. We were just waiting for Sean to phone and confirm Siri was at his home before we set off.

I was on tenterhooks, my foot tapping impatiently as we waited. One look from Miki and I abruptly stopped the tapping. I had poked the bear enough tonight. It would be a mistake to poke him any further. Miki was generally an even tempered guy but once he was riled up, he could be bloody unpredictable, and he was understandably riled up tonight. So, I forced my leg to remain still and didn’t meet his eyes. One punch to the face this evening was enough.

Finally, my phone rang. I expected it to be Sean but was surprised to see it was an unknown number and even more surprised when Ash spoke. Thank God!

Putting him on loudspeaker, we listened as he gave us a quick rundown of the events of last night. As we’d thought that double-crossing bastard Mohammed was involved. He and some other guy had jumped Ash and knocked him out, then took him to a basement room in some abandoned building near the Old Bell Tavern and beat him, as they tried to obtain the location of our drugs Lab. Fuck, I couldn’t believe that I had been so close to there and hadn’t known.

Fortunately, Gracie, of all the weird coincidences, saw them dragging him inside and apparently she knocked them both out with a baseball bat and rescued him. Bloody heck! Little Miss Hot Mess had saved his ass! That was majorly impressive.

Miki looked as shocked as me at that revelation. That was one woman I wanted to meet again. She sounded like a perfect match to Ash.

The relief we felt at knowing Ash was alive and well was palpable. Anton, and his men left to get some rest and we sent Luca and the rest of our guys home too while Miki, Vlad and I went to collect Ash from Gracie’s.

After sending a small thank you out to the universe again, because, well it seemed like someone, or something, might have been listening after all, I lay my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes as I left the tension from the evening drain out of me as I finally relaxed.

As soon as we arrived at Gracie’s address, we noticed the front door had been kicked open. Rushing inside, we heard the sounds of a struggle upstairs and a muffled gunshot. Shit!

“Sashenka!” Miki shouted as we ran inside, guns drawn, leaving Vlad outside to watch the street.

“Up here!” Ash shouted. Thank fuck he was still alive.

A second later we entered a bedroom and saw Mohammed and another guy lying on the floor unmoving and Ash sitting on the bed looking worse for wear with his arm around Gracie.

What the fuck happened? We fired questions at him in Russian in rapid succession until he held up his hand, cutting us off.

Ash quickly let us know what went down with the two Malia Boys and how both he and Gracie managed to kill Mohammed and knock out the other guy. God, that girl was a keeper! Beautiful and brave!

Gracie looked a bit uncomfortable though and started to move away from him, but he wasn’t about to let her go, not now he had hold of her. I held back my grin as he tightened his grip and pulled her closer, grimacing a little, obviously in pain.

Ash introduced her to us with pride and when he called her sweetheart we both smirked. It was obvious that after the events of the evening before, Ash had was even more obsessed with his Little Miss Hot Mess.

“Nice to meet you, Gracie, we have heard a lot about you,” we said almost in unison and laughed as she blushed.

“So, you are not only hot and sassy but brave too!” Miki said with a wink.

“Yes, she is, and she is mine!” Ash stated rather possessively, and we chuckled.

“Got it, bro!” Miki laughed.

Gracie looked like she was about to protest but Ash cut her off.

“If you think I’m letting you go easily after you saved my life and then fought those guys a second time with me, you are so wrong,” he winked at her.

“Erm, what?” she said looking a little shocked.

“You heard, you are mine now, Little Miss Hot Mess, and I won’t be letting you go!” he stated like it was a done deal.

“I don’t belong to anyone and I’m certainly not yours!” she said angrily, standing up to face him with her hands on her hips.

Sniggering, we took that as our cue to make ourselves scarce.

“Ha, good luck, little brother,” Miki said, as we hightailed it out of the room.

We needed to make a move anyway as we had to sort this mess out quickly before some nosy neighbour saw something they shouldn’t and called the police.

Miki arranged for our cleaners to come. As it would take them time to arrive, we donned some generic blue overalls we kept in the boot of our vehicles and grabbed some blue and white tape. Uncle Alexi was a brilliant strategist and planner, and he taught us that it paid to always be prepared for anything.

Pretending to be gas workers, we went door to door and cleared the neighbours out telling them there was a gas leak. That was the story the cleaners would use when they came. It was one of the cover stories they often used, as it gave them a good reason to keep people away from the area they were cleaning up, and so they would come prepared to play their parts of gas workers.

To help with that we started setting the scene. Using the blue and white tape, Miki and I set up a cordon across the street a few houses away on either side of Gracie’s house, just far enough away to keep anyone from seeing what was going on at Gracie’s place, and then we made everyone stand behind it, ensuring there were no possible witnesses to our nefarious actions.

Luckily, the gun Mohammed had used was fitted with a silencer so the noise from the shots had been muffled. Nobody asked questions about an unusual noise and the police have not been called so it appeared that nobody had heard them. All good.

Nevertheless, we had to get Gracie and Ash away from here and the scene cleared up as soon as possible. As soon as the clean-up crew arrived, we left them in charge of the crowd. Vlad and Miki carried the unconscious black guy, who was now bound and gagged, out to Miki’s SUV and hid him in the boot.

The clean-up team would remove the dead guy for us and take him to the C where his body would be dealt with. The C was our code for the Smithson Crematorium, where we took all our bodies for disposal. We owned it through the Smithson Group, one of our shell companies. A distant relative, Jonathan Reid and his family have run it for us since Miki’s dad, my Uncle Alexi, bought it not long after coming to the UK.

When my uncle Alexi came into power in the UK, things were difficult at first and there was a lot of opposition to the Bratva, he had to deal with our enemies, quickly, harshly, and as easily as possible. So, he bought over the Crematorium, and had it fitted out to his specifications. It was our secret place. There were hidden rooms below, one, in particular, was specially designed for a specific purpose. It was where we tortured and killed our enemies. Once we were done with them, they got sent upstairs and were cremated.

Another of our companies, RomCore Security, oversaw the security cameras for the Crematorium too, so we could wipe any evidence whenever we needed to. Only a handful of people were aware that we used the Crematorium for disposal and even fewer knew of the hidden rooms beneath the building itself. We liked to keep it that way for additional security. Another thing we learned from Uncle Alexi was the necessity of being careful.

The clean-up crew knew about the use of the C for disposal purposes obviously as they often brought bodies there, but they had no idea about the hidden rooms. Miki and Vlad took the unconscious guy there separately to keep it that way. He would be kept there until we were ready to deal with him.

As soon as Miki and Vlad left for the C, I hurried Ash and Gracie out of the house. On the way to the Estate Ash called Anton, filling him in and getting him to send over a few of his men to help patrol the Estate. We had a handful of our own security there at all times but since we had traitors in our organisation, it seemed prudent to get some extra help under the circumstances.

Having one of our family members directly attacked had increased the threat substantially and we couldn’t take any chances with the safety of Sonia, Gracie, or Nonna. The possessive side of me would have preferred to ensure Sonia’s protection myself but unfortunately, since I seemed incapable of keep myself under control around her, I had to entrust her safety to others and that pissed me off.

As I drove to the Estate, my relief at getting Ash back safe gave way to desolation again as I watch him in the back with Gracie, holding on to her like he never wanted to let her go. I was glad for him and hoped that it would work out between them, but my heart ached as I thought about Sonia and how keeping away from her, despite it seeming to be my only option, was killing me. It’s for the best, I reminded myself for the millionth time. Besides, it was only a few more weeks then she would go back to University, and I’d no longer be tempted by her closeness. I could do this! I just had to keep my resolve.