Chapter 37: Saturday again - To the rescue!

Marko came to collect me the following afternoon.

Resigned to my fate, I didn’t put up a fight as we climbed into an SUV with the two men who had been guarding me and headed to the airport and our private jet, which would take me to Russia and far away from the love of my life. I had wanted to talk to Sonia before I left but wasn’t allowed and my anger bubbled under the surface at us being refused even that small comfort.

Seeing my obvious upset, Marko promised to let me contact her once I’d arrived in St. Petersburg. While that was not ideal, the thought of getting to speak with her and reassure her again that I would come for her appeased me somewhat, though I had to bite down hard on my tongue not to say anything that would inflame the situation further. Marko had agreed to help us, and I needed to do as he said for now. I didn’t want him to change his mind, and frankly, if Marko had an idea, then it was likely a good one. I just had to remain patient and have faith in him.

Marko didn’t say anything as the pilot readied for take-off, but at least he seemed more sympathetic to our cause now. He wasn’t giving off angry vibes anymore even though I could still sense a degree of annoyance with me. I suppressed a sigh as I buckled up for the flight.

To pass the time and take my mind off Sonia I asked Marko to update me on Siri.

“Fucking bastard tried to get to the cash he’d hidden away under his alternative identities, but I re-routed it, and so he has had to come out of the woodwork to attempt to recoup some of his loss through his businesses. He must be livid. He was seen in Glasgow a few days ago, but there have been no sightings of him since. Our sources confirmed that Ivor was with him. Juana has her ear to the ground, and we have our folks monitoring all his businesses, so hopefully, he will surface soon. And then we’ll get him,” he says, grinning.

I nodded and grinned back, but I couldn’t help the pang of annoyance that I wouldn’t be around to see that.

We continued our conversation until we reached the airport where our jet was, and as we conversed easily again, it hit me that I was going to miss this if he didn’t sort things out for Sonia and me, and we really did have to run.

Although I would gladly give up everything up to be with Sonia, I clung even more desperately to the hope that it would still work out for us without us both having to lose everything and everyone we held dear. After all, that was the only reason I was getting on the plane today without her.

We got to the aircraft and climbed onboard. Marko opened his laptop as the pilot did his last-minute preparation for take-off. Although I had healed well over the last few days, my broken finger still throbbed, and my ribs ached each time I moved too much. So, I closed my eyes with a view to napping for most of the journey. I decided that would be better than letting my mind linger on the fact that each second that past the distance between Sonia and I grew.

We were just leaving the hanger and taxiing towards the runway when Marko’s mobile buzzed.

It was Miki. I heard him clearly as he was practically screaming down the phone.

“Siri just called. He has Sonia,” he said, and my whole world came tumbling down.

“What?!” I cried.

Marko put us on loudspeaker.

“How the fuck did he get her?” I shouted, unable to believe she’d been taken while I wasn’t there to protect her.

“It looks as if she’d been running away. Her bag was found at the exit to our underground tunnel, just a short while before Siri called. Rolan had been going to see her in her room, but she wasn’t there. He had looked for her and, on a hunch, was checking the underground tunnel when he found her bag on the ground. Her phone was found in her room, so I don’t know how we are going to track her,” he said, the crack in his voice betraying how anxious he was.

Shit, my heart sped up with worry. I should have known Sonia wouldn’t take me being sent away without protest. I’d told her I would come for her, but I should have realised she would be too impatient to wait and would end up getting herself in trouble. I didn’t call her Little Miss Trouble for nothing after all.

Marko was already typing away furiously on his keyboard.

“I know where she is,” he said, and relief poured through me.

“I’ll send you the information. She is about five miles southwest of the Estate and about two miles directly west from us here,” he told Miki.

“How do you know?” Miki asked the question that was on my own lips.

“I put a smaller tracker that I have been piloting in her necklace—the one Mum and Dad gave her for her birthday—the one she always wears. Unless they have taken it off her, she should be exactly where the little dot is telling me,” he turned his laptop to show me.

Thank fuck!

“I’ve sent her location to you,” he told Miki.

A second later, Miki sent us through a video he’d received from Siri making his demands. Marko and I watched it. My anger fizzled with the burning desire to rip Ivor to pieces as my eyes zeroed in on the collar around Sonia’s neck and Ivor’s fist wrapped around the chain it was attached to, holding her so tightly she could barely move.

They’d fucking collared my Sonia like she was some kind of animal and by doing that, they had unleashed the beast in me.

When I got my hands on them, they would beg for death and I’d give it to them, in the slowest most painful way they could imagine.

I rushed to the cockpit.

“Turn the plane around now! We have an emergency,” I demanded of the pilot.

Marko and Miki were making plans for a rescue. I pulled the phone off Marko.

“I am going after my woman!” I told Miki, the fury in my voice evident.

“We are on our way!” he stated.

“We will get there first. We are nearer. I will get Sonia away from that bastard, and then we will talk!” I told him firmly.

That’s it; the gloves are off! I was done playing by his rules. I wasn’t even contemplating running anymore. I was completely done with this shit.

Sonia and I were going to be together, and we would all sit down and talk about how we were going to make that happen. Just as soon as I got her away from that Somalian bastard.

Glowacki was a good man. Now that he was doing much better, almost recovered, there was no excuse not to deal with the situation head-on. Right now, though, my priority was to save my woman. Later, I’d spank her for putting herself in danger once she was back safely in my arms.

If anything happened to Sonia I would rip Siri limb from limb, and I would take my time over it and torture him for every minute he’d dared have her in his hands. I shook with anger as my mind raced with all the possibilities of what Siri could be doing to her right now.

“Fuck!” I shouted in utter frustration as the plane waited for the pushback tug to reverse us back to the hanger.

I was worried sick, the nerves only driving my anger to higher levels.

The seconds ticked by, feeling more like hours as we waited, but in reality, it took us less than ten minutes. By the time we got off the plane, the men who had dropped us off were back, and we were on our way to rescue Sonia.

Obviously, Ivor must be with Siri.

We’d suspected he’d escaped on the night of the attacks through our secret back exit, and now we knew for sure. Though how he knew Sonia was going to be there was a concern. Unless he had been planning on infiltrating the Estate and snatching her when she so conveniently stumbled into his path.

It did seem like an awful coincidence but if Siri was desperate to regain his cash, he might have planned with Ivor to kidnap her, or any of the family I guessed, and she just so happened to make it easier for them.

Peering through the binoculars, Marko handed me, I scoped out the area. The building where Sonia was being held appeared to be an old country cottage, with the closest neighbours about a half mile away on either side. Great! No nearby neighbours meant less chance of anybody witnessing anything they shouldn’t.

However, the open fields in front and to one side proved a problem. We couldn’t get close without being seen if we approached that way. There was a small private driveway running along the other side, and so approaching from that direction was no good either. That meant our only option was to sneak up on the bastards from behind, where there was a heavy wooded area and some small, dilapidated outbuildings.

Of course, it might have been some sort of trap, but the chances of that were quite slim. Without the tracker in Sonia’s necklace, there was no way we would have known where to find her. This place wasn’t linked to either Siri or Ivor, as far as Marko could tell, so the likelihood was that they wouldn’t be expecting us to find them. Fingers crossed that was the case because if we were wrong, getting us all out of here alive was going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

It was going to be hard enough. If these guys were smart, they would be guarding the rear of the building more heavily than the front, and we had no idea how many men Siri had with him or where Sonia was being kept in the building. It could even be some sort of trap.

Of course, if they didn’t know about Sonia’s tracker, they might not believe they were in any danger from us here. That was our best-case scenario because a surprise ambush would be more likely to work in our favour.

Agreeing on our plan, we parked the SUV in a quiet layby about half a mile away and started to prepare for a full scale onslaught.

Marko handed me a vest from the boot of the car. We always had a few weapons and some tactical vests hidden in our vehicles. With our lifestyle, we couldn’t afford not to. There weren’t as many as I would’ve liked, but it would need to be enough—at least until Miki and backup arrived. They were on their way, but it would be a while before they got here. I wasn’t prepared to wait.

It was time I claimed Sonia as mine openly. I was going in to get her and nothing would stop me.

We circled around the back of the cottage and cut through the woodland behind until we were able to see the various buildings using our binoculars again. I desperately wanted to storm inside but knew I had to wait until we got the lay of the land first. The cottage wasn’t quite as small as it had first appeared, being a two-storey building with an attic, which appeared to have been converted into several rooms. The windows of which were all boarded up, unlike those downstairs, so we surmised they’d likely be keeping her in one of the attic rooms.

Two guards were in the back garden area, and another two were stationed nearer the edge of the forest. There were none out front, as far as I could tell, but no doubt someone was watching from inside. We knew there were at least Siri and Ivor inside with Sonia. So, there were at least six men with her. However, considering the size of the two vehicles parked behind the property, there were likely several more.

There were only four of us, so until Miki showed up with more men, we were outnumbered, but considering how the men were lounging about and didn’t look like they were expecting company any time soon, we obviously did have the element of surprise after all. That definitely increased our chances.

Nodding to Marko and the other guys, we quietly made our way through the trees. As soon as we emerged from the tree line, we would be out in the open, but with luck, we’d manage to kill some of these buggers before they saw us approach.

One of our guys split off from us to sneak around the side of the house. The plan was for him to attack from the front the minute we attacked from the rear.

As soon as he was out of sight, we snuck closer to the guards stationed near the wooded area. Marko crept up behind the one on the right and slit his throat. I did the same with the one on the left before rushing towards the door, shooting the guy stationed directly outside it. Marko followed closely behind me, shooting at the last of the guards outside. They were all down in seconds. Thank god for the element of surprise.

Our guys covered us from behind a tree as return fire came from two of the upstairs windows. Marko and I are hidden behind one of the vehicles a few feet from the back door.

“I’m going in,” I said.

He nodded in agreement and opened fire, giving me cover as I rushed across the remaining few yards and threw myself at the door. I hit with a force that ricochet through me jarring my already bruised ribs. Thankfully, however, the door crashed open, and I fell inside and rolled.

A shot rang out just barely missing me as I took the stairs two at a time, firing towards where the shot had come from. A grunt told me I’d hit someone, and I grinned.

Other shots coming from below distracted me for a second until I heard Marko and our other guy who’d now entered from the front, calling to each other amidst a volley of shots.

Movement out of the corner of my eye, made me turn just in time to shoot the fucker, before he could shoot me.

It appeared there were definitely more than six men, after all.

I heard Sonia screaming and ran towards her voice.