Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Maksim

“Boss! Boss!” I can hear Lev yelling for me barely a second before he and Dimitri burst into my office, both clearly upset and out of breath.

“What the fuck is going on?” I ask, already up from behind my desk and reaching for my gun. “Are we being raided?”

“No,” Dimitri says, shaking his head and pushing my arm down. “No, but it’s bad.”

I look from him to Lev, then back again. “Spit it out, then.”

Lev opens his mouth, then closes it. Finally, he looks at Dimitri. “Maybe I should let you tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

“Abby’s been taken,” Lev says, his face pale. “The babies, too.”

I shake my head, not understanding what he’s telling me. “What? Why? How? Who could have gotten past all the security at her sister’s house?” I slam my fist down on the table, my voice rising. “You assured me she had security, Lev, goddammit.”

I shouldn’t be getting this worked up about the woman who scammed me. The woman who tried to convince me her four babies were mine. But I can’t help it. I might not want her in my life, but I sure as hell don’t want anyone to hurt her.

“You…” Lev’s voice bleeds away in uncertainty. “You told me to remove our boys from the house.”

“I what?” I slam both my hands down onto my desk. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Boss, I…have the texts right here—”

But I barely even hear him. “If somebody doesn’t begin explaining what the fuck is going on right now,” I say through painfully clenched teeth, as I try to process the barrage of information hitting me in one go, “bullets are going to fly.”

“The Irish,” Dimitri intervenes. “A van full of them, right there in the middle of an intersection, they grabbed your girl and her babies. It was all over the news. They took Alyosha, too.”

“What the ever-loving fuck?” Not only is this too much information all at once, not a single piece of it makes sense. “Why the fuck was Abby with Alyosha? And she had her kids with her? You’re sure this isn’t some kind of—?”

“There were people recording with their phones at the scene, boss. It was on the news. On TV! Alyosha was bringing Abby and the kids here to see you when they got jumped by the Irish, I swear to God.”

The more they tell me, the less sense it makes. “What do you mean they were coming to see me?” I shove a hand back through my hair. “Why would Alyosha—who told you they were coming here? Did Alyosha say that himself?”

“No, boss,” Lev says, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind, while Dimitri is frowning up a storm. “Abby’s sister told us Alyosha was bringing them here. I went to check the house before coming here. She said you sent Abby a text saying to bring them, to be ready when Alyosha came to pick them up.”

Okay, now I know something is fucked up. “I never spoke to Abby.” I fish my phone out of my pocket, intent on showing him he’s the one who’s gone crazy, but then I see the texts with my own eyes. Right there on my phone. “How…what the fuck? I didn’t send these texts.”

I don’t know what’s going on or what happened to Abby, but all this fucked up shit has one thing in common.

Alyosha.

He’s been at the center of all this from the very beginning. First, it was his accusations about Abby. The financial statements. Then the fucking paternity test. Now the text messages.

“Lev, where’s Alyosha?”

He shakes his head. “Gone. The van. They took him.”

“Fuck,” I growl, slamming my fist against the desk again. “Alyosha’s fingerprints are all over this.”

“Do you think he’s the one who’s behind the carjacking?” Lev’s eyes go wide. “Do you think he’s our rat?”

I clench my jaw. “It’s starting to look that way.”

“The zip drive,” Lev says suddenly, clicking his fingers as if something’s just occurred to him. “Remember when we took that zip drive from the guy at the warehouse? How Alyosha said it couldn’t be decrypted even when the fucking password was ‘password’?When it took Dimitri five fucking minutes?”

We both turn to look at Dimitri.

He nods, scowling. “I had questions about that, too. I just trusted him, though. Thought he was having an off day, you know? Maybe because it was too easy, his genius brain somehow overlooked it. But he has been doing some weird shit lately, now that you mention it.”

“We need to go,” I growl, holstering my gun and reaching for my jacket.

“Where to, boss?” Lev and Dimitri are right behind me as we rush for the door.

“Take me to Alyosha’s brother. We’ll get this slippery bastard one way or another.”

***

I’ve already decided Alyosha is the fucking rat, but I want to be sure before I put a bullet in his head. I’m not making the same mistake of jumping to conclusions with only one source of information at my back, not again. Not ever again.

Lev drives us straight to Alyosha’s brother, Dima’s house. It isn’t far, maybe ten minutes away. A cute little place. Quaint. I don’t bother knocking, instead kicking the door in, and drawing my gun as we rush into the living room.

Dima is sitting on the couch, watching the news. His eyes go wide when he sees me, and he immediately turns the television off.

“Where is Alyosha?” I demand. “If you lie, I will know, and I will kill you.”

He stares at me for a second, then clears his throat. “Uh, I don’t know. What’s going on?”

“Cut the shit.” I click the safety off my gun and aim it at him. “Tell me where your brother is, or you will die.”

His face pales. “Okay, okay, calm down. He’s upstairs. In the guest room. The one at the end of the hallway.”

I motion for Lev and Dimitri to stay with Dima and make my way upstairs, listening carefully. There’s no sound in the house, so when I reach the last bedroom, the one Alyosha is supposed to be in, I’m expecting it to be empty.

I’m wrong.

He’s sitting on the bed, staring at a picture of himself and Dima.

“Hey, boss.” He sets the picture down and smiles at me, and for a split second, I’m thrown by how normal he seems. He looks just like his usual self. “I didn’t think it would take you this long to get here.”

This son of a bitch knows he’s been caught. He knows he’s done. He has this look of calm expectation. I’ve seen this expression many times on the faces of men before they die, as they accept their fate. He knows what’s coming.

“You fucking traitor,” I growl. “Where is she? What have you done?”

“What needed to be done,” he answers.

“Where. Is. She.”

“You won’t find her in time if you shoot me.” He shrugs. “Or maybe they’ll keep her alive for a while. Hard to say, really.”

“You die either way,” I growl. “It might as well be with a clear conscience. Confess your sins, Alyosha. Tell me why you betrayed me.”

“The Irish got to me. I ran up some debts. Got into some trouble. They bailed me out, but their help came with some strings attached.”

“They wanted to get to me,” I mutter, barely able to believe what I’m hearing. “You sold me out for some debts? You’ve put Abby and her kids—my fucking kids—in harm’s way because of some debts you owe?” I’m shouting now and I don’t care who hears me. I’m going to kill this motherfucker. It’s only a question of whether I do it now or later.

“The Irish had a nice little operation going,” he continues, seemingly unbothered by the gun that’s pointed at his head. “You should really look into it sometime. Take some notes. They had the scammers working for them. When Abby exposed Booker, she threatened the whole operation. So they had me come up with some paperwork, the bank statements, the DNA test. That was after they decided not to kill her outright.”

“Why didn’t they?” I ask, unsure I want to hear the answer. “They had the opportunity. They even tried at one point.”

“Because of the babies, I’d imagine. If they keep the kids alive, they’ll get what they want out of you.”

My heart is hammering in my chest, and I can barely breathe.

He’s right. I know exactly what the Irish want. Me, broken and vulnerable. Easily manipulated.

And they have the perfect leverage.

“Where are they?” I take a step closer and press the gun against his temple. “Where are they keeping her?”

He rattles off an address and I commit it to memory.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t end your pathetic life right now.”

“You should,” he says, surprising me. “I’ve settled my debts, and my family is no longer in danger of paying for my bad decisions. I’m ready. And if you don’t kill me, the Irish will soon enough. All I ask is that you make it quick. Don’t torture me. I’ve already told you everything I know.”

For once, I think he’s telling the truth.

“You really are a pathetic son of a bitch,” I mutter. “I can’t believe I trusted you for so long.”

He sighs and looks up at me from the corner of his eye. “Just get it over with.”

I pull the trigger and take a step back as his body tumbles off the bed and onto the floor. Holstering my gun, I make my way back downstairs.

“Want us to take care of him?” Lev asks, gesturing at Dima.

I shake my head. “Nah. He can clean this mess up. We have more important things to do.”