Chapter 33

Avgust~

T wo hours later, Maksim, Akim, Melor, and I were pulling up to an abandoned house that sat a little too close to O'Brien territory for my liking. However, once Morocco had given us the last location that Samara had been seen, it'd been easy to find the car out here in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, that's what had taken us the longest to figure out. Once we'd gotten past the main roads, there'd been no more cameras. Still, I knew every inch of my territory, and it was only a mile or so away that you had the Irish crawling all over the place.

"We have no idea how many people are in there," Akim remarked as we all gathered around my car, all of us parked a few yards away from the actual house. "How do you want to do this?"

Maksim checked his 12-guage. "Well, we can't go in there just shooting up the place. One of us might hit Samara by accident."

"It's dark enough that we can sneak up," I told them. "Just don't announce yourself before we have to."

"What's the priority?" Melor asked.

"I'd like the guy alive, if possible," I answered. "However, Samara is the priority. If it is a choice between saving her or keeping the man alive, save her."

"Got it," Melor replied before we all started making our way towards the abandoned house.

As we got closer, it was easy to see that only one room had a light on. My guess would be that it was the kitchen from where the illumination was located, but it could also easily be the living room. It was also obvious that the place looked like it was about to fall down all around us as I got a closer look at the decrepit structure.

When we finally reached the front of the house, Maksim already started making his way to the right side of the building, Akim and Melor heading towards the left, one of them smart enough to keep going until he reached the back of the house. While I had no doubts that we could handle whatever was inside, the unknown was always troublesome.

The rickety porch was going to be a problem, but before I could figure out how to get closer without making any noise from the corroded floorboards, Melor was calling out to us, and it was enough to assure us that the place was empty.

"There's a dead body in the kitchen," he said.

I immediately entered the house, and I wasn't surprised to find that Akim was already coming in through the backdoor. Ignoring the rest of the house, I headed straight into the kitchen, and the dead body was laying on the floor like a fresh kill. There was a mixture of dried and wet blood decorating the space around him, and since he was on his stomach, we were going to have to turn him over, taking ownership of the house. No way would we allow the cops here now.

"The house is empty," Melor repeated. "We checked all the rooms, and there's no sign of Samara."

"Oh, that's lovely," Maksim drawled out.

"There are too many scenarios that can be discussed right now," I said. "So, let's just concentrate on what we can control, and that's finding out who this fucker is."

On cue, Akim bent down to turn the dead man over, and as soon as he did, he said, "Well, would you look at that."

"It's Louie Manziel," Melor announced unnecessarily.

"It's Louie Manziel with a knife in his neck and what? Two, three bullet holes in his chest," Akim added. "Think Samara did this?"

As I stared at the dead body, I said, "It's possible, but it's also possible that he wasn't alone. Though the cameras showed only one man in the car, that doesn't mean that he didn't have someone waiting for him here. Could have been Nikel himself."

"So, we still don't know fuck," Maksim bit out. "I mean, it's not as if we're going to get any useful information out of Manziel now."

"Yeah, our only link to Nikel Ovchinnikov is dead," Melor added. "Unless he told Samara anything, then we're right back where we fucking started."

"Provided that Samara is even still alive," Akim remarked, making me shoot a look his way.

"He's not wrong," Maksim said, trying to save his younger brother like always. "Whoever is behind this, they didn't take Samara without a specific purpose in mind."

"I still don't know what the fuck is going on," Melor said. "Why take Samara if this is about Maksim and Akim? Plus, how in the fuck would Nikel or Manziel even know about Samara? How could they possibly know that taking her would send us all out after them?"

"He's right," Akim chimed in. "How could Manziel possibly know about Samara's connection to you?"

Ignoring all the questions that we didn't have answers to, I dropped on my haunches, then began searching for a phone. If Manziel had a phone, then that would be something. We could look into any numbers that he might have stored in there, and that might give us a lead on how to find Ovchinnikov. If he had Samara, then I needed a way to get in contact with him. Granted, even if we did find a phone, it was probably going to be a burner cell, but I'd take anything right now. Samara was the priority, so I could wait on the whys until later.

When I finally found a phone in his left inside pocket, I stood up, then brought the device to life. Anger raced down my spine at the continued obstacles. "It's locked."

"Of course, it fucking is," Maksim sighed.

Dropping back down on my haunches, I searched his pockets again, and that's when I found another phone, and this one wasn't a smartphone. It was an old-modeled flip phone, and after opening it, I checked the call logs, and there were only three numbers in the history.

"What did you find?" Akim asked.

"Three numbers," I answered.

"What are you waiting for?" Melor squawked. "Call them- ow."

"Don't be an idiot," Maksim scolded. "We don't want to tip anyone off without a plan just yet."

Ignoring them both, I said, "We're going to have to get rid of Manziel's body now that I've touched it, and our DNA is everywhere in this goddamn place."

"It's not anything that a match won't fix," Melor muttered.

"I don't care how it's taken care of as long as it gets done," I told him.

"Yes, Pakhan," he replied evenly.

"Quiet," I ordered. "I am going to call the numbers."

With no one making a sound, I dialed the first number, letting it ring until the voice mail picked up. As predicted, there was no personal instruction for the recording, and so I moved on to the next number. When the same thing happened, I could feel the blood in my veins turning hot with anger and frustration. We were getting nowhere, and Samara could be hurt or worse.

Finally dialing the third number, my heart started racing with hope when someone answered. However, credit to the person on the other end, they knew well enough not to speak. This wasn't amateur hour, and both of us knew it. Nonetheless, unlike the person on the other end of the line, I wasn't scared of giving my identity away. It also didn't matter if he/she/they knew who I was because the rules had changed the second that they had decided to use Samara as a pawn.

"This is Avgust Kotov," I announced, finally speaking. "If you are smart, then I do not have to explain why I am calling you from this number. If you are smart, I also do not have to explain who I am to you."

Silence.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Mr. Ovchinnikov," I remarked evenly before hanging up.

"What now?" Melor asked as soon as I hung up.

"I need to get this phone to Nero Sartori," I said, making both Akim and Melor choke on their shock.

"What?" Akim finally asked.

"Morocco Carrisi is the only person that can get me any information on these three numbers without any alphabet agencies coming down on our heads," I explained.

"Are you fucking serious?" Melor squawked. "You're going to ask the Sartoris for a favor?"

"It's not a favor when they want Nikel Ovchinnikov out of Port Townsend just as much as we do," I semi-lied.

"Blyad'", Akim swore underneath his breath. "This just keeps getting worse and worse."

I allowed Akim and Melor to assume the worst, only Maksim knowing the truth. Now, it wasn't that I didn't trust the two men, but our mutual benefits with the Sartoris wasn't my secret to tell. The Sartoris and O'Briens wouldn't appreciate their business being broadcast any more than I would.

Plus, Samara was still the priority.