Chapter 33

Maksim~

A vgust was staring at me as I paced my office, waiting for Nero or Morocco to call us back or send a text with Katja's whereabouts, and he was wise enough not to give me any half-ass platitudes about how everything was going to be okay or how she was going to be fine. After what had happened to his wife, he knew well enough that things weren't always fine.

There was also the fact that someone was going to have to tell her grandfather what happened if the worst came to be. That was not how I wanted to meet Mr. Antonov for the first time, but I wouldn't let anyone else tell him. This was my error, and my penance would be looking that man in his eyes and telling him that his granddaughter had been hurt because of me. It also didn't matter that Nikel had chosen her all on his own. The second that I started feeling something for her, I should have begun taking better care of her.

"If Nikel has not addressed her absence from work, that could also pose a problem," Avgust said, finally speaking. "It's a reasonable assumption that her work might conduct a welfare check, depending on her attendance record."

"A part of me wishes that they'd get involved, but I am also very aware that we do not need the police muddying up the waters more," I replied, drowning in the irony that my intelligence level was useless in this situation.

Just then, my phone chimed with an incoming text, and when I looked at my phone, I saw that it was an attachment, and I'd never felt such an overwhelming sense of dread in all my life. Even when I'd been fifteen and put in charge of raising Akim.

"It's an attachment," I said, my fingers hovering over the screen.

"Do you want me to look at it first?" Avgust offered, knowing exactly what I must be feeling, having been here before.

"No," I answered.

Two seconds later, I opened the attachment, and regret almost dropped me to my knees as I watched Nikel tell Katja to smile for the cameras. She was about to be violated for an audience again, and it didn't matter that it was just an audience of one. Once again, all of Katja's secrets were going to be exposed for entertainment purposes, and I knew in this moment that I was never going to be able to make things right between us. Yeah, I had the power to keep her with me forever, but she was never going to love me, and that was as clear as day now.

I watched the video, not saying anything as Nikel cut her bra open, showing the camera everything, his hands touching her like they had the right to. I watched as she kept her head down, her eyes glued to her lap, Nikel's face glowing with a fevered sickness. Not only was he touching something exquisite, but he also knew what this would do to me. I was never going to get this image out of my head, and I wasn't stupid enough to believe that more videos weren't going to follow.

When the video finally ended, I looked over at Avgust, and he must have seen something in my eyes, because he immediately stood up, asking, "What is it?"

"It's a video of him and Katja," I answered, not needing to go into details.

Very calmly, he said, "I need you to look at it again, Maksim. However, this time, I need you to ignore Nikel and Katja, and look at anything in the background that can tell us where they are."

I gave him a terse nod before doing as he'd instructed. Pulling up the video again, I did my best to ignore the atrocity happening in the center of the room. "It's an abandoned house, looks small."

"Like where Louie took Samara?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah…in fact, if we hadn't burned down the house, I'd think that it was the same place."

Before Avgust or I could try to connect the dots, Avgust's phone was ringing, and as soon as I saw him put it on speaker, I knew that it had to be Sartori or Morocco. I also knew that if they were calling, instead of sending a text, then this was a lot more complicated than they made it look in the movies.

"Kotov here," Avgust answered.

"I found her," Morocco announced, and I could feel myself shaking with the news.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Coincidentally, when you guys burned down the evidence of Mrs. Kotov's kidnapping, you missed a deeper hunting cabin just to the left of the main house. It's covered by weeds as tall as the house, and you missed it because the weeds blend in with the trees, obscuring the path to the cabin."

"I am not sure that I know what you are speaking about," Avgust replied coolly.

Morocco snorted. "Oh, please. In the event that you guys weren't able to get a handle on Nikel Ovchinnikov, I've been monitoring any weird shit that's happened since Louie Manziel got stupid, and a random fire in the middle of no-fucking-where was rather weird, Kotov."

He had a point.

"Is the front road the only access to the cabin?" I asked, not caring if the Sartoris knew our secrets or not.

"Yes," he answered. "There's no other way in unless you guys want to hike your way in."

"I suggest that you take your best sniper with you," Nero remarked, finally speaking. "It might be the only chance that you have to get her out of there alive."

"There's a creek to the right of the cabin, a quarter of a mile behind," Morocco added. "The sound of water might help you guys sneak in undetected, but that depends on how much water is in the creek and if it's flowing steadily."

"Okay, thanks."

"Good luck, gentlemen," Nero said before adding, "Mrs. Sartori sends her regards."

I let out a hollow laugh, knowing exactly what that meant. At this point, it looked like every syndicate leader owed Mrs. Sartori their lives, and she was proving to be much more cunning and diabolical than her husband. On the outside looking in, a person might assume that she was just being sentimental and a romantic at heart, but that's not what this was. She'd been collecting us like unsuspecting pawns, and we were all going to owe her if the time ever came when she wanted or needed to collect. If Kasen Sartori ended up running the entire state of Maryland one day, I wouldn't be surprised.

"Let's go," I said as soon as Avgust slipped his phone back in his pocket.

"You go," he ordered. "I'll call Damir, Ivan, and Orlyn to have them meet us there. I'll give them the details as you make your way over."

Without another word, I rushed out of my house, got into my car, then raced down the street. Now that I knew where they were, it was nothing to trade my life for Katja's. While I didn't think that it would come to that, I'd do it if necessary. Right now, the priority was getting to her before Nikel could violate her any further. Though this was going to take some time to heal from, every second wasted had the potential to make matters worse, and saving her was all that I could think about.

I also knew that it was a good twenty-minute drive out there, and twenty minutes felt like twenty hours right now. Katja was helplessly tied to a chair, and the first thing that I was going to do when I got her back was teach her some effective self-defense, and none of that local gym crap. I was going to teach her how to kill with her bare hands, something that every woman should know.

As I sped down the street, there was also the issue of what I'd done to her at Millie's. Having always planned on telling her the truth, I knew that the truth wasn't going to matter after it was all said and done. Katja had every right to feel violated because that's exactly what I'd done to her; I had violated her.

Nevertheless, that wasn't going to stop me from making her mine and trying to make it up to her. I was not going to allow one error in judgement to define the rest of our lives, no matter how huge that error. I loved Katja, that fact as clear as any blue sky.

Now I just had to prove it to her.