Chapter 22 – Eduard
“I want an aerial map of all Navarro’s business places—his clubs, warehouses, every fucking thing he owns,” I demanded, entering the sitting room.
“On it, Boss,” Leonid answered.
Dawn was drawing near, and I hadn’t stopped strategizing. My white shirt was crinkled all over, and the buttons were all undone, but I couldn’t go up into that closet yet. I hadn’t touched the bed or closed my eyes for two minutes. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.
And I didn’t want to.
I didn’t want anything except for Marielle to be back under this roof.
I didn’t want to imagine what must be happening wherever Navarro’s men took her to.
The sting of the possibility that she left on her own will wasn’t so sharp when it meant she might be safe and sound.
That wouldn’t stop me from bringing her back.
She belonged here, in this house, in our bedroom, with me.
So I would stop at nothing to bring her back. And I was on it already.
My men rushed in and out of the house through the night, gathering information and connecting dots.
Viktor entered the large room.
“Boss, Yves has tracked that number. It’s registered under one Marcel’s name. Guy is one of Lucien’s men, I confirmed,” he divulged.
I looked on without blinking.
Another pointer suggesting she might be working with him.
But even that was secondary to me in that moment.
“Run through all the contacts the number has communicated with in the last months. All of the numbers. Check the numbers against those of every one of you. Then everyone in the Bratva. Every single person. Even the guys guarding the gates.”
“Okay, Boss. I’ll get on with it right away.”
“Even the Yezhov brothers,” I added.
“Yes, Boss.”
As Viktor left, Ivan turned to me.
“Boss, we’ll find her.”
“And make those motherfuckers beg for death,” Ruslan added.
I gave a sardonic chuckle.
Of course, there was no consideration of options. Lucien’s men signed up for death the moment they took my wife.
***
“Boss, I have the results,” Viktor disclosed.
It was 6:00 a.m., and I was walking into the warehouse. My men were working on getting the location of Navarro’s properties. Marielle had to be in one of them. It would soon be time to go get her, but waiting at the house was driving me crazy.
“And?” I prompted.
“The number exchanged frequent calls with Sir Oleg,” he dropped, his tone cautious.
I was taken aback.
“Oleg Yezhov?”
“Yes, Boss. They’ve been in correspondence for weeks.”
“And then he showed up yesterday…” I muttered.
“There were no texts, just calls.”
I turned around.
“Leonid! To Oleg’s warehouse,” I instructed.
Nodding, he ran ahead of me to open the door.
“Boss, we have the maps of Navarro’s properties. Most are in Chicago,” Harry reported, meeting me at the car door.
“Good. I’ll be back.”
I had always thought the mole was someone in my ranks. I expected it would be one of my men’s boys. What I didn’t expect was for it to be one of the Yezhovs. All this while, the black sheep had been so close, and I had no idea.
It didn’t hurt; it angered me to no end.
I walked into Oleg’s warehouse, not sparing his men a glance. Leonid shoved the man guarding his office away, and I entered. What I found was a briefcase on his table.
No Oleg.
I came outside and was about to ask his men where he was when I saw him. He was walking out of his store with Danil, laughing.
Definitely going to be his last laugh.
Ignoring their greetings, I grabbed Oleg by the throat, his pupils dilating in surprise.
I pushed him until his back was touching the metal wall of the building.
“Brother,” Danil called, looking between us. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll tell me everything you and Navarro discussed,” I rasped.
His startled expression turned to fear.
“What?! Lucien Navarro?” Danil asked, facing Oleg. “You spied?”
“She didn’t leave willingly, did she? You helped his men get into my estate. What exactly did you both plan?”
“Wait, who is she?” Danil asked.
“Navarro’s men took Marielle last night,” I explained. “And this betrayer showed up at the estate, spewing trash about wanting to say hello. He knew.”
“They have her?” He turned to Oleg, “What exactly was your role in all of this?”
When he still didn’t talk, I let him go and punched his nose. Blood dripped down as he looked up at me.
“If you’re thinking of denying, you’re signing up for my signature torture, I promise you.”
Danil watched us, a small raise in his usually unmoving eyebrow.
“When did he contact you? Or was it the other way round?” I questioned.
“Look, I didn’t mean for all of this to happen, brother…” he started before I interrupted.
“Don’t you dare call me that!”
“Start talking,” Danil instructed.
“I had some shipments that were stuck, and Lucien offered to help me get them out—”
“Right. Because we don’t have the contacts to help you get them out,” Danil remarked, cutting in.
“No, I…I couldn’t ask you or Eduard for help with them. They were not…just regular goods.”
“What. Is. Lucien’s. Plan?” I cut him off.
“Since the last time failed, he asked me to help his men get into the house this time. The plan was just to take Marielle. He said she had something of his, and he’ll let her go after. He would make it look like she left on her own so Eduard wouldn’t come after him.”
“And you came to confirm the success of your plot,” I pointed out.
“I…I freaked out when Lucien stopped taking my calls after his men left your estate. I came to check, just in case you had gone after him.”
I asked him the last questions I had for him.
“Where did they take her? Did you tell him I was considering looking for her when you left the estate?”
“I don’t know. We’ve not spoken since they took her,” he answered.
Nodding, I brought out my knife.
I ran the blade across his neck before he could move.
Danil turned to me as Oleg’s choked gurgling ended.
“What happens now?”
“I find my wife.”
***
“As much as can be moved. I don’t care if I have to haul them there,” I answered my men.
“Okay, Boss.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“As for the guns, make them triple capacity, not double. I don’t want any delay from packing another round if another set of men needs to come.
Speed is crucial once the hit starts. Navarro is more uncultured than any rogue Mafia man you can think of, and that’s why he can’t be under any Mafia.
Once he has recovered from the element of surprise, there’s no thinking what he’ll do,” I explained.
The plan was simple: start with Navarro’s biggest warehouse while we waited to find out the exact location where they had Marielle. Give him a small window to get the message and surrender. Invade the location where they kept her if he didn’t.
Killing his men and getting her out would be mere revenge; it was nowhere near enough. He had to have losses substantial enough to remind him never to mess with me or what was mine.
By evening that same day, I had changed clothes at my office and was on my way to Navarro’s warehouse.
“Get as close to the back of the warehouse as possible,” I told Ivan as he turned into another isolated street.
“Got it, Boss.”
“No mistake,” I reminded the two men in the backseat.
“Yes, Boss,” they chorused.
“Remember, speed is crucial. They must not have the chance to take a pin out of the warehouse. The other two kegs should go into the warehouse through the window. And they must not sense you first.”
“Yes, Boss,” they repeated.
I didn’t doubt their ability to get around the warehouse without drawing the attention of any of the guards, but even the tiniest of risks was too big where Marielle’s safety was involved.
When Ivan eventually pulled over, I glanced at my wristwatch as they brought out the kegs of petrol from the trunk.
“Two minutes,” I told them, earning nods.
Then they were gone.
My fingers toyed with the lighter as I waited for them to come back.
30 seconds.
60 seconds.
90 seconds.
I saw Harry first.
Then Ivan and Leonid jogged behind him, toward the car.
I left the side of the car, flicked the lighter, and threw it.
The warehouse went up in flames.
Just a warning, Navarro.
***
The car couldn’t get there fast enough.
It was 11:00 p.m. on the same day.
Lucien had done exactly what I expected; he didn’t reach out or make any surrender move.
He was waiting, daring me. He definitely didn’t think I would find the location of the warehouse where they kept Marielle.
He believed he still had some leverage. And my plan was to ensure that his pride was virtually the only thing of value he had left when I was finished.
After I had my wife safe in my arms.
My phone rang.
“Talk to me,” I told Harry.
“Everyone is in position around the building, Boss.”
“You’ll hear your cue in five minutes,” I disclosed. “Spare no one.”
“Yes, Boss.”
As the car pulled over, Leonid turned to me, and I gave him a nod.
He got out of the car and fired a resounding shot into the air.
As the plan unfolded and I waited, my suppressed fear surfaced, raw and real. The possibility that she was dead. That Navarro had already silenced her before I knew she was missing at all. It could be the reason he didn’t reach out after I destroyed his warehouse.
My exhale was rough as I forced the thought away.
I couldn’t imagine what my life would look like if she were gone. I wasn’t sure it would be a life anymore.
The sound of gunshots filled the air. I got out of the car.
A gun in each hand, I darted straight into the warehouse.
The warehouse was a flurry of activity. Precisely, violent activity.
From the look of things, my men had the upper hand as expected.
“Fancy seeing you after all this while.”
I turned to the right.
Lucien Navarro.
“I could say the same. Now I don’t have to hunt you down to kill you,” I uttered.
“Before you even find out where your lovely wife is. The place where my men are doing as they please with her. Her body, specifically,” he remarked, his smirk proud.
Then it clicked.
He was trying to stall, to get a rise out of me, to distract me.
That told me one thing: He was bluffing.
His men were probably trying to move her away. Then he would hang her location over my head. Then I wouldn’t be able to kill him.
His smirk disappeared when he caught my chuckle.
I pulled the trigger, and his body collapsed to the floor. Walking over to his body, I shot his chest again.
“That’s for my wife.”
Shooting my way through, I opened the first door. It was empty. After the third empty room, a chill went through me.
What if he took her and bolted when he heard my men arrive?
I felt the hot graze of a bullet on my arm. Looking to the right, I sent the bald shooter to the ground with one shot.
I hastened my steps as I went to the door on the far opposite wall.
I threw it open.
Marielle’s blonde head caught my eye.
My knees practically wobbled.
She blinked slowly at me. I could see the bloodstains on the side of her face despite the darkness of the room.
Her lips moved like she was trying to say something. But no sound came out.
She was strapped to a chair, and I was crouched in front of her immediately, loosening the ropes.
She reached for me as the ropes fell off. I held her to my chest, my heart still accelerating.
“Baby,” I breathed.
I lifted her gently into my bloody arms. She clung to me as we left the room.
***
I stepped out of our bedroom, glancing over my shoulder to see if the sound of the door didn’t disturb her.
Turning to face Viktor, I asked, “What’s the news?”
“The texts have been retrieved, Boss,” he informed, passing me a slim envelope.
“You can go.”
I went back into the bedroom, tearing the envelope open before I got to the couch.
There was a single sheet of A4 paper.
Just two texts.
The first was the one I’d already seen.
The second one was what weakened me, forcing me to take a seat on the couch.
It read:
“Fuck off.”
Then, a notification appeared below it that she had just blocked the number.
Guilt washed over me like I had never felt before.
She wasn’t feeding him any information.
She didn’t betray me.
She wasn’t even about to.
And I had treated her like a suspect over a single text. Hell, I was even about to move her to another estate. I doubted her, and the tiny hope I’d held all along that she might not be betraying me wasn’t enough of an excuse to justify me.
My hand brushed a small ceramic plate covered in transparent nylon as I dropped the envelope onto the stool. It was the pryanik she made and left for me the other night. One of the nights I should have spent making her smile instead of pushing her away and treating her with suspicion.
I should have fucking asked her.
I had turned my back on her while she kept trying to get through to me. She didn’t stop asking if I was okay, if all was alright at work, even when I kept her at arm’s length. I hurt her in the way I had just told her I wouldn’t. I distanced myself again.
All the while, she didn’t even deserve it.
I had definitely pushed her to the limit.
I had no idea what to do.
These were things I never had to think of before. I didn’t think of regret or guilt over hurting someone. I didn’t deal with feelings.
Until she came along.
And now she had done something to me that I couldn’t have thought possible. She changed something in me.