Morris Schlay 5.
“Teuling is back in the Netherlands.” Yak tells the room. My heart stops, the worst pain I have ever felt exploding in my chest and spreading to my limbs. My daughter. My little girl…
“Is she with him?” Jonah manages to ask because I can’t get my mouth to work.
Yak shakes his head. “No, he arrived alone. Diaz believes she is alive but alone. Word is Teuling has no one left to turn to. His every acquaintance has turned him away not wanting to incur the wrath of the Kosher Nostra like the others. So, he tucked tail and ran back home.”
“But…he abandoned her? Where is she? Yak, my sister—”
“Diaz is closing in on her location. He’s confident they should have her within a few days.”
“Days?” I choke on the word. Days? “What will she eat? Drink? He left her to die!”
“No.” Yak is adamant. “He left her to save himself. However, he knows killing her will only bring him more pain.”
I slam my hand on the table and stand up. “HE WILL FEEL PAIN! I WILL TAKE MY TIME AND EVERY MOMENT OF FEAR SHE FELT, EVERY DROP OF BLOOD SHE SHED, EVERY OUNCE OF PAIN SHE EXPERIENCED…HE WILL KNOW IT TENFOLD!” The sound of my pain echoes in the room. A heavy silence descends in the wake of my vow.
“He will.” Yak assures me in a steady voice. “And I will help you.” He points to my phone on the table. “Our flight leaves in two hours. The Pharaoh, Jonah, you, and me. I’ve never been to the Netherlands. Why don’t we take in the sights and sounds?”
I drop into my seat, the rage simmering as the weight of Sophie’s situation presses down on me. Over three weeks. My only daughter has been living in her own hell for 23 days!
“Why can’t I go? Why do you always go hunting without me?” I slowly pan to Tev, who is glaring at Yakov with his arms crossed and his lips pursed like a petulant child. “I love hunting wabbits.”
“I need you to stay here.” Yak sighs, his eyes rimmed with dark circles, his face gaunt.
Sophia is here and safe, but she isn’t with him.
She’s locked inside herself and the toll it takes on Yak and Monty is difficult to watch.
It mirrors my own suffocating pain. She isn’t at fault, she didn’t set any of this in motion, and I know for a fact that Sophie does not blame her either.
My daughter grew up in this life, she’s all too familiar with the machinations of evil men.
“I can’t…I can’t stand by and watch Sophia…
I need to act. I need blood on my hands and unanswered cries of mercy ringing in my ears.
I can’t help her until the threat is eliminated.
Diaz is going to find Sophie and when she’s safe and sound, my Sophia will come back to us. ”
I hope Yak isn’t telling himself any lies, because I need to believe that Diaz will find my daughter and return her safely to her family. There is a hole in the fabric of our mishpocheh, and it will continue to widen without Sophie.
Tev drops his hands and shrugs. “Fine. I’ll stay and keep the hearth fires going while you manly men go off on a violent adventure.”
“Such a good wife.” Yak pats Tev’s cheek and their ensuing slap battle lightens the oppressive mood.
“I have a contact that will meet us in Amsterdam with everything we’ll need. Pack light, just a carry-on. I’ll meet you out front in 15 minutes.”
“Could we make it 20? I’d like to give Harper a proper goodbye.”
Yak rolls his eyes. “In that case, we’ll meet in 3 minutes.”
“Fuck off!” Jonah laughs, getting to his feet to leave.
“Poor Harp. It’s important to take your time, son. Our women deserve our best sexual performances.”
“I hate you.” He glares at me and rushes from the war room.
“Morris.” David, Steven, and Aaron approach. My throat tightens watching my best friends…my brothers. Each one wraps their hand around the back of my neck and brings our foreheads together. “Bury your rage alongside his mangled corpse and come home to your family a cleansed man.”