Chapter 9
Gavriil
No matter what moves I make, control keeps slipping through my fingers.
I’m not used to reacting instead of anticipating, and I hate it.
Dominik would’ve anticipated this.
And that knowledge burns worse than any betrayal.
I stare at the laptop screen, my jaw clenched, as Matvei pulls up security camera footage from last night.
“There’s Timur,” Matvei says, standing on my left and pointing to a lone figure on the screen. “He was patrolling the warehouse in the northeast part of our city.”
A warehouse critical to our distribution network, with millions’ worth of inventory moving through it every week.
“Play it,” I tell him, feeling the eyes of my other men on me as they sit around the table.
Matvei taps on the play button, letting the video start.
I watch Timur walk along the back wall of the warehouse, the faint glow of a cigarette shining through the surrounding darkness.
He lowers the cigarette from his mouth and suddenly pauses like he hears something.
Tucking the cigarette back between his lips, he approaches the left corner of the warehouse to check around it.
A black van tears around the right corner and stops less than three feet behind him.
Timur scrambles for the gun tucked into the back of his pants, but the attackers move faster.
Two men throw open the side door and swarm him, striking him again and again until he’s too dazed to fight back. That’s when they grab him and toss him into the van before slamming the sliding door shut.
The driver guns it and drives away.
The entire attack lasted less than thirty seconds.
My fingers curl into a fist beneath the table, nails biting into my palm.
Not only are these attackers invading our territory to do recon and damage property, but now they’re also kidnapping my fucking men.
And Timur is one of my best fighters, which makes this even worse.
I can’t believe he was caught off guard.
“How did you know he was taken?” I ask.
“I showed up for the morning patrol, and he was nowhere to be found,” Leon speaks up from farther down the table. “I kept calling him and looking around for him. I figured he snuck off to the donut shop down the street to grab something to eat, but he wasn’t there either.”
“After Leon called me, I checked the security camera footage,” Matvei tells me as he returns to his seat nearby. “He was taken around three in the morning.”
I consider my next move for a moment and come up…empty.
It feels like all we can do is fucking wait, and that’s unacceptable.
“They may be keeping him hostage in exchange for something. Keep an eye out for any messages,” I tell everyone, my voice steady.
“We’ve been trying to track the van through other security cameras, but we keep losing it,” Matvei says with a frown. “We’ll keep at it, though.”
Once the van gets out of our territory, it’ll be even harder to track it. We don’t have many security cameras outside of our territory because they’re typically not necessary. Hindsight is 20/20.
“I want everyone working in pairs at a minimum, everywhere, at all times,” I say, my eyes moving to each side of the table. “They could be questioning Timur for information, and the last thing that we need is for them to have information about us and how we operate.”
“We’re running out of extra men to put on these patrols,” Leon tells me.
“Simeon and Pyotr, you won’t watch Alina any longer,” I say. “Daniil, you and Roman will spend more time on patrol than sitting around, keeping an eye on our prisoners. They’re not going anywhere.”
I’ll just have to keep a closer eye on Alina, in person or via the security camera in my bedroom. I don’t trust her state, or my handling of it.
Guilt twists in my stomach as I picture her food and coffee still sitting untouched. Petrov told me that cinnamon coffee with vanilla creamer was her favorite, yet she refused it too.
Humiliating her didn’t break her. It made her fade further away.
I think it’s made her even more determined to keep this act up, and I’m starting to worry about how far she’s going to take things.
No sane person starves themselves like this unless they’re trying to make a point.
I want the Alina I know back, but I may have to try a new method to coax her out.
“Does everyone understand their duties?” I question them as I rise to my feet and button my suit jacket.
They respond in the affirmative and with nods.
“Whoever they are, we need to stop them before things get out of control,” I tell them as my expression hardens. “I don’t want to hear about any more losses. We need to secure our territory and eliminate all threats.”
“Yes, sir,” a chorus of voices responds before everyone disperses in a hurry to get started on their tasks.
I remain at the table for a few minutes longer, a plan unfolding in my mind. One way or another, Alina will come back to me. I won’t stop trying until she does.
Because this, whatever she’s doing, is not part of our agreement. I didn’t want this.
I wanted her.
And I wanted her defiant, not disappearing in front of my eyes.
This is all Archer’s fault. That traitor didn’t deserve his sister’s love or loyalty.
Dominik doesn’t either. It’s only a matter of time before Alina admits that she’ll never forgive him. Maybe then he’ll finally move on.
I draw in a deep breath through my nose before leaving the room to get my own business done.
I sit in my office and review the attack evidence stored in labeled folders on my laptop.
I contact allies near where the attacks happened to get any information they might have.
And Daniil reports about my brother and his men.
It sounds like Dominik is furious with me after receiving Alina’s mattress and clothes, which I’m not surprised by. Reminding him of how much power I have over Alina keeps him in line for now.
As nice as it would be to have his input on what’s going on, I need to prove to everyone that I can lead without him by my side.
Besides, Dominik needs to be punished for stabbing me in my back.
I can’t help but wonder if I give him another chance will he drive a literal knife through my heart instead.