Chapter 25 Nadir
NADIR
We arrive at the abandoned hospital late at night, surrounded by nothing but the sound of chirping crickets. I pop open the car door and step out into long grass that reaches my knee.
God, I can’t remember the last time I stepped out of the city. It has to be when I was back in Russia. I flew straight to Boston after meeting Leon in New York and never looked back.
I click my teeth, wading through the grass. It’s slowing me right down.
The hospital is set back a little. It’s a huge building, very run-down, set in the middle of nowhere, which explains why authorities made the decision to abandon it.
“Are you sure this is where he’s keeping her?” I ask.
“Positive.”
“The Kozhikov could’ve lied.”
“Don’t worry, bratan,” Leon says. “He knows what will happen if I find out he was lying. Jess is here. She has to be.”
I activate the flashlight on my phone and carefully slip the shotgun from my dress shirt.
Flies buzz around me, drawn to the blood on my shirt.
Nasty things. I smack a few against my skin.
Perfect place for Taro to camp out—with the flies.
I’m sure they’d get along. He’s just as tiny and inconvenient as the insects harassing me.
He won’t take much beating, especially since we have the element of surprise on our side. I’m not apprehensive about facing him. I’m worried about Jess, the state I might find her in.
Leon’s gun clicks as he chambers a round of bullets, keeping it fixed in his hand.
“We should call backup,” he says.
“No.”
“How can we be sure Taro doesn’t have an army waiting for us there?” Leon signals to the hospital. We’re not very far away from it now.
“Because he doesn’t know we’re here,” I whisper, tossing Leon a scalding look, encouraging him to lower his voice too. “When we see Taro, don’t shoot him. Leave the killing to me.”
Leon hitches his brow. “Wow. You must be serious about Jess.”
“And I’m serious about cutting your head off if you don’t stop talking about her.”
I trudge through the long grass, my pulse spiking when we make it to the outside walls.
Fuck. The last time I felt nerves like this was when I was nineteen, confronting six grown men alone.
I had a lot to lose, including my dignity.
My father was watching me from the grave, I was sure of it.
I had to show him I was fearless, a much better man than he ever was.
“This way.” Leon disappears from my side, snapping his fingers at me from somewhere.
I shine my flashlight, see him outside of a door, already working on opening the thing.
The door creaks on very ancient hinges. I wince, hoping we’ve not been heard, and keep the gun poised in my hand.
We enter corridors, and they seem to run forever.
The smell in here is worse than rotting flesh and human feces combined.
Deadly. I smell it a lot as a Bratva leader when I’m holding people hostage.
It never gets easier. Hits you like a ton of bricks each time.
Almost makes you want to set the bastards free, just to get rid of the smell.
But nobody has ever escaped punishment from me.
Taro is in for a treat when I get my fucking hands on him.
Mold clings to the ceilings, breeding infection. Everything smells like it’s rotting, from the peeling walls to the furniture. I’m convinced we just walked past a morgue. I know the smell of rotting bodies well. My father used to keep them in his basement sometimes.
After walking another two hundred meters, we reach the end of a corridor. I stare at the double doors in front of me, touching the frosted glass. There’s a sign there. One word. Emergency, I think it says.
I glance at Leon and push open the doors. We enter the reception area. There’s an abandoned triage desk in the center of the room, filled with documents.
“Fuck,” Leon mutters. Strangely, his voice carries an echo. “How long has this place been abandoned?”
There’s no time to answer his question. We’ll look into it after we save Jess.
My stomach churns at all the needles scattered across the floor. There are shards of glass too, from private rooms that have all been smashed into.
Glass crunches underfoot as I walk through the space. I stick my head into various rooms. The beds are empty. The ECGs look like they didn’t even work when this place was running.
I come away from the rooms, back out into the main area, and see a line of stretchers abandoned down the corridor. I swing around the corner, gun still in hand as I work my way down the ambulance rank.
A sudden crashing coming from reception has me stopping in my tracks. I turn around, heart in my throat, and make eye contact with Leon. Something’s in his hand.
I squint, shining my flashlight to get a better look at the box in his hand.
“Planning on medicating yourself?”
“Not with fentanyl,” he says, passing me the container.
I turn the box over in my hands, reading the label. Morphine. Fentanyl. The list goes on.
“Look at the expiration date.” Leon flips the box.
“This place is stuck in the eighties. I checked those documents on the triage desk just to make sure. The place was abandoned a year or two before the nineties, yet these drugs are all still in date. Take a look at the morphine.” He taps the label.
“Morphine expires after three months. This batch has got another two months left.”
I stare at the label, bile creeping into my throat. Maureen never mentioned anything about being drugged. She was blindfolded. That was it.
But drugging Jess might be the only way Taro can get her to comply…
“Are there any drugs missing?” I ask.
“It’s hard to tell. I found them in a drawer under the desk. There could be more.”
“Fuck.” I rake a hand through my hair, the other clenched around my gun.
I finish walking through the ambulance bays and push open the doors, heading outside. Cool night air hits me in the face, and I lose my vision. My focus. I even lose my grip on the gun.
I need to hurry up and find Jess. I’m tempted to yell her name, rip this place apart until nothing remains. But I have to think rationally about this, even though I’m dying to act impulsively and blow the place up.
Leon joins me outside.
“What if she’s not here?” I sigh.
“She has to be.”
I walk around abandoned ambulances, figuring out my next steps. Do we head back inside and continue searching? Or do we return to Boston and kill the man Leon captured for wasting our time?
I feel a terrible scratching under my ribs when I remember how Jess and I left things. She stepped out of that car like she didn’t wanna see me again. She asked about my intentions with the kids, and like a fool, I told her we’d discuss it later.
Now there might not be a later.
My phone screen lights up with a message.
I unlock the device and freeze when I see the unknown number.
I’ve never seen you look so afraid, bratan.
I bring my gun to my chest, and point my phone flashlight out into the parking lot.
And that’s when I catch a single hand waving at me from the ambulance window.
My brain lags, but my legs are already kicking up behind me. I fall into a sprint and tear open the passenger door, expecting it to be locked. Taro likes to hide and lock himself away. But he’s about to face the music and have his throat ripped out.
I throw myself into the vehicle, wrapping my hands around his tiny neck. I could strangle the fucker with my pinkie. He’s so small.
“I’d let go of me if I were you.” He laughs, gritting his sweetcorn teeth.
I wince as some of his horrible breath blows my way.
“Where is she?” I tighten my grip. “Tell me. Did you drug her?”
“Get your hands off me, Nadir. We both know you’re not going to kill me when you don’t know where Jess is,” he groans.
“Although I must say—I’m surprised. I was expecting you to choose the business over her.
” He struggles against my chokehold, even though I’ve eased off a little.
“And to answer your question—no. I would never need to drug Jess. Some prisoners are a little stubborn and need mellowing out. But Jess has always come to me on her own.” He looks over his shoulder, and that’s when I lose it. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
She’s in the back of the ambulance strapped to a stretcher. Her hands and ankles are cuffed, which only has me erupting in even more anger. I use handcuffs on Jess. Nobody else.
I dive into the back and work on setting her free, starting by ripping the tape from her mouth so she can breathe properly. She gasps.
Next, I work on the handcuffs. But these ones require a fucking key.
“How’s this for a vacation?” she mutters, eyes coming around to meet mine. “It’s a shame you’re here. I was just about to get some sleep.”
“Jess—”
“It’s complicated?” she sneers, repeating my answer from earlier. She shakes her head and looks away for a beat. But it’s not long before her eyes are darting straight back to me. “My kids. Where are—?”
“Safe. One of my men has them.”
“Safe?” she snarls. “They’re not fucking safe. I don’t want them anywhere near you or your Bratva.”
I clench my jaw. Now it’s my turn to look away. She’s pale, has deep shadows under her eyes, and she’s still beautiful. It hurts. I feel physical pain under my ribs.
“I promise you they’re safe. You have my word.”
I love her. I know it. Seeing her like this hurts more than watching my brother shoot Anastasia. I fucking love her so much and she thinks I hate her.
I’ll have to admit my feelings later when we’re back in Boston, away from Taro.
I look up and see him lurking in the front of the ambulance, watching us.
I straighten my legs as much as the height of this ambulance allows and do a quick sweep of the place. She’s not hooked up to anything. I grab her wrist just to be sure, flipping it over, making sure there’s no cannula. Why is she looking so pale if she hasn’t had anything injected?
Oh shit. The wine. She was drinking.