Chapter 23 - Rodion #2
Silence on the other end. Then: "Give me fifteen minutes."
I hung up and stared out the window at the city rushing past. We'd crossed into Manhattan, heading north, following the only lead we had—that the van had been seen heading toward the George Washington Bridge.
Out of the city. They were taking her out of the city.
"Rodion." Yegor's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. "We need a plan."
"The plan is simple. We find them. We kill them. We bring her home."
"And if they're using her as leverage? If they try to negotiate?"
"There is no negotiation." I turned to face him, and I saw something shift in his expression—a flicker of something that might have been fear. "Anyone who touches my wife dies. Anyone who helped them dies. Anyone who even thought about hurting her dies. That's the plan."
He nodded slowly. "Understood."
My phone rang again. Kirill.
"Talk to me."
"We found them. Or rather, we found where they're likely going.
" I heard him typing rapidly. "The Petrovics own property in Westchester County—an old estate they acquired through a shell company three years ago.
It's been mostly abandoned, but satellite shows recent activity. Vehicles, heat signatures, the works."
"Send me the location."
"Already done. It's about forty-five minutes north of the city, near the Hudson. Isolated, heavily wooded. The main house is a manor—old money, built in the twenties. Multiple entry points, but also multiple vantage points for guards."
"How many men?"
"Hard to say. Satellite shows at least ten heat signatures, but there could be more inside. The building's old—stone walls play havoc with thermal imaging."
I pulled up the coordinates on my phone. The estate sat at the end of a long private drive, surrounded by forest on three sides and the river on the fourth. Defensible. Isolated. The perfect place to hold someone without being disturbed.
"Rodion." Kirill's voice dropped lower. "If they know you're coming, they'll use her as a shield. You need to be smart about this."
"I'm always smart."
"You're never smart when it comes to people you care about. That's why Demyan's always been pakhan, and you've always been the one who runs New York from a distance." A pause. "Don't let your feelings get her killed."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him that my feelings were exactly what would keep her alive—that the depth of what I felt for Keira was what made me dangerous, not weak.
But I didn't have time for arguments. Every minute I spent talking was another minute she was in their hands.
"Just keep tracking them," I said. "Let me know if anything changes."
I hung up and turned to Yegor. "Westchester. An estate near the river. That's where they've taken her."
"How many men do we have?"
"Twelve. Plus, whatever backup I can call in."
"Against at least ten, possibly more, in a fortified position." Yegor's jaw tightened. "Those aren't great odds."
"Then we'll have to be better than the odds."
***
We drove north through the darkness, the city lights fading behind us, the landscape shifting from urban sprawl to suburbs to the deep black of forest and river.
The GPS led us along winding roads, past sleeping towns and darkened houses, toward something that felt less like a rescue mission and more like a descent into hell.
The estate appeared around a bend in the road—or rather, the entrance to it did. A pair of stone pillars marked the start of a private drive, the iron gates between them hanging open. Beyond, the drive disappeared into darkness, swallowed by trees.
"Cut the lights," I said. "We go in quietly."
Yegor complied, and we rolled forward in darkness, the engine barely audible. Behind us, the other vehicles followed suit—a convoy of shadows moving through the night.
The drive was longer than I'd expected. Nearly a mile of gravel and overgrown foliage before the trees opened up and the manor came into view.
It was massive—three stories of gray stone and dark windows, Victorian in style, Gothic in atmosphere.
The kind of house that had probably been beautiful once, before decades of neglect had let the ivy creep up the walls and the roof begin to sag.
Now it looked like something out of a nightmare.
A corpse of a building, still standing through sheer stubbornness.
Lights burned in several windows. Vehicles were parked in the circular drive—a black van, two SUVs, a sedan with Serbian plates. They weren't trying to hide.
They were waiting.
"Thermal shows twelve signatures," Yegor said, studying his tablet. "Most on the ground floor, concentrated in what looks like a main hall. Three on the second floor. One isolated on the third."
Keira. She had to be the one on the third floor. Alone, separated from the others. Either being held apart for Branko's personal attention or positioned as a final bargaining chip.
"Entry points?"
"Front door is too exposed. There's a servants' entrance on the east side, probably leads to a kitchen. And there—" He pointed to the screen. "A cellar door on the north side. Could come up inside the house."
I studied the layout, running through scenarios. A frontal assault would be suicide—they'd see us coming, use Keira as a shield, pick us off before we got close. We needed to be surgical. Fast. Overwhelming.
"Alpha team takes the servants' entrance. Bravo comes through the cellar. Charlie holds the perimeter, makes sure no one escapes." I met Yegor's eyes. "I'm going in through the third floor."
"How?"
I pointed to the east side of the building, where a massive oak tree grew close to the wall. Its branches reached toward a window on the third floor—not quite touching, but close enough for someone willing to take the risk.
"That tree. I can reach the window from there."
"That's insane."
"Probably. But Keira's on the third floor, and I'm not waiting for a coordinated assault to reach her." I checked my weapon, chambered a round. "Give me five minutes to get into position. Then hit them hard. I'll get Keira out while they're dealing with you."
Yegor looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew me well enough to know it was pointless. "Five minutes. Then we come in."
"Make it loud. I want every guard in that building running toward you, not toward her."
He nodded grimly. "Loud we can do."
I stepped out of the vehicle, the cold air biting at my face. The manor loomed above me, dark and silent, its windows like empty eyes watching my approach.
Somewhere inside, Keira was waiting. Terrified. Alone. Counting on me to find her.
I'd promised I would come back to her.
It was time to keep that promise.