Chapter 36 - Anatoli
It was the first time I was down on the new program I had created.
It was amazing at finding information, and I had a hell of a lot to go on about the Collective in general and even Julio Santino in particular.
Just not any locations that weren’t already public record, like the businesses they owned.
It was obvious that they wouldn’t take Masha to any of those places, so I was at a dead end.
I had been working in that crowded restaurant for hours, blocking everything out except concentrating on what I saw in grainy camera views and what my program could provide.
Now, as I looked up from my dark haze, the place burst into life again around me.
The sharp barks of happy laughter from a large group of college kids a few tables over, the clink of silverware, the friendly singsong voice of my waitress, who was still on the clock.
It all grated on me, pricked at my shredded nerves like a tenacious crow tugging worms from the ground.
Like that crow, fear threatened to gobble me up.
Masha had been out of my sight and out of my protection for too damn long.
I started a new cycle of recriminations—I should have gone with her and had Svet find a new car.
We should have run down the original car that was following us and taken care of them.
On and on, and none of it helped me find Masha, so I had to shut it down before I made a scene in this jovial, much too crowded place.
My phone buzzed, forgotten beside me as I pored over my laptop screen. I jolted, reaching for it. Who the hell was calling me when all my men were gone? It was an unknown number, maybe a ransom request. That seemed odd when the Collective were out for revenge. I answered it in a gruff tone.
“Anatoli Ovinko?” an unfamiliar voice asked. Not friendly, but not hostile, either. Not yet, anyway.
“Who wants to know?”
“This is Daniil Fokin.”
Now there was an edge of irritation in his voice.
What the actual fuck? For a brief moment, the sun came back out into my world.
Maybe it wasn’t the Collective who had grabbed Masha, but her own family taking her back.
That meant she was safe. I tried to recall who this one was.
Daniil—Oh yes, a brother of the one she worked for up in Silicon Valley.
I wanted to shout at him to tell me where my wife was, but I remained calm and aloof.
“How did you get this number?” Just like nothing was wrong at all, and I was merely curious.
There was a long, exhausted sigh on Daniil’s end. “Stop wasting both our time,” he snapped. “I just got off a very interesting call with your uncle. I know all about Enzo’s murder, and I know it was my hotheaded cousin who did it.”
Now it was my turn to sigh, which was better than letting loose with a stream of curses that Daniil might take as aimed at him.
So my own family had gone behind my back to cut a deal with the Fokins the moment there was no longer any chance of aligning with the Collective.
It had to be Leonid, going behind Miron’s back.
Now that I knew Masha was safe, I had the mental capacity to be pissed off until I heard Daniil’s next sharply spoken words.
“Where the hell is Masha?”
They didn’t have her? She wasn’t safe? Suddenly, which uncle was more traitorous didn’t matter. Nothing mattered if Masha was still in danger.
“We only want her back unharmed,” he continued in a more conciliatory tone when I remained silent, lost in thoughts I didn’t want to be having. “We’re willing to let you go on your way after that.”
I almost laughed, but my throat was tight with new fear, the same old fear, but brought back to life after a brief respite. He continued with a mix of cajoling and threats, and I finally cut him off.
“Shut up and listen for ten seconds, Fokin,” I snapped, realizing how ludicrous it was to have such a conversation in a place that was one level shy of being a theme park.
Dropping some cash on the table, I swept up my laptop and stalked toward the door, heading for the quiet of my car.
“I don’t actually have your cousin. Believe it or not, I want to know where she is as badly as you do.
” More. So much more, but he’d never believe that.
What had started as an obsession to get revenge against Masha had turned into something even I couldn’t quite comprehend.
That woman was mine, deep in my heart, my blood and bones.
None of the pain she caused me in the past would ever stand up against the pain of losing her for good. That would kill me.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?” he asked.
Did I put my trust in a Fokin? I’d already given my heart to one, though she didn’t know it. After a brief, combative back-and-forth, I finally admitted that the Collective had her.
“And they know,” I said. “They think it was either her or me who shot Enzo, so they’re not exactly keen on keeping her alive.”
“She should just tell them you did it,” he said. “Turn your ass over.”
I nodded. She should do that. Anything to stay alive long enough until I found her, but at that point, I figured they’d just as happily accept a two-for-one bargain and kill her even if she turned on me. That wasn’t Masha, though. I knew that in my guts.
“I suspect they haven’t taken her too far,” I said. “I’m monitoring several of them, but nothing that could track to her yet.”
“Why the hell do you care about finding her?” he asked, loathing dripping from his voice. “Can’t have someone else taking your fun away?”
I silently promised to punch him in his face if I ever saw him, but put it at the bottom of the priority list. “She’s my wife,” I said. “She’s mine, so I want her back. I will get her back.”
That shut him up for half a second. Then he spoke again, voice trembling with rage.
“Listen up, Ovinko. I swear to everything I hold dear that I’m going to tear your head off as soon as Masha’s safe—”
“Likewise,” I interrupted, about to end the call if he wasn’t going to offer any solid solutions.
“But,” he said hurriedly. “You seem to be closer and could get to her faster.”
“You have a lead on a position?”
Oh, I could tell he was struggling. Should he take a chance and trust that I wouldn’t disappear with her once she was safe? That was exactly what I planned to do, but I kept silent, riding out my impatience.
“We’ve been infiltrating them for a while, and yes, I think there are a couple of viable options in your area. I’ve already sent teams to some of the places here in town, but…”
He trailed off, not able to admit that my new information was helpful. “Send them to me,” I said. He remained silent too long. “She’s in trouble,” I told him. “We can’t screw around here because we hate each other’s guts. Tear my head off when she’s safe, remember?”
I didn’t mean for so much desperation to sound in my voice, but that was all I was at that point. Pure desperation.
“I’ll send them,” he said. “But you have to hold back until my team gets there. I swear I won’t kill you until Masha is safe, but you said yourself we can’t screw around. You have to wait for backup.”
“Sure,” I said, a total lie.
I wasn’t worried about him getting the drop on me.
I was as good as dead anyway if Masha was killed.
My heart would just grow cold and stop beating without any of her cousins needing to lift a finger.
A few moments after he ended the call, a text message came through with the locations.
I fed them into the map on my phone and studied them.
Every second I took to decide where to look first felt like sand slipping through an hourglass, and time was almost up.
Where to go? I tried to think like someone hellbent on revenge, not a difficult task.
One of the locations was closer than the other, and I yearned to go to that one because it meant I’d get there faster.
But the other wasn’t much further, and it was more remote.
A place with no neighbors to hear any screaming.
My stomach twisted, and I put the thought out of my mind. I had only ever heard Masha scream with pleasure, and that was all I ever wanted to hear. My fear for her safety was keeping me from making a decision, too scared I’d get it wrong and be late.
To hell with deciding. No more wasting time. I peeled out of the rest area and headed for the first location, not too far out of the way of the next if I was wrong. But I prayed to anyone or anything that might listen that I was right and I’d have Masha back in my arms where she belonged.
No one was listening. The first place was a bust, a deserted, ramshackle house at the edge of a broken-down neighborhood, with most of the houses boarded up and overlooked by even the most desperate squatters.
Gripping the steering wheel, I headed to the second, the last location that Daniil had given me. After that, I didn’t know what I’d do. As I drove, I called the last person I could trust, my pilot, who’d been waiting at the airport for further instructions once he completed the inspection.
I filled him in, asking if he could round up a few people he trusted with his life, as I trusted mine with his. He could shoot as well as he could fly, and he often complained he didn’t get to see enough action.
“You might actually get to bash some heads tonight,” I said. “Be ready.”
I finally pulled up to a narrow, dusty road leading off the only slightly wider road I’d been winding down for a solid five minutes.
My GPS swore this was the right way, so I pulled the car onto the bumpy track and slowly inched forward until I caught a glimpse of a shack over a small rise, half hidden behind a clump of trees that were barely hanging on in the extended drought.
I backtracked, parking the car as far off the lane as I could, behind an outcropping of the many boulders that encroached on the driveway. As I was about to get out and make my way closer, my phone buzzed shrilly in my pocket.
“Damn it,” I hissed, pulling it out. The same unknown number. Daniil. I ignored it and silenced the phone, but not before I saw a message come through.
We’re close. Teams are half an hour out from both locations. Wait for backup.
I had no idea what, if anything, was waiting for me in that lonesome shack up the hill, and backup didn’t sound bad, even if it was comprised of Fokins. But every fiber of my being warred with waiting, even if it was the sensible choice that might keep us both alive if Masha was indeed up there.
Then I heard a scream from all the way down the long drive, and I was out of the car and belting toward the shack. No more waiting. Masha needed me.