Chapter Twenty-Three
Ivan
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU KNOW WHO HAS HER?!” Michelle was screaming in Ivan’s face. Ivan just looked down at her with agitation. He took out his phone and turned to walk down the hallway.
“Where the fuck is he going?!” Michelle looked to Gavin, who just shrugged his shoulders. Michelle moved to go after Ivan, but Gavin held her back, shaking his head. Ivan looked over his shoulder before putting the phone to his ear.
“Igor, call everyone back; we have work to do….. Yes, we need everyone…. IGOR! Just fucking call them in… I will be there as soon as I can.” He hung up the phone in answer and pinched the bridge of his nose. The anger within him was like a volcano waiting to erupt. Viktor had wanted his blood ever since his father died. Ivan and Viktor had grown up together. This was an advantage, and not at the same time. They each knew the other’s weaknesses and how to draw them out of hiding.
“Stay here in case she comes back.” Ivan looked at Gavin. Gavin appeared to be the more level-headed one of the two at the moment.
“Like hell! We are coming with you! She told me you broke her heart, and now you have dragged her into God knows what. Ivan, she is my best friend. You can’t stop me,” Michelle marched towards the door. Ivan put his arm out to stop her. He looked her dead in the eyes.
“Where I am going is too dangerous for either of you. If you want your friend back, you will do as I say and wait here. Aliannah would never forgive me if either of you two wound up dead trying to save her,” he took a breath. “This is not a game. This is not a joke. This is life and certain death. I will lay down my life to save her. Trust me when I say that.” Michelle swallowed.
“I cannot save all three of you. Viktor is an evil bastard. He would sooner kill you all,” Ivan said sternly. He looked to Gavin. “Keep her here. Make sure she does not follow. I may not be here, but I have eyes everywhere. I will leave a discreet detail posted outside in case Viktor’s men come sniffing around.”
Gavin nodded his understanding and took Michelle by the hand. Ivan turned and left.
Each minute Viktor had Aliannah was another minute closer to the unthinkable. Viktor did not care for women beyond breeding and saddle warming. Ivan regretted not being stronger in his warning to Aliannah. He had not told her the truth in order to protect her from this world. The Russian Mafia was not to be messed with, let alone two families ripped apart by a blood feud.
During his time back at the oil rigs, he had uncovered a mole in his operations—a man planted by Viktor. He was dealing with the fallout of the second explosion when he got word that Viktor was in New York. This infuriated him, but he couldn’t leave the rigs until everything was sorted.
The mole had been dealt with accordingly. Ivan let Igor take the helm of that operation. Igor had always been the more eager one to dirty his hands. Ivan asked no questions when Igor confirmed that the job was done. Igor rarely made a mistake; the one time he did resulted in a scar going through his left eyebrow. He had just about survived that day. Ivan knew without a doubt Igor was his right-hand man. No one outside of their circle knew who Igor was. There was a very good reason for this.
Ivan’s depot was just outside New York City. Despite his biggest commodity being oil, he did not trust the docklands for security; too many things go wrong there all the time. The garage door opened as he pulled up, and he parked inside. On the outside, it just looked like an auto shop; on the inside, it was a state-of-the-art secure storage facility. It was well guarded and alarmed. Nobody got in or out without being noticed. He walked into the main meeting room, and all his men stood to attention.
“Viktor has Aliannah. I need every piece of Intel on him, his operations and his whereabouts NOW!” a few of the men scattered. The IT centre contained the most sophisticated computer system in existence; the CIA did not even have this type of technology. Ivan’s team had developed it themselves. There was no rock left unturned when they used it.
“The rest of you get ready. When we find this bastard, it will get messy. We move out as soon as we have the location.” The rest of the men bowed their heads respectfully and headed to the armoury to prepare. It was just Ivan and Igor remaining in the room.
“We will find her, Ivan. We will.” Igor moved to the drinks cart, poured two glasses of whiskey and handed one to Ivan. Ivan took a breath and ran his hand through his hair.
“I should have protected her more. I should have done better. She deserves better,” he was pacing. Igor had never seen Ivan like this before. Ivan was like cement; nothing could ever rattle him, yet this had. Igor had never met Aliannah, but from the way Ivan had pined for her since she left him on the Serenity, he knew she had to be important. Ivan could get any girl he wanted, and before Aliannah, he did. Since she left, he had not looked at a single woman in that way. Ivan sank into a chair.
“I tried to warn her to stay away from him. She knows nothing about the mafia's life, and I didn’t want to drag her down into it. Now, Viktor has done exactly that. Igor, he will kill her. We both know this” Ivan could feel his heart cracking in his chest. He should have just told her everything when he had the chance.
He had contemplated telling her and came so close to it that night, but he discovered she had left when he went to find out what was taking her so long to get ready for dinner. He quizzed Marcus for hours on what had happened. Marcus knew nothing, only that Aliannah was extremely upset and demanded to get off the boat before they were leaving the harbour.
Ivan had since learned from Aliannah herself that something had happened with Milena, but Ivan honestly couldn’t care less about Milena. He only had her on staff because she was good at being a stewardess; she provided no interest to him at all. The whole story didn’t make any sense to him at all. He meant what he said to Michelle: He would absolutely give up his life for Aliannah to live. Nothing else mattered more to him than Aliannah. He hated that Viktor knew this.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting there, lost in his own thoughts when there was a knock on the door. The IT team entered and installed all the monitors on the wall.
“We believe we have found him, boss,” the leader of the IT team said. “Viktor has many warehouses and locations across the city, but we believe he is holding her in the dockland location. It is currently the only location that is heavily guarded on the outside. Now, it could be a decoy, but we believe that it is too guarded to be a decoy.” The IT leader spoke with confidence, or at least as much confidence as one could have while dealing with a raging Ivan.
“Tell the scouts to do a fly-by with a radar drone. Keep it high enough to go undetected. Put it on heat vision. We need to get an idea of the body count inside. We cannot afford to fuck this up,” Ivan ordered. The IT Team muttered into their headsets to the scout division. Minutes later, a birds-eye view of the drone was displayed across the screen, and Ivan willed it to get there faster.
Igor stepped forward and put a reassuring hand on Ivan’s shoulder. Ivan brushed him off and took another sip of his whisky. He wanted to down the bottle to numb the rage, but he knew he needed a clear head to focus on this mission.
“Two minutes, Boss,” the IT leader said. It felt like an hour. The docklands came into view on the screen, and the camera focused on Viktor’s warehouse. Sure enough, you could see armed men outside, but that was not an unusual sight. The drone was high enough for the men not to notice it.
There was more chatter from the IT team on their headsets, and the view changed from live-eye to heat-vision. They could see there were a lot of bodies in the warehouse. This wouldn’t be a problem, and Ivan knew he had enough men to handle it. There was a horizontal shape on the ground near the back.
“What is that?” he pointed at the horizontal shape. And why is it a different colour from the rest of the bodies?!” Ivan shouted at the screen.
“Boss, the radar analyst deems that to be the heat signature of a female.” the IT leader said as he held one hand to his headset and nodded, confirming the information being relayed to him through the headset.
“FUUUCK!!!” Ivan threw his glass across the room; it shattered as it hit the wall. Thoughts of Aliannah dead or dying began to fill his mind. The anger in him turned glowing white. Viktor would die for this.
“We can confirm that Aliannah is still alive, Boss; her heat signature would be a lot lower if she were dead.” Although Ivan felt a small relief that she was alive, he hated that she was suffering because of him.
“MOVE OUT! We go now! The tech team stays here. Be our eyes from above! You let me know the second anything changes.” Ivan and Igor ran from the room before the IT guys could respond.
It took five minutes to finish loading the cars and get on the road. Ivan floored the car. He didn’t give a fuck for speed limits or cops. Igor looked at him and nodded. Aliannah was his priority. He would deal with the city later if he had to.
“Hold on, Darling. Keep fighting. I’m coming for you,” he said out loud as he tore down the motorway.