Chapter 27 - Artur
“I’ve got a team tracking him. Whenever we’re ready, we can go straight for him,” Joe explains.
It’s the morning after our discussion, where we came to the agreement that the only way to end this is to go after Misha. I lay awake last night, unable to sleep because I’ve waited a very long time for this moment. The moment when I get revenge on the men who ripped my life away from me.
“Where is he now?” Benedikt asks.
“Near South Beach. Eating breakfast at a cafe there.”
I sigh, the tension in my body escalating. Nervous excitement mixed with a growing urgency.
“I say we take him when he leaves there. We can drive him to the docks and lock him in the storage unit underground. I’ll make him talk,” I say, clenching my fists.
“Are you sure? I don’t think he’s going to give up that easily. Maybe you’re too close to this whole thing?” Joe says.
“Don’t even try and take this from me, Joseph.” My voice is low and dangerous. I don’t intend to come across so dark, but my emotions are spilling over.
Joseph nods.
“Okay, man, I understand,” he says. “But I need to trust that you won’t…” he clears his throat.
“Kill him?” I ask, scoffing.
“Yes.”
I close my eyes and nod. “You can trust me.” I hope I can trust myself.
“I think I should stay with her,” Benedikt suggests.
“It’ll be three of us against one of him,” I shrug. “And I know I’d feel better if she weren’t alone.”
“She’s really stressed about this whole thing, so I agree. Ben, if you’re happy to stay, that’ll give us all peace of mind,” Kaz says.
“We’re taking backup anyway. Aren’t we?” I ask. “He might have guards around him.”
“He does, two men,” Joe nods. “We’ll take four guys. I don’t want more than that because I’d like to keep this as clean as quick as possible.”
After detailing the plan, we get into the car and head to South Beach.
I’ve waited for this day for so long.
I can’t believe this is finally happening.
It looks like being in this alliance paid off in more ways than one.
We wait near South Beach while Joe’s men track Misha.
Misha leaves the cafe and heads to his car. Two of Joe’s guys follow him, keeping us in the loop on where to go until Misha heads away from a populated area towards the docks. We turn off, speeding up as we drive to catch up with him.
“He’s probably going to one of our warhorses,” Kaz snarls.
“Ready?” Joe asks.
“Ready,” I nod.
My heart is beating heavily when Joe’s men pull in front of Misha and slam on the brakes. We’re right behind, and when he comes skidding to a stop, we block him from being able to reverse.
One man leaps from the car and opens fire. Joe takes him down with one shot.
Misha climbs out of the car next, keeping his hands in the air.
“Hello, gentleman,” he sneers.
I rush at him and body slam him to the ground. Just because he’s feigning surrender doesn’t mean he hasn’t got something up his sleeve.
I’m not taking any chances.
Cuffing him, I lift him off his feet and drag him to the trunk of our car and throw him in.
We all pile back into the car, and Joe shouts to his men, “Clean this up, get his car off the road.”
It doesn’t take us long to get to the warehouse. Kaz and I drag Misha downstairs to the underground area, where no one will hear his screams. I secure him to a chair that is bolted to the floor.
I’ve done this all before in my life.
I’ve beaten men for information.
I’ve done what I had to do to get to where I am.
But as I throw the first punch and it snaps against his jaw, my chest tightens.
I thought this would be fun in some sick and twisted way.
I thought it would be satisfying to see him helpless and hopeless.
I throw another punch, angry because it isn’t giving me any of the relief I was hoping for all this time.
Misha spits blood and blinks against the pain.
“Are you going to ask me anything?” he mutters through a swollen, bleeding lip.
“Just warming you up first,” I snap. “Liars don’t get the benefit of the doubt.”
He snorts and closes his eyes for a moment.
“What the fuck do you want, Artur,” he growls.
“We want you to stop attacking our warehouses,” I snarl, leaning close to him.
“What?” he snaps, scrunching his face.
I hit him again, still waiting to feel that long-anticipated satisfaction.
Kaz is standing behind me. Joe is upstairs, standing guard just in case.
“Fucking make sense!” Misha shouts. “If you’re going to demand shit from me, at least make sense about it!”
I huff bitter laughter. “Talk to me, man. This isn’t going to stop until you admit you’ve been messing with the warehouses,” I swing my fist again.
Still no satisfaction. In fact, instead of feeling good about it, there is a knot of tension growing in my chest.
Maria.
Maria loves her brother.
And I love her.
She would be crying if she could see me now. She would hate me. She would beg me to stop.
I groan and turn my back on Misha, pausing to pull my thoughts together.
Kaz steps close to me and mutters, “You okay?”
“Yeah, man. Just…not how I expected to feel about this,” I whisper.
“It never feels as good as you think it will. Revenge is a fickle creature,” he mutters. “But we still need the information. If you can’t…”
“No, it’s fine. I’ve got this.”
Picking up the electrified clamps, I drag the table with the battery pack closer and hook each clamp to the cuffs around Misha’s wrists.
“Come on, man, what the fuck?” he says, horrified.
“Talk, it will all end, my friend,” I say. The word friend twists on my tongue and feels like poison. He was never my friend. It was all fake. This man is an exceptional liar, and no matter how many times he tells me he doesn’t know what I’m talking about…I won’t accept it.
I flip a switch on the battery, and Misha’s body goes rigid as volts of electricity course through him. He shudders, gargling and convulsing in tight spasms until I flick the switch off again.
Misha gasps, drooling and leaning forward, his head hanging as he fights for breath.
“Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” I muse, lifting his face to look him in the eyes. “I’ve experienced it myself. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was you who arranged the guy who attacked me…”
Misha spits at me, but I dodge it.
“I don’t know what the fuck you want me to confess, you asshole,” he screams.
“You keep attacking our operations, and all you have to do is admit it,” I scream back at him.
“Why the fuck would I put my sister in danger like that?” he mutters, dropping his head again.
“What?” I snap, slapping him. “Speak louder so we can all hear.”
“Why the fuck would I attack you while you still have my sister. It would be fucking stupid. It would put her in danger,” he blurts out.
I step back as his words sink into me.
He’s right.
For the first time in his life, I think he’s telling the truth.
He cares deeply about Maria, and an attack like that would be a poor choice since she’s still with us. He doesn’t know us well enough to understand that we’d never hurt her.
I growl in frustration and turn to Kaz. He shrugs. “I don’t know, man, why was he hanging around our territory, then?”
“Because I’m waiting for a chance to rescue you, my sister, from you fucking monsters,” Misha spits.
From the top of the stairs, Joe calls down, “If it’s not him, then someone is going out of their way to make it look like him.” He walks down into the basement area.
“Who?” I ask.
“I think we know who,” he sighs.
Kaz clenches his jaw and brushes his hand over his stubble. “Well, fuck, this is a mess, isn’t it?”
“Are you ladies done playing with me?” Misha snarls.
“Shut the fuck up before I break your nose,” I warn him.
“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” Misha snaps.
I turn my back on him, speaking to Joe and Kaz.
“Okay, so that means it was your father? I think Misha’s telling the truth. I think all he wanted was to get his sister back,” I sigh.
“Agreed. But what do we do with this fucker now?” Kaz asks, glancing around me at Misha, still bound to the chair.
“Leave him here to rot,” I suggest.
Joe pushes his hand through his cropped hair and groans. “Ok, let me deal with this,” he sighs.
He stands in front of Misha, glaring down at him.
“It seems there was a misunderstanding, and someone has been pinning this on you. So we’re willing to make a deal. You leave us alone, and we’ll leave you alone.”
“Who?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“It is my business, because you have my sister!” he snaps. “If she’s not safe with you, I refuse to agree to anything.”
“She’s not safe with you, either, Misha. Only a minute after she met you at the mall the other day, she was kidnapped. So don’t go pointing fingers at us,” Joe snarls.
“Kidnapped?” he mutters, his entire body going rigid with fear.
“She’s fine,” Joe sighs.
“What happened? Are you sure she’s okay?”
“Yes, we got her back. She’s at home.”
“Cut him loose. He’s useless to us, and he’s lucky he’s Maria’s brother. Otherwise, I would have slit his throat,” I huff.
“Why the hell are you guys so protective of her? Why not just give her back to me?” Misha groans as Joe cuts him free and removes the cuffs.
“Because you don’t deserve her, Misha. She’s happy with us, and we will do literally anything it takes to protect her. Including getting rid of you if we need to.”
Misha stares at Joe, trying to read his expression.
After a while, he nods. “Fine. I’ll agree to your terms,” he murmurs, not happy about it.
“Get out,” I snarl. “I’m sure you can find your own way home.”
Misha scoffs and shakes his head. He throws me one last glare before he leaves.
Kaz goes to make sure he’s off the property.
Joe turns to me and sighs. “It’s my father.”
“I know. We’re going to have to rethink everything and come up with the new attack plan.”
Joe watches my face for a while. “You okay?” he asks.
“I thought it would be satisfying…to take revenge on him. To hurt him…”
“And?”
“And all I could think about was that I would be hurting her. I wondered what she would think of me if she saw me doing that to her brother….” I groan, rubbing my hands over my face.
Joe chuckles and places his hand on my shoulder.
“What do you think it means?” he asks, smirking as though he knows the answer.
I sigh, chuckling too. “That I love her?”
He laughs. “Yeah, man. That’s exactly what it means.”
He heads upstairs to find Kaz, and I stand alone for a moment, staring at the empty chair where my enemy sat only a few minutes earlier.
I love her.
I laugh again, shaking my head. “I fucking love her.”