Chapter 25
25
C olm felt ill as he stared at the piece of shit hanging from the ceiling of one of Rogan’s interrogation rooms.
It was a place out in the countryside, far away from neighbors who might notice some odd comings and goings. The building looked like an old run-down shack.
But it had a soundproof basement, which is why Rogan now owned it and the land under one of his corporations.
Rogan would likely need to get rid of this building after they were done, now that the Russians knew where it was.
They might have an agreement, but that didn’t mean they fully trusted each other. After arriving, to Colm’s shock, Anisimov told him to have some fun with Oleg before he questioned him.
Colm didn’t need to be asked twice.
Stepping up to Oleg, Colm drew his fist back and punched him right in the cock.
The man let out a pained groan, his face growing purple as he tried to breathe through the pain.
“Ouch. I felt that,” Aleksandr said as he sat on a chair. “Did you feel that, Viktor?”
“Yeah. I felt it.”
“How dare you touch her, you fucking asshole!” he said to Oleg as he treated his stomach like it was a punching bag.
Oleg moaned, then started to make a choking noise before vomiting.
Colm got out of the way just in time.
“You think he’s ready, Viktor?” Anisimov asked.
“Nearly,” Viktor replied.
Vik seemed like a man of few words, which Colm could appreciate. He landed a few more punches before Anisimov called for him to stop.
“He doesn’t deserve for me to stop,” Colm snarled. “This bastard hit her. Hurt her.”
“And soon you can do what you like to him. But I have a few questions.” Anisimov stepped up to Oleg. “Who is Mike?”
Colm frowned. Huh?
That wasn’t what he’d been expecting the other man to ask him.
“She told you, huh?” Oleg said, his head lolling to one side. It was so battered and bruised that he could barely see out of his eyes. “Didn’t think she had balls to.”
“I bet that pisses you off,” Anisimov said. “You were probably hoping to drop that on me, huh? I know it all. That you blackmailed her into dating you. That you faked a video of me and told her that it would go to the cops if anything happened to you. But you didn’t think that would be enough to keep her under your control, did you?”
“Figured she might take her . . . chances with the cops. Since you have so . . . many in your pocket.”
“Hmm, so you threatened to reveal that she’d been duped by this guy called Mike while in college, with whom she had a relationship, but who had actually been sent to spy on her and then nearly killed her.”
What the fuck?
Anisimov eyed Colm. “I wondered if she had told you. I’m beginning to learn that Sofia keeps too many secrets and takes on too much.”
“She does it to protect everyone around her,” Colm told him.
The other man nodded with a slight frown. “She had a boyfriend in college I knew nothing about. He bribed her guard not to tell me. It turns out he was sent to get whatever information she had about my business. When he discovered that she knew nothing, he crashed the car they were in but made it look like her guard was driving. Even put his body in the driver’s seat. When she woke up, he told her to keep quiet or, next time, he’d return to finish the job and wouldn’t spare her. That he was certain that I wouldn’t like that she’d betrayed me by getting into bed with the enemy.”
“But she didn’t know,” Colm said. It wasn’t a question. He was confident that she couldn’t have known. Sofia would never betray her cousin.
“No, she didn’t know. But she should have told me.”
“She’s afraid to lose your love,” Colm said. “To disappoint you. Sofia keeps her emotions and thoughts guarded out of fear of rejection.”
Anisimov grimaced. “I am coming to see that I have made mistakes with Sofia. Those are things I will rectify.”
“The . . . two of you . . . make me vomit,” Oleg managed to get out between pained puffs of air. “You gonna . . . hug . . . kiss.”
“You need to shut up,” Colm snarled, walking up to grasp hold of his face and squeezing.
“I need him alive for some questions,” Anisimov said mildly.
Colm stepped back.
“Oleg, Oleg, we can do this the hard way or the easy way,” Anisimov told him. “Either way, you die, of course. But you can die without any more pain.”
Colm growled, but Anisimov didn’t turn to look at him.
“Just answer my questions and it will be a quick death. I promise.”
“Your promises mean . . . nothing. You are terrible Pakhan. Others . . . would be far better.”
“Others? Like who?” Anisimov asked. “Who are you working with, Oleg? Someone had to have told you what happened to Danill. You weren’t around then. Someone let you onto the estate to kidnap my cousin. Who was it?”
Oleg grinned. “You want to know... I not tell you.”
Anisimov stepped back and Colm moved in. By the time he finished, Oleg was barely conscious.
“Who is Mike or Rafe Ramirez—or whatever the fuck his name is? And how did you find out about what he did to Sofia? Why were you blackmailing her? Who are you working with?” Anisimov demanded.
“It too . . . late now. They have her.”
What the fuck? Who had her?
“Who has her?” Anisimov asked in a low voice.
Viktor stepped forward and set a case down on the small table in the room. He then pulled out a drill and turned it on. The noise seemed to shake Oleg.
“Who has her?” Colm snapped. He pulled out his phone to call Sofia and saw the missed message from her. He opened it.
It was from seven hours ago.
Fuck. How long had they been working on Oleg?
He immediately tried to call her.
But it didn’t go through.
“Fuck. Shit. Her phone is going straight to voicemail,” he said.
Anisimov tensed, and Oleg’s grin widened even though he now couldn’t open his eyes and blood was everywhere. He wouldn’t last much longer, which Colm wouldn’t care about if he wasn’t holding answers about Sofia’s safety.
“Who are you working for?” Anisimov asked. “Is it Callahan?”
Rogan had gone to have a chat with Callahan this morning while Sofia was still asleep. He’d denied any knowledge of anything.
But that didn’t mean that Colm trusted him.
“Callahan is . . . obsessed with father . . . death. Be . . . downfall . . . but he know . . . Sofia dreams.”
Shock filled Colm. “How the fuck would he know about her dreams?”
Oleg smiled again. “Me . . . tell . . . him. You think . . . I don’t . . . see . . . drawings . . . not around when . . . she dream.”
Shit.
If Oleg had told Callahan that Sofia had been drawing one of his gang tattoos and that she’d been having nightmares about it, he might have thought she knew something about his father’s death.
It was a bit of a stretch, but Callahan seemed to be grasping whatever lead he could.
“Doesn’t explain how you knew I shot Danill nor who Rafe guy is,” Anisimov demanded.
“Fuck . . . you.”
That was enough for Viktor to start the drill again. And use it this time.
“I . . . tell! I . . . tell! Stop!” Oleg cried.
Viktor drew back.
“Rafe work for . . . man was . . . angry at you. Supposed to . . . kill Sofia when . . . useless.”
Thank God Rafe had stopped.
“And Danill? How did you know I killed him? Who was helping you?”
They needed to go. Get to Sofia. Did Callahan have her?
Colm was going to kill him. He then noticed that Viktor was busy on his phone. What was he doing?
Oleg suddenly slumped, his eyes going dead.
“Fuck!” Anisimov said. “Have you tracked her?”
Viktor nodded. “Got where her phone last pinged, plus the trackers on her car and in her shoes have her at the same location.”
“Her car?” Anisimov frowned. “Her car... she doesn’t drive herself. Only Arseni drives her.”
Viktor stared at him. “And he knew about Danill.”
Anisimov stiffened. “Seems we’ve discovered a rat in the ranks.”
Colm didn’t care about any of that. He just wanted to get to his girl.
As they raced out to the car, he called Rogan, waking him up. He immediately gathered some men to get to her trackers’ last location.
Rogan could get there quicker than Colm.
He just hoped that they’d get there in time to save Sofia.