Dark Widow’s Blessing

by I. T. Lucas

  Vivian’s heart skipped a beat. It was finally happening.

  Can you keep the channel open? I need to talk with the team leader and get instructions from him.

  I can. I’m alone in the jet’s bedroom, and Dimitri is upstairs working. Until he comes to bed, I’ll stay awake and keep the channel open. After that, it will be too dangerous. I might fall asleep and blurt an answer to you out loud.

  I hope I will have the information for you before that, but let me know when you’re about to close the channel.

  I will. Talk to you later.

  “Was it Ella?” Magnus asked.

  “Yes. They are landing in New York tomorrow at seven in the morning, and Gorchenco is sending Ella alone to the estate. He’s not going to be there the entire day. Ella says we need to strike before he comes home.”

  “I’m calling Kian.”

  As Vivian listened to Magnus relay the news to his boss, her heart felt like it was beating a thousand beats per minute.

  Tomorrow Ella was going to be free.

  She’d known that the operation was planned for Friday, but up until now things had never worked out the way they’d been planned, and she’d expected it to happen again.

  Gorchenco could’ve made a detour, or he could’ve decided to skip New York altogether. But now it was confirmed. Ella was on her way to New York.

  Well, not yet, the jet was still on the ground, so it wasn’t a hundred percent sure thing. Gorchenco could always change his mind.

  In some irrational part of her brain, Vivian even hoped that he would. As long as Ella was with Gorchenco, she was at least safe. The rescue operation was dangerous no matter what assurances Turner and Magnus were giving her. Anything could happen, and Ella could be caught in the line of fire, or even in the actual fire they were going to stage.

  Magnus clicked the phone off. “As soon as we get back, we are going straight to Kian’s office.”

  “I’m scared.”

  He clasped her trembling hand. “I know, love. But everything is going to be okay. Did you forget that we have a secret weapon?”

  Right. The Guardian Yamanu who could blanket thrall the entire compound. But what if that was not enough?

  Vivian shook her head. “I need to stop with all the what ifs. They are just stressing me out. So many things could go wrong.”

  47

  Kian

  On the big screen behind Kian’s desk, Turner rubbed his brows between his thumb and forefinger. “Knowing the exact timing of Ella’s arrival opens new opportunities.”

  “Like what?”

  “Instead of waiting until she gets to the estate, we can stage an accident for the car she is driven there in. Most likely it’s going to be a limousine. Since Gorchenco is not going to be in there with her, I don’t think he will employ as many evasive maneuvers as he usually does, with decoy limos and such like. But in any case, Ella will have to note the license plate number and give it to Vivian. The operation can be as simple as a roadblock. We can stop the vehicle, drag everyone out, and then thrall the driver and bodyguards to think that there was a fatal accident.”

  Kian tapped his fingers on the desk. “Could work if the driver and bodyguards are not immune to thralling. I understand that Gorchenco employs only fellow Russians.”

  Turner chuckled. “We can always knock them out the old-fashioned way.”

  “While staging Ella’s death? Are you going to pretend to be assassins sent by a competitor?”

  “That’s a possibility. I’m just thinking out loud here. But I like having an alternative to our original plan. Staging a fire on the estate that produces enough smoke to supposedly kill Ella is tricky. Since we know not everyone can be thralled, we need to start a real fire. I pulled the house’s plans from the city. Unfortunately, all the electrical wiring has been updated, so a short is not a likely cause of fire. We are still going to use it, but it’s not as airtight as I would’ve liked it to be. Gorchenco is going to be suspicious.”

  “Hold on,” Kian said. “I think I hear Magnus and Vivian.” He walked to the door and opened it. “Come in. I have Turner on a teleconference call.”

  “Hello, Turner,” Vivian said.

  Magnus nodded in greeting.

  “As I was telling Kian,” Turner continued. “Ella providing us with the exact timing of her arrival opens new opportunities. I was thinking of staging a car accident. Nothing major, a roadblock or a blown tire. All we need is for them to stop. The only problem with this scenario is if the driver or the bodyguards are immune to thralling.”

  Vivian crossed her legs. “Don’t forget that Ella asked that we don’t kill her bodyguard.”

  Turner’s usually expressionless face twisted in a grimace. “She’s sure making a lot of requests. It would all have been much easier if we just came in and killed Gorchenco, making it look like she did it. Staging her death is the weakest and most complicated part of our plan.”

  Vivian closed her eyes for a moment, let out a breath, and then opened them. “If you have no other choice, ignore her requests. The important thing is to get her away from Gorchenco, and for her ordeal to finally end. If she feels bad later on because of his death, we will deal with it.”

  Vivian was such a smart, down to earth woman. Kian approved.

  Magnus, who up until now hadn’t said anything, lifted his hand. “I have an idea.”

  On the screen, Turner leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  “I like the idea of staging something for the limo. It’s much less complicated than staging the fire, and in my experience, the more complex the operation, the more things can go wrong.”

  “That’s true,” Kian said. “But then things need to be just as complicated as they need to be. We might not have another choice.”

  Magnus smoothed his hand over his goatee. “What if the accident doesn't happen to the limo, but to a big rig truck that blocks the limo’s way?”

  “Or a gas tanker,” Turner said. “That explodes when the limo stops in front of it.”

  Vivian gasped. “Are you insane?”

  Turner lifted a hand. “Not while Ella is still in the vehicle.”

  Kian was trying to follow the thought thread and came up with nothing. “How are you going to take her out before the explosion? And what if the limo doesn't stop but reverses direction?”

  Turner assumed that remote expression on his face, which Kian had learned to associate with the master strategist’s mental gears spinning in super speed. “The accident is going to be between the gas tanker and a truck. The two vehicles are going to block the road, and the limo will have to stop.”

  “And what then?” Vivian asked.

  “The drivers of the vehicles are going to argue and shout at each other, while pretend fire trucks and police cars will arrive and block the road behind the limo and on the other side of the accident. Because of the danger from the gas tanker, the firemen and the policemen will start to evacuate everyone to a safe distance. The first controlled explosion will happen before they are all the way out of the danger zone. It’s not going to be big, just enough to send everyone to the ground. Once on the ground, we are going to knock the driver and bodyguards out, and then drag everyone a safe distance away. In the next explosion, the big one, Ella and two police officers will supposedly die.”

  Kian was impressed, but there were still big holes in the plan. “Isn’t it better to kill the bodyguards and driver too? I mean for real? What if they remember getting knocked out by something other than the explosion?”

  Turner shook his head. “We will also have ambulances at the ready. While driving to a hospital, we will attempt to thrall them. If we are lucky and they are susceptible, that’s the end of the story. If not, we inject them with drugs that will do the job. And maybe none will be needed because they’ll be sure that they got hit by debris flying off the truck or the tanker.”

  Vivian still looked doubtful. “How are you going
to ensure that Ella doesn't get hurt?”

  “It’s not difficult to stage controlled explosions.”

  Kian had a different concern. “Do you have enough time to set this up? It sounds complicated.”

  “Not as complicated as staging a fire in a heavily guarded estate. I can make it happen.”

  “What about traffic? There will be a blockage, and the real police are going to arrive on the scene.”

  “The road leading to the estate has sparse traffic, and we can block and redirect calls to the police. Naturally, everything will have to be perfectly timed. We will agree on signs along the way for Ella to tell us exactly when the limo is passing them. That way we can calculate the time of the limo’s arrival within a couple of minutes.”

  Wracking his brain for other possible holes in the plan, Kian started writing points on his yellow pad. “The uniforms should come from laundry services that wash police and firefighters’ uniforms. We don’t want anything that will look too new or not authentic. And pay attention to the shoes. Those can give you away as fake too.”

  Victor chuckled. “I’m not an amateur, Kian, and this is not my first rodeo. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Where are you going to get the police cars from?”

  “Borrow them from unsuspecting officers. Thralling will come in handy.”

  Vivian lifted a finger. “What about the supposedly dead policemen? The police will know they didn’t lose anyone. Heck, they will know that they weren’t even there.”

  “That’s where my connections will come into play,” Turner said. “I’m owed several favors, and this is for a good cause my friends in high places will approve of. The police are not going to dispute the news story.”

  48

  Ella

  Mom to Ella. Are you receiving?

  Ella chuckled. Yes, Mom, I’m receiving.

  I assume that you’re still alone.

  I am reading in bed. Dimitri got me a tablet with thousands of books, and if he comes in, I’ll keep looking at the screen and pretending that I’m reading. I'm even flipping pages in case he's watching me through the tablet's camera. What’s up? Did you talk with the team leader?

  Magnus and I did. There is a whole new plan.

  As long as they fake my death without killing anyone and none of them getting killed, I’m okay with anything.

  Then you’re going to be very happy with this one. All the deaths are going to be fake.

  Ella pushed up on the pillows. I’m all ears, or rather mental synapses.

  When her mother was done explaining the new plan, Ella rubbed her temples. It all sounds so complicated. So many things can go wrong.

  According to Turner, this is easier to pull off than a fake fire in a heavily guarded estate that would result in your supposed death. He said that the plan wasn’t tight enough for his liking.

  Yeah, I thought it might be a problem to light a fire before getting inside the estate. I imagined fireworks or some other projectiles, but then the security people would've known that something is up.

  I think Turner mentioned something about creating an electrical short, but I doubt it could’ve produced a fire big enough to cause anyone‘s death. That plan was good for getting the fake firefighters in, killing Gorchenco, and then making it look as if you used the confusion to do it and then escaped. But you were so adamant about wanting to keep him alive.

  Her mother’s mental voice was accusatory, but Ella couldn’t fault her for that. From Vivian’s perspective, keeping Gorchenco alive was stupid and created an unnecessary hurdle for Ella’s rescuers to overcome.

  In her mom’s version of the story, he was the ultimate boogeyman, and his death would’ve solved all of their problems.

  What her mother didn’t know was that in the world of boogeymen, Dimitri was far from the worst. A lot of people depended on him, and if he was gone, someone else would step into his shoes, and that someone wouldn’t be as good to Dimitri’s people.

  The villagers in his territory led a simple and peaceful life. They wanted for nothing because he didn’t collect taxes from them. From what she understood, he either paid the government for them or had some other arrangement. In Russia, a lot happened under the table.

  Ella chuckled. According to Dimitri, not only there. He claimed that politicians everywhere were corrupt and self-serving.

  She believed him.

  Her time with him had opened her eyes, and for that she was thankful. But that wasn’t the reason she’d decided to spare him. That gut feeling that he had a job to do persisted. Without him around, something bad was going to happen. Maybe it wasn’t something big, and all he was going to do was to keep his people protected, but that alone was reason enough to keep him alive.

  It also might have been all in her head, but Ella was not going to ignore her intuition ever again. If she’d listened to it when it tried to tell her that there was something off about Romeo, she wouldn't need to be rescued now.

  I know that you think I’m just making things difficult for everyone. But I need to trust my judgment. We are not ordinary people, Mom. When we have a feeling about something, you and I should listen. Like that curse of yours. I didn’t believe in it, and look what happened to me. So now I know it was real.

  I hope the ritual got rid of it.

  Yeah, me too. I want you to have a long and happy life with Magnus. How is the new place? We haven’t talked since you told me you were about to move.

  Ella hadn’t talked with her mom since Dimitri had dropped the wedding bomb on her, mainly because she’d been so angry that she’d been afraid to say something she would’ve regretted later, like telling her mom it was okay to kill him.

  It’s beautiful here, and we have a gorgeous house. Your new room is waiting for you, and you’ll be glad to know that it has its own bathroom. No more sharing with Parker.

  What do you mean by we have? Isn’t it another safe house?

  No, sweetie. This is where we are going to live. We can’t go back to our old lives. Not with Gorchenco alive.

  I'm sorry, Mom. It’s all my fault.

  Because of her and her stupidity, her family had to be uprooted. And it wasn't even about her wish to spare Dimitri’s life. Even if he were dead, she and her family would have to hide from the other Russian mafia bosses.

  It had all started with one bad decision. She’d let Romeo lead her on.

  Don’t talk like that, sweetie. It’s not your fault. It’s just a pile of bad luck. Except, not all of it is bad. Since you’ve suffered so much, I hate to think about it like this, but in a way, it was a blessing. I met Magnus, and he’s the real deal. He proposed, and I accepted.

  Ella barely managed to stifle a happy squeal. Oh, Mom, I’m so happy for you. Congratulations.

  Thank you. We’ve moved in together. This house is ours to share. I hope you’re okay with that.

  Of course I am. I can’t wait to meet him. How is Parker taking it?

  He’s happy. He and Magnus get along splendidly, and he loves it here.

  I think that proves that the curse is officially gone.

  Vivian sighed. I hope so, sweetie. We’ve had enough bad luck to last us a couple of lifetimes.

  The talk about bad luck made her think about her dark energy hypothesis, and she would’ve loved to discuss it with her mother, but that would have spoiled the happy mood. Besides, she would have to explain about Logan, and Ella didn’t want to get into it. That disturbing episode was better forgotten.

  For now, they both needed to focus on the rescue mission. I hope that from now on everything will go our way. What are my instructions? You said something about road signs I’ll need to report.

  When they tell me what those signs are, I’m going to relay the information to you. Right now, I just know that they are going to put some up and use the markers to estimate your time of arrival. The timing of creating the fake accident is crucial.

  I bet. Anything else that I should know before I go to sleep?
<
br />   Ella didn’t want Dimitri to come in and catch her awake because he might want to have sex with her. Hopefully, she wasn’t pregnant yet, and with her bad luck, it could happen tonight.

  Just remember to note the license plate number on the limousine and let me know.

  I will.

  Good night, Ella. Soon we will be together again.

  I hope so. Bye, Mom.

  Pulling the blanket all the way to her chin, Ella stared at the ceiling. Could it be true?

  Was tomorrow the day she was going to be finally free?

  With her luck, something would come up.

  First of all, she found it suspicious that Dimitri was sharing with her his exact timeline. She’d played her part well, convincing him that she was happy to be his wife, but he wasn’t a trusting or sharing sort of guy. What had prompted him to suddenly start confiding in her?

  Possibly because she still didn’t have a way to communicate with anyone. Dimitri had even removed the phones from their hotel suite, claiming that they might’ve been bugged. Except, his bodyguards had checked every square inch of the suite, and they had surely taken the phones apart and checked them too. And yet, the phones hadn’t returned.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine what her life would be like after this was over, but she couldn’t. There was one crucial thing Ella had to get before she could make plans for the future.

  A pregnancy test.

  49

  Julian

  “I’m very disappointed,” Yamanu said. “You drag me all the way out to New York, and then you tell me that my services are no longer needed.”

  Turner slapped the Guardian’s back. “Your work here was invaluable. You helped a lot with the victims, calming them down, and you participated in a rescue mission. Don’t tell me that you didn’t enjoy it.”