by KJ Dahlen
Arkady’s phone’s pinged. He checked his incoming text and frowned. He got up from his chair and walked down the hall to his security room.
His man Egor was watching the screens in front of him with concern. He looked up briefly at Arkady then pointed to the three men standing in front of the clubhouse. “We may have a problem,” he told his boss with a snarl. “Do you recognize those men?”
“Da, I know who they are.” Arkady shivered at the sight in front of his eyes. He glared at the door for a moment then looked back at the screens. “What the hell are they doing here?” he wondered out loud fear vibrating in his voice.
“What do you think they’re doing here?” Egor scoffed as he shook his head.
“How the bloody hell did you access their camera on the front door?” Arkady wanted to know.
“When Vitya was bombing the compound, I slipped into their security feed.” He shrugged. “I know it probably won’t be long before I am locked out but for the short time I have access, it will tell us enough to get ready for what’s coming our way.”
“Da, we will have to break away for at least a little while until this situation cools off. We may even have to set up somewhere else for now.” He looked back at the camera screens. Shaking his head, he grunted in annoyance. “Tell the men to get ready. Not in an obvious way, I don’t want to tip off Vitya. If anyone is going to get caught, it will be him, not us.”
Egor nodded. “He’s got enough to lose but we have even more if we’re caught.”
Arkady agreed, “I got a text from Alexander Rodchenko today. He barely got out before the Bratva invaded his businesses. He left Russia yesterday and is stopping in Baltimore to collect his daughter before disappearing. He’s hoping he can get away before they find him there. I think it’s time we do the same.”
Just then, they heard the cocking of a gun.
Arkady straightened his pose and turned very slowly toward the door.
Vitya stood there holding a gun on them both. “Now, you wouldn’t be planning on leaving here would you?” He sneered at the two of them. “Not without me, I hope?”
Just then, something caught his eye on the screen behind Arkady’s shoulder and his eyes widened with total fear. “Son of a bitch, what the fuck are they doing here?” he swore as he caught sight of the three men on the screen. They were greeting four other men and had a number of others around the group.
Suddenly, the screens went blank...Apparently, Egor had been locked out.
Chapter Thirteen
“You know who these men are?” the leader of the Vory V Zakone MC, Arkady asked.
“Da! I know.” Vitya growled. “They represent the Bratva here in America, but I have my own connections back home. They will not betray me.”
“Then you don’t know shit my friend.” Arkady scoffed. As he turned back to the screen monitors. “Those men cannot be bought. You cannot buy them or the men they work for back in Russia.”
Vitya tightened the hold on his weapon. “The men under my payroll have been paid handsomely for many years to turn the other way. They started under my father and the deal continued after he passed. Everything we have is protected. They will not betray me now.”
Arkady leaned away from his stooped position and glared at the man holding the pistol on him. “Oh yeah, is that a fact? Then why did Alexander Rodchenko leave Russia hours ago under an assumed name to pick up his daughter in Baltimore? Why does he have plans to leave this country the moment he gets to her? Why does he plan to go to a place where no one can find him?”
Vitya raised an eyebrow at the other man’s comments. “Why indeed?” he muttered to himself. “No one knows about our involvement with Alexander. No one is supposed to know he’s a partner.”
Arkady snorted. “I have a feeling they know about him now. If that’s the case, they know about us as well.”
Egor swore after four new men come into viewing distance. He studied them for a moment then swore and looked at Arkady. “We got bigger trouble than just the Bratva, boss.”
Vitya leaned closer to study the new men in the camera lens. He turned his head and glanced at the other man. “Do you know who they are?”
“Don’t you?” Egor shook his head with disbelief.
Before Vitya could snarl at him Arkady asked, “Who are those men Egor?”
Egor pointed at a symbol on the leader of the men’s jacket. “I don’t know their names but I know what they are. Do you know what this symbol is?” He almost touched the screen. “It is the symbol of an elite team of men the Bratva uses when they want a special job done. These men are part of the Nomads. They are the best of the best and they do jobs only certain men can do. They hunt down the men the Bratva want dead. They work quickly and quietly with no fuss or muss.”
“I wonder what the hell the Nomads are doing here?” Vitya mumbled.
“If they are here, I could assume they are looking for someone associated with Russia.” Arkady shook his head. “That in this case is either you or us, most likely you.”
Vitya looked over at Arkady and shrugged. “No one here knows my business, expect for maybe you and half a dozen others. I came here to find and destroy my brother’s killer. If my men hadn’t missed the girl, this would all be over with and no one would have been the wiser. Now we know where she is, so we can get her and the rest of that crew then simply leave.”
Arkady just glared at him as if he had no brain. “Are you fucking nuts? If you go anywhere near that compound, you are a dead man.”
Vitya stared at the other man for a moment and shrugged. “Bah, they don’t know who or what I am. I have more power here than they do. What can they do here? We are in another country and here, the government has laws that protect even you and me. Here, they cannot touch me. Hell even back home I have protection in the Bratva and the government. No one knows who I pay off.”
“You aren’t worried they might catch you?” Arkady asked.
“I am not a citizen of this country. What is the worst they can do? Throw me in jail for a few years? My business is protected and my uncle will keep it going for me to return to.”
“Well, I’m not willing to take that chance.” Arkady looked troubled.
Vitya raised the gun in his hand and pointed it at Arkady’s chest. “You aren’t going anywhere without me. If you think you are, then you’re sadly mistaken. Right now, you are in panic mode and that’s when men like you make the worst mistakes of your lives.”
“And you aren’t panicked?” Arkady asked.
“Nyet, I am not. They don’t know who I am or that I have Bratva protection.”
Egor suddenly swore as his camera feed went dark. He looked over at his boss and whispered, “I think they found my hack.”
“Alert the men and get more bodies out there on watch. If they tracked where the feed was going they could be here sooner than we expect,” Arkady issued his order.
Egor got on his phone and sent out a mass text.
They heard the men scramble from the other rooms and Vitya glared at the other man. “Bylad! How the fucking hell did they find the feed hack?” he screamed. “Are your men that incompetent?”
“My men are the best.” Arkady snarled. “They know what’s at stake here, probably better than you do. Anyone can detect a hack and that’s what happened here. I’m not going to argue with you on this matter. I’m going to get ready in case we have to leave here in a hurry. I suggest you do the same.” Arkady pushed his way past the other man and took a step toward the door. In the silence that came, he heard the click of Vitya’s gun being re-cocked. He grabbed a throwing star from a hidden pouch near his belt then ducked as he turned and dove to the floor while he threw the small weapon at the man behind him.
The star caught Vitya in the upper shoulder, just where Arkady had thrown it.
Vitya screamed as he felt his arm go numb. His fingers loosened and the gun clattered to the floor.
Egor scrambled and reached for it then when he got his h
ands on it, he turned the weapon toward Vitya.
Arkady got up from the floor and dusted his clothes off. He took the weapon from his man and pointed it on Vitya. “If you had fired this weapon you wouldn’t have gotten out of here alive, old man.” He sneered.
Vitya glared at him with extreme hatred in his eyes. “You are a dead man, my friend.” He snarled. “Before I leave this place, I will put a bullet into your brain, I promise.”
Arkady raised the gun and put the barrel against Vitya’s forehead.
Eerily, Vitya never looked away. Instead, he stared into the other man’s eyes.
Neither of them moved and as the tension in the little room grew.
“I could kill you where you stand old man,” Arkady told him.
“But you don’t have the guts to pull the trigger, you know it and so do I,” Vitya assured him. “That’s the difference between us. Where you only threaten, I wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. Then I would simply step over your body and walk away, not giving your death another thought.”
Arkady nodded. “I know, that’s how you roll, isn’t it? Life means nothing to you at all. You hunted one man for twenty-five years and then you shot him on sight and walked away. You knew why your brother died that day. You knew what he did and still you hunted the man who killed him for a quarter of a century. You think you and your family should be able to do whatever the fuck you want and have no consequences to your actions. But there are always consequences for what you do. You’ll never get to Heaven and Hell doesn’t want you. Maybe I will kill you just to see the look on your face.”
Vitya shook his head. “You won’t kill me, you don’t have the guts.”
Arkady chuckled. “No I won’t kill you, but not for the reason you think. I want to see the look on your face when the Bratva puts you on trial for the crimes you’ve committed. I want to see your ruin when they stand you in front of a firing squad and watch when they pull the trigger.”
“Ha! That will never happen. Now get me some medical attention. I’m bleeding all over the place.”
Arkady looked over at Egor. “Tie him up. Make sure you gag the fool as well. I’m tired of listening to him babble.”
“Gladly.” Egor grabbed Vitya’s hands and yanked them behind his back.
Vitya fought his containment as he struggled for a moment then glared at Arkady. “Take this moment while it’s yours. When I get free, I will come for you and you’ll be on your way to hell.”
“You’ll have to get away from the Bratva and the Nomads and hunt me down first, old man,” Arkady countered. “It took you twenty five years to catch up with the man who shot your brother. So by the time you find me, you’ll be too old to shoot me.”
“Well, just spend some time thinking about you running for the rest of your miserable life. I will I put a bounty on your head. I’ll be safe at home while they hunt you down and take your life. I don’t have to be the one who shoots you in the head but before I pay the bounty I’ll request your head in a damn bag.”
“I’d be more mindful of protecting my own head if I were you.” Arkady laughed. “I don’t think you’re going to bluff your way through this.”
“They are nothing.” Vitya scoffed. “They may hold me for a while but I’ll be free before you know it.” Then he glared at Arkady and swore, “But you, you will be looking over your shoulder for the rest of the time you have left on this earth. And believe me when I say, it won’t be long. Whether it’s a bullet from me or a bounty hunter, you will never know.”
Arkady didn’t answer him instead, he dragged Vitya out to the main room and sat him down hard in a chair. He looked over at Egor, “Tie him down and make sure he can’t escape.” He then looked at his men. “This fool has brought the Bratva and the Nomads down on us. They are as close as the Bloodhounds compound. I for one am not going to go to jail or worse yet, to the firing squad in Moscow, not for him. We go to plan B. As always, it’s up to you, to stay or go but to stay you will run the risk of getting caught. Or worse yet, dead when the Bratva get here, because I assure you they will storm this place and they won’t take prisoners. Except maybe him.” He tossed his thumb toward Vitya in the chair. “He will go back to Russia and stand before the High Council before they put him in front of a firing squad for his crimes.”
Then men stared at him then at the tied man in the chair.
Arkady shrugged. “We can always come back to this place and continue our work here at a later date.”
“Are you sure they are after him and not us?” one of his men asked.
“Da,” Egor admitted. “They have taken control of his home and his businesses. They have frozen his bank accounts and taken his uncle and other family under arrest.”
Vitya swung his head over to glare at Egor. “I haven’t heard any of that.”
Egor snapped back, “Then you haven’t been paying attention. The Bratva moved in on your businesses two days ago and froze your accounts yesterday. You have nothing left. They have emptied your prisons and are investigating your business partners. Alexander Rodchenko has been on the run for a day now. He came here to this country to get his daughter and is on his way to another country under a new name but my bet is... he won’t make it.”
Vitya growled. “They can’t do that, not to me!” His face flushed red with rage. “I have Bratva on my payroll. They would have at least warned me of what was going on back home.”
Arkady chuckled. “Maybe you are losing your Bratva ties old man. Maybe they sit in the gulag as we speak.”
Vitya swore a string of profanities at them and struggled to get free of his bindings but Egor had done too good a job. He couldn’t get free instead, his bindings seemed to tighten.
“We’d better go if we’re going to stay free men,” one of his men said. “The Bloodhounds compound isn’t that far away. They could be watching us even now.”
Arkady nodded. “Get packed up and meet us at point B. Leave in small groups. So if they are watching, you don’t give our move away.”
“And you? When will you leave?” Egor asked.
“I want all of you to get away first. I won’t leave a man behind,” Arkady told his men.
“You think you’re being noble but you’re being stupid, you bastard!” Vitya spluttered like a wildman. “You should care more about your own skin. You can always get more men.”
Arkady turned to look at the other man. “That’s where you and I differ. These men have been through hell and back with me and I will not ask them for something I wouldn’t give of myself.”
“Then you’ll lose everything.” Vitya snapped.
Arkady looked over at Egor. “Will you shut him the fuck up before I put a bullet in his head? I would really hate to deny the Bratva their due. And I believe they want him badly.”
“Trakhni tebya...Fuck you! Ty khnykayesh' trusom!” Vitya screamed then loud mumblings followed as Egor stuffed a towel into his mouth then wrapped a belt around his head.
Arkady looked over at his men. “This is what you become when you have no soul. This piece of filth will fry in hell. Go, grab your stuff, and scatter.” He watched as his men scrambled to get to their things.
Within a half an hour, they were all ready to go. During that time, Arkady and Egor packed their own bags.
Egor took one last look at his security cameras and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He ran for the main room, “Arkady, we got problems.”
“What now?” Arkady groaned. Running his hand over his head, he looked from his men back to Egor.
“We have company outside the gates.” Egor dropped his bomb. “Bratva company. At least two dozen of them.”
Arkady looked at his men. “Get away the best you can, go to point B and we’ll meet you there.”
Just then, an explosion blew the windows out and men scrambled out the back door. Then the air was smoky with bike exhaust as they started up and began pulling out of the back. Every man went off his own way and soon there was no one left b
ehind. Arkady took one last look behind him. He could see the Bratva coming through the destroyed gate and growled. Looking at over Vitya he said, “I hope they fry your ass but don’t worry, we’ll keep the business going. Maybe this is for the best anyway. Now we have the freedom to do what we want. Never did like peddling flesh anyway.”
Then he took off, barely making it out the back door when he heard the sounds of someone breaking down the front door.
He had to duck and run as men poured around the house but Arkady had an escape route built in when he took over the compound. Ducking down, he climbed down into the ground and threw the door shut behind him. To escape, all he had to do was wait until the Bratva dragged Vitya off.
When Yuri, Barshan and Sazon broke the doors down of the Vory V Zakone’s clubhouse they weren’t surprised to find the main room empty. The people watching the compound had told them the bikers were pulling out, so they expected the compound to be like this...No one around.. When they got further into the room they stopped in shock when they saw Vitya Konovic tied down to a chair. The fact his shoulder was bloody just made them all wonder what had gone down before they got there.
The fact that Vitya was waiting for them all tied up in a bow seemed a little anticlimactic. Yuri shook his head and walked closer to the bound man. He knelt down to eye level with the man he hated the most in the world. “So we meet again eh. Who would have ever thought it?”
Vitya frowned and stared at the other man for a moment. Then he shook his head.
“Oh. you don’t remember me do you?” Yuri scoffed. “Well, it was a long time ago. I would say close to thirty years and on another continent. I was only ten at the time and you must have been what? Mhmm. fourteen, fifteen years old? You were with your brother and sister in Moscow when we met. Your sister was falling behind while following you two as you strutted like god damn peacocks, then she fell. Well, a good friend of mine came along and helped her up. Next, you and your brother came back and just for spite, you fucking slit his throat.” Yuri shook his head and tisked like he was an old mother. “You needed to be taught some manners then and now. I suppose execution will be your only cure. He was nothing more than an old man, harmless to anyone but you, I guess you had something to prove that night. He didn’t hurt her or anyone. I beat the hell out of you and your brother. I’m sorry to say your sister watched the whole thing and when I was getting the better of you, she warned me your brother was sneaking up behind me, so I could at least have a chance against the two of you. Ilya grabbed me and you beat on me until I couldn’t fight anymore. You just killed an unarmed man, then you and Ilya ran off leaving your sister behind. What kind of brother were you? What kind of human being are you?”