Saving Anya

by Nelson, Latrivia

  “Has never seen anything like this. His father was a Vor despite whatever else he was and he was my brother and founding member of this council. Gabriel has turned away from the DEA and saved this council on more than one occasion.”

  The men were so new until their apprehensions, while respected, could not override Dmitry’s decision.

  “I need to know that he’ll have your full acceptance.” Dmitry waited.

  “He has to be Vory first,” Igor said, finally putting two and two together. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you suggesting that we give him stars?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” Dmitry said. “This approval must come from the highest rank of the Vor, one of whom sits at this very table.” He looked over at Khalid.

  “He knows the code better than most. And Gabriel has turned away from his government and taken his rightful place with is family. He could be an asset, giving us information on other undercover agents, helping us fortify our current shipments against detection and working those within the DEA who might be men of fortune,” Khalid said, furrowing his graying brows. Nodding at Dmitry, he gave his approval. “It is my last request as a member of this council before I regretfully step down to ask that you accept Dmitry’s candidate, Gabriel Medlov, for appointment to this council and acceptance into this sacred brotherhood.”

  Khalid’s resignation was a historical event. For Dmitry, it marked an end to an era, and for the other men of the council it marked the true start of their reign. Out of respect for their elder and a true leader of the Vory v Zakone, they collectively agreed.

  Dmitry was finally pleased. “Very well. We will meet tonight when they arrive back. Until then, make yourselves comfortable at my home. I will have dinner taken care of by Stepan in the absence of my staff and you all are free to use my house as your own.” Standing up, he looked over at Khalid. “We need to speak in private.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Khalid said, slowly rising.

  Dmitry helped the ailing man to the door that led to his study and closed it behind them.

  It had been months since Dmitry had seen Khalid, but he could clearly recognize the deterioration of the man. Even as he bent to hold his father figure up, he felt his frail bones in his grip. It would be senseless to punish him at this point for his deceit. And in truth, his heart broke to know that the old man approached his demise alone with not even his son to stand by him.

  “I’ve taken everything from you,” Dmitry said when they were alone. “There is nothing more to take, is there?” He sat Khalid behind the same desk that he had sat behind the night that they had killed his father. Stepping back, he stuffed his hands down in his pockets like a child and stared at the floor.

  “You’ve taken nothing from me that I have not freely given, Dmitry,” Khalid conceded. Shaking in pain, he took Dmitry’s pen and wrote down Vladimir’s number. “You know, I always wished that he was you. I hated him for not being you. He was weak – a sniveling little rich boy with his preppy Oxford friends and his flighty ideas about ruling the world. The truth of the matter is that he couldn’t wipe his own ass if I didn’t hire someone to reach back and do it for him. There were so many times after I spared his life that I wished that I had killed him, but I just didn’t have it in me. Do you know why?”

  Dmitry nodded no.

  “Because it’s an easy thing to have people that you don’t know, or people that you know but don’t love killed. It’s a gruesome thing to murder your own blood when it comes from your own loins and raised it from a seed to a man. It’s an impossible fucking thing, Dmitry.” Khalid wiped a tear from his reddening eyes. “And I’m sorry. Sorry that I let you down. You were my son, too, and I let you down, but I didn’t do it knowingly and I would have never knowingly put Anya in danger.”

  “I know that,” Dmitry said humbly. “But you still did.” His voice faded. “And if anything happens to her, it’s still your fault.” Frustrated, he wiped a hand over his blonde locks and turned and walked to the window. Looking out of it, he shook his head. “As angry as I am, I have to admit that you’ve always had a special place in my heart, Khalid. I hated Vladimir too, for having such a good father and fucking you over. If I had had you instead of Evgeny, then I might have had more of a fighting chance.”

  Khalid appreciated that more than Dmitry knew. Smiling at Dmitry’s turned back, he wrote down the contact for his lawyer with his will beside Vladimir’s cell number.

  “My lawyer is the only other person who knows that Vladimir is still alive. He also knows the location of all the safe houses. But if you track this number, you should find him. He’s never without his phone. And like I said before, all that I own, which is more than the ransom that they are asking, even if you happen to lose it to get her back, is now yours.”

  Dmitry closed his eyes as he heard the gun cock behind him. Planting his hands on the window he leaned in and took a deep breath. “It’s been a pleasure,” he said as tears fell down his cheek.

  “The same for me, my dear boy. I’m very proud of you,” Khalid said, pulling the trigger.

  The gunshot made everyone jump, except Dmitry. Bodyguards quickly knocked in the door and came running in, guns pointed to find Khalid slumped over in the chair with the gun on the floor beside him. The council members ran in afterwards, mouths opened and in shock.

  Dmitry finally turned around from the window and looked over at his desk. Brain matter had splattered all over the desk, the side of the wall and the computer. But he had pushed the note for Dmitry up to the end to make sure that he didn’t ruin it. He walked over to the desk and picked up the paper. Slipping it into his pants, he looked over at the bodyguards and straightened his tie. “Call the coroner,” he said barely above a whisper. “And tell the tech guy to meet in the work room to trace Vladimir.” With that, he turned -all eyes on him, trying to piece together what had just happened - and walked out of the room quietly.

  Chapter 25

  Vladimir looked at the wire one last time that had been sent out with Manon’s face on it, before he threw it into the fireplace and burned it. It was clear to him now that he had to distance himself from both her and Balthazar, because they were now sitting ducks. The big question was how did they get found out? Everything had been set up perfectly. The plan had been fucking fool proof.

  This was not the way things were supposed to play out for them, but the cards had been dealt. Ties had to be severed. He had no choice but to leave her hanging. The painful part was that if Dmitry didn’t get to her before she recognized what was going on, she would swear that he had planned to leave her high and dry the entire time.

  Pity.

  But there was no sense in crying over spilled milk.

  A gassed-up plane awaited him at the airport, but it was not going to Croatia as previously planned. No, he was headed straight from the Cayman Islands to Portugal. But first, he had to make a withdrawal from the bank and take his $250 million with him. Sure it was a lot less than half a billion, but there was nothing that he couldn’t do with what he had managed to stiff the Medlov’s for.

  All he had to do now was be smart about his movements for the next couple of hours, and he’d be home free. Plus, it would be more for him to spend and less baggage to worry about. There would be no cutting things three ways and no committing to the woman in his life for over twenty years. It was just him again.

  Ahh, that sounded good. No. It sounded fucking great.

  The maids scurried around him in his white on white bedroom packing his clothes and other personal effects while he slipped on his linen suit jacket and prepared to head into town. Two sleeping women lay in his bed completely unaffected by the movement going on around them as they slept the afternoon away. Normally, he would have already had thrown them out on their asses, but what difference did it make today? He wasn’t coming back here after his business in the city. His men would load up his things and bring them to him at the airport. So, he could let them sleep. Rest
well, bitches, he thought to himself. It would be the last that they saw of him ever.

  Showered, shaved and feeling fine, he stood looking at himself in the mirror and smiled. Time had treated him kindly. He still had a head full of black, inky hair, a perfect tan from the tropic weather, piercing auburn eyes and an exotic face that made it hard to identify his ethnicity thanks to his mother’s Bohemian blood line. Basically, it would be easy to blend in where ever he went, and considering he spoke six languages fluently, he could always travel around to other locations in case any heat came down.

  After all these years, he had finally pulled it off, made Dmitry Medlov look like a fool and secured his retirement plan despite his father’s backstabbing decision to leave the entire Sidorov estate to that no good gutter rat. He only wished that Ivan had been here to witness it. He would have been proud, would have felt vindicated, considering that he hated Dmitry more than even him.

  “Are you ready boss?” a bodyguard said, stepping into the bedroom.

  Vladimir slipped on his Rolex and straightened his coat. “Yeah, sure. I’ll be out in just a minute,” he said, slipping his gun into its holster.

  Just as he was about to leave, the ringer on his phone sounded. Opening it up, he saw that it was his father.

  “Shit,” he said, throwing up his finger. “Give me a minute. It’s the old man,” he said, closing the door behind him. “Yeah, papa.”

  There was no answer. He could hear a strange static before he hung up.

  Closing it back, he put the phone on vibrate. It was nothing for him to lose service here. It had done it several times before. Khalid would just call back later, or he would call him after he picked up the money. Right now, the old man was clueless and he had to keep things as calm as possible to keep from tipping him off.

  Besides, when Dmitry tracked the account, which would be in the next hour, he would find out that the account was in his father’s name and automatically blame him first. Khalid would have one of two choices. He would either give him up or he would take his secret to the grave. Considering the old man was already leaving him with nothing, he doubted very seriously that he’d give him up. There was still a little loyalty there. And if he was wrong and Khalid did talk, he’d already be in the wind by the time that Dmitry was able to trace him.

  Picking up his Louis Vuitton bag, he opened the door and headed downstairs with his men to the Bentley waiting to escort him to the bank. Minutes after the transfer had been made by Dmitry, Vladimir had transferred the money to his account here. However, he only felt secure when the money was tangibly in his hand, which was why he was going to make a full withdrawal now and carry it with him to his next destination.

  ***

  Dmitry hung up the phone and looked over at his tech guy. “Please tell me that you got a fucking trace on it,” he said, palms planted on the table.

  “Got it,” the tech said, releasing a sigh of relief. “He’s in the Cayman Islands boss. As long as he doesn’t turn his cell phone off, we can continue to trace him no matter where he goes.”

  “Who do we have in the Cayman’s?” Dmitry asked, putting his hands on his hips as he looked at the monitors.

  “The Escobar brothers,” Liv said, picking up the phone. “Do you want me to call them and tell them to pick him up?”

  “Yeah, tell them that we’ll triple their normal price. Make it a quick snatch and grab. I don’t want him killed, barely even bruised. But he’s the only one. Kill anyone with him. Do you understand?”

  Liv nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said, turning around to dial the number quickly.

  Dmitry turned from the monitors and looked over at Royal who sat in the corner with her legs crossed as she rocked the small cradles for the babies. He was hoping that she might have cooled down, but she still wasn’t talking to him. The daggers that she was sending him through her blood curdling stares were making him sick. Rolling his eyes, he walked over to the babies, picked up one of his sons.

  “What happened to us being on the same team?” he asked as he stared her down.

  “What happened to you just getting Anya back?”

  “Don’t you realize how close we are? Do you think that we got this close by me just doing anything?”

  “Don’t you get it, Dmitry? You can go to war with these people after we get our baby back?”

  Dmitry’s voice rose only slightly. “I’m doing everything in my power to get her back.” Clenching his jaw, he rocked the baby in his arms. “I’m not doing this with you right now. I know what I’m doing. You’re just going to have to trust me and stay out of my way.”

  Royal cut him another dirty look. “She’s my baby too, Dmitry. Don’t’ forget that.”

  “What makes you think that I have forgotten it? Do yourself a favor and get some rest, okay. Hopefully it’s just the exhaustion talking in you,” he said as he walked away without another word.

  Renee wasn’t far from them while they were talking. After she brought the men who were working in the war room more coffee, she made her way over to Royal once Dmitry was gone. In a whisper, she bent to her friend’s ear. “Is everything okay?” she asked concerned.

  “No,” Royal said with a huff. “We have enough money to just make this go away. We pay. We get our baby back. It’s just that damn simple. At least in my mind it is. But Dmitry is worried about his ego and his fucking name. So, he’s going to put her in more jeopardy just to prove a point to these bastards.”

  “Oh.” Renee looked away, hating herself for asking. No one wanted to get in the middle of the couple’s squabble. For one, Dmitry was too powerful to disagree with and secondly, discussing his business in front of his workers didn’t look good and made her uncomfortable. Sure, she was sort of like family now, but she didn’t want to come here and help incite a riot between the man of the house and his wife. So, she’ll keep her opinions to herself and be as helpful as possible with the children. It would be what Anatoly wanted.

  “Why don’t I make you something to drink? How about some tea?” Renee asked, standing up. She wanted to get away from the tension in the room.

  “That sounds nice,” Royal said, picking up Maxim. She hugged him close and kissed his tiny head. “Thanks. I’ll have some lemon tea with honey and a few biscuits, if you don’t mind.” It felt good to have something ordered instead of having to fix it herself. She was grateful for the break.

  “Sounds good,” Renee said, happy to help. “Would you like to go upstairs maybe? I could run you a bath or give you a massage.”

  Royal shook her head. “No. I want to stay here just in case a call comes in about Anya or something comes through with the men. Plus, I’m scared that someone else might off themselves in our home,” she said condescendingly as the coroner and his men walked past in the hallway carting off Khalid’s dead body.

  Her eyes lingered on the gurney as it passed and suddenly she felt a chill down her spine. She would have thought that she would have gotten used to dead bodies by now, but they still gave her the creeps.

  Plus, the guy had killed himself in Dmitry’s office, right on the desk that they had made love on many times before. Brain matter was stuck to the painting she bought him in Paris last year. The rug that she had ordered from Italy was ruined, and yet another of his closest confidants was dead. That made two in the last week.

  “Royal,” Renee said, trying to get her attention.

  Royal snapped out of her daze and looked up. “Yes?”

  “You’re holding the baby all weird,” Renee said, pointing to how Royal was holding Maxim.

  Royal looked down and instantly felt bad. Tilting his head up, she nuzzled her face up against his cheek and apologized. “I’m so sorry, baby Max.” Shaking her head, she looked up at Renee. “This is no way to bring a baby into the world.”

  “Just hold on, Royal. It’ll all be over very soon,” Renee promised.

  “I hope you’re right.” Royal rocked the baby and took a deep breath. “Take a good look at me, R
enee. This is what you signed up for.”

  The thought scared Renee although she knew it to be true. Stepping away quietly, she excused herself out of the room and away from all the eyes that looked on at them to make Royal’s tea.

  ***

  Gabriel and Anatoly decided after they arrived in Geneva, Switzerland to pick Sven, Balthazar’s lover up, that the kidnapping was not only beneath them but too tiring to complete. Opting to stay in the jet while it was refueled, they sent a team with Vasily to Sven’s penthouse in the upscale neighborhood of Carouge to collect him at his penthouse.

  “It’ll be an easy job, boss,” Vasily had promised before he left in the white Land Rover with his five men. “I should be back in…” he looked at his watch and shrugged, “thirty minutes or less.”

  “He’s good,” Gabriel commented impressed.

  “You have no idea,” Anatoly said proudly with his legs cocked up and a coffee in his hand. Snuggling into the leather chair, he turned on the television and decided to nap while waiting.

  Gabriel was just happy to have a minute to rest where he wasn’t facilitating a murder. And Vasily seemed more than eager to do the job just to get away from babysitting the women of the house.

  They headed out in a two-car caravan with guns, maps and one goal. Sven Schmitz, the gay Nazi.

  The snow fell to the ground in large flakes that covered the streets in a haze. The good news was that the snow was quiet and peaceful, making the departure on the jet an easy maneuver when the time came.

  Settling in for the moment, Gabriel cocked his feet up too and ordered cocoa from the stewardess. Checking his Blackberry, he looked over at Anatoly who had already started to doze off and frowned. “You think it’s driving Dmitry mad that he can’t be here?” Gabriel asked.

  Anatoly yawned and wiped his tired eyes. “Of course it’s killing him, but he can’t risk that phone ringing and he miss the call. Plus, unless he’s certain of exactly where they’re holding Anya, he’s going to hold down the fort at the chateau. But this is his thing, you know. Even though he’s a Czar, he’s probably one of the most hands-on bosses that you’ll ever meet.”