Dmitry walked to the door. He needed some fresh air. “And put someone on him. Make sure he stays safe. I don’t want any of our enemies to get any ideas. I mean, if he doesn’t know who his father is, being gunned down by the competition could come as a shock, eh?”
Anatoly didn’t say anything, instead he ducked his head.
Feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket, Dmitry stepped out of the door as the bodyguard opened it for him. “Gabriel,” he said, voice tight.
“I’m sorry that I missed your call,” Gabriel apologized as he slipped on a change of clothes in the restroom.
“I heard that you were indisposed earlier,” Dmitry said, feet echoing down the limestone hallway as he strode down the corridor. “I called because I expect you back tomorrow, especially after last night’s stunt.”
“Nadei told you,” Gabriel said deflated.
“No, of course not. You think he’d speak about his Captain? I’m not without some eyes there in that Godforsaken place.” He wasn’t exactly a fan of the conflict, but it was good business. Dmitry stopped in his tracks. “I spoke with Allan Roman. He has agreed to continue to do business with us. Good job. In fact, job well done. He was very pleased with you and all that you’ve done in such a short period of time for his people over there. So now, you can come home. We have other more pressing business with Magna Carta.”
Gabriel leaned against the sink. “About that. There have been some developments here in the Ukraine over the last day and a half, and I feel I need to stay.”
“Let’s cut the bullshit, shall we? The woman is not my business as long as she is just your lover, but she is my business if she costs me money.”
“Uncle,” Gabriel protested. “I love her.”
Dmitry smirked and shook his head. What a day! “How can you love her? You just met her?”
“I do.” He wiped a hand over his face. “And I don’t want to leave her?”
Dmitry didn’t have the time or the patience for this. “I have a pregnant woman upstairs in my home carrying your child. I have a business venture on the verge of collapse, which let me tell you won’t happen again after that shit with your grandmother’s business. I have two very angry Black women who happen to carry our last names who are living here under my roof demanding their lives back – lives that they say you impacted when you knocked up the maid. You have no more room in this house or this family for problems or women.” He started to walk again. “I’m not saying you can’t love her, Gabriel. I’m saying that you can’t stay with her. If it’s real, she’ll be there once you get things settled here.”
Gabriel pulled the seat down on the toilet and sat down. “Uncle, I love her like you love Royal.”
“Then listen to my advice. Your aunt has a cut across her throat that reminds me every day how I dropped the ball. I should have gotten my shit straight before I invited her into my life. She suffered for it, not me. So I say what I say from a place of experience. Get your shit in order and then invite her into your life…not into my home, but your life none the less.”
Gabriel knew that he could not fight with his uncle. “And what if I can talk her into coming to the States at least, until I get this figured out?”
Dmitry took a deep breath. “You’re a grown man. If you want to do that, I can’t stop you although I would advise against it unless she’s pregnant,” he joked, thinking more of his current situation and the fact that Briggy was very much in the family way. “But I must warn you, I know this type of woman. She’s a freedom fighter. She has no plans of leaving her country until the fighting is over, hence the name.” When would this boy learn?
“So I have your blessing?” Gabriel asked, hopeful that all of that advice came down to an answer in his favor.
“My blessing…” Dmitry walked outside the front door and stood on the porch. Sometimes he felt as though all of his talking was simply for his own benefit because when it came to women, these boys rarely listened. “You have my orders. That’s good enough.”
Hanging up the phone in Gabriel’s face, Dmitry slipped it into the pocket of his slacks and rubbed his hands over his eyes as he tried to block out the face of the woman who had deteriorated into a cancerous shell of herself, yet had still managed to raise his son – a man he knows nothing about. He saw his late wife Katherine Hutton, who ended up dying because of the same thing and let’s not forget Emma, her daughter and countless others.
“FUUUCKKK!” he screamed, voice echoing through the grounds.
His bodyguards quickly ran to him, guns at the ready, to see what the problem was, but as soon as they made eye contact with their furious boss standing on the porch under the lights, they turned on a dime and ran as quickly to get out of his crosshairs.
Sitting down on the front step, he listened as the crickets chirped on his manicured front lawn. He just needed a moment to think, to figure this all out and then he’d be okay.
Chapter Sixteen
One in the Chamber…
This was no coincidence. The attack of a second Neo-Nazi stronghold in less than three days had not happened since before Ukraine began to fight with Russia almost four years ago. Now, there had been a bombing of one of their headquarters and the burning down of another location back to back? No, this was not something to be ignored. Someone was waging war with them – someone with resources.
People here in Donetsk rarely spoke out against the Neo-Nazis presence because of their willingness to fight the Russian army, pro-Russian separatists and sympathizers. So he knew that Ukrainians would never attack him or their men directly. And the Russians would not have done so without leaving a calling card and taking absolute responsibility for their actions, so the question remained, who really was responsible.
Standing in front of the scorched building watching as firefighters rushed to put out the flames, militia leader of the fascist Neo-Nazi Group Right for Donetsk, Yuri Danko, rallied with his men in black tactical gear and black masks to cover their faces, determined to get answers for the crimes committed against their brethren. Carrying with them a yellow flag with the black swastika painted over it, they looked on in anger as medics pulled one body after another out of the smoke and soot and laid their bodies out on the ground to be bagged and carted off.
They had been here since dawn, probing people who might have witnessed something during the previous night, but no one had seen anything, not a car, not a truck, not a group of people who seemed out of place. Nothing. And judging upon the bodies that lay dead, this was a professional hit. Some of the men had been double tapped, the others had been sliced from ear to ear.
It only meant one thing. “There is a new player in town,” Yuri said, spitting on the ground by his black steel-toe boot. Coughing from ingesting smoke, he turned from the ash of the ruined building to speak with his men face-to-face. “We need to find him, whoever he is, before he finds us.”
“What makes you think it’s not that nosy, little Black bitch Valeriya?” one of his men asked as he eyed the dingy orphanage located right beside the charred edifice. It was suspicious that the neighboring building was completely untouched. It was also suspicious that none of the children or the old lady had come out to see what was going on. Unless, they already knew. “This is right up Valeriya’s alley, especially since we killed her brother. She probably did this to send us all a message.”
“Enough talk about that for now.” Yuri knew Valeriya personally. She was strategic in all things and never quick to respond to violence, even when it would have sent a stronger message to the populous. When she attacked, it was always to make a significant impact for Ukraine and to help the cause. If she were this petty, she would have burned down their house several years ago. Still, he could see that these men were ready for blood. He would have to give them something soon. If he could not find anyone else, then he’d have to throw her to the dogs. “Valeriya wouldn’t have been this obvious to start,” he said, unconvinced. “But we know someone inside of her organization who
might be able to get us confirmation. I’ll call him and see.”
“If Valeriya and those fucking rejects are responsible for this, something has to be done,” another man insisted.
The Right for Donetsk had never supported the fact that a Black man led the Donetsk Revolutionaries or had Jewish Army personnel, and as a result, they had worked behind the scenes since its inception to tear it down. However, they did not speak outwardly against them because of all the politics involved.
One of the other men was outraged by the sight playing out before him. “Yuri, we can’t let them get away with this. Ok? It sends a bad message to our supporters. It says that they are stronger than us – a bunch of farmers, bar keeps and business owners.”
Yuri knew his men were right, but there were other things to consider. “I do not think that those who are a part of the Donetsk Revolutionaries are responsible for this, but I will find out…today. For now, I want 24-hour surveillance on the orphanage. See who comes in and who comes out. And keep combing the area for answers. Someone had to see something.”
“We should just burn down the orphanage now,” another man suggested. “They are just a bunch of half breeds and wild fucking animals. Let’s send a message.”
“Let’s not,” Yuri said quickly. His voice was stern. Scanning the men who stood in a huddle with their attention on him, he redirected their purpose quickly. “Our first priority is to find out who is responsible for this. If it’s not Valeriya then we are wasting our time and leaving ourselves open for another attack. Let us not forget, if our brothers in the Azov endure far worse to fight for the Ukraine, we must endure the Revolutionaries.” He offered a little hope. “But it won’t be forever. When we take our country back, finally, I assure you that it won’t be with Valeriya or any other minority at the helm.”
***
With determination and purpose, Faddei had completed his deliveries for the afternoon much earlier than normal. Able to send his men back to the hotel where they could get dinner and take provisions back to their families from the Medlov stash before tomorrow, he headed to a warehouse across town where he was called upon for a clandestine meeting.
Parking his truck a few streets away, he walked with his head down, baseball cap covering his blonde hair, into the back of the abandoned building and used his key to go through the back door.
Before the war, the metal works warehouse used to be a thriving business for his family, but after the Russians and Ukrainians started to fight among themselves and the war spilled out into the streets, the once prosperous building was forced to close, leaving hundreds of families out of work. Now, it was just an empty space there to remind him of all his family’s hard work gone to seed because of a weak government and Russian sympathizers.
“I hope that I did not inconvenience you too much, my friend,” Yuri said sarcastically, sitting down on a chair in the corner by a broken table out of the sunlight coming through the broken windows above.
Faddei pulled off his hat and scratched his sweaty head. “No problem at all, but I don’t have long, so what’s going on.”
Yuri pointed toward the seat opposite of him for Faddei to have a seat. “I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but this could not wait. My brothers have been bombed twice in the last three days. We have a fucking body count of 45, and they are still pulling bodies out of the rubble. Although no one knows who is behind it, I believe it is Valeriya.”
Faddei sat down and reached into his backpack for a bottle of water. The heat was starting to get to him, especially mixing with the stress. “How are you sitting in here in black tactical gear with this head?”
“I manage,” Yuri replied, waiting for an answer.
Faddei sighed as he took a swig of water. “It’s not her, not exactly.”
“Then who is it indirectly.” He had a feeling that Faddei would know something.
“No one has said for sure and no one has taken credit for it, but I believe it was the Medlov Crime Family…as a favor to Valeriya for the death of her brother.”
Yuri’s face creased into a frown. They were in no position to fight the Medlov machine, but what he didn’t understand was how Valeriya had managed to recruit them. “When you set us out to kill Andrei, you said that there would be no retaliation, because there would be no one to retaliate against. We were supposed to just take half the weapons for our men and store the rest of them here for when you took over the Revolutionaries. That was your plan,” Yuri said accusatorily.
“And I expected our plan to work,” Faddei said honestly. “But I didn’t expect the fucking Russians to show up here and spend a few days getting close to our illustrious leader. Gabriel Medlov has been with her every minute since he arrived, but the good news is that he leaves tomorrow.”
Yuri snarled in growing anger and agitation. “Just what the fuck is going on there. I thought you said you had it all under control. We delivered on our part, now you are supposed to deliver on yours. Otherwise, our truce is over, and maybe you can tell your people how you set up that monkey, Andrei, to be killed.”
Faddei’s eyes widened. “There is no reason to lose control, now, Yuri.”
“Reason?” Yuri sucked in a breath and gritted his teeth as he hit the table with his balled up fist. “The only reason that we remotely agreed to any of this is because your brother was one of my men, but I promise you, if I have to go back on my word one more time, I’ll forget any relatives of yours that I’ve ever known and wage full on war on you. All of you.”
Faddei rubbed a hand through his hair nervously. “Valeriya is almost out of the way. I promise,” he said, sweat forming on his forehead. “I have a new plan that will neutralize her for good and put me in charge. Then we can move on with our plan to fight the real threat.”
“Explain yourself,” Yuri demanded.
“I’ve managed to turn her lieutenant against her. Olek will work with me now. He’s arranging for her to go to a location on the other side of town for a meeting where he thinks that she’ll be artfully wounded. But that is not what’s going to happen.”
“What is going to happen?”
“We’re going to kill her,” Faddei said, staring into Yuri’s eyes, hoping to sway him. “Moving her into a support capacity was just a dream we had to develop and sell to Olek. But she’ll never step down, even if she’s wounded. So, we’re making plans to get rid of her completely. It’s the only way that we can move forward.”
Yuri scratched his black brow. “Whether directly or indirectly, she has cost the lives of over 40 of my men. If she belongs to anyone, she belongs to us for her transgressions. We’ll not turn our heads and let you handle it.”
Faddei rolled his eyes. Turning her over to Yuri would be a lot harder than it sounded. “And what do you want me to do, just hand her over? It’s impossible without the rest of the men finding out and trust me, no one is behind my plan but me. The other captains would turn on me like snakes.”
Yuri was certain that Faddei was a snake, but that was a conversation for another time. “It’s very simple. Tomorrow, tell us exactly where she’ll be and we’ll take it from there.”
Faddei was not convinced. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
Yuri didn’t care what Faddei thought, he wanted Valeriya. “You want to eventually lead this country, right? You’re already playing quite the smart politician behind closed doors. If Valeriya is captured by us, then it will only create more support for you. Plus, my men will have some well-deserved reciprocity for the deaths that she has caused.”
“For once, your cause is in line with ours. If people see what you are doing, then it will only turn the common support away from us. We were just able to start to get funds from Ukrainian government even though outsiders know that you are working against the Russians. Think about what you are asking me to do. If her picture is all over the news and word gets out that Right for Donetsk actually kidnapped the leader of the Donetsk Revolutionaries, then it will be very b
ad for all of us.”
Yuri quickly developed another idea. “Maybe we dress as Russian militia. This answers any problems that might have come from us taking her outright. The people will rally behind us and you and no one will be the wiser. It’s quite simple.”
Faddei liked that idea. He nodded with a crooked smile. “Now, that might actually work.”
“Of course, it will work,” Yuri said, pleased with himself. “Now, tell me everything.”
***
At the beginning of the evening after a grueling day of deliveries and help across the city delivering weapons, food and other provisions, all the captains of the Donetsk Revolutionaries agreed to put on the largest dinner that the Donetsk Hotel had ever seen to thank Gabriel Medlov for his help and to wish him and his bodyguard safe travels home. It was clear that they would not have made it without him, but with him, they had truly become stronger and so had their cause.
Since Faddei was late arriving, they had decided without him, but they were unanimous in their vote. Everyone agreed that a serious show of gratification and appreciation was due.
By the time that Valeriya, Gabriel and Nadei arrived back with the others in their detail, they were greeted with a full Ukrainian feast including borscht, pierogis, banosh, and paska with an assortment of cheeses, vodka and cabbage and carrots.
A few of the more talented men played violin while the most lovely of women sang around tables covered in food and candles lining the room. It was by all accounts, festive, and a great way to send their new comrade home.
Gabriel was moved the thoughtful display. Andriy had fixed him a large plate and set him at the head of the table where people came by to shake his hand or give him hugs and kisses. The children even painted pictures for him to take back to the States so that they would not forget him.
Valeriya, oblivious to the home going was extremely moved. All day, she had thought about what life after he left would be like, she had toyed with the idea of trying to continue a long-distance relationship, but to see her people, all the people that she loved, gather to do this for him on their own, moved her heart most of all.
Gabriel's Regret: Book 1 (The Medlov Men Series 2) Page 23