by SR Jones
“So, we have Jan in the bedroom with two girls. The two other Poles doing coke in the living space with girl number three, and Gezim and the other Albanian not doing much.”
Gezim glances at his watch. “It’s late, gentleman. I’m going to bed.” He stands and strides into the bedroom.
The other Albanian follows him, and I glance at Vasily. Are they lovers?
We all turn our attention to the bedroom footage. Jan is already getting it on with the two ladies who are writhing over him, one feeling her tits up, and the other licking her lips and doing a damn good impression of a porn star.
In the other bedroom, Gezim pulls some bedding from the closet and hands it to the other Albanian who makes a bed on the floor and gets in.
“How much longer are we going to allow these fucks to keep screwing up this way?” he asks quietly.
“Holy fuck, they’re planning a take-over.” Priest raises his heavy brows.
Damen was right, I think.
“We have to wait until things are in place in Rome and Paris, and then we take over.”
“The longer this goes on, the more profits go up their noses, the more girls get trafficked, and the more trouble we’ll invite with those Bratva cunts.”
“Those Bratva cunts are trouble now no matter what. We can’t do a deal with them because they won’t believe we want peace. Don’t forget it was one of our own, not the Poles, who fucked them over and got Silvanov shot.”
This is too good to be true.
“What’s the plan? Keep on the fight?”
Gezim sighs. “We can try to reach out, but I don’t think they’ll be receptive.”
“They don’t want a war either.” Vasily laughs. “Bit late now.”
“Once we align with the Shipqe in the US, we’ll be untouchable,” Gezim states.
“They’ll not be untouchable, but those guys are a huge crew,” Priest states. “High on US law enforcement radar.”
“Fuck it,” I say. “We go in, take out all the Poles and offer Gezim a deal.”
“I say we kill them all,” Vasily argues. “Can’t trust them, Andrius.”
“If we kill them all, someone else will take their place at the top. If we let Gezim take that place, offer him a peace treaty, and tell him he has our support if anyone else tries to knock him off his perch, it makes us all a lot safer. Trust me.” I sigh. “Fuck it, I need to talk to K.”
I know he’ll be asleep, but I pick up my phone and dial.
“Motherfucker, this better be good,” a slurry voiced K answers with a grumble.
“It is.” I lay it all out for him. “What do you think? We go all in for vengeance, or we offer Gezim a deal?”
“Can we trust him?”
“No. But he has a daughter, pretty convinced of that. We threaten her and say he comes near any of us again, or anything untoward happens to any of us, and she’s a target, I think it might work.”
“Who’s to say he gives a shit about her?”
“Got her picture by his bedside. She’s either a lover or his daughter, and I think it’s the latter.”
“Fuck.” There’s a silence as he thinks, then he sighs again. “The best way of knowing they aren’t going to come for us is to have a man inside, but we’re wanting out of the game totally, right?”
“Who were you thinking?” I ask.
“Alexei?”
“If he goes off grid to do this, no connection to the rest of us, it could work, and we’ll still be completely legit. I’ll have to speak to Vasily, but it would be one way of keeping an eye on them. He has no family, and no need to be on Corfu long term. He isn’t working in Moscow now, he’s shit hot at what he does, and he’s trustworthy.”
“Speak to Vasily, and if he’s okay with it, see if Gezim will accept one of our men as his right hand man. I’ll speak to Alexei now and message you back.”
“Done.”
We hang up without pleasantries, and I run it by Vasily.
To my surprise, he agrees. “It would be an ideal solution. I don’t want Zoey having to spend the next six months fighting these bastards with me. If I let you guys have Alexei, she’s off the hook. Completely. No more quid pro quo.”
“Done,” I say.
“Okay, if Alexei says yes, we have a deal.”
If we can finish this tonight, then it takes a huge issue out of play. I’m not stupid enough to think it means everything will die down immediately, but striking a deal with Gezim and helping him get to the top of the pile will make us a damn sight safer.
The two Polish men in the living room now have the girl on her knees. One of them lifts her skirt and plunges straight into her. She cries out, and not with pleasure.
“No foreplay, no lube. Fucking cunt. I’m shooting his dick off,” Priest says in the first real sign of anger he’s shown.
“Fine by me.”
The other guy grabs her hair, slaps her hard across the face, and shoves his dick in her mouth.
“I’m done,” I say, moving toward the door.
“No,” Vasily argues, grabbing my arm hard. “We need to wait until they’re asleep.”
“No way. Can’t let this go down.”
“He’s right,” Priest says. “Hate to say it, but he’s right. If we go in now, Gezim will be out of that bedroom and shooting within seconds. It puts the girl at risk. We wait. It’s messed up, but we wait. Once they’re all passed out, we go in as we said. Deadly. Quiet. We take all three of the Poles out and Gezim’s second.”
“We take out his second,” I say in surprise. “I assumed we’d let him live.”
“Kill them all except Gezim and make the offer.”
“No, he’s gonna need muscle on his side. That guy in there is on his side,” I say, jabbing my finger at the monitor. “He wants a deal. We don’t kill him.”
“Andrius is correct,” Vasily says to Priest. “We keep both of them alive and offer a deal.”
“Fine, but we wait.”
“Okay, but I can’t watch this shit. Come get me when it’s over.” I head into the bathroom and play a stupid game on my phone while the sordid party continues.
I can’t watch it. Reminds me far too much of what happened to my sister, and if I go there, I’ll lose it and fuck this up.
Vasily pushes open the door what feels like an eternity later. “They’re asleep.”
“Really?” The music is still pounding.
“Passed out. The girl is in the bathroom crying. The two girls who were with Jan left about thirty minutes ago.”
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
We grab our weapons, the knives and guns with silencers, Priest picks up his handy little electronic device, and we cross the hallway.
I raise my gun as Priest unlocks the door. The lights are still on in the living room, and the two men are sprawled out on the floor. One of them still has his fly undone and his dick out. Easy target for Priest, I think.
The bathroom door opens, and Priest swings toward the sound. The girl freezes, opens her mouth, and screams.
I fire two shots immediately into the guy with his dick out, central mass, and then a forehead tap for good measure. The second guy is awake and scrambling to sit when I take him out too, dead between the eyes.
The door to the bedroom where Jan is opens, and gunshots fire into the living room. Priest dives for the girl, taking her down to the ground. Vasily raises his weapon and aims at Jan, hitting him in the side.
Jan goes down, and I’m at his side a second later. I kick him, and he grunts. I put two shots into his spine, and he screams in agony.
The door holding Gezim opens and an arm sticks out, holding a gun. I don’t hesitate, I shoot the wrist, and the gun is dropped as someone yells and pulls the door shut.
Jan is still screaming, and I roll him over with my foot. He isn’t moving. Most likely can’t, but he can still feel. I grin down at him.
“How does it feel, motherfucker?” I ask. “All those girls you took. You beat? You ra
ped? This is payback.”
He soils himself, and I wrinkle my nose.
“You’re going to die, but it might take some time if I leave it to nature. I’m not a sadistic fuck like you, so I’m going to end it for you right now.”
Vasily has the door to the room with Gezim in cover, and Priest has the girl out of the suite and into the hallway. I holster my gun, take out my knife and with a grim smile, I slit Jan’s throat.
“Nice. I presume you wanted to make it personal?” Vasily asks. His tone is sarcastic, but his eyes are wide. He’s shocked, no matter how much he tries to hide it.
“I wanted him to feel it,” I say truthfully.
“Gezim,” I shout. “Andrius here. That Andrius. I’m here to talk to you on behalf of one Mr. Silvanov. You know, the guy you put a bullet in. You come out, and we won’t shoot if you’re unarmed. On my word. We want to talk.”
I turn to Vasily. “I know you have almost as much reason as K to want this fucker dead, but if K has agreed to let it go, are you going to? You’re not about to put a bullet in him?” I ask, voice low. “Because if you do…”
“I hate him for getting Zoey involved, but he didn’t do it personally, The Order did, and I want Zoey free from your schemes of revenge more than I want him dead.”
My schemes of revenge. What a dick. I don’t say anything, though. Simply nod. “Shoot him, and I shoot you.”
“I’m not going to fucking shoot him. Now shut the fuck up.”
The door opens a crack, and Gezim shouts out, “Turn the music off and talk to me through this door. You’ve already shot my man’s hand almost clean off.”
I did? Damn, I’m a better shot than I remember.
Priest storms over to the music dock and turns it off. Silence fills the room.
“I know you’re here to kill me,” Gezim says in good English.
“We were here to kill you,” I agree. “However, some information has come to light.”
“Such as?”
“Such as … you might want an end to this feud as much as we do?”
There’s a long beat of silence, then a hard laugh. “What makes you think that?”
“You. Got your room bugged, amigo,” Priest states.
Gezim glances out of the crack in the door before diving behind the wall again. “Why do you have a biker with you? How the hell are they involved? Are you spreading your tentacles?”
Priest laughs. “Not a biker, fucker.”
“We’re doing the opposite of spreading our tentacles,” I say tiredly. “You know this. We want out. Why the hell you came after us, I don’t know. It was the dumbest move. Do you think we’d have given a shit about your activities? No. We were done, busy building our own thing.”
“Except, not quite. Vasily was still heading up Moscow.”
Vasily shoots me a surprised glance. “Independently, fuckface,” he shouts to Gezim.
“Don’t believe it. Not for one moment.”
They thought we were still in the game?
“I agree, though,” Gezim says. “No matter what you were up to, it was a dumb play. I counseled against it but Elio didn’t listen. He wanted it all.”
“He wanted Greece too; we know what his end game was,” I state. I’m tired of this. “Listen, I know about your daughter.” Total silence, which tells me I’m right. “You want her safe? You don’t come for us. None of your men come for us.”
“What men?”
“Oh, come on now, Gezim.” I bark out a laugh. “Don’t play innocent with me. We both know that with Jan out of the picture, you can take over. You can lead your alliance, and by the way, while we’re on the subject, I strongly recommend a name change. You sound like a boy band. We’re prepared to offer a deal. You give us your word, no one amongst us will be targeted again, and we let it all go. No more revenge. No more eye for an eye. Your daughter, beautiful girl by the way, gets to live her best life in Dubrovnik.”
He laughs now. “I know you and your rules. You’d peel the skin from my body whilst I was still alive, but you wouldn’t touch her.”
“I would, though,” Vasily says.
More silence.
“If you think I won’t break my rules to keep my wife safe, you don’t know me. There’s a brothel, I’ll give you the name. Go to the archives and look up what happened to it and the Madam. That was me. I do forget my rules if I have to. Now, do you want to hear our offer or not?”
“Give me your terms.”
“You give us your word this stupid war you started is over, and we all agree we don’t target one another. You leave Moscow alone. We don’t control it, but we don’t want you controlling it. You leave the Greeks alone, and Allyov’s territory too. The rest of the world? I don’t give a fuck.”
“The Greek territory was also a bad idea and something I objected to. Stamatis has absolute control of his slice of the world and a lot of those shipping lanes. It would be suicidal to go up against him.”
“Indeed. There’s more.”
“Yes?”
“We have a man, Alexei. He’s been helping Vasily run Moscow.”
“Yeeees.” He doesn’t sound happy about what’s coming. He can probably guess. Tough shit.
“We want him working with you. At the top. Not to skim from you; I swear now there will be none of that. We don’t need your money with what we’re setting up. He’ll report back to us and let us know that you’re not spreading your wings farther than we’re happy with. He’s shit hot, and he’s a brilliant enforcer; you’re going to need that moving forward. You’re going to need protection, the best, because I can tell you for a fact, the loose coalition you have underneath you is not one of loyalty or brotherhood. It’s too disparate for that.”
He doesn’t say anything, and I get it. No way would I want someone else’s man in my team back in the day when I was knee deep in this shit, but it’s a yes or no answer. No gets him a bullet to the head, and we carry this war on.
There’s a shrill ringing from the room he’s in, and he answer his phone with a few snarled words. Then there’s a crash and what sounds like swearing in Albanian.
“Did you think this would persuade me, you fucking pieces of shit?” Gezim comes storming out of the room, no weapon on him.
Priest and Vasily train their guns on him immediately. I don’t draw mine; instead, I remain calm and face the livid man. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell him truthfully.
“This,” he screams and shoves his phone in my face. It’s so close, I can’t see what he’s holding up, so I pull back and then stare in shock. It’s the woman from the photograph on his bedside table, tied and bound with tears streaming down her face.
“We didn’t do this,” I say quietly. Fuck, this is bad. This is going to go south. No way will he believe we didn’t do this. I wouldn’t.
“I’d say the timing is a little too perfect. Admit it now, mother-shitter. Tell me what you want, and I will do it. But you let her go.”
“My man,” Priest says, gun still trained on Gezim. “Creative swearing. Also, when he says we didn’t do this, he means it. I’m a Navy SEAL, and no way would I be down with this. Andrius here, Konstantin and the others, they’re going legit. There’s myself, another SEAL, a couple of Brit Special Forces, and soon a Force Recon Marine getting involved in this. It’s a legitimate business, and no fucking way would taking your daughter be a part of that.”
“I swear on my family that we didn’t take your daughter,” I say seriously.
“Then who the fuck did?” His eyes are wild, and he starts to pace. “I can’t let her get hurt. She’s an innocent in all this. She’s only nineteen, and she’s had a horrific start in life. Hardly anyone knows about her. How did you find out about her?” he asks.
“One of our connections looked into you, and he found out about her. We didn’t know she was your daughter, though. Only that she was a woman you had visited. We guessed she was your daughter.”
The other Albanian st
ill hasn’t come out of the room.
“What’s your man’s name?” I jerk my chin to the door.
“Pjeter.”
The phone in Gezim’s hand vibrates again. He stares at it, and his face goes white.
“Holy fuck, it was Jan.”
“What?” I stare at the dead Polish man, his throat slit. “I don’t think so.”
“I mean, he set this in motion. He must have known we were trying to take over, and he’s done this, and now you’ve fucking killed him. When these men find out, my daughter, my beautiful Roze, will be dead.”
I wipe a hand over my face. This is a shitshow of epic proportions. I don’t want this to go wrong for us, but I also don’t want his daughter harmed.
“Can I see the message?” Priest asks.
Gezim hands him the phone. He reads and then glances up. “You know them, right? They’re a part of this alliance you have going?”
“Yes, it’s four men who work closely with Jan. Clearly they know we were planning to take over from him. He muscled in after you guys took out Elio but we weren’t comfortable with him running it. He was a loose cannon. A faction of the group, myself included, want things to be run properly. Like the Italian families of old. We want a code and honor; not this fucking drug using, women battering, shit day in and day out. We’re sick of it. Now, though, my daughter is going to pay for this life I’ve got myself into.”
“Not necessarily,” Priest says. “How many are there; do you know?”
“Four at the most, but maybe only two or three. They’re Jan’s closest men outside of the two here who you’ve killed. I wondered why they weren’t here in Berlin with us, and now I know. They’re crazy, though. The things they might do to her.”
“Lie down with dogs, you get fleas,” Vasily adds, unhelpfully. He isn’t wrong, but it’s not really the time.
“Listen. I’ve done hostage extractions before. I’ve gone in and killed super bad terrorist motherfuckers,” Priest says to Gezim. “I was in a team where we were outnumbered ten to one, and we suffered no casualties. I’m not scared of three or four gangsters who probably have all the skills of a corner dealer. I can get your daughter back.”