“But you know he won’t make any deals,” Anya said.
Andrei nodded. “He’ll use this as an excuse to take advantage of you.”
Gennady shook his head. “No, he won’t. He respects me. Yes, there will be…reparations. But nothing too drastic. However, Andrei, you’ll lose your position in my organization.”
“Bah,” Andrei snorted. “You’ll lose your position in your organization if you try to bargain with Alexander. You don’t know him like I do. When he senses weakness he’ll move in for the kill.”
“I don’t plan to approach him with weakness!” Gennady said, eyes flashing. He waved his right arm as he talked. “We’re not as strong as he, but we’re not to be trifled with, either. If he tries to take more than we’ve agreed to, he’ll find he’s bitten off more than he can chew.”
“I mean this with respect, Gennady,” Andrei said, even though his expression betrayed his words. “You’ve risen high in Rostov because you’ve been ruthless. Alexander is like you once were, you must believe me.”
“I’ve risen to my position because I’ve been honest with my friends and with my enemies,” Gennady replied. “I don’t expect you to understand this, although perhaps you will when you get older. If you’re honest with them, they’ll respect you and trust your word.”
Andrei sat back, disgusted. Anya just had a sad look on her face.
“You’re trusting the wrong person here,” she said.
Nick watched the large black SUV approach the entrance to Gennady’s complex. Immediately he knew it contained Alexander, the epitome of the ‘new Russian.’ Nick looked up the street, but the SUV was alone. It slowed in front of the gate, turned right, and rolled up to the guard.
The guard stood up quickly. He reached into his coat and pulled out what Nick assumed to be a handgun. He approached the driver’s side of the SUV, gun held at the ready but muzzle down. He leaned in and Nick lost sight of his head. After a moment he backed away from the SUV, made a motion for it to stay where it was, and put a cell phone up to his ear.
A few seconds later he apparently received the confirmation he was looking for. He pointed to the right and waved the car through. Once it had passed beyond the gate he put his gun away and settled back in his chair.
Nick shook his head. If they allowed Alexander in without a fight, they were in big trouble. He took out his cell phone and called Anya.
Gennady had just finished his conversation with the gate guard when one of the confiscated phones on the table buzzed. It was Anya’s. She looked at him expectantly.
“No calls,” he said as he shook his head. He leaned forward and looked at the screen
“Nick Wallace,” he read. He looked at her with irritation. “He’s the one who got us into the middle of this. You don’t need to talk to him.”
“He didn’t get us into anything,” Anya said, but Gennady cut her off.
“He’s a liability,” Gennady said. “We’ll take care of him after we meet with Alexander.” He took the phone, muted it, and jammed it in his pocket.
They waited in silence for Alexander. They sat in a small conference room in one Gennady’s office buildings. It would only take Alexander a minute or two to park and come in. Gennady had already sent Ilia outside to watch for the man and guide him in.
Anya glanced over at Andrei. He sat back in his chair with a look of disdain on his face, but she could see he was perspiring heavily. Rivulets of sweat ran down the side of his face and into his collar, and his fingers tapped repeatedly on his knee.
She didn’t blame him. Things were going to be bad for him now, without Dmitri around to deflect any of the blame. He’d likely lose his position in Gennady’s organization, and maybe become a simple candy salesman. And that was the best case scenario.
Gennady stood up abruptly. He glared at his daughter and nephew. “You two stay here. I’ll be back in a moment.” He stalked into his office.
“I wonder if he’s gonna piss, or suck down some vodka,” Andrei said. He shook his head.
Anya ignored him and reached out for Andrei’s phone, still on the table. She dialed a number and fidgeted while it rang. When a man’s voice answered she said, “Viktor. No, it’s Anya. We need your help at the warehouse. Alexander’s on his way over.” Pause. “Long story. I don’t have time to get into it now. Get as many men and guns as you can and get over here.” Another pause. “That’s bullshit, Viktor, and you know it. Gennady needs you. Figure out a way—“ she paused and listened to the protests over the phone. Finally she growled. “You worthless sack of shit. After what papa’s done for you.” She hung up and dialed another number. No answer. Same with a third number. She didn’t look at Andrei. “Like rats running from a storm,” she muttered.
“You can’t really blame them,” Andrei said. He sighed. “Nobody wants to go down with us.”
Anya swore again as she tossed the phone back on the table. “They’d better pray I die here, because if I survive this I’m going to kick some chickenshit asses.” She dropped in her seat and slumped back, arms crossed in front of her, eyes narrowed and lips pursed.
A moment later Gennady returned and silently took a seat at the head of the table. He glanced at Anya, opened his mouth, thought better of it when he saw her expression, and turned away. Anya’s phone in his pocket vibrated. He ignored it.
They waited.
Nick put his phone away with a curse. Where the hell was Anya? Not that he really cared about her personal well-being at the moment, but with Anya and Andrei out of reach, his odds of getting Nonna were slim.
He assumed she was in the compound somewhere, since that was where they were headed the last time he talked to her. But he hadn’t seen much movement there since he hit the rooftop, and now she wasn’t answering her phone. He thought about calling Andrei but quickly dismissed it. The only thing he wanted to hear from that bastard was where Nonna was, and Andrei wasn’t going to spill that over a phone.
His uneasiness didn’t abate as he watched Alexander’s car drive slowly along the road inside the compound and stop next to one of the four buildings. Brake lights flashed as the car stopped. A moment later four doors opened and four men got out. Even at the distance, Nick recognized Alexander as he stepped out from the back seat. He didn’t recognize the other three.
The men congregated in front of the car and huddled together for a moment. A fifth person, the moody one from the candy store who Nick had taken an instant dislike to, walked out to meet them. Ilia, Nick thought the guy’s name was. If he was the welcoming committee, things wouldn’t go well.
Without shaking hands, he led them into the building.
Gennady rose as the door opened. Ilia entered first, a carefully neutral look on his face. Behind him came Alexander and three others.
The tension in the room immediately soared. Anya felt rather than saw Andrei gulp. She didn’t look at him, but kept her eyes on Alexander. She didn’t trust the man, especially with the feeling of power she knew he felt.
Alexander’s eyes quickly swept the room before ending at Gennady. He offered his hand.
“Gennady, my friend,” he said, as the two men shook hands. “It’s nice to see you.” He paused for effect. “Although I would have preferred it be under more agreeable circumstances.”
Gennady nodded. “I wish so, too, Alexander, and I want to thank you for coming out here on short notice.”
“Of course,” Alexander said smoothly. “And I trust Lena is well?”
Gennady smiled and nodded again. “Yes, she is, thank you. Although of course she has decided that the house must have new furnishings again.”
Alexander’s hearty laugh boomed through the room, causing Anya to flinch. “Isn’t it always the case? Olga is the same. We personally keep half the furniture shops in Rostov open.”
He abruptly became serious. “I think we must now discuss our present predicament.”
“Yes, of course,” Gennady said. He motioned for Alexander to take a seat in the
middle of the table. Without a word, Alexander walked around Gennady. One of his men closely followed him and pulled out the chair Gennady had been sitting in. Alexander sat down and spread his hands out on the fine wood, as if feeling his new possession.
Gennady looked surprised for a moment, then quietly took his place in the chair he had motioned Alexander to sit in. Anya sighed.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” Alexander said. He glanced at Ilia. Gennady hesitated, then nodded to the bodyguard. Ilia hesitated much longer, to the point where Alexander turned towards him, then walked out of the room. He slowly closed the door behind him. One of Alexander’s bodyguards moved over to stand in front of it.
Alexander’s demeanor immediately turned grim, pleasantries about spousal spending habits long gone. He pointed a finger at Andrei. “This man tried to destroy me, to take away my power!” His finger curled back into his hand, which he smashed on the table. “Reparations must be made.”
Gennady raised his hand. “But of course, Alexander. I have thought about this and—“
“I have thought about it as well, you little toad,” Alexander broke in. “And here are my demands.”
Gennady slowly lowered his hand. Anya and Andrei instinctively leaned forward.
“First of all, you will pay me twenty-five percent of your gross proceeds on a monthly basis,” Alexander said.
Gennady’s eyes widened. “Twenty-five percent of my gross? That’ll put me out of business!”
Alexander shrugged as if the matter was of no consequence to him. “If you’re clever, you should be able to make it up elsewhere. In addition, I want control of all of your brothels west of Penskaya prefect. You’ve obviously shown that you don’t have the personnel to control them.”
Gennady closed his eyes and sunk back in his chair, seething. Anya looked on in horror, seeing her father’s life come crashing down.
“Finally,” Alexander said, his voice booming in the small room. He looked straight at Andrei with naked hatred. “This man, this brute who would have my kingdom, forfeits his life.”
Gennady’s eyes flew open. “No!” he shouted. He started to stand up, but one of Alexander’s thugs had positioned himself behind the old man. He put his hands on Gennady’s shoulders and forced him back down in his seat, none too gently.
There were tears in Gennady’s eyes now. “You can have my money, but please don’t take my nephew. He made a mistake, I know, but…”
His voice trailed off as Alexander glared at him with disdain. “Don’t you understand, my friend,” he said, the last word now mocking, “I cannot trust this one at all. As long as he’s alive I’ll always need to look over my shoulder, waiting for him to approach one of my men and turn them against me.”
There was silence in the room.
“No, this point is not negotiable,” Alexander said. “He must go.”
Andrei made a noise deep in his throat and rose from his seat. “You fucking animal—“
His words ended in a shriek as Alexander’s bodyguard made a quick move around the table. In one motion he pulled a truncheon from his coat and swung it at Andrei’s head. It connected with Andrei’s temple and the man went down hard.
Anya screamed and jumped out of her seat, chair flying back to crash into the wall. She moved towards her cousin as Gennady also stood. The bodyguard raised his truncheon again, preparing to smash it into her skull. Before he could finish his swing she changed course. She lashed out with her foot and connected solidly with his groin. He gasped loudly and fell to his knees, hands wrapped around his testicles, eyes squeezed shut in agony.
Anya knelt by Andrei, feeling for a pulse. She sighed with relief when she felt a strong one, and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet by the other two bodyguards. She knew putting up a fight would do more harm than good at this point.
Alexander was furious. He turned on Gennady fiercely. “This is how you propose to work with me?” he yelled, and hit the old man across the side of his head. Gennedy fell back in his chair, blood welling up on his cheek.
Alexander turned to Anya. “You are the only one with guts here,” he told her. “I can’t have that. You will come with me until I determine what to do with you.” He licked his lips. “But first, we will have some fun.” He motioned to his bodyguards. “Take her to my car. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
“What of Lev?” one of the men asked, pointing to the man on the ground. Alexander looked with disdain at Lev. His bodyguard was on all fours. A thin line of spittle ran from Lev’s mouth to the mound of bile on the floor.
“Put him in Gorev’s office, then take the girl out,” Alexander said.
The men complied silently. They tried to boost Lev to his feet but he groaned pitifully and sagged against them. They pulled him by his arms into the office, came out, grabbed Anya, and hustled the struggling woman out of the room.
When they were gone Alexander pulled his gun. He looked at Gennady. “Plan B will no longer include Lev,” he said. His voice was calm, his face composed. Gennady looked on in mute confusion as Alexander turned and carefully walked into the office. He closed the door.
Gennady heard Alexander’s voice through the door. It was soft enough that he couldn’t make out the words. He started to rise from his chair, curiosity getting the better of him.
Three quick shots from the office. Gennady sat down again.
Alexander opened the door quietly and gently closed it behind him. He turned to Gennady, who stared at the door in shock. “You’ll need to clean your office,” he said, almost apologetically.
Alexander pulled out his cell phone and hit a button. Almost immediately a voice came out of the phone. Alexander said one word in Russian and clicked off. The fear in Gennady’s eyes intensified.
Chapter 39
The doors to Gennady’s building opened and Nick saw Anya emerge from the shadows. She was flanked by two men and struggled furiously. Apparently things had not gone well with Alexander. He didn’t see Andrei with them. Not good.
Nick quickly scooted back from the ledge, on his elbows and knees, gun cradled in the crook of his elbows, the strap of the duffel clenched tightly in one hand. The bag scraped noisily on the asphalt as it trailed behind him.
Once he had gone back several feet, Nick jumped to his feet and ran to the access door. He quickly checked the safety on his AN-94. It was off. He took the other assault gun out of the duffel, checked the magazine, and slung it over his shoulder. He jammed the other magazines in his pockets and left the duffel bag in the stairway.
He flew down the stairs, two at a time, not caring how much noise he made.
Anya screamed and kicked out at the man on her left. He had seen what she did to Lev and easily avoided her blows. Each man grasped her arms harder and moved her with difficulty towards the car.
Ivan Petrovich, the guard at the gate to Gennady’s compound, was confused. This was nothing new to Ivan, who spent much of his life trying to catch up with what seemed to come naturally to others, but now he was scared, which was a new feeling for him.
He heard the shouts from behind him and turned to see Anya being forced into the car he had, no more than ten minutes ago, been told to let in without question. Even worse, neither Gennady nor Andrei were around to tell him what to do.
Ivan took several steps towards the car, intending to ask Anya what was going on. He had been instructed not to talk to any of the new men, and until Gennady told him different, he would leave them alone.
He didn’t notice two black Volvo XC-90 SUVs pull up behind him. The front passenger side door opened in the lead car as it rolled slowly towards Ivan. A man leaned out. Left hand grasping the top of the door, he brought his right hand up and rested his forearm across the top of the door. The Glock in his hand shook slightly as the SUV bounced on the uneven pavement, but at the small distance between the Glock and the back of Ivan’s head, the man didn’t expect to miss.
He didn’t. Ivan’s head blew apart as the slug shat
tered his skull and flew out his eye socket, and the guard fell away from the path of the two XC-90s. The door closed quickly. Both cars took a hard left and sped towards the warehouse.
Nick burst out of the building and ran fast across a deserted Beregovaya Ulitsa, one AN-94 in his hands and the other clanking painfully into his back with each step. He swung the assault gun ahead of him, looking for the guard. He expected to be challenged at the entrance, but the man was nowhere to be found. Nick had a brief hope that perhaps the man had gone to Anya’s aid.
That hope was shattered when he saw the broken body of the guard lying on the side of the road. There was a mass of blood and brains where he head had been. Nick didn’t slow down. There was no need to check for a pulse.
The access road he was on made a dogleg left, around a small wooden building with a tin roof and dirty windows. From his vantage point on the roof across the street, Nick knew Alexander’s car was parked on the other side of this first structure, in front of the office on the other side. He slowed and pressed himself up against the wall, out of sight of the car.
He stayed there for a moment, panting from the run, then got down on his stomach and crawled up to the edge of the building. He looked around the corner and saw Alexander’s SUV. It looked empty at first, but then he saw a head move dimly behind tinted glass in the back seat. Another head moved next to it. Two people in the car. Anya and somebody else, definitely not a friendly.
Nick sat up, put the guns against the wall, and pulled out his knife. He didn’t know how many men he was going up against, but he wanted to handle the first one quietly.
He heard gunfire on the other side of the complex, over by the warehouse. Automatic fire in bursts of two. Somebody with an AN-94, which likely meant Alexander’s men. It was answered almost immediately by several single shots. Pistol fire. Nick assumed at least one of Gennady’s guys. Two double burps replied.
Worth The Risk Page 26