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CHAPTER 8
Anna
The phone drops from my hand as a scream escapes my hold. I quickly get up and bend down praying that it’s not broke. I need to see if what I thought I saw was the actual thing.
Sitting back down, I take a deep breath as I hold the phone back up in my view. A strangled cry escapes as I see a very hurt Finn looking right back at me.
My brother is beaten and bruised. Blood that looks to be dried now is covering the left side of his face, possibly a head injury. He has dark bruises that are starting to form on his cheeks and his arms.
Finn is sitting on a metal chair that you normally find if you play bingo. His hands are tied behind his back with rope and his feet and legs are attached to each of the chair legs by more rope.
He’s not blindfolded or gagged, he just looks very angry. What did they do to you?
They must’ve done a sabotage attack or something where he wasn’t prepared. Finn is trained just as well as me and my brothers. He’s the one that uses the skill the least, but he’s been trained just as excessively. He knows how to fight, and he knows where to hit on the body.
The tears start to fall down my face, as a sob explodes from my chest. I start to get up so I can run back and let the rest know what’s going on. That’s when I notice a message that came through at the same time.
It’s still from Finn’s phone: tell anyone and he dies.
There’s nothing else said in the message. I’m not even curious about who has him, I know. Maxim has taken my brother to get me back. He knows they are my weak link and it will work.
I quickly put down the phone and try to calm myself. I’m not gonna let him hear how scared I am. I’m not gonna give him the satisfaction. My eyes drift down to the photo on the phone of Finn and all hell breaks loose.
The welling cries erupt from my body like an active volcano. I just can’t get them to stop, he looks so horrible. I’m just scared to death for him. I now understand what type of people the Ivanov’s are. I understand that they won’t even blink before they put a bullet in somebody’s head.
I have to play smart. I gotta do everything in my power to get my brother back, even if it means sacrificing myself.
I take deep breaths, in and out for the next five minutes. The sadness I was feeling is being replaced with anger. Rage killing anger.
I get up and start to walk around, moving my neck and arms, releasing the kinks, then I grab the phone and call Finn’s number. The phone is answered almost immediately.
“My Sweet Anna,” Maxim purrs.
My being calm just totally went out the window as I snap, “what the fuck did you do to my brother? I will kill you for this.”
Maxim chuckles as he replies, “no you won’t, your brother is still very much alive right now and you’ll do anything for him.” Maxim adds for effect, “won’t you Anna?”
“What do you want?” I already know the answer, but he needs to say it, the son of a bitch.
“A trade, of course.”
“How do we do this trade?” I ask. I know he’s thought about this. It’s not exactly going to be easy to get me away from the Moretti house.
I can hear a commotion in the background as I wait for him to answer. “I’ll call you back in a minute, keep the damn phone on you and stay away from everyone else, or I will keep my promise.” Maxim snaps as he disconnects the phone.
What the hell was that about? I have more questions than answers with this damn man. I start to pace more, now it’s time to get my head back in the game. As usual, I treat this like any other job but this one is the most important of my life.
I will make the trade with Maxim, but it will be on my terms. I know I’m going to have to sneak out. Most likely in the middle the night or when the guards switchover.
Maybe I could just take one of them hostage? No, that would be so stupid, but it might be the only thing that works.
I’ll just remain smart about this, then I can decide the direction this will go. We might be able to save my brother and get Maxim in the process. I shake my head no, I can’t risk having my brother get hurt.
It’s basically going to come down to me just trading places with him. How do I know that Maxim will keep his word? Will he actually let my brother go once I give myself up instead?
I start to run through about twenty scenarios in my mind, this is the way I normally do any job. I look to the best outcome and then the worst possible the most feared outcome, then all of them in between.
Every outcome usually resolves to the same conclusion. What can I do to make everything work? What can I be prepared for if this goes one way instead of the way I thought it would go?
The first priority obviously is making sure that Finn is let go and I have a few ideas on just how to do that. If Maxim wants me back bad enough then he’ll agree to it.
I sit back down on the patio chair and realize Maxim wants me back. He wants me back. My heart flutters a little, but it’s also breaking at the same time. Why did it have to be this way?
I can never be with someone that hurt somebody I love. I quickly stand up, maybe it was an accident what happened to Finn, shaking my head I know it wasn’t. The Ivanov’s don’t have accidents, ever.
For the past ten minutes I’ve been standing up and sitting back down. Every time I have a good idea, I stand straight up, and my brain would work it out and show me what a piece of crap it is, then I would sit right back down.
Like I said before, I’ll just focus on the one thing that matters and that’s making sure that Finn gets out of this without being harmed anymore.
I’ll set it up to be this way. If Maxim doesn’t like it, then I just won’t go through with it. The worst thing that could happen is he gets both of us and uses Finn to torture and pull information out on me.
I don’t even know if he’s still on the revenge thing or if that’s what he’s even thinking, but like I told myself earlier, scenarios.
I get up putting the phone back in my pocket, I need to go the bathroom and splash cold water on my face before anyone sees me. I’m sure it looks like my eyeballs were stung by bees.
