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Dropping the young man to the floor, I turned to face the man I called my friend and sneered, “I trusted him. I trusted you. She was in your care when she disappeared. I should kill you where you stand!”
Montana narrowed his eyes and hissed, “You can try it, but I won’t be the only one dying tonight. Now calm the fuck down.”
“Prez,” the young kid said, standing up and righting himself. “I didn’t make a mistake. My tracker works. I know it does. I tried it on my pet rat, Squiggy. I implanted a tracker in him and let him lose in the city. I tracked him for days before I found him. It works. I swear it does.”
“Talk fast kid, the big Russian is about to blow.”
“We all assumed that if Petrovitch took Mrs. Fedorov, he would keep her on the ground. What if he didn’t? What if he took her airborne? I didn’t account for air.”
“What?” Payne asked, lowering his gun. “Like air travel?”
“Like thirty thousand feet in the air.” Pippen admitted.
“You think that bastard has my sister on a plane?” Giovanni spoke up.
Pippen nodded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Can you reconfigure your tracker for air travel?” Montana asked.
Pippen shook his head. “No Prez. There is no way to track her if she’s in the air.”
“That’s not true,” Giovanni said, shaking his head. “There is someone who knows how to track the air. I’ve seen him do it when Reaper and I were looking for Capribella and he’s in this very building.”
“I really fucking hate that kid. Payne, go get the pain in my ass,” Montana ordered, then looked at me. “Max, I need you to think. You know Petrovitch better than any of us. You’ve dealt with him the longest. Where would he take Illyria?”
“If he’s airborne, he could go anywhere. He has safe houses all over the world,” I said, just as the clubhouse doors opened and in stumbled Renaldo Romero, carrying the body of Maria Valentinetti.
Giovanni and I rushed over to him as he fell to his knees.
“Renaldo,” Giovanni whispered, placing his hand on the young man’s shoulder.
“They’re all dead. There were too many of them. We weren’t strong enough,” he said, as tears ran down his face. Looking up at me, he added. “They wanted me to give you a message. The housekeeper is next.”
The seconds Renaldo spoke those words, Happy raced from the clubhouse as if his ass were on fire. As Montana and several of the club brothers ran after him, I helped Giovanni take Maria from Renaldo as he sat, holding his head in his hands.
Placing my fingers at her throat, I closed my eyes and shook my head. “She’s gone.”
Giovanni screamed out as he gathered his cousin in his arms, rocking her lifeless body back and forth. My niece ran into the room, skidding to a stop upon seeing her husband grieve the loss of another family member. Slowly getting to my feet, I turned to Dmitry and Aleksandr. “Find Salvatore Valentinetti and bring him here. I refuse to let my woman lose another loved one.”
“What happened?” Layla whispered, as she stared at her husband, rocking Maria. Walking over to her, I reached for her shoulders and spoke softly, “I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do.”
“Mr. Fedorov?”
Turning, Sypher walked towards me. “Mr. Payne told me. I can find her for you.”
I nodded as the kid quickly turned, leaving the room with Pippen.
“What the fuck happened?” Payne asked.
“What always happens when Petrovitch is around. Death.”
Hours had gone by with still no word as to where Illyria was. The longer she was with him, the more pain he was going to inflict. I tried not to let that knowledge eat away at me, but as the clock ticked away, I knew finding her alive was slowly becoming a dream.
Sitting in the boardroom, I stared into nothing as Montana groaned, rubbing his hands down his face as he leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked tired. We all were. Me more than any. I hadn’t slept since I learned the fucker had her.
I couldn’t.
Every time I tried to close my eyes, all I heard were her screams, I saw her broken and worn body. All the planning, all the preparations, were for nothing.
