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“I’ll send coordinates,” Igor says.
“Da, Nik, assemble a team together. I want eight men at the most. We get IDs of who he is meeting and go from there. I don’t want to tip another organization off that we are lining his pockets,” I say. Reelection is less than a month away, and while I need Senator Hope to keep his seat, I don’t want to be paying him to align with someone else. “Igor, where is Dmitry?”
“On assignment, sir.”
“What assignment?” I bark.
Nik clears his throat in the room, and I hang up on Igor.
“What?” Impatience digs into my words.
“He’s escorting Kate today,” Nik says. That was an error on my part, I wanted Kate escorted by a more experienced guard, but it’s currently biting me in the ass.
“Fine. Get Andrei.”
We arrive at the coordinates outside the city, remaining a couple hundred feet away. The location is an abandoned warehouse district. Peeling paint, rusted metal, and broken windows that have been stripped and hollowed out. It’s eerily quiet, and Nik motions for several men to take their positions. My men are in their tactical gear, a midnight black that stands out among the crumbling brickwork and overgrown weeds. We use the graffiti-ridden walls to stoop low, shielding ourselves from any notice.
Nik elbows me, handing over a pair of binoculars. I peer through them toward where the meeting is supposed to take place, the sunlight creating a glare as it filters through the broken buildings. Surrounding the location are degrading cardboard boxes and abandoned, rusting tools. A breeze brings a whiff of the musty scent of dampness that heightens my awareness.
No one is at the meeting location.
Doubt causes my palms to sweat, and I take stock of my men, prepared and ready to go. Nik’s eyes are also trained on the spot. I lean in close to him.
“Who was the contact?”
“Informant is a low-level drug dealer in the underground circle. Apparently, the senator frequently buys through him and was tipped off about this meet. There is no indication who he is meeting; it could simply be more drugs but …”
But it could also be more money and alliances,my thoughts finish for him. I hate this part of my job. Can’t the senator just take our millions to buy his drugs and move our product along?
Greed always threatens power, my son.
My father’s words echo in my head as my frustration grows. Irritation flares within me thinking this intel may be false information. But a sound in the far-off distance rolls closer. Nik directs two fingers left, then two fingers right, to a couple of men. He points to me and then back to himself. This is one area I let Nik lead. As pakhan, it is imperative you know when to trust your men’s expertise.
Security is in his blood. It’s what his father did for mine, and it’s what he continues to do for me. The fire in Nik’s eyes as he recalls his training is bold and impressive.
A black van with tinted windows eases to a stop directly at the given location, and I squint toward the door, trying to make out a driver. Following behind Nik, we inch closer, ducking behind half a concrete wall, and more of my men follow suit. Another blacked-out van approaches from the opposite direction. This can’t be the senator; he drives a flashy Lamborghini that hecouldn’tafford solely on the taxpayers’ dime. Nik glances back at me, shrugging his shoulders. The van backs up to the front of the other one, and the driver’s side door opens.
I adjust the focus on the binoculars, and the view shifts to be more detailed. The man is wearing a mask up to his eyes, covering the lower half of his face, but his hair is a shoulder-length brown. I don’t recognize him.
He walks back to the double doors and swings them open. My chest tightens as he reaches up and drags a young girl out. My knuckles clench as I take in her appearance. Her clothes are ripped and her hair is a matted mess, and the sharp focus through the lens shows the mirage of bruises on her face. Her hands are bound with a rope, and I watch him yank her out of the van.
Damn it.
The first van’s driver exits, clean-cut, and dressed in a suit. They hand off the young girl, and she is dragged to the back. My feet shift with the urge to get involved, but Nik’s gaze whips to mine, and he shakes his head. One last look at the girl, and I know she won’t be found after she is taken from this spot. Kate flashes in my head, and an image of her in this position frightens me.
No. Never. I wouldn’t allow it.Protectiveness surges in my chest.
Nik’s whispered voice brings me out of my thoughts. “This doesn’t make sense. Senator Hope isn’t here. What does this girl have to do with him?”
A million possibilities cloud my mind, but I know the sickening answer. The long-haired man goes back to the opened van, and I narrow my eyes, quickly discarding the binocs.
“Get down!” I scream at my team as the man lifts a grenade launcher in our direction.
Clink. Clink. Thud.
Time slows as I drop my equipment and scramble back yanking Nik’s vest with me.
BOOM!
