AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As I’m ushering my wife toward the closest elevator, Sienna is speaking beside me. With all the people around and the noise they are making, I only catch the tone of her voice, not the words.
Another message from Filip arrives as we are exiting the elevator, telling me that we have only a general location for the truck because the GPS signal is weak, and that he’s already headed in that direction with a few men to search for the vehicle. The text contains a screenshot of a map with a one-mile radius circle over the area close to our warehouse.
When we reach the car, I place my finger over Sienna’s lips. “Stop talking and listen. Someone intercepted one of our trucks. The driver is not responding.”
She blinks at me and nods.
“I need you to stay on the line with Filip and wait for him to give you the coordinates after he finds the truck. When you have them, enter the location on the map app and show me the screen with our destination marked. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Keep the line open and listen for any information Filip might have since he’ll reach the truck before we do. All clear?”
She nods again.
“Good. Let’s go.”
Voices speaking Serbian come through the phone. Filip must have put it on hands-free mode because I can hear both him and another male. Their speech is rather quick, but I still understand some of what is being said. Nasty curse words, then something about the Romanians not being happy about the weapons business. I throw a sideways look at my husband. He’s been driving for twenty minutes in absolute silence. Weapons? I thought the Serbian syndicate only worked with drugs. I try to catch more of the conversation, but it’s mostly cussing again. Someone’s phone rings. The other guy, I think it’s Jovan, hollers something.
“Sienna,” Filip says, “we have the location. I’m sending you the coordinates.”
The phone in my hands vibrates. I put it on speaker, then copy and paste two large numbers into the navigation app, and a big red dot appears on the map. We’re about ten minutes away.
“Take the next right,” I say while looking at the phone screen. I can still hear Filip’s voice since I left the call open.
Drago’s hand enters my field of vision. He grabs the phone and looks at the screen, but while he’s doing so, he misses the turn he should have taken.
“A u kurac.” He throws the phone on the dash, cranks the steering wheel until the car does a one-eighty, and gets into the lane heading in the opposite direction. The turn is so sudden and sharp that I hit the side of my head on the window.
“Shit!” Drago barks, and without looking away from the road, wraps his right arm around my shoulders and pulls me toward him. “I’m so sorry, baby.” He kisses my forehead and releases me. “Ask Filip if they’ve reached the driver.”
I’m still so stunned by his unexpected act that I don’t even ask why he doesn’t ask Filip himself. The speakerphone is still on.
“Filip? Drago asks—”
“The truck is parked in the back alley,” Filip throws in. “We’re just pulling up behind it. Stay on the line.”
The sounds of car doors opening and closing fill the otherwise dead air, and a few minutes later, a stream of Serbian curses flows across the line.
“The driver is dead,” Filip shouts. “A bullet through the temple. The cargo is still in the truck. Untouched.”
My husband continues to drive, white-knuckling the wheel, his gaze fixed on the road. “Dead?” he asks and glances at me.
“Yes.” I nod.
“When we get there, stay in the car. Filip will take you home.”
“Okay.” I nod again.
Drago keeps driving, and I keep staring at his profile. Thinking.
We reach the truck, and Drago parks a few yards in front of it, then exits the car. I watch him through the back window as he takes a look in the cabin of the truck before he jumps down and faces Filip, telling him something. Jovan comes up behind Drago and places his hand on Drago’s shoulder. The act seems out of place, but I’ve noticed his men doing it often when they approach him from the rear. It almost seems as if it’s to get his attention.
The three of them spend a few minutes in a heated discussion. Filip walks away from the group a few minutes later and gets in the car with me while dialing a number on his phone. He switches to hands-free and starts the car. I listen as he relays Drago’s orders to Adam first, and then to Mirko.
My eyes stare blindly at a ribbon of road beyond the windshield as I dig through my brain, trying to recall if I’ve ever seen my husband talking on the phone.
And I can’t remember one instance.
