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“I don’t know. Luis says that Miguel’s disappeared and taken some of his guys with him. He also found out that Miguel’s been speaking against him with the other guys. But that’s all I know. He says he tried to protect me by keeping me in the dark.”
“Viktor’s said similar things to me. But I ended up pulled in anyway.”
“Me too, I guess. What are we going to do?”
“Stick together,” I started, before a sound distracted me.
I heard a faint noise in the back of the apartment, like a wine glass being dropped. It sounded like it had come from Michael’s bedroom. I frowned and stood, wondering if I had woken him up. “Hold on a second, I heard a noise in Michael’s room.”
“Be careful, honey,” she said, but I was already moving, praying it wasn’t anything to worry about.
I opened Michael’s bedroom door and my stomach dropped in horror.
The huge man who had been drunk at the auction was standing in Michael’s bedroom. He had Michael out of bed, one meaty hand clamped over his mouth, and the muzzle of a gun pressed to his temple.
I dropped the phone, my eyes locking with Michael’s terrified ones.
“You will cooperate with me, or I will kill your son in front of you,” he said in his deep, accented voice. I nodded, wide-eyed, my lips as numb as snow.
“Boris, wasn’t it?” I tried to appeal to him, also praying that I had his name right. “You work for Viktor. Why are you doing this?”
“Not anymore I don’t,” he replied disdainfully. “Viktor is a fool. The boy is proof enough of that.”
He shifted and I saw the window was wide open behind him, its screen cut away and a glass-cutter circle piercing it. He’d cut the window glass and reached in to unlatch and open it.
“Please give me my son,” I said as softly and calmly as I could.
“No. You come with me now. No more talking.”
***
They had one of those black sedans with tinted windows waiting outside. Boris carried Michael, pressing the gun into my child’s side. Michael was frozen in fear, not even able to reach out for me. He was old enough to understand the danger of a gun and of a strange man.
Once I got in and slid over, he pushed Michael into my arms and slammed the door. I noticed a heavy plexiglass partition between the front and back seats, a second before my boy was in my arms, burrowing into my chest and shaking.
“Shh, shh,” I soothed him as Boris got into the passenger seat. A shorter, darker man was driving. “It’ll be okay.”
But I knew it wasn’t. Either Viktor was playing some horrible game with us, or Boris was planning to use us against him. Either way, I had no way to call for help, my phone was on Michael’s bedroom floor where I’d dropped it.
“Please tell me what you want,” I asked once we were underway. I didn’t like that we weren’t blindfolded. It meant they didn’t care if we saw where we were going. And the only reason they would do that is if they knew they could guarantee my silence. Probably with a bullet.
“What do I want?” Boris chuckled, and the man beside him snickered. “I want Boston, little girl. I want control of the Bratva and the territory. And you and your little bastard son are going to help me get it.”
I had my hands over Michael’s ears. “What do you mean?”
He flashed a grin over his shoulder at me. “You’ll figure it out once we get where we’re going.”
Something about his wide, cruel smile made me hate him even more than when he was pointing a gun at my son. I held Michael, silently praying for a stroke of luck as we drove on.
If he wanted the Bratva it meant he wanted Viktor dead. Did he plan to use us as bait?
I mulled everything I knew. Miguel rebelling against Luis. Boris turning traitor against Viktor. A war each group’s leader claimed not to want—but encouraged by the actions of others.
What was I missing here?
Michael was clinging to me with his arms and legs like a baby koala. His face was hidden against me, but he wasn’t trembling and weeping anymore. I didn’t know if he had calmed down or simply worn himself out. I cuddled him, making comforting noises while I watched us heading into central Boston.
We finally slowed in front of a small hotel in mid-renovation, its entire facade hidden behind scaffolding and plastic safety netting. They turned onto the garage ramp, and we disappeared underground. The sudden darkness made Michael flinch. I stroked his hair, doing my best to help him keep calm.
