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“Don’t start with me,” I snapped, more annoyed than I thought possible at the way I heard him scoff in response.
“I’m a little bit busy, boss, can I call you back?”
“No,” I insisted. “This will not wait. I have marching orders for you and your men. Get back here so I can brief you.”
“Boss, seriously—”
“You have twenty minutes, Boris. After that, I send men out to look for you. Is that clear?”
The annoyance fled his voice. He sounded wary, suddenly, and placating. “Yeah. Boss, I get it. I’ll get the guys together and come over.”
“Good. We’re going to war, Boris. I want you and your boys fully informed before I send you out against Luis.”
For some reason, this cheered him. “You’re finally going after that guy? Sounds good. I’ll be right behind you.”
The question is, will you be back there planning to plunge a knife in my back?
We hung up and I got on my laptop to wait for the delivery of photos and stills. But before it could arrive, my phone rang again. It was Olivia, I was about to reject the call, but I found that I couldn’t.
I picked it up. “Hello, Olivia, what do you want?” I asked a little warily.
“Is this Viktor?” The voice was female, very scared but determined, with a light Puerto Rican accent.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Yes, it is. And you are?”
“My name’s Anna. I’m Olivia’s best friend.”
I scowled. “If you’re here to scold me over breaking Olivia’s heart, I really don’t have time—”
“Someone’s taken her,” she said shakily, and I stopped dead.
“What?”
“A man with a Russian accent. He took her and Michael. I overheard the kidnapping because I was on the phone with her at the time. I went over to her apartment to check and the back window’s broken into and they’re…they’re gone. Her phone was on Michael’s bedroom floor. I found your number in there.”
A cold jolt of adrenaline rushed through me. But then I remembered who I was talking to. “You claim a Russian man took her? Not, say, your brother?”
“My brother is in my house babysitting my baby daughter, damn it! It’s one of your guys who’s got Olivia.”
I frowned, skeptical but very worried for Olivia and my boy. “If this is some kind of trick—”
“You’re worried about me tricking you? I thought you were the one who had her kidnapped!” She struggled audibly with her temper, breathing ragged. “If you are who my brother says, you have to know every Russian mobster in town. You’re our only chance of finding and rescuing her. So if you know something—”
“Wait. You and Luis intended to rescue her from me?”
“She’s family! Of course we’re not going to leave her to die! She might not be that way by blood, but there’s no way either one of us is going to let her or her little boy get hurt just because she fell in love with you!”
I sat back in my chair, having to digest this for several seconds. “This isn’t the conversation I thought I would be having with Luis’s family. For the record, I don’t have her, and I would never harm her. But it seems that we need to work together and figure out who has her, what their aim is, and how to rescue her and Michael. I already have my suspicions.” I checked my email again, and saw the bundle of images had arrived from my informant. “One moment.”
I started opening the images, and my eyes widened. There was Boris in a bar, all right, drinking and chatting with a handsome Puerto Rican man with curly hair and a very nice mustache. They looked chummy. A quick look-through of the images showed that they had gotten together several times.
“I definitely know one of the men who took Olivia. I suspect your brother will know the other. I can forward you the photographs, or bring them with me, if you’ll tell me where to meet you.”
“Olivia’s place. I’ll stay here until you arrive, it’ll be quicker if you come somewhere you know. I’ll ask Luis to join us.”
“I just have one question. Will your brother accept a truce, at least for the moment so we can get this done?”
She let out her breath in a whoosh. “You’re saying you want to help rescue her, not just supply information? Why? I thought you were done with her.”
