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“No,” I said simply. “Our parting company was for safety reasons, but now I realize it was a mistake. You’re not the only one who loves her, Miss Anna. Now please, convey my message. It seems that you, your brother, and I have a lot to talk about.”
***
I had spent months trying to get a meeting with Luis. Ironic that it should finally happen now, when my woman and my son were both in peril. But as I knocked on the door to Olivia’s apartment and Anna answered, I realized I was just glad to get it over with.
I inclined my head to her, noting her baby daughter in a sling across her chest. “Ma’am.”
She appeared to be relieved at the sight of me, calm and cordial and, best of all, cooperative. I’m not sure what she was expecting. “He’s in there.”
Luis was the same height as I, all lean energy as he levered himself off the couch and came to shake my hand. I could tell he was packing under his leather jacket. So was I. But our hands stayed empty.
“You’re a hard man to get in touch with,” I said, and he nodded solemnly.
“I didn’t get the impression you would want to talk. Not with your body count recently.”
“Yes, well, with one exception, I was defending myself. These assassination attempts weren’t your idea?”
“No. I only heard about both of them after the fact. I didn’t even know the guy in the hospital was one of ours until Miguel brought the news. He says you killed him.”
“Incorrect. That was Boris. I thought it was a bumbling mistake at the time, but now I realize he likely killed the man to keep him from talking.”
“Miguel led the attack on the auction house,” Luis said. “I suspect he sent the hitter to the hospital too.”
“Why would they want to foment a war? Worse, why would they work together to make sure we wanted to fight?”
“We can ask them when we catch them,” Luis replied grimly. “But I can guess. If we’re in the middle of a bloody war with a high body count, it won’t look too strange if we both get killed in the fighting. Just one stray bullet for each of us. Then guess who figures they’ll take over?”
I winced and pinched the bridge of my nose.Damn you, Boris.Boris had been incredibly jealous when I had become Mischka’s protege instead of him. But that had been twenty years ago. I had always expected him to grow out of his envy of me, especially when I gave him more trust and power than anyone else. But apparently, he simply never had. “That sounds alarmingly plausible.”
“So how do you find out where they’ve taken her?” Anna asked, her face pale and creased with worry.
I pulled out my phone. “All of the cars in my motor pool are fitted with two GPS locators. If one is disabled, then the tracker under the seat should still be active. Even Boris does not know this. I’ll just check their locations and see which one swung by here, and where it is now. Then we can call in some reinforcements and get down there.”
“Anna, you stay here with Gina, I’ll get one of my men to keep an eye on the house, in case anyone comes back. I’ll let you know when we’ve rescued her.” Her brother said firmly.
She smiled weakly, but there was a faint gleam of hope in her eyes. I started checking the car locations, while Luis started calling all the men he felt he could trust. Soon, I would be doing the same.
We would rescue Olivia and my son, and we would end not only this wasteful war, but the traitors who had fomented it.
Chapter 24
Olivia
“Son of a bitch,” Boris growled in English, as he came stomping back in. “We’ve got a wrinkle. Viktor’s calling me and my men in to plan a strike against Luis now. If I don’t show, he’ll know something’s up. We can’t afford that yet!”
Miguel stood up, smoothing his suit with his hands before giving Boris a mild smile. “Of course we can. Once these two turn up floating in the harbor, that’s all he’s going to think about.”
“No, you don’t get it. The man’s too smart. Too observant. He’ll know. He’s been suspicious of me lately anyway.” Boris looked jumpy and torn suddenly. He kept glancing at Michael, who was still hiding in my arms. “Bad enough we’re involving his kid.”
“Oh, come now.” Miguel smirked. “You act like you’ve never killed a child before.”
“That’s because I haven’t.” Boris’s tone of disgust gave me a touch of hope. “I didn’t sign up for that kind of shit. Even gangsters have limits!”
“Not if they want to reach the top, they don’t.” Miguel turned his attention to us and touched the gun on his hip idly. “But fine, I’ll take care of it.”
“What about Viktor? What should I tell him?” Boris, the wannabe leader, looked completely lost, like he couldn’t handle hard situations without someone else’s oversight. I wondered if this was exactly what Miguel was banking on. That he would ultimately pull the strings ofbothorganizations, with Boris constantly running back to him for support. “Maybe we should keep them alive as leverage?”
“The point is not to keep them alive as leverage, Boris,” Miguel said with exaggerated patience. “The idea is to get him so furious at Luis, and Luis so furious at him, that they go to war and make mistakes out of rage. Then we kill them off and take what’s theirs. That’s been the plan since we learned of these two!”
