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“So, what, then?”
“Send some of your men, have them buy you time while we deal with this here. And meanwhile, stop freaking out! We’re almost ready—”
He paused as his own phone rang. He picked it up, and immediately started conversing in rapid Spanish.
“No, boss, I’m just handling the gun parts order like you wanted. It’s a ton of inventorying.” He listened for a few seconds. “Wait, you want me there? Why?” Another long pause. As he listened, a very unpleasant grin bloomed on his face. “Oh. Well, that’s unfortunate. Wait, you’re sending everyone out looking for them? Boss, this order has to be passed on to the assembly guys by—okay. Okay, yeah, I get it. We’ll be there within half an hour.”
“What is it?” Boris asked as he hung up.
Miguel shot him a disgusted look. “You screwed up! The bitch was on the phone with Luis’s sister when you took her. She overheard everything! Luis already knows she and the boy have been taken. He’s calling everyone in to search for them!”
I let out a small sigh of relief. Anna had heard. She had told her brother. And Luis was coming through for her…for us.
Boris’s face darkened. “How was I to know that call was still connected? She dropped the damn phone.”
“Are you kidding me with these excuses?”
“Don’t treat me like your fucking subordinate! We’re supposed to be partners!”
The two continued arguing while I stroked Michael’s hair and watched, praying that this tiny bit of good luck would grow. These two were greedy for power. That also seemed to extend to trying to boss each other around. If their alliance fell apart catastrophically enough, so would their plans. Hopefully, including their plans to kill us both.
As I sat there on one of the new velvet couches, watching their snapping at each other turn into a full-on shouting match, I found myself thinking of Viktor again. How quickly he had acted when I was in danger. But now, he didn’t even know I was in trouble, he had cut me off. I prayed that somehow, our increased fortune would include him.
But that was impossible. He didn’t know we had been kidnapped, let alone where we were.
The fighting paused briefly when someone called Boris again. He argued into the phone in Russian, then gave up and said something in a calmer tone. He then started making phone calls. “I’ll send some of my guys ahead to buy time with Viktor. We won’t need so many guards, there’s no way they know where we’re holding them, I switched off the car’s tracker.”
“Fine,” Miguel grumbled, pulling out his phone. “I’ll do the same. What do we do with these two in the meantime?”
“Keep guards on them until we figure out the best course of action.”
Miguel laughed, making Boris’s face darken again. “Best course of action is that we shoot them and make sure the bodies are found! We talked about this!”
“That was before I realized you meant the kid too!”
“Don’t be a fucking pussy, Boris! You brought the boy here, what did you think was going to happen?”
They went back to arguing while I watched helplessly. Most of the men were walking out, off to buy time with the very men these two were plotting against. But there were still enough guards around that I couldn’t make a break for it. Yet. I waited for my opportunity, thinking only of getting Michael out safely.
I heard the hum of the elevator going down with the departing men. But then, past the argument of the livid men nearby, I heard the elevator start to rise again. Simultaneously, I heard several pairs of feet rushing up the fire stairs.
Boris and Miguel were too busy arguing to notice until the moment that two men walked in, with a collection of dark-suited figures piling into the doorway behind them. Both men had shotguns in hand. As I recognized them, my eyes widened.
It was Viktor and Luis. Shoulder to shoulder, with their loyal men behind them.
Boris was caught flat-footed for a few seconds as he took them in. “Oh fuck,” he said finally.
I grabbed Michael and rolled off the couch, landing on my back and then rolling on top of him to shield him, just as the gunshots started going off. Boris let out a startled grunt and I heard him hit the floor with a thud that shook it slightly.
Miguel was screaming in Spanish, cursing Luis, Viktor, all the men who had come with them. I heard his voice grow louder as he scrambled toward us, probably planning to take us hostage.
I looked up and saw his gun was pointed at the men, not at me. I rolled over and planted both feet in his groin, doubling him over and driving him backward. He let out a wheeze and fumbled with his gun, almost dropping it. Before he could level it at anyone, Luis shot him and he fell over backward.
Silence. Footsteps. I dared to look up. Boris and Miguel’s men were kneeling, disarmed, hands on heads, and surrounded by the others. It was over even more suddenly than it had begun.
Then Viktor was there, setting the shotgun aside on the couch and reaching for me, for his son. I sat up and he pulled us both into his arms. He was here, he and Luis had saved us. Together.
His men chattered around us as Viktor hugged us, talking about the betrayal, the new treaty, and how they couldn’t believe that Boris and Miguel had joined up to try to overthrow their rightful leaders. I looked past Viktor’s shoulder and saw Boris and Miguel both sprawled on their backs on the concrete floor, heads haloed in blood. Their faces looked so graphic that I covered Michael’s eyes.
