In Africa, they had agreed to live a
normal life
, whatever that was, but the road that he had chosen once arriving here was far from that. Once in Prague and after he had spent time with his family, Gabriel knew that his rightful place was by their side, only he didn’t want to discuss it with Briggy at this point.
This was his decision. If she chose to stay with him after this, he’d be better for it, but if she chose to leave, he’d just have to deal with it. Either way this was his decision, and he was comfortable with it.
“
Back to getting you that towel,” Gabriel said, heading to the bathroom. “And I have to hurry and get dressed. I only have a half hour.”
***
After shooting Manon, Balthazar had gone to Anya’s room and pulled her out permanently from the dark broom closet. The way he saw it, he was safest when she was near him. If there was an attempt on his life, then he’d have to use her for leverage or as a shield. The plan had definitely changed, but only for Manon and Vladimir. He, however, planned to make the call at exactly eleven in the morning for the rest of the $250 million.
After regrouping with the men, he tightened security around the house and ordered a helicopter to pick him up tomorrow at noon. For now, he was sitting in a safe room with Anya, watching monitors and waiting patiently for the next call.
Holding tightly to a teddy bear, Anya looked around for Manon. Normally, where Balthazar was, Manon wasn’t far, but it seemed that now she was forced to deal with him all by herself, which scared her.
She sat in the corner of the room in a chair watching the television and rocking back and forth. Her tear ducts had long given way to dehydration and exhaustion, so there were no more tears, but her eyes were still red, puffy and nearly closed.
“
Are you hungry,
you little shit
?” Balthazar asked, throwing her a bag of chips.
Normally, Anya would have said something smart, but starving from a missed breakfast and lunch, she grabbed the bag and opened it quickly. Eating every chip, she gobbled the snack up in record time all while wishing that she was back at home. “Can I have some more, please?” she asked when she was done.
“
Who are you, fucking Oliver Twist?” Balthazar asked, grabbing another bag. Throwing it at her feet, he turned from her and got back on the computer.
“
Has my daddy paid yet?” she asked sincerely. “I want to go home.”
Balthazar rolled his eyes and turned away from his computer. “Let’s get this straight. You don’t get to talk unless you are asked a question. You don’t get to tell me what you
want to do
. At home, you might be treated like a princess, but here you’re just an overpriced payday. So shut up and do as you’re told. Do you understand me?”
“
Yes,” Anya replied.
“
Yes, what?” Balthazar snapped.
“
Yes, bad man,” she answered with a straight, serious face.
The bodyguard in the corner couldn’t help but chuckle; however, he quickly straightened up when Balthazar shot him a stern glare of contempt. “Now, I’m funny, huh?” he asked, scowling at the man. “I’m the funny kidnapper.”
The bodyguard quickly tried to explain. “No, sir. The girl is…”
“
Shut up,” Balthazar interrupted, turning back to his computer. “I can’t wait to get my money and get away from all of you.”
***
Dmitry couldn’t describe the pride that he felt the moment that Anatoly and Ivan walked into his study side-by-side. He sat alone behind his father’s desk, council in the adjoining room waiting, with a drink in his hand, freshly showered and dressed and thinking about all that would be required of him the next day.
However, he had to give pause when the doors opened, and he saw him and his brother incarnate and given a second chance to survive together instead of apart. The boys didn’t understand why he had to fight back tears, and although they never came to the surface, never past his lids or were even allowed to make his eyes water, he did feel the tears inside.
This was not a life that he would have chosen for them. He would have preferred to see the council end its life in his generation, if it meant them finding peace and solace in some other work. But they had chosen it. They had been given everything and yet they came back to this. Why? Because it was in their blood just like it was in his, and he could not help but respect that, recognize that and embrace it as the path that they all had been put on in an attempt to clearly define the yin and yang of life. They could define what was allowed, what was not allowed, what was Vor and what was everything else. All it took was vision. And he saw a vision in the two men standing before him.
Anatoly went to make a drink for himself while Gabriel stood in the middle of the floor in a black suit, quietly awaiting the ceremony. For Anatoly, it was good not to be new anymore, not to not know what to expect. He relished in the moment and was in some ways proud that he would be able to serve as a mentor to his cousin in his new life.
Dmitry finished his drink and stood. Walking over to Gabriel, he circled around him, inspecting every portion of him from head to toe. “Are you ready for this?” he asked as he finished his evolution.
Gabriel was serious now. No more jokes. His face was stern and foreboding. “Yes, I’m ready,” he said, keeping his eyes straight.
“
To give up everything that you’ve ever known for a world that you have fought against for the whole of your adult life?” Dmitry probed. “It’s no small or temporary decision.”
“
Yes,” Gabriel answered. “I agree.”
At that moment, Dmitry swore that he could see his brother in front of him, as nervous as Ivan had been many years ago in the same situation. He had the same stance, the same face, the same fire, only Gabriel had more sanity. That was the differentiating factor between the two.
“
This is for life. No. This is past your life. Do you understand? With making this choice now, you could very well be making the choice for your son or sons.” Dmitry looked over at Anatoly. “They more often than not, follow in your footsteps, regardless of what you tell them. Look at you. Look at your cousin. Think of those innocent boys upstairs sleeping who, with the world at their feet, could very well make the same decision. And it all could be because of the decision that you make. Can you live with that? Your decision could cost them their lives. Think of Anya. There is so much violence, so much death, so much pain with what you are about to do. And yet, you stand here to embrace it.”
“
I know what I’m doing. I do it willingly,” Gabriel said, swallowing hard. His posture so was erect until Dmitry wondered if the young man might crack under the pressure.
Dmitry raised a brow. “Alright,” was all he said before he cracked a crooked smile and looked over at his desk. “Well, we lost one Vor today. We might as well not be too late replacing him.” As he motioned towards the door, the bodyguard quickly opened it for them and they entered into the room to begin the ceremony that would complete the circle for the Medlov men, add a much needed councilman and change the face of their organization forever.
Chapter 28
In the early morning hours before the sun had risen, while the rest of the house slept, Dmitry sat behind his desk waiting on the call from his men in Belarus to notify him of when the hit had been carried out on the dictator.
He needed this to happen as planned in order to get an exact location in Croatia or South Africa from the CIA for Balthazar. Vicinity would not be good enough, not for this. A poor extraction could be fatal. What if his men drew attention to themselves, pulled up to the wrong house in the
vicinity
and caused Balthazar to panic and get rid of his daughter? She wasn’t even 50 lbs. It wouldn’t be hard to dispose of her quietly.
No. It couldn’t be risked.
At this point, he was sure that the pressure was on Balthazar, so he was prone to do something monumentally stupid. Men like him always fucked up. And when he did, Dmitry would be there to catch him.
Leaning back in his chair, he kicked his feet up on his desk and thought about Khalid Sidorov, the man whom he had looked up to in many respects for most of his adult life. He had killed himself here in this very room twenty years after he had helped Dmitry kill his father here.
It felt so final and so complete until he could not mourn Khalid’s choice to end his life, just the things that Khalid did choose, like his backstabbing son’s decision to stab him in the back, even after he spared his life.
Then thoughts of Davyd entered his mind. Flashes of his friend’s face flooded him. He could still hear his voice, his boisterous laugh, his growl when he was unhappy with something, his chaperones when he was pleased. He still remembered the last day that they had breakfast together. It seemed impossible that the old man was gone.
During this grueling process, Dmitry had tried to keep old memories at bay, but it was hardest during these hours when the house was deathly still, and there was nothing to do but think. Then the memories would creep in and draw him under, nearly suffocating him.
And under his quiet stress he had to face the fact that he had lost two good men because of greed. And tomorrow, he could very well lose more.
The weight of the world was on his shoulders. But his will was too strong to fold. He wouldn’t have it. Anya would come home safe and live a beautiful long life, but the people responsible for this travesty would pay, even if it was the last thing that he did on this earth. He would make them all pay. Vladimir. Balthazar. Manon. The people who had bid on his daughter. The people who had helped abduct her. Everyone would pay. Just like Sven and Upheil had. Just like the other crime families that he’d had murdered by his teams while he was here on the phone waiting for a call. Even the dictator had paid.
Fuck them all.
There had been some good news, however.
In the middle of the night, he had received a call from his team in the Cayman Islands confirming that they had successfully done a snatch-an- grab on Vladimir and was on the way to Prague. Dmitry couldn’t wait to get his hands on him. Sven’s torture was nothing in comparison to what he planned to Vladimir, not just for his daughter and wife, but for Davyd and Khalid.
Hearing a knock at the door, he checked the monitor that showed surveillance outside of it to find Royal.
“
Come in,” he said, hoping that she had come to possibly talk instead of to argue.
The door opened slowly, and Royal appeared in her white, silk nightgown.
Dmitry looked at her and thought of when they had made up in Memphis before they were married in his study there. That night still played in his mind sometimes.
“
You shouldn’t be roaming through the house in that,” he said, eyes hooded and lustful.
“
Everyone is sleep,” she said, pushing the door closed with both hands.
Dmitry smirked. His eyes bore through her with the fire that burned down his belly. “Everyone is never asleep in this house. You know that,” he said, taking his feet off of the desk.
Royal walked over to the couch nearest him and sat down, slumping her tired shoulders as she rested back. Sitting the baby monitor on the end table, she turned up the volume to max and pulled the chenille throw hanging over the back of the couch over her body. The warmth felt good to her skin. Rubbing it against her face, she let out a yawn.
“
Can you turn on the fireplace?” she asked. “It’s kind of chilly in here.”
He was watching her quietly, every intricate move. Snapping out of his daze, he got up immediately and flipped on the gas fireplace. Hanging his arm over the mantle, he looked at the fire. “Royal, I’m sorry for earlier. It wasn’t my intention to take out my frustrations on you.” He turned and gazed at her, thinking how beautiful she looked with her hair down on her shoulders. Her face glowed in the darkness and her big brown doe-like eyes melted any ice that had formed on his heart. If she only knew how badly he needed her. It has been six weeks. A torturous sentence for him that he had wanted a hundred times to break.
“
I came to tell you the same thing, Dmitry,” she said, putting her hands in her lap. She clasped them together and looked down at her wedding ring. “It’s just getting to me, that’s all. This whole thing is getting to me. My baby. Davyd. Now Khalid,” her voice trailed off. “It’s getting to all of us. The girls are going insane here with their own issues, and everyone is wondering who
won’t
come back every time someone leaves. And now, Gabriel has taken the vow.”
Dmitry smirked. “Looks like I’m not the only one who knows everything going on in this house.”
“
You’d be surprised what I know,” she said, pursing her lips together. “Like what you use that fucking barn in the very back for from time to time.”
Dmitry’s brow spiked, but he didn’t deny it. “I don’t give you nearly enough credit,” he said, barely above a whisper.
Royal didn’t want to hound him about his private matters. “I just want my baby back. I don’t care what it takes. I know that I should care about other stuff, but I don’t.”
She didn’t understand her conscience anymore. After being married to a mob boss for years, the line had been drawn and crossed so many times before until she was certain that there wasn’t a line anymore.