“What the hell is going on?” Olivia blurts. Behind her, her family struggles feebly against their restraints.
I ignore both them and her question. “I’m glad you ditched the sweater,” I remark. “It was hideous.”
She doesn’t immediately answer. She’s still trying to process the scene before her. Her eyes keep flitting between her mother and siblings.
She’s terrified, of course, but none of that fear is for herself. She’s only concerned about them. It’s admirable, quite honestly. Misplaced, but admirable.
“A sweat—what? No. Hell no. Tell me who you are and what the fuck you are doing in my house?!” Her voice rises to a keening screech.
“You’re getting worked up,” I inform her. “That’s counterproductive.”
“I’m not particularly interested in being ‘productive’ right now!”
I move forward and she backs up immediately. She’s tense, anticipating an attack. What she doesn’t know is that the attack is already over. Everything that happens next has been in the works for a long time now. It cannot be changed.
I lean back against the kitchen counter to help put her at ease. We have so much left to do here. I can’t have her getting hysterical on me just yet.
I glance at the others just to be sure everything is as it should be. Her mother is sagging in the chair. Fatigue has begun to replace her fear. A body can only run on adrenaline for so long, particularly in a woman of her age.
The other two still look furious and ready to fight. I’m impressed by their determination. It’s hard to muster up that kind of attitude when you’re bound and gagged. I expected it from Rob, but not from the sister.
“Why don’t you take a seat, Olivia?” I suggest.
“I’d rather stand, thanks. Why don’t you stop bossing me around my own goddamn house and tell me what’s happening?”
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “Very well.” I pull the gun from the back of my pants and set it on the kitchen counter, then sink into a seat on one of the barstools. Her eyes bulge at the sight of the weapon.
Never looking away from her, I raise my hand and beckon. My men step in from the shadows.
Olivia turns on the spot, eyes going wide as she counts the number of strangers in her house. It doesn’t take a genius to see she doesn’t have a chance.
She does a full, stunned three-sixty and then stares at me. “Who are you?” she whispers.
“Sit down,” I say, “and maybe I’ll tell you.”
She looks at her family. Her lower lip trembles. “Please let them go.”
“If you want me to listen to you, you have to listen to me first.”
Left with no choice, she pulls up a chair and sits down. I give a subtle signal to my men and they melt once again into the background.
Olivia releases a shaky breath. “Is your name even Aleks?”
I notice Rob flinch, clearly rattled by the fact that I seem to have an established rapport with his sister. But then, that was all part of my plan.
“It is,” I confirm. “But my last name is the one you need to remember. I’m Aleksandr Makarova.”
“What do you want with me?” she asks desperately, unable to stop herself from looking over at her family.
“Oh, Olivia,” I say with a menacing smile, “you misunderstand me. I’m not here for you. I’m here for him.”
She follows my gaze to her brother. “What do you want with Rob?”
“Would you like to tell her, Robert?” I ask coldly. “Or should I?”
The man growls, but the sound is muffled by the duct tape over his mouth. I stand and walk over to him.
“Here, let me help you with that.” I rip it off in one vicious tug.
“You motherfucker!” he screams as soon as he can. “You cocksucking fucking piece of—”
I sit back down and eye him wearily. “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Let them go!” he snarls. “They don’t have fuck-all to do with this!”
“Rob!” Olivia cries. “What’s going on? What’s happening?”
He ignores her questions entirely. “How do you know this motherfucker, Liv?”
Olivia gets quiet. Guilt washes over her face.
“Liv!” Rob presses.
“He… he was on my flight,” she stammers. “We were on the same flight and it got delayed. We got to talking—”
“He’s a fucking criminal, Liv!” Rob practically yells. “He’s a mobster and a murderer.”
The color drains from her face. Olivia turns to me, her eyes begging me to deny it. Pleading, hoping that surely there must be some mistake, some mix-up, that this cannot possibly be right…
I give her a dismissive shrug. “I think the term he’s looking for is ‘Don.’”
“Don?” Olivia repeats, looking between me and Rob. “Like… the mafia?”
“Bratva,” I correct. “Not mafia. Don’t make that mistake again.”
“Bratva,” she whispers. “Of course. You’re Russian.”
I nod. “That’s right. And your brother here made the mistake of getting on my bad side.”
“I think you have that the wrong way around,” Rob growls through gritted teeth. “Olivia, this is the bastard that took Isabella. Abducted her. Shit, he probably raped her before doing God knows what else.”
“Don’t look to God, Robert,” I chide. “Not even God knows what I get up to. And even if he did, he couldn’t stop me.”
“Jesus Christ,” Olivia moans to herself, bending forward so that her forehead touches her knees. “What is happening…?”
“Did he hurt you, Liv?” Rob demands.
Olivia doesn’t reply. She keeps her head between her legs and takes deep breaths, trying to stave off her panic.
“Liv!”
She jerks upright, looking like she might be about to vomit in her own lap. “No. No, he… he didn’t.”
“See, Robert?” I say, turning to him. “I’m not the monster you’ve made me out to be. And I certainly had nothing to do with your fiancée’s disappearance.”
“I have a lead that says you do.”
“Your lead is wrong,” I snap. “I don’t abduct women. And I don’t keep them against their will.”
I get up and walk towards Olivia. She stiffens as I move around her chair to stand behind her, but she knows better than to try to escape. There’s nowhere for her to go.
I take a fistful of her hair and let it run like silk between my fingers. “That is, unless I’m given a reason to.”
“Don’t you fucking touch her!”
“Call off the investigation on my Bratva,” I say. “Call it off now, and I won’t have to hurt your family.”
Olivia flinches, but I ignore her, maintaining my loose grip on her hair.
“Where is Isabella?” Rob’s eyes narrow as my fingers drift down Olivia’s shoulder to graze her bare skin.
“I don’t know any Isabellas,” I tell him.
“You’re fuckin’ lying.”
“It’s not in your best interests to fight me on this, Robert,” I say. “You’re the lead agent on the investigation monitoring me and my men. End it.”
“I don’t have the authority to do that.”
“Then find a way to make it happen. I’ve followed your career—very impressive, I might add. You’ve built a reputation of trust and loyalty around the Bureau. If you claim that the case on me is a dead end, they’ll listen.”
“You really think I would sell out like that? Betray everything I promised to protect?”
I shrug. “You will if you want your family to survive this war you’ve started.”
Suddenly, I yank hard on Olivia’s hair, bending her neck back at a vicious angle. Her mother’s eyes go wide, but she doesn’t make a sound. Her mouth just opens in a silent scream.
The sister, however, goes wild. She grunts and struggles against her ties, nearly toppling her chair—until one of my men presses a gun to the back of her head.
“No!” Olivia screams, finding her voice.
She tries to run towards her sister, but I reel her back against me. Her hands claw at me as she thrashes and looks desperately at her sister. Tears streak her cheeks. They catch the dying evening light like diamonds.
“Please,” she begs. “Please, Aleks, tell him to drop the gun.”
“Should I listen to her, Robert?” I muse. “Should I tell my man to drop the gun?”
His eyes dart wildly between both his sisters and his mother. I want to see the sigh of him admitting he’s been beaten. That telltale slump of the shoulders.
I want to watch the light go out in his eyes when he sees that he cannot win.
And for a moment, it seems as if I might get exactly that. Exactly what I came for.
But then, right at the precipice of conceding, he changes course. The resolve hardens in his jaw, in his fists. The tendons of his neck thrum with tension.
He takes his job too seriously. He has the unfortunate shackle of believing in the work he’s doing at the Bureau.
But it’s more than that, too.
This is personal. He truly believes I am the one who abducted his fiancée. And he’s not one to be moved by threats. Which means I have to do more than just threaten him.
“You’re not going to fucking win, Makarova,” he growls. “We’re onto you now.”
I shrug. “You’ve already investigated all my businesses. If you’d found anything to charge me with, there’d be a warrant issued already.”
“That doesn’t prove shit. All it proves is that you’re clever enough to cover your tracks.”
“That’s right,” I nod as Olivia shivers against me. “I am clever. More importantly, I have infinite resources at my disposal. You don’t want to start something with me, Agent Lawrence, I assure you.”
“I think it’s a little too late for that. This is the second time you’ve come after my family.”
“There wasn’t a first time.”
“Isabella,” he growls sharply. “That was the first time.”
“Your ego is blinding. Your fiancée left you,” I growl. “Accept it.”
He shakes his head. “She didn’t leave shit; she disappeared without a fucking trace. That’s not something she would do. It’s something men like you would do.”
I laugh and tilt my head to the side. “You don’t know the first fucking thing about what men like me do, my friend.” Then I straighten up. “But I know what men like you do. And, more importantly, I know what women like this one do. They do what they want. What they crave, even if they won’t admit it out loud.” I pull Olivia a little closer to me. “Just ask your sister. I think she’s seen how right I am.”
She tries to struggle, but I’m holding her too tightly. “Please,” she whispers. “Please stop… Just let me go. Let them all go.”
“That power lies with your brother,” I tell her. “All he has to do is stop the witch hunt.”
“Rob,” Olivia says desperately, “think of Mia. Of Mom. They don’t deserve this. Is your job worth it?”
His eyes go wide with anger. “You think this is about my job?”
“Rob—”
“This is about Isabella!” he yells. “This is about my life, my woman, my future! This bastard stole it all from me. I want it back!”
Olivia shakes her head. “What makes you think she’s even alive?”
“She’s out there, Liv. My fiancée is out there. And he knows where she is.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s hopeful thinking. But me? I’ve always been more interested in facts. And the facts are that I have the upper hand here. You have five seconds to make your choice before I make mine.”
I give a nod and my men move in once again. Pike and Lipkin point their guns at the mother and sister while I pick up my weapon and press it tenderly to the side of Olivia’s head. She trembles, but the moment the cold metal touches her skin, she goes deathly still.
“What’s it going to be?” I ask.
Rob stares at his mother and then his sisters. I can see the fury building inside him. The guilt. The war between the two.
How can he sacrifice the living, breathing women before him for the phantom of a woman who disappeared a year ago?
“Please, Rob,” Olivia whispers. “Just give him what he wants.”
“Listen to your sister, Robert,” I suggest. “She’s very smart.”
His eyes meet mine. They’re filled with vengeance, with the promise of more violence.
And then, finally, with the acknowledgement I came for: he cannot win this battle.
His jaw clenches. “Fuck! Fine.”
“Fine what?” I ask.
“Fine, I’ll back off.”
With a satisfied smile, I drop the gun. My men follow suit. “You made the right choice, Agent Lawrence.”
“Don’t say my fucking name,” he mutters. “Just let us go.”
“In a minute,” I say. “Before I leave, I’m going to need some insurance.”
Rob narrows his eyes. “What the fuck do you want? A note attesting that I’ll back off you? Not sure an illegal deal made under duress will hold up in court.”
“Court?” I laugh. “I handle my business myself, thanks. And I wasn’t asking you for anything. When I want something, I take it.”
I release Olivia and step back. She sags with visible relief.
But as she is about to find out, this is far from over.
“Pyotr,” I order. “Take her.”
“No!” Her mouth falls open in shock. She turns to me as my soldier moves to take custody of her.
“You can’t do this!” Rob roars.
I smile at him. “Watch me.”
“No!” he yells. “You can’t take her. Makarova!”
I bound forward and grab Rob’s bloodied face in my hand. “Did you really think I would walk out of here with nothing more than a threat?” I hiss at him. “I am not the small fish you’re used to dealing with, Lawrence. I am the devil and this is the lowest level of hell. This is the fucking Bratva. We pay our debts in blood.”
“I said I would back off!” he protests.
“I know you did.” I tip my head towards Pyotr. “Take her.”
She tries to fight Pyotr, but it’s no use. He just takes advantage of the momentum to hoist her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and strolls out of the house. Her sister’s eyes are wide with panic as she screams through her gag.
“You want someone to blame?” I say, looking directly into her eyes. “Blame your brother.”
“What are you going to do to her?” Rob asks, real fear creeping into his voice for the first time.
“That depends on you,” I tell him. “I have a Bratva to run. And I don’t need you cockroaches scurrying around my feet while I do it. This is your last warning. Your sister’s fate rests in your hands.”
With that, I’m done here. I turn on my heel and exit the house to the soundtrack of Rob’s screams.
As I approach the armored SUV waiting for me outside, I trade Rob’s screams for Olivia’s. She’s thrashing around the backseat, banging on the bulletproof glass.
I get into the driver’s seat and slam the door shut. “There’s no point in crying or pleading, Olivia. It won’t change anything.”
“My mother, my sister…” she says desperately. “Are they okay? What are you going to do to them?”
“They’ll be fine,” I say. “I came here to give your brother a message. And now that you’re here, I’ve done that. They’ll be released the moment we’ve turned the corner.”
“And me?” she asks, finally thinking about herself now that she’s reasonably sure her family will be left unharmed. “What about me?”
I glance at her in the rearview mirror. “That remains to be seen.”
