Saving Anya (32 page)

Anatoly sucked his teeth. “I get that about you. You’re a people pleaser, but you got to know that even with us, you won’t be able to please everybody all the time. You gotta pick your battles and make sure that those are the ones mean something and that you can win. You know what I’m saying?”

“
Yeah, I get what you’re saying.” Gabriel thought about Briggy and smiled. “All this baby talk has Briggy itching to be more than just my girlfriend.”

Anatoly stopped smiling. “You know that I like Briggy, and you know that we have history, but right now you’re at a place in your life where you need to be more dedicated to the family than to her.”

“
I love Briggy.”

“
And if she loves you, she won’t go anywhere.”

“
One thing that I know about women is that they don’t wait for forever. If they think that they’re playing second fiddle, they tend to leave.” He thought of his own mother and Dmitry. She had waited for him, but he had chosen his grandmother instead. The rejection had sent her out of the country and torn the family apart.

Anatoly thought about Renee. “She’s knows too much. You have to keep her close…maybe even marry her if you love her as much as you say that you do. All that I’m saying is that you have to always put the family first. It’s the only way that you can protect her and yourself.”

The thoughts of Renee and their impending child still had Anatoly in knots. He knew what Gabriel was talking about though. There was a desire there that couldn’t be ignored. With the lifestyle that they had signed up for, having a slew of promiscuous relationships simply wouldn’t cut it.

You have to have one woman whom you could trust, and she had to be willing to go the distance. Renee was that woman for him. He knew that now, which led him to many decisions that would have to be made.

Only, he couldn’t think straight about those things with Anya gone. It only made things worse, because everyone felt vulnerable. The thought that if it had happened to Dmitry, it could happen to any of them lingered in the back of all their minds.

For the first time in Anatoly’s life, he was starting to understand the importance of family. Them all coming together for the sake of getting Anya back showed how much they cared for one another and it showed that there were no limits to how far they would go to help each other.

In truth, he had more respect for his father now than ever before with any other wars. All of those other feuds were about money and power. This was about blood. This time with the family all being together in Prague had solidified, at least for him, the meaning of family and desire to unite the men. He knew the same to be true for his father.

Under the cold exterior, there was nothing that Dmitry Medlov wanted more than to bring the three of them together and build an unbreakable bond. Anatoly hated that it had to be done this way as a result of losing his sister, yet he could still feel it happening. The Medlov men were finally coming together as one and when they did, nothing would stop them.

He looked over at his cousin, resting with his eyes closed beside him and knew that finally he had a brother in all of this outside of Vasily. He knew that when the time came, Gabriel would be there for him, die for him if needed and Anatoly felt the same.

“
I’m thinking about…marrying Renee,” Anatoly said abruptly.

Gabriel’s eyes popped open. “What happened to family first?”

“
She’s having my kid. I have to protect them both now. And I think that the best way to do that is to marry her.”

“
Do you love her?”

“
No question about that,” Anatoly said with a grin. “She brings out the best in me. She makes me feel whole and she does it without trying to change me. She accepts me just the way that I am, and that’s a tall order…trust me.”

Gabriel laughed. “Yeah, I know the feeling. Have you told your father yet?”

“
No, but I think that he knows it’s coming. It’s going to have to be a secret affair, and I know that’s going to piss her off, because she’s a part of a big ass southern family.”

“
I’m sure she’ll choose you over them,” Gabriel said sincerely. “If she wouldn’t then she wouldn’t be here.”

“
Yeah, I know.” Anatoly closed his eyes and sighed. “Fucking women, man. They mess everything up.”

“
Yes they do,” Gabriel smirked.

***

Thirty-five minutes later, a knock on the door of the jet was followed by Vasily pushing a thin, bleached blonde man with dark eyebrows in a white turtleneck and slacks through the cockpit door in handcuffs. His face was swollen and his lip busted. Blood stained the front of his shirt and he was without a coat in the freezing weather.

Anatoly awoke from his peaceful nap and jumped up to inspect the goods. Gabriel quickly followed, lowering his tall frame to make his way to the front of the aircraft. They both looked at him in shock of his appearance.

Sven had cowered down in a corner of the plane under the watchful stare of Vasily, who stood above him with his gun pointed, crying and cupping his knees against his chest like a woman. The sight was repulsive and only made the men want to hurt him further. It was his weakness that drove them made. They all loathed weakness, even Gabriel, who stood with his nose turned up and his hand over his gun.

As Anatoly got closer, he noticed that the man’s pants were wet from evidently pissing himself. He hiked his pants up, kneeled down beside the man and raised his chin to look at him.

Sven was a fragile little fuck, which said a lot about this elusive character Balthazar.

“
You Sven?” Anatoly asked with a sour smirk.

“
Yes. Who are you people?” he asked, shaking and scared. “What do you want from me?”

“
We’re Russians,” Anatoly said, tilting his head as he studied the man.

“
You wouldn’t believe that this fucker had painting of Hitler and swastikas in his penthouse hung like art. It was enough to make you fucking vomit,” Vasily said, kicking Sven in the gut again. “He’s evidently one of the superior race.”

Everyone laughed as Vasily mocked him.

“
Superior in what? Getting ass fucked?” Anatoly mocked again.

Sven doubled over and groaned in pain. He spit blood on the carpet beside him and tried to push himself up, but Vasily quickly pushed him back down with his heavy boot.

“
Watch out. He’s such a skinny little fucker until he might have
the package
,” Vasily warned.

“
Good point,” Anatoly said, shying away. “Hey, hey. Do you have the package?” he asked.

“
No,” Sven said offended. “Look, whatever your price, my lover will pay it to get me back. I am very important to him.”

“Your lover?” Anatoly asked. “You’re talking about Balthazar?”

Sven turned to him, eyes red from broken blood vessels and blinked his blue prisms at Anatoly like a wounded animal. “Yes. Balthazar. He’ll pay any price to get me back.”

“
You’ve said that already,” Gabriel reminded. “Tell us something that we don’t know, like where he is at this very moment.”

“
I don’t know,” Sven said gasping.

“
You said that he’d pay any price. Even a little girl?” Anatoly asked with more menace in his voice.

“
I don’t understand,” Sven said with a thick German accent.

“
You will,” Anatoly said, standing up. “Take him to the back and watch him. My father wants him in
good condition
when he arrives. Tell the pilot to get us the hell out of here now and head back to Prague.”

Chapter 26

According to their previous plan, the withdrawal of the $250 million had already been made by this hour, so why had they not heard from Vladimir? It had been far too long with no communication from the Cayman Islands, even after countless calls. So, either Vladimir been caught by Dmitry, or he had double crossed them, which was far more likely. Either way, a new plan had to be developed and soon or this entire situation was going to go to shit. This was the council that Balthazar had continuously reiterated to Manon since the first call to Vladimir that went unanswered, but like an idiot she sat waiting with blind naiveté in her eyes and ignorant hope in her heart for her lover to suddenly appear.

The sight made Balthazar sick.

“
Don’t you see that he’s not coming?” Balthazar said, knocking the telephone off of the table as Manon reached to call Vladimir again. “Your boyfriend has flown the proverbial fucking coop with
our
money. There is no way in hell that he’s coming here. He’s probably half way to his new destination, and I bet the fucker has laughed all the way.”

“
He
will
call,” Manon said, flipping her computer open again to try and make contact through Skype.

“
Foolish
woman
,” Balthazar said, standing up from his chair. “There are only two outcomes to this story. Neither will benefit you. We
need
to take the girl and leave.”

“
He
will
come!” she shouted, spit flying out of her crooked mouth. “He must have gotten held up.”

“
You get
held up
when a meeting runs late. You get
held up
when you’re in traffic. You don’t get held up when you have $250 million cash at your disposal. You’ve been played,” Balthazar said, walking around the table to her.

He wanted to punch her face in and leave her dead body on the floor, but he needed her to see things his way. She might be of use later,
if
he could just get her to see things his way and let go of the silly notion that Vladimir was actually coming back.

Manon’s eyes were frantic. Stilling her shaky hands, she looked up at him and took a deep breath. She swallowed under duress and pursed her lips together. “We have to give him more time. I’m telling you that he wouldn’t leave us like this. There must have been a problem. Once he settles it, he’ll be on his way.”

Balthazar let go of a frustrated sigh. Getting her to see things his way may prove to be more difficult than he thought and with the limited time that he had to plan another strategy, swaying her from her idealistic hope that Vladimir had not run out on them would prove to be too much of a task for the present.

“
Are you that blind?” he asked touching her blonde tendrils. “If he were coming, he would be here.” His voice was calmer now as he tried to soothe her.

She nervously licked at her dry lips. Her eyes were frantic, her heart racing. Balling her fist up as she leaned against the counter on her elbow, she clung to optimism. “We’ve been together for too many years. You just don’t know him like I do. We have to wait, Balthazar. He has the first part of the ransom. We wait until he gets here, and then we make the call for the second part of the ransom
as planned
.” To her, it was sound reasoning. She simply couldn’t understand why Balthazar couldn’t see it too.

It was clear to Balthazar at that moment that Manon would never turn against Vladimir, no matter what he said. He could also see that for the moment, he had the upper hand. Never had she been so passive, so eager to have him support her. It let him know hands down that things had gone to shit.

Reaching behind his back, very stealthily, he felt for the gun tucked into his pants just above his belt while still keeping her attention. He smiled pacifyingly, deceiving her with his wicked eyes as he grasped the gun’s handle and slowly pulled it out.

“
Everything is going to be alright, Manon. Trust me. I’m going to fix everything,” he said, moving a few inches closer.

“
I know. We can fix this. All three of us can,” Manon said, glad that Balthazar seemed to be coming around.

As quickly as she could blink did his arm come from behind him. The shiny muzzle of it was right in front of her face. Staring down the barrel, she gasped. Before she could say one word, he pulled the trigger.

Blood splattered as her long body catapulted back, arms flailing out as she slid down the side of the bar into a pool of her own red blood.

Balthazar stood over her, breathing hard and clutching the gun. There was a varying reaction in his eyes - a mix of amusement and dominant control. He was glad that he had done it. Suddenly, he was optimistic about the situation with her out of the way and him finally in the driver’s seat where he had belonged the entire time.

Her bodyguards rushed in when they heard the shot, but before they could assess the situation, Balthazar turned from her body and shot them as well. He stood watching them fall with his arm straight, finger pulling the trigger until there were no more bullets.

His men quickly followed in ready to respond. They ran into the kitchen and looked down at the dead bodies in confusion. Without a word, they looked to Balthazar not for an explanation but direction. So now what was next?

“
Get rid of the bodies,” he said, stepping away from Manon’s corpse, “and get the girl. We need to prepare to make the second call tomorrow and develop a more sensible plan – one that doesn’t include getting me shot. And I’m getting that money if it’s the last fucking thing that I do.”