Page 70 of Emerald Vices
“What’s going on?” he asks, hopping out of his car and running towards my window.
“Natalia.” It’s all I have to say before Shura jumps into the passenger seat. “The cops turned up to question her about Byron.”
“I thought you took care of that.”
“I’ve got a few guys in my pocket, not the whole damn department,” I growl. “Leif thinks something is wrong.”
“Don’t worry: Leif, Leonty, and Olaf are with her?—”
“Yeah, but I’m not.”
Shura shuts up, and I concentrate on trying not to run over any unsuspecting pedestrians. We’re only ten minutes away from the Sunshield building when my phone rings again. Shura grabs it and puts it on speaker for me.
“Leif?”
“The motherfuckers took her down to the precinct for questioning.” Cold dread floods through me. “Natalia insisted that she go with them, but she said something strange before she left.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me to ‘cancel her meeting with Misha Remington.’”
“She was trying to tell you that these guys aren’t legit!” I roar. “They work for Slavik. Or Nikolai, or… Fuck. Do you have eyes on them?”
“We’re tailing them in the jeep. They’re cornering 3rd and 41st, headed north.”
I reroute quickly, cutting off half a dozen furious drivers at the same time. “We’re close. Stay on the line and don’t take your eyes off that fucking vehicle for a second.”
“Boss…” Leif’s voice is drenched in regret. “She was pale when she came outta that room. I should’ve stopped her from?—”
“Doesn’t matter now,” I cut him off. “The only thing that matters is getting her back.”
“They’re turning again. Hold on, hold on…”
He falls silent and my hands tighten on the steering wheel. I’m in danger of breaking it clean off at this point.
“They’re slowing down.”
“Where?”
“A closed Chinese restaurant at the end of 39th.”
“We’ll be there in two minutes.”
Ninety seconds later, I screech around the corner and park alongside the curb where my men are waiting. Remi bounds over to me the second the door is open, whimpering and growling like even he knows something is wrong.
“It’s okay, boy. We’re gonna get her back safe and sound.” I take in the boarded-up windows and the cracked parking lot before I look at my men. “Let’s go.”
Shura catches my arm from behind. “We don’t know what we’re walking into, Andrey.”
“We’re walking into the building where my wife is being held hostage,” I growl. “However many men are in there, we can handle them.”
Remi nudges my thigh with his nose, and I whisper to him in Russian, “Stay with me.”
The dog’s ears perk up and he stays close at heel as though he understands every word.
It takes a single kick to the weathered plywood covering the front window to snap it in half. The woods crashes in on the shattered glass that litters the floor, giving me a perfect place to land.
My men follow after me.