Page 47 of Sweet Revenge
“Now what?” She stopped pacing for a moment and folded her arms beneath her chest.
“Now, we wait.” I shrugged and set my phone down. The response could come in two seconds or two hours. Hell, maybe he wouldn’t bother to answer at all. I had no idea if either one of these assholes meant anything to him.
My phone vibrated before Elisa even got a chance to respond. I had a feeling Alexander had heard that Alex was missing, so maybe he was at least interested in getting the heir to his throne back.
The message simply asked, “Which two?”
“What?” I swore under my breath and read the message aloud. What an asshole. Why did it matter?
Elisa clearly felt the same way. She came charging toward me. “Give me that fucking phone. I’m going to give that bastard a piece of my mind.”
As much as I loved to see her fired up, I held the phone away from her and stopped her advance with the other arm. “Let’s not lose our heads, pretty lady.” She grumbled and walked away but didn’t go far.
I’d already taken pictures of my two hostages before I closed the doors on them, so I pulled them up and sent them over to Alexander. “Is that enough, or should I complete the set?” I hit send, wondering if I would’ve had better luck with Jace or Declan.
My phone rang almost immediately. The last thing I wanted to do was speak to the prick, but I had to answer. Taking a deep breath, I slipped into crime-boss mode. “What?”
“You listen to me, you fucking jackass. You touch one more hair on my son’s head, and I will skin your ugly ass alive. Anything happens to him, and you’re dead, Petrov. Dead!”
I stifled a laugh, glad that I’d gotten a rise out of him. It was evident to me that he was talking about Alex. Dezzy didn’t mean jack shit to him. If he did, he would’ve claimed him years ago. Certainly, he would’ve said something the moment my father died. But the least Alexander could do was keep putting on his show.
“I’m confused.” I leaned back on the couch, trying to sound bored just to irritate him. Elisa stepped over, and Janis scooted closer. “You said son, as in singular, right? But don’t you mean sons? Or does one of them really not matter one tiny iota to you?”
“Sons? Oh, yeah, that’s right. I guess you know about that then.” Alexander stumbled over his words. His rage at seeing what I’d done to Alex’s handsome face must’ve temporarily caused him to lose track of all the balls he had up in the air. “Don’t hurt him either, you fucking bastard.”
“I’m sorry, Alexander, but you’re the one who started this game. If I don’t get everything I want, both of your sons are going to be fertilizing the pasture behind my neighbor’s house real soon.”
He growled at me, a low deep rumble, before asking, “What the fuck do you want?”
“What do I want?” I almost laughed but bit it off. “I want your sorry ass out of my town. I want you out of my family and away from my mother. You call off this fucking joke of a marriage and haul your fat butt back to Boston never to return to Chicago again. Give me that, and you can have Alex back, and I’ll throw in Dezzy for spare parts.”
“You’re such a fucking asshole, Daemon Petrov,” he mumbled. “Think you’re so big? So brave? I ought to—”
“Do you agree with my terms or not, La Rosa? Let me know because I don’t know how much longer they’ll last.”
“Fucking asshole!”
“You can keep calling me that all you want, but if you don’t accept my agreement then I’m going to hang up, and I’m not going to hesitate to start chopping off limbs.”
“Fine! Fine!” The rage spewing through the phone had me holding it away from my ear as he screamed. I heard glass breaking and items falling off a desk, I thought. “Whatever you fucking want. Just don’t hurt my son!”
I cleared my throat, giving him a second, before I calmly said, “I’ll call with the details tomorrow. Answer on the first ring.” Then, I disconnected the call and blocked his number. Satisfied with my performance, I set my phone aside and looked at Elsa. “We’re good to go.”
She bit down on her bottom lip for a moment before she quietly said, “He’s going to double-cross you.”
“Of course, he is. And when he does, he leaves the facilities with a bullet in his skull—in a body bag.”
Driving back to the warehouse felt a bit surreal after all this time. I had Elisa keeping an eye out that we weren’t followed, and Janis drove behind us so that if we were, he could help make sure that no one was able to take the precious cargo we had tossed in the back of the van.
The boys mumbled a bit but the gags kept it quiet, and I put the black bags and soundproof headphones on both of them so that sensory deprivation kept them from causing a ruckus.
When we arrived at the warehouse, Janis went ahead of me to open the delivery door so I could pull right inside. The last thing I needed was for these two hostages to get stolen right from under me.
“What’s going on?” I heard someone ask as we pulled inside. I got out of the van as a mob began to gather around. I saw Tilda’s face as she cut through the crowd, rushing toward me.
“You’re alive!” She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me like I was her long-lost brother.
“Nice to see you, too,” I said, trying to breathe through the tight squeeze.