Chapter 36- Lucien
Sixteen hours in a car with the motherfucker I’d wanted to kill since day one. It took a special type of person to deal with it.
The way he chewed gum was downright annoying.
I hated that he was even breathing.
“Still can’t believe you fucking kidnapped my sister, bro,” Albie said.
My hands were on the wheel when I glanced over at him.
“She asked to fucking come,” I shrugged. “And I’m not your bro…bro.”
"Yeah well..."
"I can't believe you sold fucking coke in my club, bro. You know my brother overdosed on that shit, not t mention I had the cops and the mayors looking to close my shit down."
I looked over once more.
He rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, that's what the fuck I thought. Me and you boy, are going to have a sit down when get back to the Chi," I told him. and I meant it.
I’d been driving what seemed like nonstop when we finally rolled over the line into Texas.
Liam and Val had been running point on things from where they were at the Safaryan mansion. An hour earlier, they had called and told me that Miguel’s credit card had quietly pinged at a gas station near where he’d grown up. We had suspected right that he had brought my woman here.
“I’m going to fucking kill this guy,” I muttered after hanging up.
“Not before I kill him,” Albie sneered.
He did love Simone for what it was worth.
“You know…” I said. “I was surprised that you even had a sister.”
Albie just looked at the window. “Our father isn’t really that great of a guy. Lisa…Simone’s mom tried to give her a normal life once she got away from being pimped out. But at some point, she had to shield Simone from my father’s enemies.”
“Oh really…like who?”
Albie turned to me. “He said he did some shit back in Russia. Said that was why he changed our last name to be more American.”
I guess Albie had realized that I was one of those enemies from the Old Country who still wanted to blow the old man to kingdom come. For now, I would let sleeping dogs lie because of more pressing matters. As Simone had revealed, her father was on borrowed time and bound for the fiery red pits of hell where he belonged.
My eyes refocused on the GPS. It had started to speak telling us that we were just about a mile away from the abandoned house we thought that Simone might have been held at.
Dawn was peaking over the horizon. Her rosy fingers stretching across the heavens when I found the turn-off. Easing over onto the side of the road, I looked at Albie and turned the car off.
“He’s not expecting us,” I replied.
“We should keep the element of surprise,” he spoke.
I reached over to him and pulled out two Glocks. One was slightly smaller, which I handed to Albie. Taking the larger Glock 19, I eased out of the Tahoe and closed the door. Tucking the gun in the waistband of the black and white Adidas track pants I’d opted to wear, it seemed at home there. For years, a gun had never been far out of my reach.
“If he’s not here…if they’re not here….” Albie’s eyes looked worried.
“They’re here,” I said. “They have to be.”
Quietly, the two of us eased down the dirt road. It was getting slightly brighter outside. Looking down, I could see what seemed to be tired tracks in the dirt. I was just about to tell Albie about my discovery when a sound touched my ears.
