More time? I asked myself. What did he mean by more time? The phrase sounded like the shot of a bullet, very easy to catch but hard to see.
“Time for what, exactly?”
I shook my head, and my tears blurred my eyes. “You make everything sound as though it's at your mercy.”
He didn’t deny it. He simply lowered his hand and stepped back. “Perhaps, it's this very nature that I have that keeps you with me.”
I sat on the nearest chair, my strength drained. I wasn't angry anymore. It was obvious there was no world where I would win with Viktor in the picture.
Chapter Fourteen
Viktor’s POV.
We sat for the meeting when Dimitri walked stiffly into the room. He placed the documents he held on the table and looked at me.
“If you don't mind, Boss, I have actual footage that'll lead us to the truth.”
“Show me.”
Dimitri didn't waste time fixing the projector. On the screen were horrible images. The bloody political rivals of ours who thought they had a secret conversation about their so-called plan.
“I say we take Romano.” Said one of the men in the footage. “If we can't work things out with him, we'll have to progress to option B.”
“And what's option B?” Asked another who looked at the initial speaker with enthusiasm.
“I guess we'll have to pray he makes it past the first option in due time.”
The footage goes blank, and the white projector shrinks into its rod.
“In the video, we can see that the main speaker is no other than one of Senator Romano's office administrators. This is proof that the political rivals are behind the abduction of Romano.”
“All because?”
“I'll get into that, Boss,” Dimitri said in retort while he opened up the document in front of him. The room was tense, sweat dripped down the foreheads of quite a few people, and I waited for him to compile the paperwork he held.
“After I watched the video, I did some extra digging. I hacked into his private files, past and present chats, and records, and figured out that the Senator owes quite a few politicians as well. Including his very own admin, whom we all saw him speaking to.”
“Hmm.” I reclined on the chair and gave Dimitri's words some thought.
“Apparently, the Senator is in trouble with a lot of people. The political rivals are just a fraction of those we know that he owes, and it gets worse. In one of these documents, there's a written piece that reads that Emilia could have been the one to be taken so as to pressure him to return all the money he owes. Luckily, they can't get their hands on her since you have her.”
“You're right. They can't take my wife from me.”
“Boss, I don't think these rivals are going to stop here. This might keep intensifying. Already, I can say that we're a hundred percent sure that the political rivals took him. They areleft to torture him until he reveals where he kept all the money, or they'd kill him.”
“Kill him? What good is it to kill the senator when it won't bring the money back?”
“True,” Dimitri said and paused for a while. I looked at the members seated, before my eyes settled on Mikhail.
“Unless they plan to torture him to demand money from Emilia. They know she's married to me, so they'll definitely use her as leverage to extort my hard-earned money. That's the only sensible thing I can think of.”
“I have to add again, Boss, I don't think we're safe either. I've stood by you, loyal and true, and I always will. But when my guy tells me something, I feel agitated because the truth of it isn't far.”
“What does your gut tell you, Dimitri?”
“My gut tells me that there's a mole in the Bratva circle. I don't know who it is, but I can sense it.”
What he said was true. I had the same gut feeling, and I ignored it for a while. But coming from Dimitri, it calls for deeper measures to be taken. Anyone could be an insider to the rivals at this point. So I stood up, looked around, and made my pick.
