As if cuing them to arrive, they filed into the room. Luka, Emil, Niko, several other top soldiers, Allan.
“Where’s Ivan?” Luka asked once we all had seats or chose our spots to stand in.
“Here.” He strolled in, looking haggard and exhausted. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he slumped against the wall. “Sorry.”
I smirked while Luka laughed. “Rough night?”
He nodded. “He just wouldn’tsleep.”
I sympathized with him. He hadn’t been there for Raisa when she was pregnant the first time and when Lev was born. We all knew how much he wanted to bend over backward and be present to assist her with Roman.
“Did you try?—”
He held up his hand and cut me off. “I triedeverything,” he argued weakly. Clearing his throat and straightening, he cracked the kinks out of his neck and focused. “But it’s time to work. Where are we at?”
This was the love and support I could always count on. We’d always be a team.
“Simon?” Emil asked, indicating for him to go ahead.
The hacker nodded once and clicked his mouse. Big screens on the wall behind him served as visuals to all that he wanted to share.
For the next three hours, we reviewed the latest intel he had for us. Maps pinpointing where Riveras had been spotted. Tracking routes that our Dubinin men put on lower-ranking members of their family so we could find a rendezvous area where they seemed to meet up.
Gathering intel was a lengthy process and Simon had taken his time to be thorough with it. No target could be too hard for him to find. It didn’t matter who it was or where they went. Simon was skilled enough, with the help of others who worked for us, to track anyone we wanted to eliminate. He’d had plenty of practice of doing just that when Emil worked as an assassin to take out targets all over the world.
They could try to hide, they could try to wait us out, but we would get them.
After the failed attempt at trying to kidnap Kalina from the cabin, they were obviously trying to stay off the radar.
“But we got them,” Simon said in conclusion. “We can move in tomorrow.” Maps on the screen behind him showed it. The running surveillance footage he’d gotten proved that we indeed had a location for the Riveras.
“What about the other two?” Luka asked.
“Eric and Yusef,” I clarified even though they’d all know.
Simon shook his head. “They have gone deep undercover. I don’t know if they are hiding or if Marco Rivera captured them and has them.”
“There have been no sightings of either of them anywhere,” another man who assisted Simon reported.
“Then we move fast,” I said. “We attack the Riveras, kill them all, but keep a couple alive for more clues about where to find them.”
“Hey, for all we know,” Emil said, “they might’ve killed them already.”
I nodded. “Maybe Marco was so mad about their screwing them over with this negotiation to buy Kalina that they punished them for it.”
Simon shrugged. “Maybe? But from all I’ve seen and heard so far, I doubt it. Maybe they would’ve killed them for failing to deliver Kalina because it was a sign of disrespect. Not that she had anything to bring to the table.” He frowned at me. “I don’t say that as an insult. I’m only stating that Kalina came from anordinary family. Her parents weren’t close with Petrov politics. Erik and Yusef weren’t affiliated as any actual Mafia members. And Kalina didn’t represent an heir.”
“No offense taken,” I said sincerely. He wasn’t saying that the love of my life was worthless. Just that she hadn’t been targeted specifically as a bargaining chip for any power or wealth. She wasn’t a Mafia princess like Raisa had been.
“We all know how little it takes to piss off those Italians,” Luka grumbled.
“She has no other family,” Simon added. “There won’t be any other surprises for us to uncover either about why all this trouble could be going on. It really does just seem like a bad business deal gone sour, one that we have a vested interest in resolving how we see fit.”
Yes. As in Kalina is free to be with me and not worry about anyone trying to fucking control her ever again.
“No complications with Konstantin Petrov or anything like that,” Simon added.
Luka nodded. “Good. Then if we can wrap this up now, there is nothing to stop you from starting the rest of your life with her,” he told me.
