Page 46 of The Pakhan's Secret Baby

"The decoys got hit," Devid says. He leans forward with his elbows on his knees. "Both of them were stopped—the first one on the M10 outside Tver and the second one at the Novgorod checkpoint. It appears to be very similar to the other shipment."

I contain the anger that boils up, but my voice is tight when I say, "And how did they know which trucks to stop if they were decoys?"

"That's what I'm telling you, boss. They didn't know. They're stopping everything now. Every truck, every van, anything that even looks like it could be ours. Gusev's got people camped at every checkpoint between here and Moscow."

"Fuck," I grunt, leaning back. This is a real pain in my fucking ass. "How many checkpoints are we talking about?"

"At least six that we know of. Could be more. Kolya drove the southern corridor yesterday and counted three stops in a ninety kilometer stretch. They've got cars parked on the shoulder and men walking the road waving people over." Devid is so confident, and he knows how I like him to verify things, so this is very bad news.

He's done his homework with evidence to back up his claim, and I'm screwed.

"Were they armed?"

"Every one of them," he sighs. "They're acting like they own the road."

I turn to the two men by the window. "And neither of you thought to call me when the first decoy got stopped?" Sometimes I feel like the ingrates we hire and train are incompetent. Howmany times have I used one or more of them as an object lesson and they never get the fucking point?

The taller one shifts on his feet. "It happened so fast. By the time we got word on the first truck, the second one was already pulled over. We figured it was better to come here and brief you in person than burn time on the phone."

"I don't care if it's three in the morning. When we lose a vehicle I hear about it immediately. Understood?" My temper is flaring now, making me hot around the collar. I loosen my tie and glare at them, and they both nod rapidly, like they understand how close they are to losing a hand or an eye.

I turn back to Devid. "What's the exposure on our real shipments?"

"Right now everything's sitting in the Kolpino warehouse. We haven't moved product in four days because there's no safe route to push it through. If we try to run the M10 they'll stop us and if we go south it's the same problem. I don't think they know where we store it, so it's safe, but we lost so much already... we're boxed in, Rashid."

"Then we unbox ourselves." I stand up and both of the men by the window straighten. "I want Oleg Rostov found. Get a bead on him, find out where he's operating from, what he knows, and how deep he's in with Gusev. Don't approach him and don't let him see you coming. I want information, not a body."

"That could take a few days," Devid says. "We should just act now. If we set an ambush and?—”

"Then it takes a few days," I snap, cutting him off. "I need Rostov to follow him back to the source. I can't risk him alerting anyonethat we know it's Gusev. Do you understand?" The boy is in my possession now, and it's time to get serious about this problem.

Devid rubs his jaw. "We have to do something, Rashid. Not just sit on our thumbs."

"Then pull men from the eastern detail. Nobody's moving product east right now anyway." I'm livid, unable to think straight. Maybe I should’ve let him take over a long time ago while I fished for Emory and the boy, but I'm back now. "Arm extra trucks and send them out."

"That leaves the port exposed."

"The port can survive a few days without a full detail. Our shipping lanes can't survive another week of Gusev treating them like his personal toll road." God I'm second guessing myself. Emory is toxic to me.

One fucking look at her and I start making horrible decisions for my life.

I've let Gusev run my lanes for too long, but if I strike hard and fast, we may lose Rostov and thus the source he's been getting intel from.

I can't have a mole in my organization.

"Boss..." Devid says, and I almost bite his head off.

"Just fucking do it!" I shout, chest heaving. "You wanted me to move, so I'm going to fucking move. Now you need to do what I say when I say it. Do I make myself clear?"

He stands and the other two follow him toward the door, pausing with his hand on the frame "What about the girl? You want us keeping the tail on her?"

"She'll come to me on her own. Don't waste the manpower."

They leave and I pull up the security cameras on my laptop.

I'm going to sit here and wait because I know it won't be long.

The instant she finds out I have my son she's going to come running.