Page 11 of Exacting Vengeance

“Understood.” Alex ended the call and dropped his phone into the console. He squeezed his eyes shut and let his head fall back.

He should be happy about getting pulled out, but he wasn’t. For him, this would soon be over. If he couldn’t put Yuri away for life, it would never be over for Viktoria. She’d be stuck in a life of misery. She needed his help. Somehow, he’d find her a way out. Even if it killed him.

Literally or figuratively.

Chapter Six

“Why does this guy stink so much?” In the dark cab of Nikki’s truck, Yuri wrinkled his nose. The Armenian stockbroker had been stashed in the back of Nikki’s truck for two days, and he smelled like yak shit.

“This was your idea, my friend.” As they neared the cutoff, Nikki slowed. “The only reason Semyon lets you do this is because the money is so good.”

This was their seventh kidnapping, and a very lucrative one, at that. The guy’s family had forked over close to a million bucks without hesitation. “It is good, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but you need to find other ways to contribute that don’t involve such brutality.” Nikki turned onto the dirt road that was barely visible in the unkempt grasses they’d intentionally allowed to grow wild. “Semyon is changing his ways. The Brotherhood is changing. Chicago is not the Gulag. Semyon prefers subtle, behind-the-scenes financial transactions over bloody killings with bodies everywhere.”

“What blood?” Yuri hitched his thumb to the back of the truck. “This guy didn’t shed one ounce of blood.”

“That’s because you choked him so hard, I thought his head would pop off.”

Yuri made a fist and closed his fingers around his hard biceps. The Anadrol was turning him into a beast. Soon, he’d have to shop for a new wardrobe to accommodate his new and improved physique.

Nikki flipped on the bright lights, illuminating the lake dead ahead. “All I’m saying, is maybe it’s time to try something new.”

“Why fuck with something that works?” Yuri shook his head. “No, my friend. I’m sticking with what I am good at. But things have dried up here. L.A. has fresh prey. More Armenians. They have lots of money out there. I can lure them to Chicago.”

Uttering a disgusted sound, Nikki spun the truck in a one-eighty and backed up to the edge of the lake. “You’re lucky the lake isn’t frozen.”

“Stop whining.” Nikki did that a lot lately, and it was really starting to piss him off. There were days he regretted saving his friend’s life in the Gulag. Days like today.

Outside, their breath condensed into puffy white clouds.

Nikki rubbed his hands together, blowing on them. “I’m freezing my hairy balls off. We could be warm, drunk, and up to our eyeballs in caviar at Semyon’s party, by now, but you just had to nail this guy in the middle of winter. Next time, we do this when it’s not so cold out.”

“Not so cold out?” What a pussy. For Chicago on New Year’s Eve, this was a tropical thirty-two-degree-paradise. “How did you even survive the Siberian Gulag?”

“By not freezing my balls off.” Nikki unlocked the fiberglass cap door and lowered the tailgate.

After sliding out the lightweight dinghy and dragging it to the shoreline, they pulled the plastic-wrapped body from the truck bed and hauled it to the boat.

Winter wasn’t ideal timing, but the stockbroker was so stinking rich, he was too good and too gullible to pass up.

With nothing but the quarter moon as witness, they inched the boat closer to the water and hopped in.

While Yuri fitted the oars into the oar locks, Nikki sat at the bow. The body lay between them. With each dip of the oars, moonlight reflected off ripples on the lake’s surface.

“How is your accountant working out?” Nikki asked, humor in his voice.

“Good.” Yuri leaned back, pulling on the oars and rowing them into position.

With this much money, he couldn’t risk his house being searched, so he had his accountant hide it where no one would ever find it. Especially, not the fucking FBI.

At the center of the lake, he hauled in the oars. Slowly, so they didn’t capsize, they both stood.

Yuri slid his hands beneath the guy’s shoulders. Nikki grabbed the man’s legs.

“On three,” Yuri said. “Odin. Dva. Tri.”

They heaved the body into the lake, but Nikki stumbled, losing his grip. The body splashed into the water closer to the dinghy than intended. A wave of water crashed into the boat, soaking Yuri.