Page 78 of The Umarova Crime Family

Meanwhile, I fish my phone out of my pocket and call Ruslan. Surprisingly, he answers on the second ring. “It’s fucking early. What’s going on?”

“Ludvik found out where Julio keeps the children in the trafficking situation. I’m going to pull an operation where we, or hired soldiers, go in and grab the girls of a certain age bracket. One of those could be Emily’s child, and I promised Emily I’d help find her. We’re no doubt going to have some sort of pushback, but if everything goes according to plan, no one will know it was us until after the children are safe and Emily is reunited with her daughter.”

“All right, I can’t be angry with you anymore since you brought me good news. I have news as well, but I was going to wait until tomorrow to tell you. Nazyr confirmed it’s Artos in Canada, and he’s bringing him back to Grozny. I want to deal with him in our homeland, and after what he did, there’s no way I could miss out on making him suffer slowly and painfully.” I don’t blame my brother for wanting what he does at all. If the shoe were on the other foot, I’d want to deal with him myself too.

“Will you wait until I get there? I have a bone to pick with him as well.”

Ruslan sighs. “We all have a bone to pick with Artos. How long will it be until you can get here?”

“Two weeks, maybe three,” I answer honestly.

“I’ll try to wait, but I can’t make any promises. Artos has a lot to pay for, and while I plan on making his death a slow one… I don’t know if it’ll be that slow.” I understand exactly where my brother is coming from. If I’m lucky, I’ll be back in Grozny before shit hits the fan, but if I’m not, it’ll simply be water under the bridge.

Chapter Nineteen

Emily

It’s been a couple of days since that entire ordeal with my parents, and I’m happy to say I’ve calmed down for the most part. At the end of the day, I knew they weren’t going to be supportive. My aunt meddling in it when she had no right, of course, made things more difficult, but I’m trying to remind myself I was going to tell them about the baby, and they were likely going to be awful to me regardless.

I woke up about half an hour ago in Lom’s hotel suite. I’ve already gotten a shower, blow-dried my hair, and even got a little bit of makeup on for the day. Lom’s still in blissful sleep, and I don’t want to wake him up at all. He’s been so supportive of me over these past few weeks, and if anything, he deserves to catch some extra sleep for it.

I shoot him a text where I tell him that I’m heading back to my apartment to pack up more of my stuff.

I’m almost done with packing, and I can’t wait for it to be over. Amelia offered to have a moving company come and do everything for us, but the mere thought of some random man finding my vibrator literally made me want to gag. Not to mention the fact it would be absolutely mortifying.

I’m walking out toward the corridor when I hear a set of footsteps hot on my heels. Turning around, I’m snickering to myself when I see who it is. “It’s early as fuck, and you’re already running out the door,” Ludvik grumbles with his shirt halfway on. He tugs the rest of it down and seems really irritated that I’m leaving the hotel suite.

“I have a busy day, Ludvik. It’s really not that big of a deal. You could stay back here and get some sleep, too, you know,” I point out, and Ludvik’s lips go into a straight line.

We both damn well know he can’t leave me alone. He has to follow me, and I know it’s something Lom’s ordered him to do. It’s like Ludvik is my Danill.

“Where are we heading?” he grits out as he gets to the end of the hallway with me.

“The apartment. I want to get a head start on the last bit of packing. I think a couple more days of this, and I should be done with it all.”

“It’s six in the fucking morning, Emily. You couldn’t have waited a couple more hours?”

“Early bird gets the worm!” I smile brightly and throw open the door, then we walk down the hallway to the elevators.

Ludvik and I get in the elevators and head to the parking garage, but instead of taking my own car, Ludvik has us take his. We get to my apartment in no time, and as soon as we make it through the door, Ludvik starts grumbling about how hungry he is.

“Do you want me to make you some breakfast?” I already know the answer, but I’m giving him the option to say yes and ask for it with manners if it isn’t too much trouble for him.

“Yeah, that would be nice. Thank you.”

“All right, well, you can get the coffee started then.” I stick my tongue out at Ludvik, and he rolls his eyes. The more time I spend with Ludvik, the more he makes me feel like we have a brother-and-sister relationship. He gets on my nerves quite a bit, but everyone in your family typically does. He’s also much nicer to me than my actual brother since he wants to call me a slut and basically tried to get Lom to dump my ass.

Ludvik heads over to the coffee pot, and I see he’s grabbing a coffee filter out of the cabinet while I get out the last couple of pans I have. I know I have eggs in the fridge, so I grab the carton and decide to make omelets. I even have some fresh tomatoes, onions, and scallions too. Oh! Plus, cheddar cheese. An omelet sounds really good right now for me as well. If I’m lucky, I might still have some cinnamon raisin bread. It’s delicious when it’s toasted, and a little bit of butter is spread across it.

I’m whipping everything together when I hear the front door opening. I immediately stop what I’m doing and turn around, only to find Lom walking in. “You could’ve just woken me up.” Lom’s tone has a bit of attitude laced behind his words, so I’ll be sassy back.

I pick up my spatula and point it at him. “Keep talking to me like that, and I won’t make you breakfast.”

Lom grumbles something under his breath which gets a chuckle from Ludvik. Meanwhile, I continue to make breakfast, now making another omelet for Lom. While I’m cooking, Lom clears his throat. “I do want to tell you about something regarding the child.”

I glance back at him for a second, and hope swells in my chest. Has he found something out? Is there a lead? Could he have found her? So many things are running through my mind right now, and I have to know what it is. “Okay, go on. I’m anxiously waiting over here.”

“We found the location where the man keeps the trafficked children. I’ve authorized a team of individuals to go in and get all of them within your child’s age bracket. There are fourteen of them, and they’re going to be brought here to Atlanta. Once they’re here, we’ll narrow down who could be your daughter and who isn’t.”

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