Page 54 of The Fixer

“Newbies, you haven’t seen Garrix’s basement yet. The place is like Christmas for criminals.” French slaps me on the back. “Garrix, you’re like Père Noël. You give off hardcore Daddy vibes with Maddie.”

“Shut your fucking mouth dude, that’s my sister.” Luca fake gags.

“Yeah, and I’m calling it, she’s a brat. She has that chaotic goblin vibe.”

Franco and Luca look like they’re going to skin him alive, so out of respect for my future brothers in law, I don’t confirm. I just give French a brow raise and change the subject.

“You all can take whatever you want. This is a code red situation, and we need to be armed to the tee,” I instruct them.

The guys know my basement is basically every doomsday prepper’s dream. I have so many guns, ammo, weapons, and explosives that I can level half the city if I wanted, or arm a small militia. But seeing the astonishment on Maddalena’s brothers’ and Fitzpatrick’s faces puts it into perspective.

May be overkill, but it’s going to help us get my kitten back, so it’s worth it.

“The Russian’s tech security is absolute trash, thankfully. It’s nowhere near as powerful as the security they have on their main compound,” Max complains. “Dmitri has blueprints for a local Russian orthodox church on his phone. I have a source that tells me they have it booked for tomorrow at eight in the morning.”

“It’ll be easier to extract her from there. If we hit their compound, half of us will end up dead.” Luca’s face is stone cold as he glares at me. I can tell he blames me for this situation.

“Is Dmitri so fucking deranged that he thinks she’ll marry him?” Beck’s surprised face is priceless.

“He doesn’t know who he kidnapped, does he?” French’s eyes widen. “No one makes Maddalena Vettore do shit. That woman is almost as batshit as you, bro.” He gestures toward me. “I’m surprised it took you two so long to get together.”

“Well, they have a twelve year age difference, so he had to wait for her to come of age…” Beck barbs me. Fucking twat.

“Says the man who let a hoe run off with $75K, his Range Rover, and his dog—after she fucked his cousin. You’re sour as fuck. Good things are worth the wait, man.” I throw a grenade at him, and he pockets it.

That shut his ass up. I love Beck, but he’s been in a funk since Debbie left. He needs to get out of it—yesterday.

“So we’re wedding crashing?” Fitzpatrick asks, his Irish accent thicker than usual. It always gets that way when he’s excited.

“Fuck yeah we are. I’ll wear a tux, so I fit the dress code.”

“I’ll start working up entrance and exit strategies.” Max’s fingers fly over his keyboard. Whit sets up his portable nerd station next to his and they start talking about specs and RAMs.

“Aye, I guess they’re good to have in case things don’t go off course,” Fitzpatrick offhandedly comments.

“But when have things ever gone according to plan?” Whit asks.

We all look at each other, and the gravity of the situation starts to weigh on us all. Missions don’t always go according to plan. Sometimes you’re too late. Sometimes you lose people. The last missions we all went on, we blew up an entire city block. By accident. Even professionals make mistakes.

“This is my woman’s life, guys.” My future wife, I think to myself. We all have to be on our A-game, because if we mess up, I’ll go nuclear on this entire city. I’ll raze it to the ground and then walk into the fire myself.” I give everyone a stern look.

“Garrix, you can’t destroy a city with millions of people in it,” Franco says, his tone almost even with a thread of caution. “My father worked for years to keep the peace.”

“You’re single, aren’t you?” He gives me a small nod. “Trust me, one day you’ll understand. You’ll love someone so much and they’ll show you how possible it is to do the unthinkable.”

The room falls silent after that as we all prepare ourselves for the morning. I’m reasonably confident Dmitri won’t kill her, given his plan. But the thought of leaving her in their compound makes me want to strangle that arrogant fuck.

The only thought that allows me to get some sleep tonight is how I’ll have my vengeance tomorrow. Torture is the least of what I’ll do to make that fucker pay.

Maddalena

“Isee you’re awake, Maddie. Welcome to my humble home. We have so much to discuss,” Dmitri says as he spreads his arms wide, gesturing to the lovely dungeon basement we’re standing in. He crosses the space until he’s only a few yards away from me.

It’s nothing like the hypothetical basement Garrix always threatened to keep me in if I didn’t behave. I know he at least has a couch and a television. Stop. Thinking of him now will only make me break down. I need to stay strong so I can get out of here and back to him in one piece. Back to my family.

“We do. Care to explain to me why I’m in your basement? It’s a little sparse down here…”

“That’s for my safety. You’re so deranged, you’d turn anything into a weapon.”

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