Page 11 of Sin of Silence

It was a very likely possibility.

He will not.

* * *

Rescuing Krystoff Koba went as smoothly as Jozef could have hoped, and he had his team to thank for that. Jozef and his men, Havel, Terek, Halil and Nikolay had worked together as a unit for years and operated like a well-oiled machine. They didn’t need words to complete an operation. Their uncanny bond and unfailing work ethic made them nearly invincible. Krystoff would frequently hire them out as a team to do mercenary work in neighboring countries. They had become known as the fiercest mobsters in Eastern Europe.

He nodded to Halil who took the signal, shooting the man guarding the rear garden gate. The man fell noiselessly to the ground and the team moved past him and into the house before he took his last breath. Unless they ran into trouble, the door man would be the only person to die during the operation. They didn’t want to go to war with this family. Not until they had Krystoff and were given the official order.

Jozef needed to understand why his uncle was taken before he would decimate the organization that had made such a bold move.

They swarmed soundlessly through the mansion, not once encountering a single member of security. This wasn’t because they were heading into a trap, or at least Jozef hoped not. It was because his team knew the exact rotation of the guards and knew how to move as though they were ghosts. Halil and Terek went ahead of Jozef, checking that his path to the cellar room Krystoff was being held in was empty.

It took some time to get the cellar door open. It was locked with a state-of-the-art dual handprint and coded lock. Nikolay was specialized in electronics and worked on the lock for fifteen tense minutes while Jozef and his team covered him. Finally, the lock clicked, and the door swung open.

Jozef allowed Halil to go ahead of him and then followed. The others would maintain guard on the door, holding their position if they had to. It didn’t take Jozef long to find his uncle as he was the only prisoner being held in the cellar. He was in a clean room with a door, locked from the outside with a basic bolt.

“Jozef?” Krystoff sat up on his cot and squinted toward the men in the doorway, his gaze on the silenced pistol in Jozef’s hand.

Jozef strode to his uncle and, turning on the light on his phone, searched him for injuries. There seemed to be nothing, except a bandage around his hand where his finger had been cut off. Krystoff moved without stiffness, indicating he probably hadn’t been beaten.

“You came.” The statement sounded almost like a question, as though he’d doubted Jozef.

Jozef grunted. This was one of those rare moments that he wished he could speak, could reassure his uncle. Krystoff had learned sign language when Jozef was young so they would be able to converse with ease, but there wasn’t enough light in the room for Jozef’s hands to be visible, and he didn’t want to put his weapon down.

Instead, Jozef took his uncle by the arm and tugged him, indicating he should stand. When he did, Krystoff surprised Jozef by hugging him close, his arms clasping around the younger man. Jozef wasn’t used to being touched by anyone, let alone his coolly professional uncle. Sometimes his Aunt Dasha would hug him, and even rarer, his two female cousins. He got the feeling that, though the family cared about him, they didn’t know how to act around theirvztekl´y pes, the rabid dog of the Koba family.

Jozef stepped away from his uncle and indicated he should precede Jozef out the door. Jozef and Nikolay made their way swiftly back up the stairs and out of the cellar with Krystoff sandwiched between them, Jozef’s hand on his shoulder in case he needed to shove the older man to the ground and cover him. Krystoff didn’t balk at the precautions; he knew to trust Jozef’s team with his safety.

Their exit was as swift and silent as their entrance, with no more casualties. They bundled the head of the Koba family into the back of their van and drove away from the area at a leisurely pace, not wanting to bring more attention to themselves than they needed to. Not until they cleared the area controlled by Vasiliy did everyone in the van sigh in relief. Havel clapped Krystoff on the back, and the old man gave him a tired smile and nodded his gratitude across the back of the van to Jozef.

Thank you, my son, he signed, his hands barely visible in the dim lighting.

Chapter Eight

Shaun was cold, shivering in the dark on a bare mattress in a bare room. She was hungry and she had to urinate. She hadn’t gotten the sense from her captors that they intended for her to be miserable. It was more likely that they were too busy to think about her. Still, she was starting to worry that if they forgot for much longer, she would have to start shouting.

She’d been attempting to sleep, the sun having long since gone down and the only light now a dim streetlight down the road from where her room was facing. She’d tried the window, but it was bolted shut. She wondered if this room was actually meant for prisoners, given how solid the door and lock were, and her inability to open the window. She closed her eyes, drifting in and out of consciousness. She had no way to tell time, but she suspected she wasn’t sleeping for more than a few minutes at a time.

It was during one of these brief periods when she was snatching a few minutes of sleep that her door banged open. She opened her eyes and sat up on the mattress, pushing hair off her forehead. She’d taken her hair out of its tight bun and it was now a wild mass of tight curls in a halo around her head. Normally she’d work them into braids for easy maintenance while she was working, but even that basic hair care had fallen to the wayside during her long shifts in the Luhansk hospital. The mass was nearly shoulder length, although when she had it chemically relaxed it would go halfway down her back.

She blinked into the gloom and then squinted her displeasure as the overhead light was flicked on. After a moment of blindness, she was able to focus on the intruder.

Jozef.

Her heart picked up and fear began pumping through her veins as she recognized him. Despite his words that he didn’t plan on killing her anymore, she couldn’t help but see the gun and feel the press of the steel muzzle against her temple every time she looked at him.

He jerked his head toward the door, indicating she should come with him.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said quickly, scooting to the edge of the bed. When he frowned, she added, “Please, Jozef. I’ve been in here for hours with no relief.” She hoped adding his name would help humanize her in his eyes, make it harder for him to deprive her of basic needs.

He jerked his head in a nod and once more indicated she should follow him. She stood and approached the door cautiously. He backed up so she could pass and waved his hand out the door. She walked into the hallway, holding her breath as she brushed past him. He walked closely behind her. About halfway down the hall he grabbed her arm to stop her. Shaun jumped at his touch and glanced at him.

He dropped his hand and pointed at a door. Shaun approached slowly, peaking inside and then saw the outline of a tub, sink and toilet. She sighed her relief and rushed through the door, turning to close it behind her. He gripped the edge of the door, stopping her from closing it completely. She glanced over at him, but decided it wasn’t worth the fight. She didn’t know where she stood with him yet and wasn’t willing to push her luck.

She reached for the light, but he pushed her hand away and pointed at the toilet, then he turned his back, pulling the door partly shut. She stared at him, or more accurately, his back. It looked like she was going to pee in the dark with an audience. Not that it mattered, there was enough light coming in through the small window that she could at least make her way to the toilet and feel around. She’d certainly had urinated in worse conditions than this. There hadn’t been any flush toilets where she’d been stationed in Sri Lanka.

Once she finished, she washed her hands. He turned toward her, took her arm, and pulled her back out into the hallway. She walked with him down a set of stairs to the main floor. They followed another darkened hallway into a room filled with people.

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