Page 28 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
“What do they want?” asked Marcellus.
“They would only say that you needed to be prepared to pay a hefty price. And they emphasized hefty.”
“But they wouldn’t say how much?”
Scottie shook his head. “I asked, but they said stay tuned. They’d be in touch in a couple days.”
“A couple days?” asked Kalayna in a high-pitched voice. “Why would they have to wait that long just to say what they want?”
“Because they may not know what they want,” said Freddy. “This could be a spur of the moment snatch.”
“It could be, said Scottie. “But it didn’t feel like that. They had Niko looking and sounding like his regular self when he spoke to you guys. That says to me he know not to fuck with them. This doesn’t seem spur of the moment. This shit seems planned.”
“But how did it happen?” asked a baffled and deeply concerned Marcellus. “Didn’t I order you to have security on every one of my children, Scottie? Didn’t I order you to do that?”
“What the fuck you jumping down my throat for?” They all looked at Scottie. And just like that they had forgotten how he was the only sibling who was more than willing to go toe-to-toe with their old man. “I do have security on all of your children. Including myself. Every one of us have security!”
“Then where was his security? And don’t you dare talk to me like that!”
Scottie calmed back down. He was willing to go toe-to-toe with his old man alright, but he also knew he would get his ass kicked if it ever came to that. “Niko, like every one of my siblings,” he said as he looked accusatorily at his siblings, “is a master at evading said security. He once again scrambled the GPS signals we had on his car and phone and he lost his detail. Like he’s been doing more often than not. Like they all do more often than not,” he added, looking at his siblings again.
Then he exhaled again. “They lost Niko over two weeks ago. He gets off the grid when he wants to get off the grid, so it wasn’t as if it was unusual. He’s been off the grid ever since. We’ve tried to find his location every technical way we can, but nothing so far.”
“That’s probably why they chose his stupid ass to begin with,” said Olivier. “Because of his constant disappearing acts, which I’ve told him over and over again was never a good idea, they knew nobody would miss him right away.”
“Which we didn’t,” added Freddy.
“She said something was wrong.”
It was Kalayna. They all looked at their sister. “Who said something was wrong?” asked Scottie.
“Niko’s secretary. Or former secretary. Savannah Richardson.”
Marcellus had his hands clasped together, his elbows resting on the arm of his chair, and he was staring at Kalayna.
“She said Niko always returned her phone calls and text messages, but during this disappearance he never would, and she was calling him constantly. She knew something was wrong.”
“But he returned my calls,” said Olivier. “And yours too, Kalayna.”
“Which is all the more reason,” said Scottie, “that they had Niko even then. His secretary didn’t matter. But his family did. They needed his family to believe he was just fine.”
Marcellus could feel his heart squeeze. Between this news, the reemergence of Savannah, and the death of those souls because of one of his planes, he was emotionally spent.
“We need to get the FBI involved,” said Freddy.
“No way,” said Scottie. “They made it perfectly clear that if they even see a hint of law enforcement anywhere around this case, they would kill Niko. They wouldn’t call and give us a warning. They wouldn’t delay it another second. As soon as they saw a whiff of FBI or even local police, it would be over for Niko. And I’ve been at this for ten years. I believe them.”
Kalayna had tears in her eyes. “What are we going to do, Daddy? They could kill Niko.”
Marcellus was momentarily thrown, but he knew he couldn’t show it in front of his children. They all were looking at him for answers. Even Scottie. But he had none.
“I'll call my contact at CPD," Olivier said.
But Freddy cut him off. “They said no police, Ollie, are you deaf? They'll kill Niko if we go to the cops. Now cut that shit out. We can’t contact anybody.”
“And I mean nobody,” added Scottie. “This stays inside this family. Period. We’ve got to contain this inside the family.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Kalayna asked.
