Page 35 of Twisted Pact
Mila appears behind me, wearing a defiant scowl. “Papa, what’s wrong?”
Leonid’s eyes fill with tears when he sees his daughter. “Milaya. You’re safe. Thank God, you’re safe.”
“Of course, I’m safe. What’s going on?”
He looks at me with desperation written all over his face. “Please. Five minutes.”
I lead him to my office and close the door. Mila follows, but I shake my head. She glares at me but stays in the hallway.
Leonid collapses into a chair and buries his face in his hands. “They took Irina and the baby. My daughter and my grandson.”
My stomach drops, and my eyes shoot to the door, where I have no doubt Mila is listening. “When?”
“Yesterday. She was at the market with her bodyguard. Three men grabbed her and my grandson in broad daylight. Shot the guard twice. He’s in surgery, but he’ll probably die.”
“Who took them?”
“The Novikovs. Maybe the Vasilievs. I don’t know for certain. All I have is a phone call demanding I provide intelligence about your family’s operations in exchange for their safe return.”
I walk to the window and stare out at the forest. This is bad.
“What kind of intelligence are they asking for?” I ask.
“Finances. Names of your suppliers and distributors. Everything that would allow them to dismantle your organization piece by piece. They said if I provide it, they’ll return Irina and the baby unharmed. If I don’t, they kill them both and dump the bodies where I’ll find them.”
I turn to face him. “You came here to ask for help.”
“I came here to beg for it.” Leonid stands and crosses the room. “I know you owe me nothing. I know my family has brought you nothing but problems, but I can’t let them die because of my failures.”
“You have other resources. Other allies.”
“None powerful enough to go against the Novikovs or the Vasilievs. None who would risk war over one woman and her bastard child.” His voice breaks again. “You’re my only option. Please. I’ll give you anything you want. Territory. Money. Whatever it takes.”
I eye him and see the genuine terror of a father who’s lost control of a situation and doesn’t know how to fix it. Part of me is sympathetic, but I can’t put my family at risk any more than I already have.
“I’m already protecting Mila,” I remind him. “That’s the extent of my obligation to your family.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Completely serious. I have limited resources, Leonid. I’m using those resources to keep your youngest daughter safe. Don’t ask me to split my focus.”
“But the baby,” he says desperately. Leonid’s hands shake as he grabs the edge of my desk. “You heartless bastard. I thought the Kozlovs had honor. I thought family meant something to you people.”
“Family does mean something. It means everything, in fact. But your family isn’t mine.”
Leonid stares at me like I’ve just shot him. Then his face crumbles. This powerful man who runs half of Moscow’s underground shipping breaks down crying in my office.
“I don’t know what to do,” he sobs through tears. “I don’t know how to save her.”
I walk to the door and open it. “I’m sorry about Irina. Truly. But my answer is no.”
Leonid doesn’t move for a long moment. Then, he straightens his shoulders and wipes his face with his sleeve. The broken father disappears, and the hardened criminal returns.
“When this is over,” he tells me quietly, “when they’ve killed my daughter and her child, I’ll remember this moment. I’ll remember that you had the power to help and chose not to.”
“I understand.”
He leaves without another word. I watch from the window as he gets in his car and drives away.
