Page 70 of Ensnared
Dimitri gave a hollow laugh, looking up to the ceiling. It was taking everything in him not to just burn half the city down and flush the piece of shit Ardem and the rest of his fucking crew out like rats. He was going to do what he should have done from the start. He was going to use every man, every drop of his resources, every fucking dime he had to find them no matter where they fucking were and he was going to come for them. And when he was done there would be nothing left of Ardem Darbinyan and the rest of his family and crew, and nothing left of Dimitri.
But he wouldn't tell Roman that part, instead Dimitri gave his friend a humorless smile and looked at him with empty eyes. "Sure, I'll come back."And put a bullet in my head,he thought with a smile.
Ardem's tortured screams pierced the air. Dimitri winced with a turn of his head. The sound made his eardrums vibrate. Smiling, Dimitri pressed his weight forward on the hacksaw, feeling the resistance of the man's femur. Dimitri looked again at Ardem's face. For the past six hours, Dimitri had seen such a multitude of emotions from the Armenian. Anger, when Dimitri found him hiding away in a basement in Reno with his brothers and cousins. The absolute despair as he watched said family get burned alive in said basement just after Dimitri's men nailed all the windows and doors shut. And finally, Dimitri's favorite, the sheer horror of watching his best friend and captain, Henrikh, get dismembered in front of him.
Now it was Ardem's turn. It was amazing what cocaine could do to the human body, such as circumventing the automatic response to shut the senses down and go into a state of unconsciousness. Wide awake and feeling every scrape of the saw's serrated blade against his leg, Ardem howled in pain, shouting for God to save him.
Dimitri scowled at that.
Grabbing the man by the neck, his gloved hands sticky and hot with blood, Dimitri leaned over Ardem until their faces were inches apart. He looked a lot different from the man he found lounging in that basement yesterday. His gleaming black hair, polished suit, and gold jewelry were all gone. The sophisticated look of a criminal kingpin he spent his life obsessed with perfecting was nowhere to be seen. In front of him was a naked, sweaty, mutilated man whose eyes were nearly bulging out of his head.
"God?" Dimitri began. "Did you just ask for God to save you? Do you know for the past week as I turned over every city between here and Vegas looking for you, I thought of my Eve, my beautifulwife," he growled the word, feeling the edges of that hollowing despair creep through the numbness of his madness. "I wondered what she thought when one of your men shot her. I wonder how she felt as you took her away."
"I took no one," Ardem sobbed, shaking his head back and forth. "No one. No one. No one," he moaned desperately.
Anger, hot and bright, streaked through Dimitri's senses, bringing the full despair of his world back to the forefront. He grabbed Ardem's neck with both hands and wrenched the man partially up and off the table. Dimitri ignored his scream.
"Then where is she?!" he yelled. "What did you do to her?"
He needed to know. He had to know what they did to her body. He had to get her back, to give her a proper burial at least. It would be the last thing he did. It was the least he could do for her.
Images of her smiling beautiful face flashed in his mind searing him like a hot iron to his flesh. Dimitri closed his eyes and dropped Ardem back to the table. The memories of Eve threatened to engulf him. Nothing could ever compare to this pain. The years of torture and solitude at the hands of the man who bought him for his father's debt were but a dream compared to this hell. The mere thought of Eve's absence in his life threatened to devour him whole. It was a pain that tore through him, shredding every fiber of his being, leaving an abyss of agony that eclipsed all other torments he'd ever known.
Dimitri looked at Ardem. The weight of the gun at his waistband felt heavier as it did every hour from the moment he woke up in that hospital. Its presence constantly reminded him of the release that waited for him when it was all over.
Pulling his thoughts back to Ardem, Dimitri frowned. If he didn't take her and Dominic's body, then who did? He had seen the footage himself. He watched her and Dominic fall to the ground, but there was no footage after that and no bodies were recovered.
Dimitri stared coldly at Ardem. "Are you too scared to tell me? Is that what it is? Do you think I won't find out from someone else in your scattered crew…or someone in your family?" he whispered, appreciating the red veins appearing one by one in the man's bulging eyes. "Do you think I'm not too far gone I won't go ask your wife personally?"
A short knock sounded at the steel door before it opened.
Slowly, Dimitri turned and glared at his lieutenant. Behind him, bright sunlight poured down the stairs into the room. They were currently in the middle of the desert in a hidden safe house tucked deep into the side of a mountain, ideal for these noisy scenarios.
"What?" Dimitri asked, noting Andrey's eyes looking everywhere but the scene in front of Dimitri. "Has your nausea passed? Did you want to join?" Dimitri gestured to the hacksaw still partially in the man's leg.
Andrey shook his head and stepped forward, holding out Dimitri's phone. "You got a text." He stepped closer holding the phone out so Dimitri could see. "It's from Vladimir."
Dimitri made a derisive noise under his breath. That old bastard could fuck off. Once he found Eve, nothing he or anyone said would matter ever-
Andrey shoved the phone in his face. "Just read it."
Dimitri cast him a deadly look before looking at the lit-up screen.
Uknown:I am relieved you resolved your Armenian problem. Do not repeat the same mistake. Your wife and Dominic are at the following address.
I anticipate a formal wedding.
Chapter 37
Usingonehand,Dominictapped the keyboard on his phone.
Is it healthy to cry for a month straight?
The results weren’t promising. Dominic sighed.
The quivering lump stuck to his left side shifted slightly and he could feel the dampness seeping into his shirt. Looking down at the mound of covers, he tried to decide on today's tactic. For the past two days, it had been firm. Forcing her to sleep in any other room besides his own, demanding she finish the food on her plate in front of him, and forcing her to sit outside in the sun like a stubborn potted plant. Judging by the bleak look in her eyes last night when he forced her to take a sleeping pill it may not be wise to push her any further. Today, he would have to use a different tactic.
"Eve?" Dominic cleared his rough morning voice.
