Page 40 of Disgraced (Russian Sinners 3)

Sergei

Two weeks later

“Damn it, what are they waiting for?” I muttered under my breath, reading another message from my man planted among Boris’ group. Fucking two weeks and they still had that girl. I was itching to go there and end the whole thing myself. I wanted to go to St. Petersburg; I needed to work things out with Scarlett.

This whole damn thing backfired like nothing ever before.

Scarlett’s father threatened to kill me if his daughter had a scratch on her. I agreed he should. A week after I had my future wifekidnapped,I called my soon to be father-in-law and told him there was a threat against Scarlett and I had to ensure she was safe. Of course, I didn’t tell him the whole story.

The security guy, Brian, was back in the country and kept snooping around too. He was in my fucking way each time I turned around. He kept asking dangerous questions, inquiring about Anastasia and Scarlett.

He should focus on Anastasia, not Scarlett! Scarlett was my responsibility.

I was in my office at the Russian Orchid. It was the last place I wanted to be but had to maintain my normal routine when in the city and in my business.

Since Michail was watching Scarlett, I had to lead the men to intercept the second shipment of women and children that fucking Irina and her husband were smuggling. Over hundred women and children were forced into a small shipping container. It twisted my stomach to see them treated like cattle. Actually even worse than animals. They were battered, starved, and dirty. Irina and her husband were the worst scum to run a business like that.

We succeeded in saving all of them but there was a little boy that didn’t make it. It wasn’t good enough. Nobody should have died. The little boy died in his mother’s arms; his little body frail and skinny. He died of starvation and heat exhaustion from being locked in the container for so long.

The rage burned within me at seeing the pain on his mother’s face, holding the little boy like he was sleeping. It was gut wrenching to see. The look in her eyes as she watched her son was a stab in my heart. There was lingering hope in them, like her son would open his eyes at any moment and they’d come out of their nightmare together.

The mother wasn’t in a good shape, but she refused to be separated from her son. I had to coerce her to let me take them both out of the container and to the medic we had on staff. All the pain and suffering she went through and all she cared about was her little boy.

I couldn’t help but compare her to my own parents that didn’t give a shit. Dimitry was the reason I didn’t end up like this boy. And now I felt like I failed this little boy, his body lifeless as his mother mourned him. The sorrow for her pain and anger at the ones that caused her pain were like acid, eating me up on the inside.

Later that day, the whole event was still heavy on my mind. This was some hard shit to forget or get over. I met with a few of the contacts and had to focus on the conversation while my mind was anywhere but on that conversation. I didn’t give a fuck who was crossing into whose territory. All of these damn men were the same. All they cared about was showing off their power while they hid behind their bodyguards. If they would just learn to trust each other and respect each other, there wouldn’t always be some kind of war going on. And if they’d learn to work together, we wouldn’t have human smugglers kidnapping women and children, taking them across the seas to be sold.

I had to find a way to bring Irina and her husband down. Those two were hiding somewhere, but I would make it my life mission to find them and destroy them. I had men searching for them and Michail was helping from St. Petersburg. He was following several internet leads. It was obvious Polish wouldn’t back down from their line of business under Irina and Bartek’s leadership. So I would capture them and torture them for months, make them feel the pain that mother would feel for the rest of her life for losing her son. They took her son away the moment they kidnapped them.

“Fucking bastards,” I muttered under my breath.

My phone beeped and I was ready to smash it against my desk. That boy should have never died. Anastasia should have been long gone, safe back home with her family. Were her parents refusing to pay up? My eyes lowered to the phone, and with surprise, I noted it was Nikolai.

*Brother, have a moment?*

I knew Dimitry and Nikolai were busy securing legalization of the last two businesses for us and kept running into issues.

*Always for you.*

The bubbles on the phone showed Nikolai was typing. *Send us surveillance of the club from two weeks ago.*

I frowned, wondering why he would ever need that. Then he followed up with the date and I immediately cursed. This couldn’t possibly be a fucking coincidence. It was exactly the same night I kidnapped Anastasia. But how would they ever find out about it?

*Call when you have a moment.*

Shit, did they already know? I could explain to Nikolai but Dimitry would fucking lose his shit. I wasn’t worried about him killing me, maybe I should be. He came to my aid way too many times. I didn’t want him to worry about this too.

*Sending now. Give me two minutes and I’ll call.*

I remembered the night the three of us decided to get matching tattoos.

“We’ve done enough bad shit,” Dimitry’s words echoed in my mind, that memory from long ago. “This is one thing we can control. We do not hurt innocent people. We do not hurt women and children.”

Nikolai, Dimitry, and I shared a look. It was our solemn promise to each other and to the world.

“We are not like Boris,” Dimitry spat that man’s name like it was a curse. I agreed. The man was despicable, the worst rot on this earth.

“Agreed,” Nikolai commented.

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