Page 89 of Fire and Ice

"You don't know?"

"I don't care. All I care for is my music, and if you'll let me, you."

Maia rolled her eyes and then suddenly, he was right on top of her. "We need to get rid of those inhibitions."

"Oh, yeah, how?"

"Follow me."

Lee led her down a narrow hallway beyond the backstage. On the blueprint of the building that they had acquired, this area was one big rectangle, but Maia saw a series of rooms. Obviously, what was filed at the city planner's office was incomplete or bogus. She was so screwed. She had no way of letting the others know where she was unless she could shoot off a text the moment Lee released her hand.

They reached a steel door that was slightly ajar, but Lee still used the intercom. There was no answer.

"That's strange. The door is open," Lee said, sounding baffled.

"Maybe we should go back," Maia suggested as the back of her neck started prickling. "You said they were pretty scary."

"Nah, Peter's a cool guy. He wouldn't mind me bringing my girl over to hit him up for a couple of R9s."

Maia tried to tug Lee away but he dragged her through the steel door.They were met with two bloody corpses with fatal chest wounds.

"What the fuck?" Lee whispered as his eyes bugged out.

"Let's get out of here," Maia said urgently as she pulled a frozen Lee back through the steel door, but they were too late. A giant of a man holding a mean looking assault rifle blocked their way.

"Sorry, I can't let you leave," he declared.

Yep, screwed.

***

They were forced into the inner sanctum. There, a man was bound to a chair and was being interrogated by three other men. Peter Coltrane. Judging by the superficial bruises on his face, the torture had only just begun.

"Look who I found lurking around. Rock star boy," the goon said. "I'm heading back outside to stand guard."

These were Gavlik's men. They had slipped off the Guardian's radar when everyone was recalled and put on the search for Colt and Richard Grayson. Hadn't she proposed that keeping tabs on these guys would lead them to Reznikov? The DEA gave the call this morning to pull that resource.

Colt's eyes flickered over her but did not react. This guy was going to be hard to crack.

"Pete, what the hell is going on?" Lee demanded.

The second henchman whacked Lee through the face with the butt of his M4 carbine. "Shut up!"

Maia screamed as Lee staggered back. It wasdamsel-in-distresstime. "Don't hurt him!"

"Igor, damn it!" the third henchman stood in front of Igor and glared him off.

Turning to Lee, he said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Isaac. We just need to keep you and your girlfriend here until we get the information we need from Colt. If I may have your cellphones please."

"I don't have mine on me, it's in the dressing room," Lee said as he fingered his jaw.

Maia handed hers over. Better give it up quick than have them search her purse and find the gun.

Lee went over to Maia who pretended to start shaking. "God, I'm so sorry, Princess. What a nightmare."

Igor observed them, his beady cruel eyes hazed with bloodlust. Lee's apologetic words tore through Maia's heart as she despaired of getting him mixed up in this. She was going to get him out alive even if she died trying. But it wasn't going to be easy, they would not want to let her and Lee live, no matter what the henchman had said. That was not the way of the Russian mafia. They hated loose ends.

"I repeat Mr. Coltrane: where is Sergei Reznikov?" the third henchman asked. When Colt continued to stare stonily in the distance, the third henchman nodded to the fourth. "Kiril."

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