Page 36 of Liv Parrish

“Hey, listen to me, okay? None of this is your fault. None of it. There are bad people in this world who do bad things. You know this, I know your dad has told you. One of those bad people took Liv. That’s not on you, and we’re going to get her back. I promise.” He meets my gaze now, his stare direct and unflinching.

“Dad says you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.” Fuck, this kid. He’s already been through so much in his life. I meet his eyes.

“He’s right, so I’ll say it again. We will get her back.”

When I return to the lounge, I see we’ve been joined by Crisden and two of his agents who were part of the raid on the Reznikov compound. They are hunched over a map spread out on the coffee table and are looking at various locations where Sergei might be keeping Liv. Melissa also tried to contact the Russian, but when it became clear that she intended to offer herself up in exchange for Liv, Aaron shut her down faster than you can say Russian scumbag. That led to an intense argument between the siblings that only ended when Crisden bellowed at them to stop acting like children, which in turn led to an argument between him and Aaron, each maintaining that he was in charge of this search-and-rescue mission. All of this while my heart tried to beat its way out of my chest, because we are wasting time. I feel paralyzed by fear, worst case scenarios racing through my head one after the other in an endless loop. What if we don’t find her in time? What if that sick bastard hurts her … or worse? What if … What if … What if. Fuck! From the corner of my eye, I see Melissa checking her phone. Her face pales and her hand clutching the device starts to shake and I know, I just know whatever is going to happen next, is going to change everything.

“Guys.” Her voice is shaky, her breaths coming fast and at first no one pays her any attention. “Guys!” Crisden and Aaron stop mid-argument, and everyone turns to her, the room shrinking to the size of a 5’2” woman holding my fate in her hands. She raises her phone as if wanting to pass it off to whoever is closest. Aaron steps towards her, his posture rigid and his expression tight and in a matter of seconds the phone is in his hands, opened to a text with a video attached. I step closer, my blood stalling in my veins as the hair all over my body begin to stand on end. On a deep inhale, I turn my eyes to the screen.

Sergei: You know what I want, my little raven. Come to me and I’ll let her go

The message is short and to the point, there’s no misunderstanding the threat if we don’t comply, but it’s the video that causes the breath in my lungs to solidify into a boulder with sharp edges piercing my flesh and threatening to crush me under its weight. Liv. Her hands are tied together and suspended above her head from a rafter in what looks like a warehouse, and she’s stripped down to her underwear! I can’t make out any injuries on her exposed flesh but that doesn’t stop the anguished growl tearing out of my throat. The tension in the room is palpable, every inch of the space thick with its sticky presence. It feels like hours pass before I can raise my eyes to Aaron’s, but it’s Riley who was reading over his other shoulder who breaks the silence.

“Emmie, what’s the deal with this guy? Was there something between you two, or anything he could have interpreted as you being interested in him?” What the fuck?! Is he really questioning her relationship status right now? But before I can object, Melissa does it for me.

“I don’t think that’s relevant, do you? We need to figure out how we’re going to get Liv back.”

“It’s relevant because we need to know how far he will go to get to you. Do you know where that is?” He nods to the phone still clutched in Aaron’s hand. As expected, she doesn’t acknowledge the part of his sentence I suspect he’s most interested in.

“It’s one of their warehouses down by the harbor. It’s easily accessible but they will see us coming. We’ll– “

“Whoa, back up,” Aaron barks at her. “Us? We? If you think you’re going to just hand yourself over to this asshole, you’ve got another thing coming. We’ll get Liv out of there without putting you in danger in the process. That’s not happening.” He’s practically bristling with rage and any other woman would think twice about confronting or antagonizing him, but Melissa has changed in the past two years and stepping back is obviously not part of her repertoire.

“Aaron, I never said anything about handing myself over, but using me to draw him out is the smart move. He’s not even trying to hide because he knows we will come to him. He chose that warehouse for a reason and he knows I’ll come too. That makes him reckless and stupid, so we have to capitalize, but we don’t have much time. Marcus, can we get some agents together and get the ball rolling?”

“We should keep the team small. A stealth attack. In and out like a duck mating.” All eyes turn to Riley who shrugs before adding: “Hey, it’s a good analogy–”

“You do know ducks have dicks shaped like corkscrews, right? That does not sound like it’s going to lead anywhere stealthy, and it doesn’t matter. Sergei knows we’re coming. The amount of people won’t matter. We need a team, backup for when things go sideways.”

“Jeez, Emmie, thanks for the vote of confidence. It’s not like we don’t do this for a living or anything. Maybe you’ve been hanging round the Feds too long.” Any other time and I would have found this amusing. Riley has a way of getting under Melissa’s skin like no one I’ve ever met before, but now is not the time for this. As if reading my thoughts, Aaron steps forward, effectively cutting off any response from Melissa, which would have inevitably escalated the argument and my blood pressure.

“Enough, you two. We can use our own people. The Feds don’t need to get involved.” Crisden opens his mouth to argue, but Aaron cuts him off. “Sergei made this personal, so we’ll deal with it. Once we’ve got Liv back, you can have Sergei.”

“You seem to forget, Special Agent Yeager is a federal agent. As such, she cannot get involved in this personal operation. Make no mistake, she will be suspended. Permanently.” Turning to her, Crisden pauses for a moment as if considering his words. “You have a very promising career with the Bureau. You can go far, make a name for yourself. Do you really want to risk your future for this? Let your brother and his men take care of it. They have the means and the manpower. They can bring Sergei in just as easily as we could.”

“Do you honestly believe I could walk away from this? He took Liv because of me. There’s no way he’s not expecting me to be there and our best chance of getting her back is for me to go. Bait, distraction, call me what you want to, but the one thing you’ll definitely be calling me is part of this team and if that’s a problem for the Bureau, then that’s something we’re all just going to have to live with.” Riley looks like he wants to cheer, or high five her. Aaron seems to be biting his tongue against all the arguments why this is a bad idea while trying to hide his pride in his little sister and it hits me once again what we’re risking here.

“Melissa, are you sure about this? Nobody’s going to judge– “

“Are you serious right now? It’s your girlfriend being held by that maniac. You of all people should be onboard with this,” she fires back.

“We’re not risking one life to get back another, Melissa. That’s not how this works.”

“You guys risk yourself all the time.”

“That’s different, and you know it.”

“All I know is we’re wasting time.” She turns to Aaron again. “Are we doing this or what?” And just like that, the decision is made. Less than a half an hour later a dozen of Fortress’s men are around Aarons’ dining room table and a plan is devised to get Liv back.

Based on what Melissa was able to tell us about Sergei, along with our own surveillance, the plan is pretty straight forward. Mike, Melissa, and I will announce our arrival, playing into the idea of an exchange. An arranged time and place. We’re not expecting this to win us any favor with the mobster, but if he lets his guard down for even a moment, it could give us the opportunity to get everyone out safely. Aaron and Riley will lead two teams to secure the surrounding buildings beforehand, and once Liv and Melissa are safe, they will move in and take down the Russians. I can see Aaron struggling with the idea of sending Melissa in without him, but we have to assume that Sergei knows they are related and also, the part I’m struggling with, Liv might need medical attention right away and having Mike there will allow for that. Please God, don’t let her be hurt.

It’s close to midnight when we pull up to the warehouse, just over twenty-four hours since the note and the text that tore my life apart. There is not a star in sight and a cloudy mantle shrouds the moon, casting only the barest amount of light over the harbor.

As predicted, we are met at our SUV by five men, who immediately disarm us, zip tie our wrists, pull black hoods over our heads and then separate us. Two of the men lead me in the opposite direction of the warehouse, and once we’ve shuffled a couple hundred feet, the beating starts, sadly also predicted. Similar noises some distance off to my right confirm that Mike is being subjected to the same treatment, which means Melissa is being taken to Sergei by the last man in our greeting party. The plan is to allow some time for her to contact him, for him to believe he has the upper hand and is getting what he wants and then for us to move in, get the women and get out. This means that, even though Mike and I can break the ties around our wrists without thinking twice, we have to remain docile and take the licks. I’ll admit, these guys know how to throw a punch, especially the one going to town on my ribs which I can feel even though I’m wearing protective gear underneath my shirt. I take a few solid hits to my abdomen as well as to the head before two of our team are suddenly by my side, taking them down. I snap the tie with a quick twist of my wrists, remove the hood covering my face and check on the two Russians currently being restrained. Once they are secured, we make our way back to the warehouse, where our surveillance team confirms that Sergei’s full attention is currently focused on Melissa, who has three men surrounding her. There are also another eight positioned at various points inside the warehouse, alert and heavily armed. We have four snipers positioned around the exterior of the building, ready to pick off their targets, another twelve men on the ground and Aaron on comms coordinating our movements from a mobile unit two miles south of the warehouse. However, as yet we have been unable to get eyes on Liv. Reports from our team confirm she is in the building, in a section to the rear of the warehouse, furthest away from any doors or windows, but no one has been able to get visual confirmation of her current condition. She must be freaked out with what’s happening around her, but is she hurt? Fuck, if they’ve hurt her, I’ll end them and love doing it. Nothing will stop–

“Heath! What’s going on, man? Talk to me.” Aaron’s voice in my ear jolts me back to the present.

“I’m here. All good. We’re ready to breach on your word.”

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