Page 32 of Den of Thieves

“I’ll give you one guess.” Kristoff replied, his voice grim.

Shit. That meant he needed to get a hold of Luka before he did something stupid. Or worse… something brave. Vladimir’s phone lit up, and he answered on the first ring.

“Those fuckers are going to pay.”

“This is the last thing we need right now,” Kristoff mumbled.

Vladimir silenced him with a look. Stating the obvious wasn’t going to solve anything.

“Luka, don’t do this. Come to the office, we will figure out a plan and get your wife back.” Vladimir put his phone on speaker and sat it on the conference table.

“Fuck that, Vladimir! They took her and when I fought back, they killed my brother. I’m getting Sophi back. She is my only will to live.” Luka growled before the line went dead.

“Shit! Nikolai find him.”

“His phone pinged off of tower in Mytishchi. Just a second.”

“Pull it up or have Pavel find him and you don’t bother coming back,” Vladimir snapped.

“His phone shows he’s at an abandoned cotton processing factory.” Nikolai blew the feed onto the large screen at the end of the room.

Vladimir crossed his arms at the derelict-looking warehouse with shattered windows. Vladimir knew it was a front. He used similar warehouses to hide some of his most valuable goods.

“Can we see inside?”

“If they have security cameras.”

Vladimir rolled his eyes at the sweat gathering on Nikolai’s forehead. When he asked where the chipmunk was earlier, Nikolai lied and said he was on the way. He tried to thwart his mounting anger because getting rid of Alvin would only cause him more problems in the long term.

Soon a black and white feed popped up on the screen. The only feed they could tap into was an overhead shot of the factory floor. Sophi sat bound and gagged in the center of the warehouse. He counted at least ten moving shadows scattered around out of sight of the front door.

“It’s a trap,” David gasped.

No fucking shit, Vladimir thought. He pulled out his phone and tried Luka again, but there was no answer.

“How close is back up?”

“Still ten minutes out.” Dimitri replied with a grim look.

Vladimir cursed. Luka was a good earner and he’d known him since they were children. They weren’t in the same grade, but they went to the same school. Luka’s father was as old as if not older than Gustaf. They spent many formal parties camped out in the kitchen or playing video games until the interest of girls outweighed 2D monsters.

As much as he wanted to do otherwise, Vladimir watched helplessly as Luka untied Sophi and held her bruised body in his arms. The sick fucks lurking in the background let them get to the door before they made themselves known. The two of them had more holes than Swiss cheese by the end. At least Luka killed some of their attackers before they met their maker.

The men strolled out like they were spending the day at a fucking park. One of them stopped and looked back at the camera. “Osvo sends his regards.”

Nikolai shut off the feed and a temporary silence filled the room before all hell broke loose. Angry voices rang out, rising over each other in rapid succession.

“This is bullshit!”

“Who the fuck is Osvo?”

“There are no laws that bind our enemy!”

“They are animals! Women and children are off limits!”

More curses rang out before Vladimir’s voice cut through all of them. “Silence! If you haven’t already, I think it’s best we send the families away.”

“Easy for you to say,” someone scoffed.

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