Page 57 of The Mafia's Property

She let out a sigh of relief. “Freya, what’s wrong?”

She was silent until we were out of the room. “I think that guy with the mustache is Derreck,” she whispered.

I froze. “Are you sure?”

“He looks like him, or at least a version of him with a disguise. When I looked at him, he kept averting his gaze. I don’t know, but something tells me it’s him.”

“Was he ever working for Volkov, or is he working for Luo?”

She shrugged. We entered to the study and took our seats. Nico was getting excited now and a kind in his element, I had to admit. My gaze went to Luo’s man. Even he seemed to be under some disguise. His skin looked a little too pimply. He was a little too round at the waist for a professional security officer. Then there were his eyes. Not quite green, not quite gray. If the other bodyguard was Derreck and he too had a disguise, then it was likely that this man, too, was in disguise. Why would a bodyguard want to disguise himself? Why would several? Unless Luo is not who he says he is.

We had to put a stop to this. Nico was about to take out the jewel and present it to Luo when I signaled to Nico to call time out. I coded him to come with me into the bathroom. “Excuse me,” he said to Luo and followed me.

“What’s the issue? We’re about to make the sale?”

“Something is off. I don’t trust Luo and I don’t trust the weird dude hovering behind him.”

“Yeah, his bodyguard gives me the creeps, but who fucking cares? I want to get rid of that offending piece of--”

His sentence was cut off with a yelp. Freya. I rushed out of the office and what I saw chilled me to the bone. In the arms of the bodyguard was Freya. He was holding a gun to her head.

“What the fuck, Luo!” Nico called out.

Luo glanced between us and the bodyguard. “He forced me. He has my kids. Please sell the bloody thing to him!”

Luo wasn’t making sense. I wanted to ask him to elaborate, but Nico stepped towards the bodyguard, frowning. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Volkov?” I looked closer and almost slapped myself for not realizing it sooner. He was forcing Luo to make the sale. Holy shit, this man was everywhere.

“Let her go.” My voice carried more emotion than I intended.

“You could have simply sold me the jewel and we could have avoided all this fuss. Now look what you’ve done.” He cocked the gun and Freya screamed. She thought he was going to kill her. I thought the same. I froze and then felt rage.

“Let her go, Volkov, and you’ll know my wrath.”

“Not until you give me the jewel. I’m going to count down from ten. Nine, eight--”

Freya squirmed. There was fear in her eyes. She was trembling, and I felt helpless to do anything. I didn’t want to give him the jewel, but I also didn’t want Freya to die. If anything, the thought of Freya lying dead in a pool of blood was unimaginable. Volkov had gotten to three. I could see him do it. I would not let him do it. “Stop! I screamed in unison with Nico.”

“We’ll give you the damn thing,” I said.

Freya

“THAT WASN’T SO hard now, was it?” Volkov relaxed his death grip but didn’t let me go. For a minute, I thought I was going to die. I still wasn’t out of the woods yet, but relief and astonishment washed over me when they both commanded him to stop. They hate me. They want me dead, but they saved me from being killed by that guy.

Rico rushed over to the safe, punched some number, scanned his eyeball and the tiny silver door opened. He took out a black jewel case and brought it over to Volkov. “Here,” he said. “Take it. Let her go.”

Volkov scoffed. “I thought Derreck was lying when he said that you two cared about this woman.” I was too afraid to do anything, but when he said that, I turned back to see if he was telling the truth. It was hard to tell through the lumpy disguise, but he didn’t look like he had a reason to lie.

“Weapons.” He said. Reluctantly, Nico and Rico placed their guns on the desk. “Give me your phone,” he said to Nico. Nico hesitated. I was sure he was about to do something stupid like bring out a gun of his own and shoot at his head. Volkov shielded himself with my body and Nico would risk killing me if he tried. For a minute I thought he would, and I closed my eyes thinking this would be my last day, but no. He threw a phone at Volkov who caught it with his gun free hand. With that same hand still on my neck, he dialed a number. I was close enough to hear the conversation. It was definitely Derreck’s voice on the other end. “Come upstairs. To the study,” Volkov said and cut the call.

So this was the jewel thief. The guy I had been inadvertently working for all this time. He was a like a joker up-close. The fact that he liked to don up into a disguise and get to the job himself betrayed a certain level of madness I didn’t want to play with. He was dangerous. And he had a gun on my head.

The move was quick and surprising. One moment I was leaning by the library wondering why Nico and Rico had gone to the bathroom together. I was also wondering if the man I saw moments before was really Derreck when Volkov lunged at my throat and dragged me by the neck to the door. He then took out a gun and pointed it at my head. He never told me to be quiet. The scream was what he was counting on. And just like that, they both came out rushing. The fear on their faces was obvious. Probably afraid of their jewel getting into the wrong hands and their deal getting ruined. Would they blame me? Rico certainly would, which is why he caught me off guard by straight up handing the jewel to Volkov. That thing had to be more valuable than my life.

“Let her go,” Rico said, to my surprise.

“Now why would I do that when I don’t even know if there’s anything in that box?”

Rico fumbled with the lock. It was a pin which he had to punch in twice for the box to open. “Here it is,” he said as the little black box clicked open. “Take it.”

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