108
LINDEN
My team just landed two hours ago from London. Estelle agreed to stay with her father, which made me happy with her decision.
I only took a quick shower in the hotel and changed into a white shirt and dark blue pants before meeting Ilya.
As fear thickened my throat, I forced a deep breath as I walked into the local bar in Austin. I entered alone, but I trusted my men to do their job.
I roamed my eyes and quickly found a white male around my age with buzz-cut dark-brown hair sitting at the corner. He was confident and wasn’t facing the door. Judging by his wide shoulders and broad back, it was indeed Ilya. The only image I had of him was from Gustav.
I didn’t want to know how he got into the country undetected.
“May I join you?”
His gaze lifted from the half-full pint of beer on the table. He stood up and offered his hand. Ilya didn’t smile, but his eyes expressed recognition and appreciation.
I shook it firmly before I joined him on the table and motioned and gestured at the bartender for a local beer.
“How’s your flight?”
“You walked in alone. I’m impressed,” Those were his first words.
“I’m in my country, but I trust you will honor your words.”
“I do.”
My beer arrived. I took a sip and placed it down on the table. “I’m sure you did not come alone. You came here for business or to get the job done?”
“I like you.” He looked outside the window for a while before he faced me again.
Ilya had deep blue-green eyes, dark brown eyebrows, and a straight nose. His trimmed beard looked like he had it done by a professional. His jaw was strong and set as if always in deep thought. He was dressed to impress in his thousand-dollar suit. I mean, nobody would suspect him of running an underground criminal organization in his getup.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“No. I was expressing my thoughts.” His accent was almost perfect American, except for the slip of the letter R.”
“Why do you wanna see me?”
“I expect a cavalry, military vehicles outside this establishment. But I know you didn’t come alone.” He stole a glance behind me, probably signaling his man. He picked up his beer and took a sip. “The reason why I came here is because of the local beer.”
“I won’t risk the people inside this bar, Ilya. And I know you won’t take your chances of getting captured. I’m not stupid. And I gave you my word to meet you and not to get everyone killed. So here I am.”
“I asked someone to kill Klayton because his father put my men in danger. He took death to himself.”
“So it was revenge then.”
“Yeah, and I heard what he did in London that motivated me to do it fast.”
“You won’t hear a thank you for me. I hated that guy, but there’s a reason why I didn’t kill him. My man could easily take him down. How do you know all of this?”
“Easy with money, but don’t take it negatively. I have men looking after all of you, just in case it missed your advanced UAV or your men.”
“Why are you doing this?” I wanted to study him and how his mind worked. Ilya was like pieces of puzzle with the same color, hard to put together.
“Because you’re not a bad guy. You risked your life and your marriage—”
“Stop.” My jaw ticked. My nose flared. “How the fuck did you know so much? No one should know about this.”
“You’re missing the point.”
“Do I now?” I asked quickly because the next word that would come from my mouth was I’m leaving.
“I won’t put any harm to your family. It’s not that I feared Mr. Braddson’s technology—”
“You wanna use me?”
“No. Maybe I need your expertise, but definitely not to take down people because that’s your limit.”
“I won’t do shit until I know what you want, and how did you gather your intel?”
“Are you willing to trade?” So what now? Were we doing business? I didn’t think so.
With my clenched jaw, my gaze never left his eyes.
”You know if I don’t value this relationship, you already angered me. You Americans like using shit and fuck in every sentence.”
“Oh, did I offend you now? How about teaching me how to swear in Russian?”
His face turned red. His gaze intensified. He didn’t blink. His jaw ticked, and he hadn’t spoken for about a minute, and the tension between us set a hard knot in my stomach. I pissed him off, but so did he.
“If you don’t wanna continue this conversation, I’m going. I have a lot of things to do, Ilya. Don’t waste my time.” I was ready to flee until he talked.
“My father is in town.” If I heard correctly, he said his father was in town, and his tone and eyes softened.
“Isn’t your father sick?”
“Yes. He’s dying. His treatment in Moscow didn’t work, but I’m not giving up.”
“What does he have?”
“Cancer.”
“I’m sorry.” I blinked off my emotions. They were maybe criminals, but we were talking about lives and cancer.
My father’s face flashed back in my head when I saw him yellowish in his bed after that accident.
“Thank you.”
“He’s here for treatment?”
“Yeah. I risk bringing him here. We found a good doctor to do the transplant.”
“He has myeloma?”
“Yes.” But he didn’t ask how did I know.
“How does this situation have to do with me?”
“He is treated in one of the hospitals in New York under a different name. I want to hire your men.”
I scoffed inwardly. “You want me to risk my men to watch your father? Where are yours?”
“I have a few here, but the threats are inevitable. Someone might recognize my father or my men, or the info will get leaked. And that information was crucial to my enemies, and they were willing to pay hefty to find my father. They will come after him. And I can’t stay with him, or we both risk the organization.”
“You’re the next in line.”
“Yes. And if I die, so do the Vasilyev family and the entire organization. As you already know, I’m unmarried and have no heir. And Jakob chose to work in your government.”
“You have to leave him alone.”
“I did.”
“And if I say no?”
He shook his head, but he couldn’t hide his disappointment. “No hard feelings, as you all say. The deal remained the same. You have my word.”
“You should hire another company.” I rose from the seat.
“I understand.” He offered his hand. “Thank you for meeting me.”
“I wish your father a fast recovery.” I shook his hand before I walked away.
“Linden,” he called my name.
I had no choice but to stop and turn around.
“Can you keep this between us?”
“Of course.”
***
We flew to New York the same day and called Estelle as soon as I landed.
“Oh, my God. I’m going to give birth in no time, Gabriel.”
“I miss you, too, baby.” I couldn’t help but smile. Estelle had a way of making me feel better, even if it was a rough day.
“Can I come home now?”
“Not quite. But soon. I promise.”
“Find. Dad will come with me.”
“That’s good.”
“How did the meeting go?”
“It was okay. We both left alive.”
“You can’t joke about that, Gabriel.” I could feel her eyes narrowing at me.
“Calm down. Don’t worry. I still get to change your diaper when you have incontinence.”
“Jeez. Or you get incontinence first. I’m younger than you, dumbass.”
I chuckled. “Will you change my diaper, baby?”
“It depends if you were good to me for years.”
“I will never mistreat you. That’s my promise, and I will honor it for the rest of my life.”
“Don’t make me cry.” She faked her sob.
“Don’t cry, Estelle.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
“Yeah. I can’t wait. And I want another baby. Babies.”
“Jeez. You’re already planning when I still have one in my uterus?”
“Maybe twins next time.”
She laughed. “Aw. That’s cute. But we’ll talk after my first experience. Anyway, I got to go. We just arrived at the hospital for Dad’s follow-up.”
“Alright, my love. Take care. I love you.”
Sax met me in the hallway. Judging by his looks, he had a lot of questions to ask.
“Save it. Come with me.”
“What’s the emergency?” He followed me to the Gunner room.
“I want someone to be found. Slavic, early 60s, came for treatment. Check every camera from international flights this week, every hospital log for stem cell transplant.”
Everybody went to work on their computer.
“Who’s this guy?”
“Tell you later. Where’s Kye?”
“In the briefing. Is it true?”
“Probably.” I entered the elevator and punched the second floor.
Sax joined me. “I haven’t told you a shit.”
“About Gustav being shot, Tyrion and Klayton are dead, Q got stabbed, and my wife almost died? Yes. They’re all true.”
“Jesus Christ. Is Estelle okay?”
“Yeah. I wanted to put thousands of bullet holes in Klayton’s body, but I thought of not coming back from that darkness, and I didn’t want my wife to see that dark side of me again. She’d been through shits. I can’t see that horrified look in her eyes again.”
“Welcome back.” Kye and the guys in Team Hydra shook my hands.
“Thank you. I have an assignment for you. This is dangerous, and I only want volunteers. Of course, you’re getting hazard fees, but I can’t guarantee safety. You can say no, no hard feelings.” I suddenly remembered what he said. “This assignment is unorthodox.”
“What we’ve been doing, aren’t dangerous?” Yue smirked.
“This one is different.”
“I’m in.” Yue raised his hand.
“Me too,” Kye followed, then the other five team members.
“I haven’t told you the details.”
“We’re bored. We need a little thrilling excitement,” Yue said.
“Very well, but you can still back out.” My phone rang. The call came from Gunner Room. “Yeah?”
“Nikolae Vasilyev uses the alias of Borys Ivanov, sixty-eight, Belarusian national with Myeloma, stage 3, admitted at NY Cancer Institute. Room 305.” So that was his alias, and he chose Belarusian identity.
“Thank you.”
“What’s the assignment?” Kye asked.
“You will run the op. Prep your team. Your primary objective is to protect Borys Ivanov, currently admitted at Cancer Institute, R305. You don’t have to play nice with his details. All I want from you is to do your job until he leaves the city.” I looked at everyone. “Your leader, Wilder, will brief your assignments.”
“That’s boring.” Yue fist-bumped me.
“Gear up. You will have the info on your phone. I’ll meet you in the briefing room,” Kye told his team.
“Keep me posted. Good luck.” I walked out of the room and knew Sax was about to ask. “Yes. It’s a long story.”
“Since when did you become a Jedi?”
I dialed Ilya’s number, Ignoring Sax because he was being Sax again.
“My men are on the way. Keep a low profile. Don’t show up when it’s not necessary. They will update you if anything. You can trust them.”
“Thank you. I owe you one.”
After the call, I went to my office and looked online for that pillow my wife wanted.
