Page 20 of Kidnapped Bride

I grabbed a fistful of his hair and wrenched his head back until his throat stretched and his eyes went wide.

"Where'd they take my shipment?"

"I don't know," he choked out while he shook his head. It wasn’t often that the heist team was clueless about the destination for their loot. This man was full of shit and I could see right through him.

I let go of his hair and drove my fist into his ribs. He gurgled and grunted as blood dripped from his mouth, and he doubled over as far as the ties would let him, gagging. I gave him a few seconds to catch up. Then I grabbed his face with one hand and squeezed until his lips mashed together.

"I'm gonna make this simple," I told him. "You tell me where my product went and who gave the order. And maybe I'll let you live. What's Markin doing with my drugs?"

He tried to wrestle out of my grip, but I saw the tears forming in his eyes. He was already close to giving it up and so soon, too. The question was whether he was more afraid of me or Markin.

"He'll kill me," he whispered, then pursed his lips as his forehead scrunched up.

"He's not here." I squeezed harder. "I am. And I'm gonna give you about ten seconds to tell me. Listen, you tell me, I let you live another day. That's twenty-four more hours alive till he finds you, at least."

He whimpered but held on stubbornly, refusing to answer. So I let go of his face and reached into his jacket, going through pockets until I found his phone.

The screen was cracked across the middle but it powered on when I pressed the button. I held it up to his face and the lock screen cleared.

"No, don't—" he started, but I was already scrolling. The name wasn't listed, but I recognized the number saved under a single initial.M. Real creative.

I pressed call and stood up, stepping away from him. I was done fucking around with middlemen and messages.

Markin was a thorn in my side I had to deal with once and for all. If he thought for a second I would take this shit lying down, he was wrong. Pushing into my territory, hurting my men, that was one thing. But the street value alone of that shipment could bankrupt me.

Thirty million US meant over two billion rubles.

Unacceptable.

The phone rang four or five times but finally, the line picked up and went quiet for a second before I heard heavy breathing.

"What do you want?" Markin said, not sounding at all surprised by me. Like he'd been sitting there expecting this exact call. And how easily he knew it was me, which meant the other men in that heist had told him this one got left behind.

"It's Nikolai Dragonov."

Silence reigned at the other end of the line.

"You took something of mine tonight," I said, " and I think we're past due for a conversation."

"I think we're past conversation, Nikolai." He sounded bored, like I was wasting his evening with something beneath him. "You pulled my daughter off the street and caged her in your house. That's grounds for me to remove you and your entire organization from the city. Don’t you think?"

"Your daughter's alive and unharmed. That's more courtesy than you've shown my people."

"Oh, Nikolai…" he said, sighing heavily. I pictured him shaking his head at me in a patronizing way. "There are rules of engagement in this business. I stuck to them and you are the one who escalated it."

I clenched my teeth and turned back to look down at the man surrounded by my soldiers.

Markin wasn't entirely wrong. Feuds over territory were a normal thing, pushing in, getting kickback.

But women and children were generally off-limits to other families, which was why I originally intended to send her back to him unharmed. Maybe those plans were changing, though.

"I want my territory restored," I told him. "Every corner you've pushed into for the last six months. You pull your men back and we go to the way things were. Then you get your daughter."

There was a bit of commotion on his part, chatter and shouting. And when he spoke again, I got the feeling he had zero interest in recovering Kira. It appeared he had already counted her a loss.

"Listen to me carefully because I'm only saying this once. I know you won't kill her. You're not stupid enough to bring that kind ofheat down on yourself. And even if you were, even if you put a gun to her head right now and squeezed, I will not stop. Not for one second.

"Every man you have is a target," he continued. "Every business. Every dollar you think belongs to you. I will take all of it. And when I'm finished, there won't be enough of your organization left for anyone to remember it was there. So keep her. Do whatever you want with her. It changes nothing."