This was real danger, and it wasn’t for nothing. If I gave in and called Kon, the next step would be to lure Papa. Both the men I loved would be gone. I was done being the one who was protected.
“Fuck off,” I said, bracing myself for the next blow. Riku was ready, but so was I.
It was my turn to protect what was mine, the ones I cared about more than my own life. Even if it meant I lost it in the process. I just really hoped it didn’t come to that.
Chapter 40 - Konstantin
The location I was given by Dima’s prisoner was a bust, without a soul in sight, and clearly abandoned for a while. I didn’t think it was an outright lie, just old information. Since the prisoner had gone rogue, it made sense that he wouldn’t be informed that Riku had left.
He was our only hope of finding Tati for the moment, and once I was back at Dima’s house, I was glad the man was still alive, though barely. Now he would be revived and shaken down for any other place that Riku might possibly be.
Other than that, all I could do was wait, and it was pure torment. Now I understood why Tati was so upset with me, calmly telling her there were no other options. Not knowing where she was or if she was okay was killing me.
The last thing I wanted to do was report to her father that I had returned without her, and was no closer to that rescue I promised. But the guilt I felt for being led astray, no matter how masterful the Yakuza’s deception had been, made me go to the makeshift hospital room where Dima’s physician was still patching him up.
The grizzled old doctor, who surely had to have seen some things after a lifetime of working for the Fokin family, was subdued and listed off all of Grigor’s injuries. Besides the obvious cuts and bruises, he had burns on his legs, six broken ribs, a broken nose and cracked jaw, various other fractures, and there was a chance he may lose the sight in his left eye.
All to try to save a woman who had ultimately betrayed him. Was that the road I was heading down?
“What do you have to look pissed off about?” Grigor rumbled, waking up as I sat in a chair beside his bed.
Plenty, and none of it I could discuss with him. He might have a stroke, or find the strength to take some more swings at me. He seemed to remember what was going on and asked where Tati was.
“I want to see her.”
“She won’t want to see you like this,” I said, getting up to leave. If he fell asleep again, I could get away without telling him she still wasn’t found, and he wouldn’t work himself up. “Get some more rest.”
His hand, swathed in bandages, with two of his fingers among the various fractured bones, reached out and grabbed my arm. “Don’t bullshit me after everything.”
I sat back down. “It was a bad location. We’re still looking.”
“There’s a tracker in her phone,” he said weakly, his chin quivering.
I had never seen my old friend shed a tear, but I’d never been around him when his only child was missing and most likely in the hands of our biggest enemy, either.
“Yeah, and it’s a shitty one,” I answered, shoving aside my own fears. “Her phone is off.”
As if to prove me a liar, my phone rang, and when I grabbed it out of my pocket, it was Tati herself trying to place a video call. “It’s her,” I said.
“It’s a trap,” Grigor said, as if I were born yesterday. “Don’t fall for anything. Look for pea green walls. The place they kept me had them.”
He was struggling to sit up, upsetting the doctor and setting off an alarm when one of the tubes hooked up to his armcame out. I hurried into the other room and down the hall to answer in another room so Grigor couldn’t interfere.
Or somehow give her coded instructions. Something still stank about this whole thing. Finding Grigor and losing Tati at basically the same time didn’t feel right. I accepted the call, and as soon as she appeared on screen, something eased in my chest.
It still felt like it was in the grip of a giant’s fist, but she was alive. It was also clear that she was in pain and up to her eyeballs in a sea of fear. My eyes roamed over her, sitting on a chair, no pea green wall behind her, just some generic gray window blinds. There wasn’t a mark on her that I could see, but when she took a breath to speak, her face was taut with anguish.
Was that bastard torturing her, or was she just not used to this level of deception?
“Tati, where are you?” I asked, shoving aside my lingering suspicions. For the moment, the joy of seeing that she was still drawing breath at all overrode everything else.
“I’m with my father,” she said. I blinked, but didn’t call her out on it, only nodded. “I was right. He’s been working against Riku all this time,” she continued, not looking nearly as pleased with herself as she should have if this was anything other than a load of bull. She smiled tremulously. “We know where he is, Kon. All you have to do is meet us, and we can bring him down together.”
It was a terrible cover story, the worst I ever heard, even if I didn’t have Grigor in the same house with me. Whatever the reason for the lies, she was determined to lure me out. I silently warred with anger and fear for her well-being, finally deciding to go along with it. Now that she was done with her speech, she looked more afraid than ever. Because I might not fall for it?
“Are you really okay?” I asked, daring her to lie to me about that.
There was the slightest shake of her head before she laughed jauntily. “Why shouldn’t I be? We could have solved this sooner if you just let me keep calling Papa when I wanted to.”