his dark obsession

decryption

Angel's POV...

Once they neared Vlad's compound, they were immediately hit with the smell of gunpowder, heavy in the air like a whore's cheap perfume. They got in through the gate, which was wide open, and drove up the driveway to the front door. When they arrived, the house was a mess. The front door looked like it had been rammed in, and certain parts of the house were ablaze. We hopped out of the car, racing toward the house. His men, posted outside, quickly followed him, searching the perimeter for his brother. We entered the house; I trailed behind him, my twins firmly in hand as I kept a good watch from behind him while he navigated through the trashed house, looking for any sign of enemies playing dead, but came up empty. He went through the kitchen and out the back, seeing countless bodies lying about. Most of them were Albanians. He walked around the back of the house, coming to the side sliding door. He froze when he saw Jigsaw's lifeless body lying in the grass. If Jigsaw was dead, from the looks of it, he went down fighting—a true, loyal soldier.

Footsteps sounded behind him, and we both turned, guns drawn, seeing Vasily walking up, his arm in a makeshift sling, and the rest of his crew, a little bruised but no worse for wear.

"Everyone's dead, but we lost Jigsaw." His brother sighed out in anger.

"I see, and who was responsible for thinking they could make a play for me or my city?" Vlad said, his eyes plated on his brother, but his demeanor was ice cold, and the air around him was scary.

"Vasily, I left you in charge for the last 72 hours. What the fuck happened in 3 days that caused this much trouble?" Vladimir asked, his voice harsh, which made Vasily take a cautious step back.

"We got a big lead on the Albanian leader and Natasha. I think we got too close, and this is a trick to divert us off their trail."

"What type of lead?" He inquired curiously.

"These." His brother used his good arm to reach into his back pocket and pulled a small stack of what looked to be CDs from inside his suit jacket. "They showed up right after you left, maybe 7 hours later, and I've been receiving about two every couple of hours since then," Vasily explained as Vlad grabbed the disc, inspecting it.

"How have you been receiving them?" He implored.

"Through email. I traced the IP address, and it led back to a burner computer. The IP address was fake. I had a few of the men pay a visit to the owner of the computer, and they found the kid it belonged to and where he lived—in a broken-down apartment in the Bottoms, not more than 20 years old. They brought him in, and I had a friendly chat with him. He claimed he was never told what the discs contained or who they were really being sent to. He was only told that if he emailed all the discs at certain times, he'd receive a payment. The kid said he only did it so he'd be able to take care of his rent that he was behind on." Vasily concluded.

"Did he tell you who was going to pay him? Have you looked at what's on the discs?" Vlad queried.

"A man named Hector Salliz. I had my men run a sweep on his name, and not much came up. I did a check into the kid as well, and his story checked out—kid was late on rent by about 2 grand, so I let him go. And, the only thing on these fucking discs are pictures of dogs."

"Dogs? Are you kidding me?" Vladimir frowned, confused by the information he was just told.

"Did I not say this shit was strange?" Vasily grunted out, reaching for his throbbing arm.

Vladimir peered down at the discs in bewilderment before feeling them being taken from his hand by Angelmarie, who made her way inside the house, around the war zone of dead bodies and rubble. He and his brother, along with a few crew members, followed her into his downstairs office, which was a little thrown around but not as bad as the rest of the house. I watched her take a seat, power on his desktop, and load one of the discs into the drive. An image of a Doberman popped up, and I looked from the computer to him, then over to Vasily, who was watching with curious eyes.