𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬

73- Nikolai Zhukov

A repeated drip of water against stone is audible, and I feel the cold wetness of pavement against my face.

I try sitting up, but when I move, I feel my body weakening, almost dropping itself when I try pulling my body up.

They drugged me.

The light shutting off was planned. Me going to the kitchen alone was apparently the perfect time to catch me, and press a cloth of chloroform against my nose. I remember trying to fight the slumber, but I really couldn't. I have no idea if my brothers are okay, I can only pray they are and whoever took me, left it at that.

I try squinting my eyes to see trough the darkness surrounding me, but I can only see black emptiness around me. It's so dark in here, I'm not sure if I'm actually opening my eyes or if they're still closed.

I try to sit up again, but feel the rush of blood rising to my head, and feel myself getting lightheaded. I push through, and eventually manage to sit up more or less straight, leaning against the damp wall behind me.

By now my vision has gotten almost used to the darkness, and when I roll me head to the side, I see a different material next to me than stone.

Metal. There are metal bars connected in the wall. I squint my eyes even more trying to have a clearer vision of what exactly it is, and now see a depth behind the bars.

I'm in a cell.

I try scrambling closer to the bars, hoping on a way to escape but I don't get further than a few inches. My body is tired, and after the smallest movement I just did, I'm already out of breath.

I try resting my head against the wall, making sure to not close my eyes because I'm almost certain I would fall asleep immediately, and attempt to be aware of my surroundings by listening clearly.

I can hear the dripping of probably disgusting sewer water infested with bacteria, and it's only now that I smell the rotting scent of sewer. I really am at the worst place possible.

I go to feel in my back pockets, only to realize I'm still wearing that stupid dress without pockets so without a place to store my phone.

I groan in frustration, and decide to return to listening to everything I can hear. There may be a clue on how to get out of here.

All of a sudden, I start hearing deep, ragged breathing from the cell next to mine. I try crawling closer, but my body is still so weakened. I don't even know how long I was unconscious. It could be days.

There's someone close by me, only separating us with metal bars. Maybe he will be my rescue? I'm too tired to think about anything but sleeping at this moment.

I close my eyes, deciding there's nothing I can do now anyway, and let myself drift off to sleep, lulled asleep by the ragged breathing of the person next to me.

It's like Zina completely dissappeared of off the depths of earth. We've sent all of our men to search for her, even pressing a code red, something we've never done until today, but a day has gone by already and there's no sign of her.

Me and my brothers start to get really worried now. Of course we have experience on this part. Kidnappings aren't rare in the mafia, and I'm almost certain ever single one of us is atleast kidnapped once in their life. The only difference was that we found them back after not more than an hour, and Zina is already missing for 24.

No one expected this to happen. However I knew something was wrong from the moment the lights shut off. We have invested in backup power sources a long time ago, so the lights shutting off because of a power outage is impossible. I immediately texted my men to fix that issue, and look around the house and fence to make sure nothing was wrong. I was already too late with finding out, and now losing Zina is my payment for getting distracted from the evil world of the mafia.

I've had almost no time to miss her, as we've been all working for 24 hours straight. Me and Javi tried to avoid engaging Lucas and Diego in the mafia as much as possible, but we need every help we can now. Besides, Lucas is really good with computers, and Diego just was impossible to keep away when his sister was in possible danger.

Zina didn't bring her phone with her, thanks to the stupid dress we bought her because of its length, so it's no use in tracking that. We tried to perform a fingerprint analysis on the note the bastards left, but no result came back. They must've been wearing gloves.

It wasn't needed anyway, as we know for a fact the Russians are behind this. Their leader, Nikolai Zhukov, has always had this weird obsession with Zina. He was the one who gave his mafia the order to kidnap her at only 6 years old, and he has always been the one to participate in any activity involving our sister.

The only reason he has a hatred against our mafia, is because we killed his father after he fucked up a drug deal when his mafia used to work for us.

And Nikolai has certainly got back at us for that tiny mishap. He was the one who killed or parents in a planned car crash, and he's the one who made sure Zina ended up in such a horrible household.

We all share the same disdain towards him, and made sure to let eachother know. He's has a really sick mind to kidnap Zina on Christmas day. This was her first Christmas she can actually remember.

The stress level in this room gets heavier and heavier every minute Zina is gone. Diego almost broke a computer an hour ago when he threw the mouse of the computer against the screen in frustration.

Lucas's smile has dissappeared the moment Zina did, and is now replaced by a focused look on his face as he scans the warehouses the closest to our house.

We must find Zina. We can't loose her another time.

"Eleandro, I think I possibly found something." Lucas calls out. We're all up in seconds.

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