Split Love

CHAPTER 53

THURSDAY, July 11, 2019.

Micah pushed open one of the carved wooden double doors and entered his father's office. His eyes darted over the large room he hadn't entered in a while. Everything remained the same.

The gray carpet floor matched the walls. The large marble fireplace on the side. The furniture was made from the same wood as the frames of the three windows and the beams on the ceiling that formed large squares with carvings. The light that came in through the cracks in the closed blinds left the place gloomy despite it being daytime.

Micah approached the large table and turned on the lamp. The yellow light created a shadow over the scattered papers. He held his breath for a moment as he sat down in the comfortable leather chair. A mystery hovered over Jasmine's disappearance that caused a subtle vibration in his mind. That almost imperceptible whisper that began with Debra's distant look and disjointed words, but at that moment, after the meeting with Richard Keller, became ever-present. A whisper he knew very well he wouldn't be able to ignore.

Something was there, he just needed to find out what.

There were 2 stacks of paper. Documents that he leafed through, but without knowing what he was looking for, meant nothing. The top two drawers of the desk were locked. He pulled the first one a little harder but it didn't budge. Breaking the locks on the drawers was not an option at the moment. Micah knew his father wouldn't keep anything incriminating in his home office. What was he looking for?

He glanced around the table again and was about to get up when a paper that bounced out from under one of the piles of documents caught his attention.

Careful not to tear it, he pulled out the long, narrow paper. A long list of handwritten names with ticks and notes next to each one. It was his father's handwriting, he recognized it. The names were legible but the notes were in Russian, and even though Micah spoke and understood his native language perfectly, his reading was not the best.

He swore.

His eyes ran over the names, recognizing some but others he had never heard. Not in the family, not in the mob, not in any operation.

The door jolted open. Looking up, Micah saw his father standing in the office doorway. He ignored him and turned back to the list.

- What are you doing here? - Andrei Romanov, the head of the Russian mafia in the US, asked.

- Your guard dogs were fast today. Don't forget to give them a cookie.

- I asked you a question.

Micah took a deep breath.

- Admiring my future office. - His tone was monotonous, as was his interest in following in his father's footsteps.

Andrei cleared his throat. Micah quickly read the information knowing that he would have to leave the paper. He heard his father's harsh footsteps and finally looked up at him. Andrei had his usual frown and cold and emotionless eyes. His hands were behind his back as he stared at his son.

- I have my doubts whether you will reach my position.

Micah dropped his head back and with his hands clasped in front of him, he relaxed in the chair. He didn't care what his father thought or his expectations of him. The old man's voice gave him a headache. He raised an eyebrow.

- So it's the two of us.

Andrei scowled. For a few seconds, they remained silent, looking at each other. As always, Andrei expected respect from his son but Micah didn't look away.

- Do you think this is a joke, boy?

- What exactly?

- Where's Keegan Walsh?

Here we fucking go.

- My relationship with him is not friendly. You should ask his brother.

- I'm asking you, Mikhail. Where's that damn Irishman? - He glowered at him.

Micah glanced between his father's identical ones. Damn genetics.

- If you asked me two days ago maybe I would have known, now I don't fucking care. - Micah shrugged.

- I'm asking you now! Have you lost your mind?

- Maybe. - Micah stood up. - Maybe I've lost my mind and I'm starting to torture everyone in front of me until I get what I want.

- And what do you want, boy?

- There doesn't have to be a reason for everything, father. Isn't that what you taught me? - Micah turned his back and walked away. - I'm a Romanov, I can do whatever I want. Right?

- Did you kill Keegan Walsh? - Andrei asked. The anger in his voice was almost palpable. Micah stopped.

- I did. - He turned to his father. - I tortured him, shot him in the head, and maybe then I set his body on fire.

- Stupid kid, what did you started a war for? For nothing! - He barked. Rage flashed through his gaze meeting his son.

Micah could feel his heart pumping anger throughout his body. The thing was, he wanted to do the same to his own father...or much worse. So why not kill an idiot who may have kidnapped the woman he loves? He'd put the bastard's head on a pike when he found out who did it.

- For nothing? - He scoffed. - You don't know what he did. You're here, hiding and giving orders from your throne without knowing what's happening outside.

- And what did he do that putting us at war with the Irish was better than not killing him?

Andrei's question was accompanied by knocks on the door. Micah heard his father curse in Russian as he opened the door. He was feeling exhausted, with almost no sleep in the last days, his nerves were frazzled and despite wanting to continue his incessant search, his adrenaline was already in decline.

- What? - Micah asked the guard standing at the door.

- The feds are here.

- Oh, finally! - Micah's arms rose and then fell to his sides.

- FBI? Have you lost your mind? - Furious, his father called out to him when Micah walked through the door, ignoring him and heading down the hallway. - Mikhail! You're going to ruin everything with your senseless madness, you idiot!

Andrei's words made Micah stop in his tracks. He took a deep breath before turning around.

- Don't worry, father. The matter is me. Finally I will talk to those who have answers.

- And what answers can they give you that I can't?

Ignoring the stupid question, Micah turned around and walked back down the hall toward the stairs.

- Stupid boy! Don't mess everything up!

Micah knew the FBI would contact him after the meeting with Richard Keller. In all his years doing dirty things for the mob, he never feared the feds, they never had hard evidence to incriminate him of anything. And his lawyers always had tricks up their sleeves to free him from any charges that came forward. But at that moment, it wasn't about him, it wasn't about his life of crime. It was about Jasmine, his woman, the love of his life. And he needed to know what the FBI knew so far.

- Romanov. - A man in a white dress shirt, tie, and traditional blue jacket was waiting for him in the entrance hall. He appeared to be in his late thirties just like the other agent next to him.

- It took you two days to find me? I thought you would be faster.

- We are here to -

- To take me in for interrogation, I know. Let's go.