Red Reaper - Soldiers of Fortune [book one]

Chapter FIFTY FIVE

Konstantin Ivanov

...two days later...

It's been days now since I last saw My Sunshine and each minute that passes without holding her in my arms is another minute too long.. Being without her is an emptiness that is all consuming and the aching absence of her is like losing a limb..

She is a part of me and without her I am hollow and haunted..

I am going out of my mind, chasing her shadow around the city, searching high, low and in every hideaway I can think of only to come up empty handed every time.. Luka had managed to track down the last purchase made with her bank card which was traced to the Bodega just a block away from my apartment.. She'd brought a bag of coffee and a packet of cigarettes in my favourite brand and hasn't been seen since..

In a flammable fit of anger, I'd strong-armed the counter clerk into showing me the security footage from the front of his store and sure enough the grainy greyscale film had shown a man of much the same build as Brody Donovan, bundling Lucky into the back of a black sedan.. She hadn't resisted arrest.. She hadn't struggled or fought.. From the stiff and scared way she moved, taking tiny reluctant steps, it looked as if she was near paralysed by shock, or lost in some kind of detached state of unawareness.. Like she couldn't believe what was happening to her..

Luka had also discovered the remnants of her broken phone in the dumpster beside the Bodega along with my missing keys and since there hasn't been another trace of her to be found..

What's worse is that the crooked cop Donovan had gone completely off grid, his cellphone had been switched off around the same time he'd picked up Lucky and his transactions had gone dark.. Whatever game he is playing, he isn't messing around and I am beginning to wonder how far he would go to punish her..

"He's ready for you now, Mr Ivanov.." A fearful and dulcet voice shakes me from my rumination and I lift my gaze to find Nika's latest flavour of the month, Anastasia, smiling down at me with a forced candy coated facade.. She pretends that all is well on the surface, meanwhile she wears her nervousness in the tightness of her petite shoulders and I can hear it the hitch of her breath..

The girl is scared out of her mind..

"About fucking time.." I mutter, rising to my feet, reaching out to take her by the wrist and pull her closer.. "Why you are so tense, Ptichka? Iz there something you wish to tell to me?"

Anastasia hastily shakes her head, her dark locks flicking from left to right.. "Nyet.. I did everything you azked of me, Mr Reaper.. Pleaze-"

"Ty khoroshaya devushka, Ana.. Your papochka would be so vury proud.." I praise her as a good girl as I pet her shoulder in menacing condescension, leaning down to kiss her cheek and she bows in submissive fright at the darkness to my threatening tone..

I don't feel entirely good about using the poor girl as a means to my ends, since that is exactly the kind of behaviour the Zarkone has come to expect from a man like Nikolaj.. But I don't feel bad about it either.. It is an essential evil that I must commit and nothing more.. Anastasia is a necessary tool, the most foolproof and fastest route to getting what I needed.. My threats of violence against her father, while cruel, had ensured compliance.. And I need everybody at the club to be cooperative for my plans to be successful..