With a heavy heart, Alexei took a seat as Danila sat in front of him and Kirill stood behind him.
Alexei didn't miss any details. He told them Artyom had a hold over him, just like they are doing now. He worked for Artyom and last week, Oleg got in touch with him and carefully inquired about how the process would work.
They had sent Mia's photos and videos to their contacts in the Middle East, Asia, and South America and were waiting to hear back. But then Artyom disappeared and now the line between him and Oleg was broken.
"You have Oleg's info?" Danila asked immersed in the details.
"No. Only Artyom had that. He was responsible to be in contact with Oleg and me, with dealers overseas. I speak English better than him."
Thinking about how Alexei spoke English, Kirill wanted to get the confirmation to what he already guessed,
"Why did you call Mia in New York?" Kirill asked and startled Alexei.
Alexei was silent for a few seconds but then decided he had no reason to lie. His biggest torment was gone and if he just did what these guys asked for, he would be free.
"Artyom asked me. He wanted to bring Mia back here and asked me to try since he wasn't successful for whatever reason...but then she left New York and it took me a while to figure out where she went. I searched for weeks and finally, a tip came from France. I went down there to take her but then I saw someone with her...I wasn't sure it was you but I came back with that information to Artyom...who went to Oleg and told him you might be alive...And now, here we are." He finished as if defeated.
Kirill was raging inside. He had completely miscalculated how dangerous Artyom was. He should have known better.
Danila sat quietly and watched Alexei. Usually calm and collected, Danila looked angry and stern. He didn't trust Alexei and had a bad feeling about this.
"What do you need me to do?" Alexei probed.
It was all quiet again after his question but then Kirill took the initiative.
"You're going to get in touch with Oleg and provide him with a buyer profile for Mia." Kirill came to sit down with Danila on the couch and looked straight at Alexei.
"We will see how that goes. If it goes well, you will tell him he's eager to close the deal quickly. You will pretend like the buyer wants to haggle but will settle on a number relatively fast. You will tell Oleg you will arrange transport and then, you will pass her to us and you're done. That's it." Danila finished staring at Alexei and watching him wrestle with his thoughts but then Alexei shook his head lightly.
"That won't work. He doesn't trust me, I've never talked to him before."
"Well, Lyokha, time to grow some balls and go in there and tell him you've taken over Artyom's pipeline. You said you dealt with his overseas dealers? What's stopping you from actually taking over Artyom's business?" Kirill responded strongly.
Alexei looked like he was about to cry. His face looked sorrowful and in pain and both Danila and Kirill weren't sure if he was about to break down in front of them.
"Listen, I...I didn't work for Artyom out of my own free will, okay?" He responded and didn't look at them.
"Come on, pull yourself together, man. Last job, and you can get out, go see Masha again. But you fuck this up," and Danila shook his head "you want me to tell you again?" Danila asked genuinely.
Almost crying, Alexei nodded his head and said he understood. He would do what they asked.
But then Kirill realized they missed an important piece.
"Did you hear back from your dealers about her?" Kirill asked as Danila's eyes darted back to Alexei.
"Yes. They all got back to us but there is someone from Turkey who is very eager." Alexei revealed everything he knew.
Both Kirill and Danila fell silent. They didn't know exactly what that meant but it didn't sound good.
"What does that mean?" Danila asked coldly and Alexei answered without hesitation.
"It means that they are ready to move quickly. They have asked us to name the price, and they are ready to come and take her. Tomorrow if need be. Fast."
Danila sighed and threw his head back and then stood up angrily,
"Blyat, why the fuck didn't you open up with this information?!" He looked at Alexei with murderous rage but Kirill stayed quiet and calm on the couch as he thought.
"Is there any way for this buyer to get in touch with Oleg and work around you? Think carefully and don't miss any details." He commanded.
Alexei did just that. He sat on the couch and went through every scenario in his head.
"No, I don't think so." Alexei responded deep in thought.
"No? Or you don't think so?" Kirill asked calmly. "I don't care what the answer is, I just need to know."
After a moment's pause, Alexei answered quietly.
"I don't think so."
Kirill remained on the couch as he thought about everything he heard. If Oleg was to move forward without Alexei, that would mean they had to take care of everything within the next 24 hours and that was very risky, they weren't ready. But how could Oleg have the buyer's information?
He had to make a decision now, tonight.
He decided to move ahead with the plan they had in mind.
"Tomorrow morning you're going to send this buyer profile to Oleg, to his office. Then wait for him to get in touch with you and we go from there." Kirill motioned toward the folder on the coffee table between them. "You are to keep us informed of every single detail. You understand? If I notice you've missed something, I'm going to cut your finger off. Or one of your balls. You can decide. And then we go from there. That's it."
Kirill spoke calmly but Alexei latched onto every word. He silently nodded and left the office without Danila or Kirill giving him a last glance.
Both Kirill and Danila remained in silence as they thought it all through.
"I don't trust him. He's going to fuck it up, and then we will be dead while Mia is shipped off to some harem." Danila bitterly expressed his concerns in the quiet office but Kirill sat on the couch and didn't move.
"We have no choice right now. If Oleg finds a buyer himself, we're fucked. We need Lyokha. Did you have a productive conversation with his sister? Did you scare her enough?" Kirill asked matter of factly.
"Yes. But now he seems scared and unsure. I have a bad feeling about this."
At this moment a light knock on the door interrupted their worried conversation and Mia stepped in.
Both Kirill and Danila were happy to see her and she smiled back at them as she walked in.
"Hello, my two big Russians. What's going on?" She came up to a smiling Kirill and gave him a kiss on the lips as Danila looked on.
"You're already done?" Danila inquired.
"Yes...or do you want me to go back out there, boss?" She asked jokingly and Danila remembered that at some point, he was the only one with her and if he wanted to, she would have had to oblige him. That time was gone, and he felt empty.
"Let's get going. Remember, only come outside when I text you." Danila said not looking at her.
She left the office to meet at the front as usual while Danila and Kirill took the staircase to the back alley directly from the office. Kirill had started using this entrance to discreetly enter and leave the building.
Danila walked down the dimly lit staircase first, checked the camera at the bottom like always and opened the door to a dark alleyway leading into the cold winter night. Kirill followed but as soon as he stepped outside, he knew they were not alone.
It was too late to react fully. In the dark, he instinctively pulled Danila back as he heard a gunshot and felt it reverberate through Danila as he fell back onto him. Without missing a beat, Kirill dragged his best friend back into the staircase and he pulled the door closed, missing the next bullet by a centimetre.
Kirill was panicked. He did not expect this and it had been years since he was ready for this kind of attack.
"Danila! Brother! Where is the hit?!" Kirill spoke urgently as he looked at Danila holding the side of his stomach. Danila groaned and panted from the pain and couldn't open his eyes. He clenched his teeth as he made an effort to steady his breathing.
Losing no time, Kirill roughly picked him up and carried him back upstairs as Danila began to get louder.
"Mia..." Danila panted, "...she's waiting...for my text..." Kirill saw that Danila was turning white.
Haphazardly unlocking the office, Kirill carried Danila to the couch and carefully unzipped his jacket. He saw a dark crimson stain overtake Danila's white shirt.
"Kirill...Mia..." Danila almost whispered. Kirill quickly reached into Danila's pocket,
"What's your passcode?!"
Danila stayed silent.
"Quickly brother, concentrate on me, ok? What's your passcode?!"
Danila breathed in sharply and groaned out,
"...0...1...06...9...1"
Kirill recognized the numbers but brushed past it in his mind. He dialed Mia and ordered her to quickly come back and get away from the entrance.
He then carefully unbuttoned Danila's white shirt to see the damage.
Mia ran up the stairs knowing that something was wrong and as she saw Kirill's worried face greet her at the door, she rushed in to see Danila groaning in pain and clenching his teeth.
"Danila!" She ran to his side and fell on her knees beside Kirill.
They both looked at the huge blood stain on his body and shirt and the lodged bullet. Danila was in a lot of pain but the bullet had entered on the side and it was a very deep graze with the bullet lodged just beneath the skin.
"He's ok." Kirill said sternly. "He's ok. It's like a deep cut, none of his organs were hit. He's in a lot of pain and shock but if we take the bullet out and sew him up, he should be good in a week."
Kirill explained to Mia as her vision became blurry from the tears pooling in her eyes.
Kirill worked quickly and diligently. He asked Mia to help undress Danila while he ransacked the office to look for a first aid kit. Coming back with what he found, he left Mia with Danila as he put on his hood and ran down to the bar to grab a bottle of vodka.
He made Danila drink a few large gulps and using the tools he had, Kirill pushed the bullet out to Danila's loud yells of pain as Mia held his hand.
"I won't be able to sew it well. I don't know how to do it at this angle." Kirill said defeated while inspecting the bloody wound as Danila laid there panting and shaking.
"How do you even know how to do any of this?!" Mia asked him in a panicked voice but remarked how good he looked in his new role as the doctor.
"Years of experience!" Kirill smiled and looked at her. He saw her worried face and wet eyes and remembered how much he loved her, and how much he missed her. He leaned over to kiss her forehead and then zoned back onto Danila.
"I need you to call someone." Kirill turned to her and gave her instructions. In thirty minutes, the man she called had come as Kirill hid in the private room behind Danila's desk.
Without exchanging many words, the short man inspected the wound, cleaned and disinfected it, sewed up Danila and bandaged him up. He gave him a strong pain killer and as he got up and looked at Mia expectantly, she pointed to the envelope on Danila's desk. The man took it and left without saying a word or even another glance at Mia.
Hours later, as Danila slept on the couch and Mia dozed off in an armchair, Kirill sat at Danila's desk thinking about what happened and what to do next.
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