by KJ Dahlen
Then he listened as the silence was broken by the roar of motorcycle engines. Then they began riding out one by one. The last man stopped and closed the gate, making sure it was locked against any incoming intruders.
The Nomads waited an additional twenty minutes and searched the compound again. Each man searching their own area.
Viktor finally motioned them to go forward.
Matvey set a jammer up that would blank out the camera feed and they moved forward into the compound. They had to cut the wire fence to get in but that was no problem.
One by one, they slipped inside.
Viktor and Matvey headed for the main building while the others split up to do their own assignment. The building was quiet and neither man made a sound as they began their search.
Matvey disappeared into the office while Viktor disappeared into the lower level. Buildings in such an outlying rural area wouldn’t normally have basements but this one did. It made him curious about what the MC had down there.
When he reached the bottom of the stairway, he found several rooms. Peeking inside each room, he took note of the fact that most of them were empty. Several dark stains marred the scant furniture and the cement floors but Viktor tried not to think of what those stains represented. When he got to the only door that was closed, he pushed it open and frowned.
Lying on the floor was a woman, or at least that’s what he thought the figure on the floor was. He moved closer and found her lying in a pool of blood. Blood matted her long, dark hair on the left side and she didn’t look like she was breathing.
He knelt down to check her pulse and that’s when he noticed the bruising on her throat. The marks on her neck resembled hand prints, handprints so defined, he could almost see the fingertip impressions on her skin.
He growled as he searched her face for any signs of life. Her skin looked pale and soft. He turned her head slightly and could see the wound at her temple. There was no way of knowing how old the wound was but the blood around it had stopped leaking and was beginning to dry around the edges.
He then noted the blood had already dried that seemed to have seeped from her left ear drum. Despite all this carnage to her small frame, he could detect a weak pulse beating in the main artery of her neck. He dropped his head and took a deep breath. She was still alive. “Slava Bogu,” he whispered. Thank God.
Viktor had no idea what this woman had done but nothing could warrant this treatment. She was a small female but her figure was all soft curves. Her breasts were bigger than they seemed at first and her hips rounded out nicely. Her legs were long despite her short height but they were slender and well formed.
He gathered her into his arms and left the room, walking straight up the stairs. He laid her on the sofa and went in search of Matvey.
Matvey was just walking out of the office when Viktor spotted him. He nodded and moved toward the front door. When Viktor picked up the girl again, Matvey raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask. He held the door open and waited until Viktor and his package were out before he closed it behind them.
The others were gathering in the center of the compound and when they saw Viktor carrying a woman, they looked surprised but no one said a word. Deter was the last to arrive and he had another surprise. He too, was carrying a woman. She was bruised as well and had cuts on her face. She looked terrified of the men but she didn’t say a word. She began trembling badly when she saw the woman in Viktor’s arms.
She then began fighting against Deter’s hold and he was surprised enough to let her go. She slid to the ground and cried out, “Frankie!” Holding her hand out to the woman, her tears were very much present. She was obviously too weak to stand on her own, so Deter gently lifted her into his arms again.
“Do you know this woman?” Viktor asked harshly in English.
The woman nodded. “She’s—she’s my sister, Frankie,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Who the hell are you and why are you still here?” Viktor questioned.
“My name is Galen and I was taken off the streets three months ago. I-I don’t know how I got here but when I woke up after being knocked out, here I was. I’ve spent the last three months in hell and I-I never knew my sister was even here.” She stared at her sister and sobbed out, “Oh Frankie, what did they do to you?”
Viktor sighed with impatience at this growing rescue scenario he hadn’t expected. “She’s alive, for just how long I have no idea but we have to get out of here.” He moved toward the cut wired fence line.
Once on the other side, they all went back to their vehicles and settled in.
Viktor began taking care of Frankie by pouring bottled water over her temple area and using a handkerchief. Once he cleaned the wound, he noticed something had smashed into her skull. The wound was deep and the edges looked ragged but it had stopped bleeding.
What concerned him however was the fact that she’d remained unconscious. He checked the bruising on her throat. It had gotten darker since he found her and her pulse still seemed weak but he did note it seemed to get stronger as time passed.
He looked over at Deter and found he was caring for this girl Galen as well.
Looking back down at Frankie, he saw she was just opening her eyes. He gasped when her pale silver eyes found his. They were terrified but she held her own by never looking away from his face and that showed him how courageous she was. She didn’t say a word but she didn’t seem to back down either.
His heart paused a heartbeat then began to race in his chest for some odd reason he couldn’t fathom as he whispered her name, “Frankie.”
Chapter Four
Looking to Grisha, Viktor asked, “Did you get everything set up?”
Grisha nodded. “It’s all set to blow. We need to have the MC here before we blow it. If we hope to catch them all.”
Viktor nodded. Walking over to Galen he asked, “You said they kept you here for three months, did you not?”
Galen nodded.
“Were they selling you to someone or do you know why were you here for so long?”
Galen swallowed hard. “When I woke up from being drugged maybe three months ago, Snake was with me in a bedroom. Snake is their president. I think the room was in the basement or something because there were no windows and it only had one light that hung down from the ceiling. The walls were cement blocks and it was freezing down there. I was handcuffed to the bed and he informed me that I belonged to him now. I tried to tell him I didn’t but he wouldn’t listen. He said he paid good money for me and if he had to break me, he would but that I wasn’t going anywhere without him and his MC. That I was his bitch now and there wasn’t anything I or anyone else could do about it.” Tears rolled down her face and she shuddered in revulsion. “I tried to resist, I really did. He would come into the bedroom every day and ask me if I was willing to belong to him and every day, I would tell him no. Then he would turn and leave the room, turning the light out and locking the door behind him. He left me alone in the dark all day long. At night, he would come back and ask me all over again. I would again... tell him no.” She shrugged. “More often than not, he would leave me nothing to eat or drink. When he did leave food it was just enough to sustain me.”
“This went on for how long?” Viktor questioned as he attempted to control his disgust at such treatment.
“About two months I think?” Galen wiped the tears from her face. “Then something happened. I don’t know what it was but something spooked Snake. He got me out of the basement and fed me better, then he had me get cleaned up. I had no clue what was going on.” She paused and shook with fear as it boiled over inside her. “Maybe a week after that, a man came here. He was an older man but he was so cold. My blood froze in my veins when I got a look at him. He asked Snake why he still had me here. Snake said he was breaking me in and he wanted to keep me for himself. The man was angry with him and told Snake, he had until the fourteenth to get me ready for transport.” Shaking her head she admitted in a whisper, “I don�
��t even know when that is.”
Deter put his fingers under her chin and gently lifted her head. “Today is the fourteenth.”
Galen looked shocked then she sobbed.
Deter gathered her into his arms and let her cry.
Viktor heard a noise behind him and turned to see Frankie moving now.
Carefully, she slid off the back of his SUV. She had to hold onto the vehicle as she still was too weak to stand on her own but she had tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried to get to her sister.
He growled as he stomped over to her and lifted her into his arms. “You little fool.”
She tried to speak but no sound came from her bruised throat. Grasping her hand around her neck, she tried to speak again but still no sound came from her. She lifted tearful eyes to him and pointed to her sister.
Viktor sighed then carried her over to Galen.
The sisters reunited with a tight, desperate embrace and tears. Both women cried and carried on. Apparently, this was the first time in three months that they’d seen each other.
Deter joined Viktor and the others. They all remained a small distance away from Galen and Frankie.
“You don’t suppose the older man was Tegan do you?” Matvey asked quietly.
“Da, I do.” Viktor nodded. “Galina wrote that he had ties with this MC even way back in her day.”
The girls both raised their heads and gaped at them. Looking at each other, they then stared over at Viktor. They both wore stunned expressions.
Galen tried to speak but couldn’t. A moment later, she cleared her throat and asked, “D-did you say Galina?”
Viktor frowned as he answered, “Da, I said Galina.”
“Galina Beck?” she asked again.
“Do you know Galina Beck?” Deter asked.
Galen shook her head. “Not personally, no.”
“But you know her name?” Viktor narrowed his eyes at her. “How do you know her name?”
“It doesn’t matter now does it?” Galen told him shaking her head. “She wouldn’t know us anyway.”
“Galina is dead,” Viktor informed them both without any inflection of emotion in his voice.
Galen and Frankie both raised their hands to cover their mouths.
“Oh good lord, what happened to her?” Galen asked.
Viktor tilted his head at her. “You seem awfully interested in a woman you never even met. I have to ask myself why?” He pinned a glare on her. “What aren’t you telling us?”
They remained silent as they both looked confused now on top of looking afraid.
Studying the women, one blonde and one dark he couldn’t help but admire the picture they made together. They looked so much alike. In fact, the only difference in their outward appearance was their light and dark hair. The shape of their faces and the contour of their eyes were almost the same. Frankie’s eyes were a silver color but Galen’s were a darker shade of blue.
Then he took a closer look at them both. It took him a few minutes to see it but finally he saw what they were hiding. Growling, he marched over to them and holding first Galen’s chin in his hand, he searched her face again. This time, he didn’t miss the heart shape of her face or the shape of her eyes. Then he did the same with Frankie.
He let his fingers fall away from Frankie’s face and took a step back as he swore in Russian, “Blyad!”
The men all looked perplexed at his anger but everyone remained silent. They knew better than to ask him something before he was ready to involve them.
The silence was then shattered by the roar of motorcycles coming down the road.
Viktor looked over at Matvey. “I thought you told me we had twelve hours?”
Matvey shrugged. “They always took the full twelve hours before. I don’t know why they have come back early.”
Viktor gazed over at the women. He had a feeling they were the reason the MC was back early. Turning to his men he ordered, “Let’s get this done and get the fuck out of here. The women have some explaining to do once we get to our stopping point after this.”
Deter went over to the girls while the others grabbed their rifles.
Grisha grabbed a scanner that could detect heat sources and led the way through the woods almost to the compound fence. They had to remain hidden in the tree line. They all knelt in the brush and waited for activity inside the chain link perimeter.
Viktor turned his gaze to Grisha and asked in a low tone, “Where are they?”
Grisha checked his scanner then held up ten fingers and pointed toward the gates.
A group of riders came roaring up as one man hopped off and opened the gates. The cycles sped through and the gate was closed behind them.
Grisha then gave a low whistle to Viktor.
Their gazes met.
Grisha motioned his head at the main building, then held up four fingers and pointed to the building Deter had found Galen in.
“Was that one you set a charge on?” Viktor asked in a whisper.
Grisha nodded then took out a remote detonator and held up three fingers. Mouthing his words, he counted down backward from three to one. “Tree, dva... adeen.” Just before he was going to hit the switch, Viktor’s phone beeped.
“Hold up,” he whispered harshly. Grabbing the phone from his belt, Viktor read the text Deter sent him. Then he swore, “Dermo...Incoming.”
They all waited until a single vehicle came into sight.... a limo and they watched as one man get out, opening the gate to allow the vehicle through. The limo then traveled to the main compound building and an older man stepped out.
Viktor searched the man’s face carefully then came to the conclusion instantly that this man wasn’t Tegan Averin. For one thing, he looked nothing like the picture they had, this man had the wrong shape of face, and even the shape of his body was all wrong. From what Matvey had been able to find on the dark web, this man was not Averin. He focused his camera on the man and snapped a picture. Sending it to Deter, he asked him to ask the girls if either one of them knew who he was.
They watched and waited for a response from Deter and when it came in a few minutes later, Viktor grunted with disgust and gave Grisha the go ahead to blow the compound.
Grisha checked the body heat scanner again and this time, he found everyone inside the main building. He lifted three fingers again and when the countdown reached one finger, he pressed the button and the silence was shattered when the LP tanks at the back of the building exploded.
Fire followed the gas lines into the main building and it burst into flames so hot, no one could get out in time.
The seven men watched as the terrified screams of the men trapped inside died down and a few minutes later ... stopped altogether. The building burned for at least half an hour and they didn’t spot anyone staggering around the compound, not one person screaming for help and no help arriving to put out the flames...yet.
“We are done here,” Viktor finally announced.
Ivan shook his head and stared at Grisha. “Why did you blow the gas tanks? Wasn’t that overkill?”
Grisha shook his head as he tisked. “You know better than this. I always have a reason for what I do. While I was scouting for a place to set the charge, I found an escape tunnel. The door leading to the outside was hidden out by the tanks. I blocked the door and set the charge under the tanks so even if they made it to the tunnel, they wouldn’t be able to use it to escape. Then I diverted a gas line to drip down into the tunnel so when the tanks blew the tunnel would blow as well trapping whoever was in there. I didn’t want anyone to be alive after the blast.” He got to his feet and glared at the men around him. “I read those reports too.” He looked disgusted. “No one will miss those rotten ublyudki bastards. The authorities will never know this was anything more than a gas leak gone bad.”
“And the State Police will receive paperwork and pictures of the sheriff of this Parrish accepting bribes and money for looking the other way to their less than legal activities,” Vik
tor assured them. “He goes down too.”
“So who was the man in the limo?” Matvey asked with a raised brow.
Viktor lifted his head and glared at them all. “Galen said he was the man who brought her here. When she was taken off the street in Shreveport, she was taken to a warehouse on the river. He was the one who decided which of them were taken and where they were sent to. Apparently, they have quite the operations going and more than one avenue of transport to get their women and children out of the country.”
Matvey narrowed his eyes as he glared back at Viktor. “Did she tell you his name?”
“Da she did, he is Manuel Marchato.” Viktor nodded. “He’s Mexican Cartel.”
“Bylad,” Matvey swore.
“Wait, you said women and children?” Pyotr asked.
Viktor nodded while narrowing his eyes. “We need more information about this warehouse.”
“Are you going to release Galen and Frankie?” Ivan asked quietly.
Viktor hesitated then he replied, “Nyet, whether she knows it or not, Galen has the hands on information we need. Averin has expanded his empire and we need to know when and where. We need them for at least a while longer. In addition to this, they know other things we may need to know.”
Then men all looked puzzled by this last part, but they asked no questions.
“We’d better get out of here before someone comes around to see what all the noise was about,” Adrik advised.
“We have to get the women out of here anyway. We want whoever does come around to think they perished in the blast,” Viktor commented as he turned to leave. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a glint and automatically responded. Without thinking, he grabbed his weapon and fired.
Everyone turned to see a man drop at the edge of the tree line, first to his knees then face down on the ground.
Ivan and Adrik rushed over to the body and flipped him over.
