Russian Mobster's Obsession by Bella Rose Page A

the house. The other four men followed suit, with Viktor bringing up the rear. He had no weapon, but he wasn’t going to need one if someone challenged him right now. He was angry enough to rip Sasha apart with his bare hands.
    “Nothing!” Denis called over his shoulder. “The place is empty.”
    The men were already starting to file back out of the house. Then Max whined and took off as though he were tracking something unpleasant.
    “Wait!” Viktor shouted. “The dog found something!”
    Denis’s men turned back, following on Viktor’s heels as he tracked Max’s movements through the house. The dog was definitely antsy. He was whining and sniffing as though he had found something that disturbed him deeply. Viktor could only hope it didn’t involve Katie. If Sasha had left Katie behind, that could mean only one thing.
    “There!” Denis shouted, pointing to a closet.
    Max scratched and jumped at the hall closet door. The alcove was tucked back into a corner of the house where Viktor probably never would have thought to look. He grabbed the handle, looking to Denis. The big man pulled out his gun and nodded.
    Viktor yanked the door open and two heavy thumps hit the floor. Max began barking furiously and Denis and his men were yelling in barely comprehensible Russian. Viktor stared at the corpses on the floor. The only thing that registered was that neither of them were Katie. She had to still be alive.
    “He was beaten to death!” Denis’s angry tone could have flayed Sasha alive. “Look at his head. It is crushed. And Igor”—Denis’s mournful tone suggested that he and Igor had been close—“my cousin is dead.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Viktor said carefully. “I know this must be hard, but we have to find Sasha. Is there anywhere he might have gone? Someplace he might feel safe?”
    Denis spouted off some old proverb about a jackal always returning to the scene of the crime. That was when it hit Viktor. He knew where Sasha would go. Now everything depended upon whether or not Sasha had taken Katie with him.
    * * *
    “You should really just let me go,” Katie said in her most reasonable tone. “I’m slowing you down, and at this point skipping town would be your best bet.”
    “Would you shut up?” Sasha snarled. “Do you ever shut up?”
    “Not when I have something to say that you should listen to.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. It was temping to do exactly as he said and shut up. The man was insane. She was sure of it. Why she was sitting here and poking the crazy person? She simply felt that she could somehow reason with him.
    “Why are we sitting at the park?” Katie asked quietly. She was trying not to move around too much, but she was also attempting to loosen the soft nylon rope around her wrists. That meant she needed to keep Sasha somewhat distracted.
    “Because I need someplace to think,” Sasha answered. “I like the park.”
    “Okay.” Katie felt the ropes around her wrists give a little. She tried to squelch her excitement. If she could just get out of this stupid van, she could make a run for it. Even in the dark, she knew this place better than Sasha did. Katie thought of something mundane to keep his brain moving and busy. “Did you play here as a child?”
    “I didn’t grow up here,” he snapped. “My mother was Boris Karkoff’s oldest sister. She moved away from here when she was just out of high school. My grandfather arranged a marriage for her with a mafia man from another city.”
    “I’m surprised you didn’t stay there.” Katie’s comment was spontaneous, but the reaction from Sasha was instant and violent.
    He turned in his seat to stare at her. “My father died doing his duty! They screwed him over. That’s why my mother brought us back here. That’s why I’m better off in my uncle’s organization.”
    Feeling a renewed sense of urgency, Katie slipped her hand free of the ropes. She groped behind her for some kind of weapon. The van was