Page 10 of Collin, Episodes 13-15 (The Residency Boys #5)

Collin saw it coming half a second before it happened. In the video feed, as Alice bent down and wrapped an arm around Dana’s waist, she swiped the gun from the ground.

She fired as she stood. One, two, three shots.

Barker was so close and so large she couldn’t miss.

Shock registered on Barker’s face for a fraction of a second before he dropped back onto the gravel.

The video feed started to shake.

Over the phone, Alice said, “Fuck.”

“You’ve got to move, Alice,” Collin urged.

“Don’t call the police. Mikhail had friends here. I won’t make it to jail.”

“Fuck.” Collin made a cutting motion to Ash. Ash hung up the phone. He hadn’t reached the right 9-1-1 for Alice’s area yet anyway. “Do you have a car?”

“Yeah. A rental. Two streets over.” Alice dragged in a breath. Against her chest, Dana was babbling and half screaming into Alice’s shoulder.

“I’m going to get help, but for now, you have to move.” Collin forced the shaking in his hands away.

“Damian.” Ash exhaled loudly.

Collin nodded. “Alice, I’m staying on the phone with you, but I’m going to get Richard. Keep moving.”

On the video feed, nothing could be seen but the side of Dana’s head and gravel moving under Alice’s feet. Collin tore himself away from the monitor and out into the hall.

Mikhail stood in his way. He pointed a gun at Collin’s head. “Hello, boy. Say goodbye an’ hang up nice.”

How the fuck is HE here?

Collin nodded. A distant, cold calm claimed him. The shaking disappeared. His mind dissolved into quiet focus. Into the phone he said, “Lǎoye zài zhèr. Duìbuqǐ. Zàijiàn.” “ Maternal grandfather is here. I’m sorry. Goodbye.” He clicked off the phone.

Please, Ash, for the love of all that is good, remember what lǎoye means and tell Alice what I just said. And don’t follow.

It was one of the buttons. The only reason Collin had remembered the word was because he’d typed up the damn label for Ash to stick on the door.

Mikhail jerked his head in the direction of the backstairs. “Move.” He motioned Collin to walk past him and ahead. As soon as Collin was in front of him, he pressed the gun to Collin’s back. “Keep going. Staircase. If you call anyone, I’ll shoot them first, then you.”

Where’s security?

Collin walked toward the stairs. A distant, observing part of himself noted how steady his legs were, how normal his feet felt on the ground. How odd that anything was normal.

Veronica stuck her head out into the hall. “Hey, you ready to see the new overlay? We’re waiting for you.”

He plastered a smile on his face. “Give me a sec.”

Veronica blinked. “Oh. okay…” She glanced at Mikhail.

Shit !

“I’m just showing Mr. Anderson around for Mr. Reevesworth, okay? Like I said, give me a sec. Sorry, last minute.”

Veronica pouted. “Hurry! This one is really good.”

Collin forced a nod and kept walking. At least she was still alive.

Alice was still alive. Dana was still alive. Veronica was still alive. Ash was still alive.

Inside the staircase, Mikhail ordered him to put his phone on the ground.

Collin complied.

Mikhail patted Collin down on the sides and front of his jacket. “Any other phones?”

“No.”

“Walk.”

The staircase was unheated. Collin shivered as he went down. This was what Ash ran up and down every day. The unfinished brick wall really showed the age of the place, unlike the refurbished and updated offices.

They saw no one else until they reached the bottom. A nondescript white van was parked in the underground loading dock. The driver gave Mikhail a nod and trained a gun on Collin.

“Put your hands together in front of you.” Mikhail slapped three sets of heavy-duty zip ties, linked together in figure eights, around Collin’s wrists.

Collin scanned the space. He might try kneeing Mikhail in the groin, but the man was too smart to lean down.

He lifted Collin’s wrists to work on them, and the driver had him covered.

Mikhail wrapped a black cloth around Collin’s eyes. A shove sent him forward. He found the bottom of the step into the van with the front of his thigh.

“In,” Mikhail ordered.

At least the interior of the van was warm. There were no seats. Mikhail dragged Collin to the opposite side and forced him to lie down. Some sort of straps were on the floor. Mikhail made short work of immobilizing him.

The driver snapped something in Russian. Mikhail answered, then they were lurching forward.

The only thing Collin could see was the saturation of light. They broke out into sunlight and drove on surface streets quickly. Which direction they were going, he could only guess. It felt like they were moving south, but he would have given even odds they were also heading west.

There was too much time and not enough. Collin waited for the fear to hit, or tears, or anything, but there was nothing.

It was like he was floating above it, walling it all off.

He’d practiced this moment in his mind so many times in those years right after he’d stolen the record.

It was almost like he didn’t believe it was real. Just another nightmare rehearsal.

The van came to a stop. Doors opened, slammed, and opened again.

Hands jerked on the straps and dragged him out of the van.

They dropped him on his knees on a hard floor.

It smelled like an old factory or warehouse, cold, half damp, with a hint of grease and bad weed.

Around him, men spoke in a mixture of Russian and English in various accents.

A car drove up and turned off. More opening and closing of doors. Another body hitting the floor. Shit . Who did they have?

Mikhail pulled the cloth off Collin’s head. The light was bright after so long with his eyes sealed shut. He blinked and shook himself.

“Where’s my record?”

Collin blinked. “Ten-plus years, and that’s how you say hello?”

Mikhail backhanded him. It wasn’t bad, just jerked his head to the side and made his cheek sting.

Collin swallowed and looked back up. “We don’t want you back.”

“I’m not.” Mikhail spat on the ground. “Have family in Russia. You just cover family. Job.”

“Well, tell that to Grandma. She’s still wearing your ring.”

“Bitch get life insurance and not do my laundry. She fine.”

Collin shook his head. “What the fuck does this have to do with Dana Reevesworth, anyway?”

Mikhail narrowed his eyes. “Nothing.”

“Like hell it doesn’t, Mikhail. Your mark’s on the house where she was staying.”

Mikhail narrowed his eyes and spat a long string of Russian to someone Collin couldn’t see. Then he crouched down in front of Collin and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

“I killed your father, boy. And he was asset. Bad asset but asset. You only incidental result of operation. So, stop pretend. Took me years, but I know you take record. Where it be?”

“Why are you mixed up with Dana Reevesworth? Is she an asset too?”

“Asset, yes. My asset, no. Only job. Where record?”

“Why would I tell you anything, Grandfather , when I know you’re just going to kill me?”

Mikhail waved to the driver of the car, and it rolled backward. On the other side, on his knees, gagged, was émeric. They still had him blindfolded, and wherever they had grabbed him from, he’d still been wearing his coat.

“He not see me yet. You give me record, he live.”

“Yeah, fuck. That math figures.” Collin closed his eyes. “Why do you think I have it, Mikhail? I was like thirteen, fourteen, when you left.”

“Your dad smart. Record only disappear when you angry ’bout lessons. Alice lessons. No one else have record who come in house. No one but your father know ’bout record. So, you have record. Is your father’s plan.”

“Why come for it now?”

“Reevesworth job. Get me in country. Two birds, one stone.” Mikhail clicked the safety off his gun. “Now tell me where record is.”

“You don’t have to talk like that.” Collin glared at Mikhail. “You speak English perfectly fine.”

“But don’t want to.” Mikhail grinned. “This more fun. Less thinking. Now, record.” He pointed the gun at émeric.

Collin lifted his chin. “I’ll give you the record. But I won’t tell you where it is because then you’ll just kill him because you won’t need him. Exchange. You free Moreau, you get record.”

“How?”

“Phone call. I left it with someone. They don’t know what they have. But they can bring it.”

“Who?”

“My boss.”

“Your boss? More like your john. He buy you pretty suits. You suck his dirty cock. My grandson is a whore.”

“Says the man who married off his daughter like a man hands over a gun,” Collin spat.

Mikhail backhanded him again. Blood spilled in Collin’s mouth.

He laughed and swallowed. “Want your record or not? We both know you’re going to kill me.”

“You not afraid? No beg for your life?”

“What’s there to be afraid of? I’ve known you could come for me since the day I took it.”

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you do have some of my blood in you.” He scrolled through his phone and dialed, then put it on speakerphone. It rang twice.

Bruiski answered. “Reevesworth Industries, good afternoon.”

“Hello, put Richard on the phone. Tell him I have something he wants,” Mikhail said, his accent smoothing out into perfect phrasing.

“One moment, sir. Let me see if I can find him.”

Mikhail raised both his eyebrows. “He not know you’re gone yet, boy?”

That did not deserve an answer.

They waited in silence. Collin risked a look toward émeric. The dark Frenchman was holding very still. But he didn’t seem injured.

Bruiski returned. “Transferring your call now.”

“This is Reevesworth. Who is this?”

“This is the man who has your husband and your boy toy,” Mikhail replied. “Collin has some instructions for you. Do listen carefully.”

He held the phone toward Collin.

Collin swallowed. “Sir.”

“Collin.” Mr. Reevesworth’s voice was tight.

“I asked you to put something somewhere, sir. They want it. The record, sir, in exchange for Mr. Moreau.”

“And what do they want for you, Collin?”

“I don’t think I’m for sale, sir.”