Page 12 of Collin, Episodes 13-15 (The Residency Boys #5)

Collin grimaced. “I’m here, sir. How’d they’d get you?”

“Ambush on the sidewalk as I left class.”

“Your security?”

“I don’t know. They might have survived, but they weren’t conscious. How’d they get you?”

“The office. Mikhail took me in the hall and threatened to shoot anyone who cottoned on.”

émeric’s lips pressed together. “We weren’t ready for this.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” émeric’s eyes sharpened.

“It’s my fault we have a government-grade operative here.”

“Barker and Bernstein would have hired someone else to do their dirty work, Collin. If they had the money for Mikhail, they had money for someone else like him. You don’t know what else might have happened. They might have targeted Linda instead if Mikhail hadn’t been focused on you.”

Lead dropped into Collin’s stomach. Not Linda. She didn’t deserve this. “Yes, sir.”

“How does your sister have Dana?”

Collin shook his head. “Please don’t ask, sir.”

émeric glanced toward Mikhail. “Did she really kill Barker?”

“If she didn’t kill him, then he’s in the hospital.”

Mikhail paced closer, and they stopped speaking, both of them watching him. In time, Collin fell into a cold half sleep, slumped over. He woke to Mikhail kicking him.

“Calling Richard now,” Mikhail informed him. “We see if he have record.”

“He’ll have it.” Collin shifted on his knees. His legs burned, and he could barely move.

Mikhail dialed and put the phone on speaker.

Richard picked it up on the first ring. “Reevesworth speaking.”

“Have you collected the record?” Mikhail snapped, reverting back to his perfect English.

“I have it.”

“I will send you the location. Come alone. No weapons. We’ll shoot to kill if you bring anyone. We will kill your boy and your husband if you have a weapon.”

“Understood. I want proof they’re still alive.”

“Proof of life.” Mikhail laughed. “My pleasure.” Mikhail approached Collin, motioning over one of his companions.

He clipped the zip ties around Collin’s wrists and grabbed one of Collin’s hands.

Collin pulled back. Mikhail’s companion whipped him with the pistol upside the head. Collin fell, stunned.

Mikhail pressed Collin’s hand against the ground. He slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Collin’s palm.

Collin screamed. émeric shouted.

Mikhail’s voice filtered through the white pain coursing through Collin’s nerves. “Enough proof, Richard? Or should I do the other as well?”

“Sufficient. I heard both of them,” Richard said.

“Yes, I suppose you would recognize their screaming. The boy seems quite obedient to you and your Frenchman. How do you do that?”

“Specialized techniques,” Richard bit out. “Are we bargaining? Information is not free.”

Mikhail chuckled. “Perhaps. Twenty-seven minutes. Be there or someone starts losing fingers.” He hung up.

Collin dragged his broken hand against his chest. His eyes sought his sir’s.

émeric’s face was a perfect mask. “Get up, boy.”

Collin rolled to his knees.

“Don’t look at your hand. Put the blanket on. Get warm.”

Collin couldn’t speak. He was dragging air into his lungs gasp by gasp, but he could obey. He pulled the blanket around his shoulders. His hand was on fire. It felt wrong, not just smashed but wrong .

“Eyes on me, boy.”

Collin blinked hard, forcing away tears.

He gripped the wrist of his brutalized hand with his other.

Even his good hand was stiff and prickling; the fingers were fat from lack of blood flow.

He could barely make them curl. There was blood.

He looked down. Maybe he should check. The blanket was between him and his hand.

“Eyes up, Collin.”

Collin swallowed and obeyed.

“Your hand is fine,” émeric said, voice raspy yet firm. “Keep your head together.” Live . He mouthed the word but didn’t voice it.

“Yes, sir.” Collin gritted his teeth. What did émeric know that he didn’t because it looked like Mikhail had most of the cards. Enough cards. All the guns. And he wasn’t being swayed by money.

Mikhail spoke to some of his men and made another phone call.

His voice was tight, and he moved closer to émeric and Collin as he spoke.

“Yes, Dana is missing, but we have the girl’s brother.

No, I don’t know how she found the girl.

We have a missing player. Get your people to find the missing link. ”

Collin clenched his jaw. Ash. Ash was their missing piece, and he’d been only feet away when Mikhail took him. Thank goodness, he’d kept his mouth shut. If nothing else, Ash could bring down chaos on Bernstein as long as they didn’t know who he was.

“Yes, I’d love to threaten to kill her brother if she doesn’t give us the child. That is not possible until we can speak to her.”

The person on the line seemed to be speaking. Mikhail slapped his forehead with his palm. “Da, yes. Of course! I will just reach into my magic hat and find my granddaughter. So easy. Of course. I chip all my progeny like dogs. So careless of me. I forgot.”

More speaking on the other end.

“Fuck you, Bernstein. It wasn’t my lawyer who decided to kill the bitch and lose the girl while getting shot and arrested. That was your man. I do my job. I have the hostages. This is on you.”

More listening and pacing. Mikhail growled and threw a hand up in the air.

“No! I can’t kidnap the Reevesworth woman. List is full. You only pay for so many men. All busy. Reevesworth woman have that crazy merc with her.”

He paused, shaking his head.

“Ellisandre not secretary. Ellisandre motherfucking terror. Fuck you. You want that crazy demon, you find someone else. Let me explain. Simple words. No. Is complete sentence.”

Collin smothered a broken laugh. Good. Mikhail was scared of somebody.

émeric’s brows were drawn together. If only he knew what his sir was thinking.

Mikhail barked orders. A few minutes later, Mikhail’s companions gagged Collin and émeric and pulled them up on their feet and toward the van

At least they were moving. The wait was straining his nerves.

They threw him into the van. He could barely see through the shock of his battered hand getting crushed.

Someone grabbed his wrists and tied them with rope in front of his body and then to the side of the van.

They did his ankles too. When he managed to blink enough tears out of his eyes to see, he found émeric in the same position on the other side except his hands were still behind him.

“Go,” someone called, and the van rumbled to life.

“Have faith,” émeric breathed. “Keep your head together.”

Collin dragged in air through his nose. He used his good hand to wipe it clear of snot and blood. “Yes, sir. Don’t do anything stupid on my account, sir.”

émeric looked almost feral. “I’m not losing you.”

“Yes, sir.” Collin forced a smile. I’m glad you’re here even though I wish you weren’t here.

The van didn’t go far. They came to a stop somewhere outside.

The door opened, and hands pulled them out.

They were dragged into an open courtyard of an abandoned area.

It might have been a school or a church once, but it looked bombed out and shot up.

Trash was windswept against the corners or caught on the stringy grass growing up through cracks in the asphalt and cement.

A lone tree was growing out of one of the walls of the surrounding buildings.

Every last window on both the first and second floors all around were busted.

They had come through a gate that led to what amounted to an alley.

It certainly wasn’t a street. The only other entrance was between two other buildings, and there was a gate on that end, too, with a long narrow passageway that turned around a bend, a blind corner. Everyone was facing that.

Mikhail’s men pushed Collin down on his knees to one side behind Mikhail and forced émeric to the other side, about twelve feet away.

At least the wind was blowing the wrong way to hit them hard.

It was cold enough despite that. The sky showed that it was still solidly afternoon, but the clouds made it seem later. They drifted low and heavy.

The men working for Mikhail dispersed into the wreckage of the architecture except for one standing behind Collin with a hand on his shoulder and another standing behind émeric. Mikhail paced in front, a mic in his ear and his phone in his hand.

“Is he alone?” Mikhail said into his mouthpiece. He listened for a moment. “Then send him in.”

Collin tried to look toward émeric. His guard thumped the top of his head with a gun butt. Collin kept his eyes forward. His hand throbbed. Now was so not the time. He pushed away the pain.

His Master was going to have to make a choice. Collin had to trust him. Trust émeric. Trust in his impossible order. Live.

Mr. Reevesworth walked down the long narrow alley.

He wore his everyday long overcoat and the suit he’d gone to the office in that morning.

His hat was on his head as if it was any other day.

So many terribly normal touches in a day that should be painted in anything but normal.

He entered the ruined courtyard and paused about twelve feet from Mikhail when the man started to raise his gun.

“I have the record.”

“Good.” Mikhail kept his gun half raised. “You bring one bribe, so you get one man. Which one do you want?”

Mr. Reevesworth’s eyes traveled over Collin and émeric. “I’d like to have both, thank you.”

“Not an option. One bribe buys you one fuck.”

“Then you misunderstand the depth of my investment.” Mr. Reevesworth glanced around the space and then back at Mikhail. “I assume you are a practical man. Most men in your line of work are. So, what will it take to buy both?”

Mikhail’s gun came up a little higher. “It’s too late, Reevesworth. I think you misunderstand. You can get one back. I kill one. The people I work for want you to learn a lesson about messing with them. Do you want to know why we are letting you have one back?”