Page 22 of Marcellus: House of Drakos

“Get lost,” Scottie said to Savannah as soon as he made it up to the sofa.

Marcellus immediately frowned. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

Scottie didn’t skip a beat. “One of your bimbos.”

Marcellus’s teeth clenched. “Apologize to Miss Richardson. She’s nobody’s bimbo!”

Olivier and Kalayna looked at each other.

Their father was taking up for Niko’s ex-secretary?

A woman he didn’t even know before her arrival at his home?

Was he for real? He never took up for any of those other ladies they saw him with, and most of those young ladies he actually knew.

But he was offended that Scottie thought she was one of his usuals? Really?

“I apologize,” Scottie said. “But who are you?”

“She’s Niko’s secretary,” Kalayna spoke up for an embarrassed Savannah.

“His secretary? The one he fired?”

“You are so diplomatic, Scottie,” Kalayna said to her brother. “Just United Nations quality.”

Scottie was flustered by his father and now his sister’s insolence toward him. “What are jumping all over me for? I don’t know her.”

“You were supposed to run a background check on her,” said Freddy.

“You think I got time to do it myself? I had it done. She checked out.”

“That’s good to know,” said a surprised Savannah.

“You said you had some new intel?” asked Marcellus. “What is it?”

“We have Niko’s abduction on camera.”

When he said those words, the entire room went still. Marcellus and Savannah both were shocked.

“It was caught by outdoor cameras at a local restaurant in the area. We saw the cameras, paid a nice sum of money to the manager to hand over the full video without him seeing what we had, and here it is.”

Scottie sat his iPad on the coffee table between the chair and the sofa and everybody gathered around Marcellus.

“Do you mind?” Scottie said to Savannah, who was anxious to see the video too, as if he expected her to move out of the way and let him sit next to his father.

Marcellus gave him a hard look. “Didn’t I tell you to leave her alone? Sit your ass somewhere else, Scottie. She’s off limits!”

As Olivier and Kalayna glanced at each other again, baffled by their fathers surprising respect for Savannah, Scottie, flustered, walked around and sat beside his father on the other side of the sofa. Olivier, Kalayna, and Freddy stood behind the sofa and looked too.

And there it was. Niko was speeding in his Corvette when he entered an intersection. He had to slam on brakes to avoid colliding with a big Dodge Durango, and nearly lost total control as he overcorrected. But they collided anyway, causing audible gasps in the room.

“Good Lord,” said a stunned Savannah.

The gunmen, none of whom hid their faces, ran up on the Corvette with guns drawn. The leader dragged Niko out of his car and tossed him into the backseat of another SUV. The leader got in beside him and the SUV took off.

“We traced that SUV for several blocks,” said Scottie, “relying on other cameras in the area, but then it disappeared into neighborhoods with no cameras anywhere. We lost them.”

“Do we have a read on who these people are?” asked Marcellus.

“Only the leader,” said Scottie as he rewound the video to when the leader was grabbing Niko out of the Corvette. Scottie drew a box around the leader’s face. “His name is Boris Escabatti, a particularly rough character with ties to the Russian and Greek Mafias.”

“The Mafia?” said a frightened Kalayna. “Niko was involved in the Mafia?”

“We don’t know that yet. But we do know he was making deals with criminals of various stripes, including Escabatti.”

“What kind of deals?” asked Marcellus.

“Ammunitions mainly. Firearms occasionally.”

Marcellus frowned and looked at Scottie. “Where is he getting ammo to move like that?”

“We don’t know.”

“Your ass didn’t even know he was involved in this shit,” said Freddy. “Did you?”

Scottie hated to admit it. “No, I didn’t. He was moving under the radar.”

Freddy shook his head. “Now we’ve got a fucking mafia crisis on our hands too. You can’t make this shit up!”

Marcellus felt as frustrated as Freddy sounded. “Now that we know this Escabatti is involved, what are we doing about it?”

“Tracking him down and anybody with any connection to him whatsoever. We’re also running backgrounds on the other faces in the abduction. If we find them, we will be holding them until Niko’s released. That includes their children, their wives, and anybody else affiliated with them.”

“Children?” asked Savannah. “You’re going to kidnap children?”

“See Pop? That’s what happens when you let outsiders sit in on family matters.”

“She’s not an outsider. She makes a good point.”

“So you agree with her?” Scottie had shock in his voice. His siblings were in disbelief too.

Until Marcellus spoke again. “No, I don’t agree with her. You bring in whoever the fuck you need to bring in until my child is back home safe and sound. I don’t care if it’s an infant. You take that motherfucker and throw her in a cage too. They nearly killed my son during that abduction.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” said Scottie with a nod. He knew his old man wasn’t getting soft. No way.

But Savannah was horrified. She knew Marcellus could be hard, but not that hard. But who was to say how she would feel had it been a child of hers in that situation? That was why she decided, from then on out, to keep her displeasures to herself.

“We’ve got everybody on it,” Scottie continued. “I have armies of men trying to find Boris, and I’ve got my office using every available face recognition technique to find out the names and locations of the rest of that gang.”

Marcellus was pleased to hear it.

“When did it happen?” asked Savannah.

Scottie rolled his big blue eyes.

“Answer her question,” ordered Marcellus.

“It happened two weeks ago. Okay? The date stamp’s right there.” He pressed angrily at the screen.

“So he’s been in their custody for two long weeks,” said Olivier, “and they never called for a ransom demand or anything at all? Why’s that?”

“Maybe they needed to get their ducks in a row,” said Scottie. “How should I know what those fuckers are thinking?”

“Or maybe they needed a sense of urgency,” said Savannah.

Everybody looked at her. “What do you mean?” Marcellus asked her.

“It can’t be a coincidence.”

And when she said that word Marcellus immediately understood what she meant.

But his children didn’t. “What are you talking about?” asked a flustered Scottie.

“She’s talking about all of our aviation disasters,” said Marcellus.

“Those plane crashes? There’s no connection,” said Olivier.

“You don’t know that,” said Marcellus.

“But why would there be a connection?” asked Olivier.

“Maybe they expected more bodies piling up against me. We’ve had more near-misses than crashes, and all of the crashes, except the one last night, had ten total fatalities.”

“Which is significant,” said Freddy.

“But perhaps not what they had expected,” said Marcellus.

“And the day after your worse disaster to date,” said Savannah, “they notified you that they had your son. That sounds more like a plan than a coincidence to me.”

Marcellus sat erect and let out a harsh exhale.

Freddy looked at his older brother. “You didn’t consider that, Scottie?”

“I considered it, Freddy, of course I considered it. But I dismissed it.”

“Why?” asked Olivier.

“Because nobody in either mafia, Russian or Greek, have any connections whatsoever to aviation. And especially none to Drakos Aeronautics. That’s why!” he said forcefully.

And it was a reasonable explanation. But Savannah still didn’t believe in coincidences. Not on this scale. She looked at Marcellus. “I may be wrong,” she said, “but it just seems too big a coincidence to me. That merger does too, after I started thinking about it.”

They all looked at her again. Scottie frowned again. “What the fuck--”

Marcellus gave him a hard look.

“What are you talking about?” Scottie asked her instead.

“Niko said on the phone earlier today that I knew about a merger he was working on with Saudi Arabia.”

Scottie was impatient with her interruptions. “So?”

“He called it his Saudi merger.”

“Again so?”

It was as if Savannah was still working it out in her own head.

“What is it, Savannah?” Marcellus asked her.

“What if they have him at that hookah bar he co-owns?”

Now everybody was frowning. Especially Scottie. “Why would they have him there?”

Savannah looked at him. “Because that bar is on Saudie Street.”

Every one of Marcellus’s children dismissed such a tenuous connection. “That’s ridiculous!” Scottie said out loud. “I’m sorry, but that’s ridiculous!”

“It’s not even spelled the same,” said an equally annoyed Freddy.

Marcellus didn’t respond. He instead replayed his son’s abduction.

Their dismissals felt like a slap in the face to Savannah.

She had hoped Marcellus would have at least entertained the idea.

But he didn’t even look her way. But she wasn’t backing down.

She said what she said and that was that.

They could take it or leave it. She spoke what she felt.

It was a weak connection, even she would agree to that, but it was still a connection.

“Did they give a timeline when they’ll be in touch?” Kalayna asked Scottie, dismissing Savannah too.

“They said within the next couple days. I’m assuming tomorrow, but that’s no guarantee. I don’t know. They weren’t specific.”

Marcellus watched the video until it ended again.

Then he exhaled. They could tell his mind was working overtime.

He looked at his children. They all looked dead on their feet with worries about work and even more so about their brother.

“It’s late,” he said. “Everybody get some sleep. We should know what their motives are tomorrow or soon after. Is everybody here and accounted for?”

“Yes sir,” said Freddy. “Our mothers are in the guest houses and we’ll probably stay with them there.”

“What about Peggy?” Olivier asked. “How’s she taking it?”

“Her son has been kidnapped,” said Freddy. “She’s taking it awful. She wants an audience with Pop.”

But Marcellus was shaking his head. “Not tonight. Tell her I’ll see her tomorrow at breakfast.”

His children glanced at each other. The woman was hysterical with worry, and he couldn’t give her a moment of his time? Their father could be a cold bastard.

“Now everybody out,” Marcellus said.

Savannah was about to stand to go too, but he grabbed her arm before she could stand up. “Not you,” he said. “You’re staying here tonight.”

Savannah frowned. “Why? I’m not a target.” Then a terrible thought crossed her mind. He probably knew more than she did, she realized. “Am I?”

But Marcellus didn’t go into details with her. “Just to be safe,” he said.

No way was he letting her out of his sight until this matter was resolved. She was Niko’s longtime secretary. Until they knew motives, he wasn’t taking any chances. “Scottie, tell Bernard to come here.”

“Yes sir,” Scottie said as he stood up. He then glanced at Savannah again, with no warmth in his eyes whatsoever, and left the parlor with his siblings.

Marcellus leaned forward and placed his face in his hands. He let out a harsh exhale.

Savannah wished she could comfort him, but she had no words. Seeing that video had terrified her.

The doors opened again, and Bernard walked in. “You wish to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Bernard, this is Miss Savannah Richardson. Miss Richardson, Bernard is my estate manager.”

“He’s the one that escorted me to this room,” Savannah said.

“Nice to meet you,” Bernard said with a slight bow of his head.

“Bernard, escort Miss Richardson to the top floor.”

Bernard was surprised. The top floor was Marcellus’s floor that not even his children were allowed to venture onto. “Which room, sir?” he asked him.

“Mine,” Marcellus said without hesitation, his eyes glued to that video again.

But even Bernard could hardly believe it.

It was a shocker to Savannah too. But she didn’t react.

She didn’t know what to say! After seeing what happened to Niko in that intersection, she was deeply shaken.

If she were to be truthful with herself, she was scared.

And she was in a strange place too? She didn’t want to go home alone, and she didn’t want to be in some room in that big mansion alone.

Being taken to Marcellus Drakos’s room sounded like a reasonable option to her.

Marcellus looked away from the screen. “He’ll look after you,” he said to her.

“Thank you,” she said to him. She didn’t know what else to say. And then she followed Bernard toward the exit.

When they got to the doors, she glanced back at Marcellus. But he was already watching that video once again.