Page 37 of Marcellus: House of Drakos

“How would you have more to complain about when it was your mother that destroyed our family? Our father was married with children when she was whoring around with him. You and your mother wrecked our entire family and you have the nerve to talk about your woes? What the fuck you had to complain about?”

“He impregnated my mother,” Marcellus shot back.

It was a simmering wound that needed care and attention.

“When she gave birth to his child he dumped her,” Marcellus said with emotion in his voice.

“While you were living it up with our father in Greece, my mother and I were homeless. We were scrounging around for food in those seedy backstreets of Paris just trying to survive another hour! She sold her body just to put a morsel of meat in her baby’s belly.

With the snap of a finger he could have helped her.

Or at least his own child! But he didn’t give a shit.

That’s what I had to complain about motherfucker. That’s what!” Marcellus blared out.

The room went still. It was as if Alex and Oz were hearing it all for the first time.

Kari too. The way they’d been told it Marcellus’s mother was a homewrecker of the first order and that was all there was to it.

She was the enemy and, after his birth, so was he.

Forget that their father had many hoes and many babies outside of marriage. But she was the first.

“And last I looked,” Marcellus added, “a baby can’t wreck anybody’s marriage. It’s an impossibility.”

It was too much for Alex to take. He knew their dislike of Marcellus and even of his mother was misguided all along.

Their father was a whore from way back. But it was still too much to take.

He stood up so fast it startled everybody.

“Let’s take a break,” he said. He looked distressed even more than Marcellus did.

As the oldest, he probably saw more damage than either one of his brothers.

“We’ll meet back in an hour,” he said. “I need a break.”

Marcellus stood up too as Alex reached out his hand to Kari, she took his hand and stood up, and they began heading for the exit.

But Savannah noticed Oz wasn’t leaving. If anybody should, it would have been his ass. But then he let out a loud exhale. And spoke. “There’s this one guy,” he said.

Alex and Kari stopped walking and turned around. Everybody looked at him.

“He’s an explosives guy that mob-type figures use on occasion. You need a car blown up, or a house, or even an office building, he’s your man. He’s known as a hired assassin without a gun.”

But Marcellus was baffled. “An explosives guy? Why would you think he would be connected to me?”

“He told me he used to work for you.”

Marcellus stared at Oz. “He worked for me?”

“For Drakos Aeronautics, yes. That’s what he once said to me.”

“Who is he?” asked a now anxious Marcellus.

“I’ve only used him a couple times – and neither time was recent. I don’t know his real name, but I know him as Bobcat Grishom.”

When Marcellus heard that name, he went white as a sheet. And they all saw it.

“You know him?” asked Alex.

Marcellus nodded his head with a slow-motion nod, as if he was making certain he heard Oz right. “Yes. I know him.” Then he looked at Alex. “His name is Robert Grishom, although I’ve heard him referred to as Bobcat as well. And he did work for me.”

Alex saw the concern in Marcellus’s eyes. And he knew then there was no getting away from it. He placed his hand around Kari’s waist and escorted her back to the sofa. They sat down. Marcellus sat back down too.

“Tell me everything,” Alex said. “I can’t help you if you hold anything back.”

Marcellus hesitated at first, but then he spoke up. “He’s a reckless man. That I know.”

“What was his job?”

“Aircraft designer.”

“Oh my,” said Kari. “That’s a real connection then.”

“We have what’s called a JABA MAX switch on all of our aircraft.

About a dozen years ago there was a study by some research think tank that claimed there was an inherent flaw with that switch on one of our models.

Just one model, mind you. Grishom decided to leak to the media that there was a cover up over at Drakos Aeronautics because we dismissed that study.

That study, mind you, had been discredited by every legitimate researcher that conducted serious peer reviews, and that looked behind the numbers.

But when we had an engine failure that resulted in a crash about a decade ago, which was a very rare occurrence for our planes compared to our competitors, Grishom tried to blame it on the so-called coverup.

But it was just an unfortunate failure that was in no way systemic the way he was pretending it was, and that had nothing to do with the JABA switch. ”

“What happened?” Savannah asked.

“I sued his ass,” Marcellus said. “I sued him for defamation. And I won. I wiped him out. Took everything he had. He claimed to be a whistleblower but the judge saw right through that argument. You can’t be a whistleblower to a lie, which was the case.

I thought that lawsuit was the end of it. And him.”

“You said you wiped him out financially?” asked Alex.

Marcellus nodded. “I worked too hard to make certain we had the safest planes in the sky. He was left with nothing, that’s correct.”

“That’s what I call a good reason to want to get even,” said Kari. “We’ve got to find him before he strikes again.”

“But it happened twelve years ago,” said Savannah. “Why would he decide to sabotage planes right now? And how would he have the access?” It wasn’t adding up to Savannah.

“Those are questions only he can answer,” said Marcellus. “Kari’s right. We’ve got to find him.”

“You said he was a design specialist?” asked Alex.

“That’s right.”

“Would that make him capable of sabotaging your fleet?”

Marcellus nodded. “Access notwithstanding,” he said in a nod to Savannah, “yes. He’s brilliant. Everyone that works for me has to be. So yes he’s capable.”

Savannah looked at Oz. “You said you hired him before. Do you know where he is now?”

She was a bold bitch, Oz thought as he looked at Savannah.

But he knew it wasn’t her, it was his still-hurting ass.

But it wasn’t about her. Or him. If Bobcat was involved in any of it, that meant more innocent lives could be at risk.

It was bigger than all of them in that room.

“Last I heard he was still in Chicago. He never left his home base. He made his money working for various mobs.”

“Including yours?” Marcellus asked, but Oz didn’t respond.

Then Savannah’s phone began ringing. Embarrassed that she had taken it off of airplane mode when she got off the plane but failed to put it on vibration when they arrived in Florida, she pulled it out to turn it off. But when she saw the Caller ID, she looked at Marcellus. “It’s Niko.”

“Put him on Speaker,” Marcellus said.

Alex was pleased that he trusted them enough to do so. He was getting nothing but good vibes from his supposedly estranged half-brother.

Savannah placed the call on Speaker. “Niko, you okay?” she asked him.

“I tried to call Dad.”

“His phone is still in airplane mode.”

“What is it, Nikolas?” Marcellus asked him.

“Dad, it’s Kalayna.”

Marcellus’s heart squeezed. “What about Kalayna?”

When he heard nothing from Niko, his heart began to pound. “Nikolas, what about her?” he asked anxiously.

“It’s me, Pop.” Olivier had taken the phone.

“Tell me what’s going on? What about Kalayna?”

“We can’t find her.”

Marcellus jumped up. So did Savannah. Alex and Oz looked at each other. “What do you mean you can’t find her?” Marcellus asked his son.

“She was supposed to go to her house and come right back.”

“Go to her house? Didn’t I tell you everybody shelters in place? Didn’t I tell you that, Olivier?”

“Yes sir you told me that.”

“Then how the fuck she gets to go to her house?”

“It was supposed to be a quick trip, Pop--”

“Motherfuck! Did we get a call yet?”

“No. Thank God. Maybe she’s fine. Maybe she--”

Marcellus didn’t want to hear that happy talk. “How long has she been gone?”

“We’ve been searching for her, Pop.”

“How long, Olivier?!”

“About half an hour after you left Chicago.”

“Good Lord,” said Savannah.

Alex and Kari looked at each other. Oz was deeply concerned too. He followed the other Drakos on social media and other outlets. He knew the names of all of those children.

“Everybody shelter in place – and that means everybody, Ollie! I’m on my way.” And he ended the call and handed Savannah her phone.

Alex and Kari stood up too. “Is that your daughter missing?” Alex asked him.

Alex could see Marcellus’s eyes begin to mist-up. “Yes. She’s my only girl.”

“My wife and I are going with you,” he said to Marcellus.

“Thank you.”

“I’m going too,” said Oz.

Marcellus and Savannah looked at Oz. That was a shocker. “Thank you,” Marcellus said.

“We’re going to find that bastard,” Alex promised, “and your daughter too.”

Marcellus was grateful. “Thank you all,” he said. “I really appreciate it.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Oz in his usual impatience. “Let’s go!”

They all began hurrying for the exit. But when Alex and Oz waited for Kari to walk in front of them as they were leaving the suite, Marcellus noticed that they didn’t give that same level of respect to Savannah and began walking out ahead of her.

He was in grave distress about Kalayna’s situation, but he knew if he didn’t address it early, they would always treat her as less-than in his world.

And he could not countenance that no matter what the situation was.

“Gentlemen,” he said to his brothers as they were moving out ahead of Savannah. Alex and Oz turned around.

“This is my lady, in case you’ve forgotten. Her name is Savannah Richardson. Just as you showed courtesy to your lady, I would expect you to show courtesy to mine.”

It was a tense moment for everybody present. Even Savannah felt the heat. But then Alex stepped aside and Oz reluctantly did so too. Marcellus then placed his arm around Savannah’s waist and escorted her out in front of himself and his brothers.

Savannah could tell they didn’t like it, especially Oz.

But she could also tell they weren’t the kind of men who did that for sport.

They just disregarded her the way most high-and-mighty people always did.

She wasn’t on their level and they knew it.

Marcellus and Niko were the only ones in that rarified air of the highest of the high classes that never dismissed her.

They all left the palace suite to head to Chicago.