A Pole and a Gun

25 - Then you look at me

♤ DIMITRI

I'm pulling up to Tolderov's office with Babushka sitting next to me, tapping obnoxiously with her cane on the dashboard.

Still unable to shake the feeling that Sergei's intention is to send me to a trap with those coordinates, I have an inkling he knows I have bugs to tape his conversations. I feel relieved when my granny jumps at the opportunity to play the role of bait.

I've always trusted my gut, and this feels like the right move, even though there is a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach. Like there is something that I'm missing in this whole scheme.

"Vere is Trixie?" Babushka asks before we exit the car in the parking lot.

"With Nox," I answer. A little sigh escapes me as I let myself fall back in the seat and Babushka raises her brow. "She has bewitched me, Babushka." Admitting to my grandmother that Trixie has softened me makes everything surreal. I'm sucked in, absorbed by the world of Trixie.

"She is a beautiful woman indeed, but hardly Baba Jaga." Babushka agrees. "No witch, just unbridled chemiztry."

I nod, my grin widens like a madman.

I still don't know what it is about her that pulls me in like a magnet. We are completely different. She had to fight to get by in life and it didn't bother me that she had to do it as a stripper. However strange it may sound, there is still something pure about her.

"So, vat's ze plan?" Babushka brings me back from the gutter, where my mind went as soon as Trixie walked into my thoughts with a sashay of her hips.

"You distract Tolderov and I plug this USB-drive into his server." I hold up the small item that Dominic procured so we can install a programme to look into his files unnoticed.

"Let's get zis done zen," Babushka steps out of the car and we head towards the accountant's office.

I do not know what her plan or angle may be, but I trust my Babushka and she will get him out of his office long enough for me to get this job done. I hope it will be enough to gather evidence and present it with Trixie's statement to my father.

After everything Sergei has done, I want to finish him. My intention is that the Bendorova family shuns him and offers him up to the Italians on a silver platter to do whatever they wish with him. Knowing Bocchino's grieving widow, she won't stop at a pinky.

My rage bubbles up to the surface and my fingers ache to cause destruction. I don't have Trixie to calm my nerves and I regret having sent her alone with Nox to her friend's place.

"Natayla! Dimitri!" Nikolai Tolderov opens the door with a flourish and as soon as his gaze falls on me, his fake enthusiasm wavers. "To vat do I owe ze pleasure of your visit?"

"I vant to vitdraw two million," Babushka states next to me, pushing her way inside, tapping with her cane and stepping on Tolderov's foot with hers.

Nikolai's wide eyes rest baffled on my face, but I give nothing away, covering myself behind a stoic expression. I just shrug my shoulders and it takes him only a minute to hurry after Babushka.

The man is already sweating, and I would be too if it was real. Babushka's crazy ideas and investments have put my hairs on edge in the past and caused me to grab for the pill bottle on more than one occasion.

"Vhy Natayla?" I hear him shout after my grandmother as she makes herself comfortable in his sitting room, and by the sound, she is raiding his liquor-cart.

I saunter into the direction of his office, glad he has forgotten about my presence and is solely focused on Babushka.

"I talked to zis incredible young entrepreneur, who makes handbags for chihuahuas."

"For dogs?" I hear Tolderov whine, and a smile draws on my lips as I carefully open the door. "You don't even carry a purse!"

"You don't understand women, Nikolai," her voice carries, so I can hear them in case. "She is making an item excluzively for me."

"A bag? For two million?"

I round his desk and open his laptop, plugging the drive in and waiting for the software to boot.

"Of course," I hear Babushka explain her new investment. "She vill make me a perfect bag to carry my Kalashnikov around and I vill help her business. Easy."

The bar on the screen loads quickly and I dislodge the drive, shoving it back in my pocket and leaving everything in the office like I found it. I hope this gives me enough information because I'm fucked, if not.

I round the corner where they are completely bickering now and I wrap my arm around Babushka's shoulder. "Now, what did I say about carrying outdated firearms around?"

"Come on Dimitri, I can have some fun at my age, no?" She looks at me and winks while Tolderov is staring into his glass of vodka, with one hand closed tightly around a tuft of hair, on the verge of pulling it out.

"I think we can talk about this on the way home," I announce loud enough for the accountant to hear.

Nikolai jumps up, and a mouthed 'thank you' can be read on his trembling lips. The motherfucker wouldn't be so relieved if he found out the real reason behind this impromptu visit.

We leave the fucker behind while I walk Babushka with her arm looped through mine to the car. As we promenade, I fire a message to Dominic to let him know it's set up.

The moment I tap send, an incoming call flags my screen and fills my stomach with dread.

"Nox," I answer the call from my guard, tightening my hand around the device.

"I arrived at Antonia's and she's strapped to a chair in the small living room area," my blood boils as I hear the tone in Nox's voice. "No sign of Trixie. He took her."

"How did he track her?" I bark into the receiver, rage simmering to the surface.

"Her phone," he barks back, the same anger consuming both of us. "We dinnae get Dominic to put a scanner through it because we got it from her apartment."

"Fuck!" I bellow, booting the car tyre.

In moments, we are peeling away from Tolderov's, gravel kicking back as I press my foot to the floor. My knuckles whiten as I grip the wheel tightly; I can't get to Nox quick enough.

He better not touch a hair on her head, or I'll unleash hell.