Chapter 4

Mitch

    After breakfast I went upstairs and took a quick shower. I put on my black Armani suit with a white dress shirt leaving the top two buttons open. I walked down to my office to grab some paperwork, went out the front door and got into my Rolls-Royce. I drove around to the back of the compound to my private airstrip where Jax and eight of my security guys were already waiting. I got out of the car and walked up the stairs of the plane. We each took a seat and Jax told the pilot to take off. I was flying to Newark to have a meeting with a Russian enforcer named Anatoly. He approached me several months ago on behalf of his boss Ivankov. I've heard of this boss before; he and his son Viktor get off on causing other people pain. Apparently, Ivankov had the idea that we could work together and that he could use my ships to transport certain other things. While I may transport weapons and drugs, I was not interested in transporting people. That was never something I would allow.

I rejected his request, and he took it upon himself to start sinking my ships. I lost two ships that were in route to London, all cargo and men lost to the ocean. I also lost one ship that was in route to Mexico. This bastard had become a major pain in my ass, so I decided it was time to send a message. I set up a meeting with Anatoly, told him I was ready to negotiate, but the motherfucker would not be leaving the office alive. I planned to have Jax kill him the moment he walked in the door and I would be sending his head back to Russia. I was tired of this shit.

    When we finally landed in Newark, there was a convoy already waiting to take me to the office. Jax and I got into the Bentley while the rest of the men split up into four Conquest Knight XVs. We drove over to the office and pulled into the underground garage. I got out and used the private elevator that leads directly to my office. Stepping out of the elevator, I walked over to the large windows in my corner office and looked out over the city. Jax reminded each of the men where they needed to be once Anatoly walked in the office.

    They were going to light his ass up. I would finally be rid of this fucking guy and show Ivankov that I am not one to be messed with. I took a seat at my desk looking over some paperwork and the itinerary for Ophelia. She had been asking me if she could go to Europe after her 21st birthday. She wanted to go with one of the charity organizations that does work in the poorer countries. After many weeks of consideration, Jax, Damian and I had come up with a plan to ensure her safety. I would be surprising her at the party with the itinerary for her trip. She would be leaving three weeks from Saturday and would be gone for almost six months.

I'm not sure what I was thinking in agreeing to this, but it was something she wanted to do, so I made sure to make it happen. This is another reason why I needed to squash this conflict with the fucking Russians. I do not want them to get wind of her being in Europe and try to kill her or kidnap her and use her against me.

    The time came that Anatoly was supposed to be arriving. You could feel the tension growing in the room as my men stood and waited for him to walk through the door.

The door never opened. I glanced at my watch and realized he was thirty minutes late.

"Where the fuck is this guy?" I growled at Jax.

        "I don't know," he said, before calling down to the front desk to see if Anatoly had arrived.

    No one had seen him. The longer I sat there the angrier I became. This meeting had been set for weeks now. After another hour of waiting, I decided I was not going to wait any longer. I had other shit to do and this fucker has pissed me off. He'd be lucky if I didn't shoot him myself if he walked through that door right now.

"Call down to the drivers and have them ready," I commanded Jax. "I am not sitting around and waiting any longer. Fuck him and his fucking boss."

    We got in the elevator, went back down to the garage, and got in the vehicles. I decided to call my second in command, Tony, to let him know what was going on. He is in Los Angeles running things on the west coast while I handle things on the east coast; we split the center, each taking certain cities, but all final decisions come through me. My organization was huge, and we had our hands in a little bit of everything. I have crews spread all over the country from LA, to Miami, and multiple crews in New York. I had hoped that one day Liam would become head of the family, but I don't think he's ready for that yet. Something doesn’t set well with me when it comes to letting him run the family. So instead, I gave him a few of the night clubs. I’ll keep him busy until I decide to retire and promote him.

We crossed the bridge into New York City and went to Jonol, one of the night clubs I gave Liam on the Upper East Side. He decided to recently make some renovations, which really brought it up to date. 

I walked through the front door and went upstairs to Liam’s office, "Dad!" he said surprised as he walked over and shook my hand, "I thought you had a meeting at your office?"

"I did but the fucker never showed up."

"Are you serious? What the fuck?" 

"Yep. Just fucking ghosted the whole meeting."

"That's some bullshit. What are you going to do?" 

"I haven't decided yet, but I did not come here to talk about that. I came here to see how the renovations are going and to take you out to dinner before I head back upstate."

"That sounds great, I'll grab my coat. Where do you want to go?" 

"Let's go over to Masto's Steakhouse." I suggested. 

“Great. I’ll grab my coat.” 

We walked out of the office and downstairs back to the front of the club. We got in the car and headed over to Masto's.

When we got to Masto's, we went inside, and the hostess took us right over to our table. I like to keep standing reservations at certain restaurants in case I'm in town and want to grab something to eat. We took our seats and ordered a bottle of whiskey.

   "Don't forget O's birthday is this weekend, she really wants to see you. I know you’ve been busy, but we would like for you to come."

   "Yeah, I know. I'm planning to come up Friday night and stay a couple of days. I want to spend some time with everyone," he murmured.

We each ordered a porterhouse steak and talked about everything going on. After we finished eating, it was time for me to go back across to Newark to the shipping ports. The driver dropped Liam off at the club and we made our way across the bridge before finally coming to the ports. I made it in time to meet the ship and check out the shipment of guns that had come in. They were going to be loaded onto another ship and taken down to Mexico. My best friend, Javier runs a massive cartel down there, so I try to keep him stocked with everything he needs.

As I stood there talking to the captain of the ship, I noticed that Jax got a phone call and started pacing. He had an angry look on his face. I finished up my conversation with the captain and walked over to Jax.

"What is going on?" 

"I got a call from Ben. Ophelia called him. He said when he answered the phone, he heard a loud noise, but Ophelia never said anything on the other end. He stayed on the phone and could hear Damian calling for her to wake up, he heard a struggle and Ophelia screaming." 

I looked at him in disbelief, not wanting to accept what he had told me. It’s been a long time since anyone came after my family, this cannot be happening. 

"Mitch, you okay?" he questioned.

I snapped out of my daze and refocused my attention, "Please tell me you're joking." I snapped.

"I'm afraid not. Ben sent a group of guys to the last location the GPS sent out and they found her truck flipped over and torched." 

My eyes widened when he told me how they found her truck, trying to keep my composure, "Was she in the truck?" 

"No. Neither she nor Damian were in the truck. We're not sure where they are. Both of their phones were found inside the truck and Damian's gun was found on the side of the road in the grass."

"What the fuck? Where the hell are they?" 

Jax shook his head, "We don't know yet."

"Call the pilot and tell him I am on my way and to have the plane ready when I get there. Also call Ben and tell him he better have more fucking answers when I get back to the compound.”

"I’ll handle it." Jax responded. 

I got back in the car and told the driver to get me to the airstrip fast. Jax made calls to the pilot and called Ben who had already sent out his drones to start searching the area. When we got to the air strip, I walked on the plane and told the pilot to get me home as fast as possible. Jax and the other men took a seat, each calling people at the compound trying to get answers. No one had any answers for me.

    I sat there staring out the window, so many scenarios were running through my head. I was trying to keep my composure but the more I thought about it the angrier I became.  Suddenly, my phone buzzed. I looked over and saw it was a text from the Russian. What did this fucker want? Too late to tell me he's not coming. I opened my phone and saw that it was a video. I hit play and saw Ophelia tied to a chair bloodied and bruised. I turned the volume up and set the phone on the table in front of me. The men walked over to see what it was.

    I put my elbows on the table bringing my hands together and resting my forehead on my hands. I closed my eyes as I heard Ophelia crying, my body cringed every time I heard a slap across her face. I heard her pleading for them not to hurt Damian. I heard her start to read the ransom note. My heart was pounding, my breathing got heavy. This was the reason Anatoly never showed up.

     Ophelia said "dad" in the video and I fucking lost it. I covered my face with my hands and hollered out in rage. The amount of anger I had in that moment was unlike anything I had felt in a long time. I hadn’t had this much anger since my brother was killed. I knew the dark road this rage leads me down. Using every ounce of will power I knew I couldn’t allow it to surface. Jax saw the battle I was fighting and put his hand on my shoulder. 

“We’ll find her. I swear to God, we will find her.” 

I took a deep breath, got up from the seat and walked to the bathroom. Leaning over the sink counter, I stared at myself in the mirror and remembered the promise I made to Grace. I couldn’t allow the demons in my head to win this battle. Composure was my only option. 

I heard Jax call Ben to inform him that we had received a ransom and that he would be sending it to him. Maybe he could start trying to figure out where they were being kept. I walked out the bathroom, picked up the plane phone and called the pilot for our ETA. We still had an hour before we were on the ground at the compound. There was literally nothing I could do. I was stuck in a fucking plane for another hour, while my daughter was in the hands of the Russians. After Jax sent the video to Ben, my phone rang and it was Noah, "Son" I answered quietly. I'm guessing Ben has shown Noah and Oliver the video.

"DAD...WHAT THE FUCK!? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I THOUGHT YOU WERE HANDLING THIS MOTHERFUCKER. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPEN AT THE MEETING?"

"He never fucking showed up." 

 I could almost feel Noah's rage through the phone. The sound of things being thrown echoed through. Oliver was on a rampage and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. I took a deep breath and thought of the right words to say. Not only was I angry about my daughter being kidnapped, but now my sons were outraged knowing what had happened to their sister. We did everything we could to protect her, she is everything to us. Now she was gone, and none of us had a clue where she had been taken. I had literally built an army around her, but no matter what we did to keep her safe, it wasn't enough.