Chapter 133: Family Ties

“Care to explain yourself?” I ask Felix with an irritated tone. Normally his nonchalant responses don’t bother me, but this is a situation that is affecting my chances of getting my daughter back.

“A couple of months before I met you, I got involved with some unsavory people. I started doing odd jobs for them to make some cash, mostly courier stuff here and there. After a little while, they trusted me enough that my last job was a big one. I was supposed to transport a person; a little girl,” he explains. I nod at him to continue with his story.

“She was only seven years old, the daughter of an enemy of theirs. He screwed them over on a deal and they wanted to teach him a lesson. But I overheard them talking about her and one of them was saying disgusting things about how he likes ‘them’ young. He implied things that I don’t want to even repeat,” Felix says with a shudder.

“So what did you do?” Derek asks him.

“Well, I couldn’t let them have her after what I heard. And I knew if I took her back to her father they would just have someone else take her again. Then I found out through some people I know that the father was just as bad. He beat his wife and daughter for daily exercise. And the mother is a drug addict. So I relocated her,” Felix says.

“Relocated her where?” Logan asks.

“Far away, with people that will love and care for her the rest of her life. Then I got the hell outta dodge,” Felix replies. After he finishes his story, I understand and agree with his motives for pissing these people off. It’s really crappy timing, but I would have done the exact same thing.

“So what do we do now?” I ask the guys.

“Sounds like we need to get rid of them,” Logan says.

“We can, but he will just send more men,” Felix remarks.

“Who will?” Logan asks.

“Viktor Ivanov.”

“Jesus Christ, Felix. Could you have picked a more dangerous man to mess with?” Logan says with an exasperated tone.

“You know him?” Derek asks.

“I know of him. He deals drugs, arms, illegal goods and sometimes illegal people. Specifically from Russia, his homeland. He’s known for being brutal to his own men and even more so to his enemies. It won’t be easy to take a man like that down,” Logan tells us.

“We’ve beat impossible odds before,” I say.

“I said it wouldn’t be easy, not impossible,” Logan replies, then turns to Martin, “Can you show me to the basement?”

“Of course, sir,” Martin replies. What’s in the basement? I’m about to find out as well all trek downstairs and Martin opens a secret door with a code.

My eyes go as wide as saucers when I see what’s behind that door. I don’t know who Logan’s ‘friend’ is, but he must be a collector of every weapon known to man. The hidden room contains more guns, crossbows, grenades and other unidentifiable weaponry than I have ever seen before.

“Are we taking down an entire country or just one man?” I ask sarcastically.

“Might as well be, he’s got a lot of resources,” Logan says. He looks around for something specific and when he spots it, he has a disturbing grin on his face. He grabs a long barreled rifle with a scope on it, which I assume is used by snipers.

“Shall we?” he says. None of us question him; just follow him up the stairs and out the door. He signals us to come with him but stay behind a fountain structure for cover. He proceeds to pick off three of the four thugs within minutes, then walks closer with his gun trained on the last of the litter.

“Should I hit you between the eyes now or are you going to cooperate?” Logan calls out. The man looks scared and shakes his head yes.

“What are you saying yes to?” Logan asks.

“Cooperate,” the man yells in a strangled voice.

“Good. Keep your hands where I can see them or you won’t make it out of this driveway,” Logan replies as he walks slowly towards the gate.

Logan gets closer and talks to the man for a few minutes but we are too far away to hear what they are saying. The man scurries off before Logan turns around and walks towards us.

“He gave me a couple of places Ivanov frequents. He is apparently a creature of habit. One of them is a restaurant where he likes to have breakfast in private before it opens. That would be ideal for what we want to accomplish. I can have men set up a perimeter so we know we have a safe exit,” Logan tells us.

“Breakfast? So tomorrow morning?” Felix asks.

“Yes. It’s probably best we all get some rest before we take this on anyway,” Logan replies. We all nod in agreement, even though I’m anxious to get this over with. We head inside to freshen up and get our bearings.

“Still no word about Brian I guess,” Derek says and Logan shakes his head.

“I’ve got guys on it, combing the whole state,” Logan tells him. I honestly don’t know what we would do without him. He’s earning his money, that’s for sure. But something tells me he would be doing this anyway. In getting to know him recently, he strikes me as a man who’s a sucker for a good cause, regardless of the payout.

“Man, this is going to be a real weight off my back. I really appreciate this. And Lily, I’m truly sorry for messing everything up. I want to get Anna back too,” Felix says.

“I know. I don’t blame you for what you did. It was the right thing, saving that little girl,” I tell him.

“There’s one other thing Ivanov’s goon told me that we need to keep in mind. We will probably want to question him, possibly even keep him alive for a while if this information is true,” Logan interjects.

“What’s that?” Felix asks him.

“He said Ivanov has your brother,” Logan replies.