Chapter 140 Nikolai
"Search again," I ordered. "Search everywhere!"
My men scattered across the burning ruins, moving through smoke and ash, turning over bodies, checking faces. But there was nothing.
I stood in the center of the destruction and felt something inside me break. The estate was still burning. Flames painted the sky orange. Bodies lay everywhere. Volkov was dead. His empire was destroyed. I had won.
But Anya was gone.
"Boss," a lieutenant approached carefully. "We have searched every building. Every room. She is not here."
"Then she must be somewhere else. Volkov said he moved her. Find out where."
"How? Everyone who might know is dead."
I turned to look at him. "Then we make them talk before they die. Next time we take prisoners."
"There is no next time. Everyone is dead. The meeting. The guards. The servants. Everyone."
The words hit me like bullets. All the people who might have known where Anya was. All the information I needed. Gone. Burned. Destroyed. Because of me. I had been so focused on revenge that I had not thought about what came after. I had killed everyone before asking the right questions.
"Then we search the city," I said. "Every building. Every warehouse. Every safe house Volkov owned. We tear this city apart until we find her."
"Boss, that could take weeks. Months."
"I do not care. We search until we find her."
Days passed. Then weeks. My men searched Moscow top to bottom. We raided Volkov's properties. Interrogated his associates. Followed every lead. But we found nothing. No Anya. No clues. No hope.
I stopped sleeping. Stopped eating. Every waking moment was spent searching, planning, trying to find the woman I had failed. I became something darker during those weeks. Something worse than I had ever been before. When we found men who had worked for Volkov, I did not just kill them. I made them suffer. Made them scream. Made them beg. And when they told me they knew nothing, I killed them anyway.
The city began to fear me again. But this time it was different. Before, they had feared Nikolai Markov the mafia boss. Now they feared Nikolai Markov the monster. The man who would burn the whole world to find his wife.
Viktor Sokolov came to see me one night. I was in the safehouse, staring at maps of the city, marking locations we had searched.
"Markov, we need to talk."
"Not now."
"Yes, now. You are falling apart. Not eating. Not sleeping. Becoming reckless. If you keep going like this, you will get yourself killed. Then who will find your wife?"
"What do you want me to do? Give up?"
"No. I want you to be smart. You are searching like a madman. But Anya is not in Moscow. If she was, we would have found her."
"Then where is she?"
"I do not know. But I know someone who can help. Someone with information networks across the country. Someone who can find people who do not want to be found."
"Ivan Smoke."
I shook my head. "I already owe him my life. I will not owe him more."
"Then you will never find her. Because you do not have the resources to search the whole country. But Smoke does."
I wanted to refuse but Viktor was right. I had searched Moscow for weeks and found nothing. Anya could be anywhere. And I could not find her alone.
"Set up a meeting."
Two days later I stood in Smoke's compound again. He sat on his throne, that same cruel smile on his burned face.
"Markov. You look terrible."
"I need your help."
"I know. You cannot find your wife. My network extends far beyond Moscow. If she is alive, I can find her. But it will cost you."
"I already work for you. What more do you want?"
"When we find your wife, you will bring her to me first. Before you take her. Before you run away. I want to meet this woman who has broken you."
Rage flooded through me. "No. Absolutely not."
"Then find her yourself. But you will not. Because she is already dead. Or worse. And you will spend the rest of your life searching for a ghost."
I wanted to kill him. But I needed him. Needed his resources. "Fine. But you will not touch her. You will not hurt her. You will just meet her."
"Agreed. Now go. My men will begin the search immediately."
I left feeling like I had sold my soul again. But I did not care. I would sell everything I had if it meant finding Anya.
More days passed. Then weeks. Smoke's network searched and asked questions and followed leads. But still nothing.
I began to lose hope. Began to wonder if Anya was already dead. If I was searching for someone who no longer existed.
Then on the thirty-seventh day, one of my men came running into the safehouse.
"Boss! We found something!"
I stood up so fast my chair fell over. "What? Where is she?"
"In the woods. About two hundred kilometers north of Moscow. We found a body."
My heart stopped. "A body?"
"Yes. Female. Black dress. It fits the description of what Mrs. Markov was wearing the night of the attack."
"Then it is her. Get the cars ready."
"Boss, wait. It is a dead body."
The words did not register. "What?"
"The body has been there for days. Maybe weeks. We do not know for sure if it is her. But the description matches."
"No." I shook my head. "It cannot be her. She cannot be dead."
"Boss, we need to prepare for the possibility..."
I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. "Do not say it. It is not her."
"Boss, please..."
I let him go and staggered backward. The room spun. My legs felt weak. I fell into a chair and put my head in my hands. Dead. Anya was dead. I had burned the whole city looking for her. And she had been dead all along. Lying in the woods. Alone.
"Take me there," I said quietly. "Take me to the body."
"Boss, maybe you should wait here..."
"Take me there now!"
We drove north in silence. My hands shook the entire way. My mind raced with images I could not control. Anya dead. Alone. Rotting in the forest.
It could not be her. I would know if she was dead. I would feel it. Some part of me would break beyond repair.
But maybe it already had. Maybe I had felt it weeks ago when hope began to fade.
We drove for hours. The city gave way to countryside. The countryside gave way to forest. Deep. Dark. Endless.
Finally we stopped. My men got out and led me through the trees. Through thorns and branches and mud.
And then I saw it. In a small clearing. A shape on the ground.
A body in a black dress.