Chapter 77 End game
Aleksander's POV
Just a few weeks have gone by, and everything has descended into total chaos.
Viktor, with Russo's help, has wrecked the trash industry that took me nearly two years to dominate. It's been one of my most profitable businesses, since everyone and everything generates waste.
It all started with drivers not showing up to work. That's fine, a simple enough problem to fix, that's why they created staffing agencies. Then the next problem started, the staffing agencies started saying there was no one else to send.
Bullshit.
Finally, the straw that broke the camel's back was when no trash was getting picked up. Any garbage that belonged to or was even considered to belong to one of my contracts magically got skipped over. The trash began to pile up in the dumpsters and in the streets. All Atlanta could smell was the stench of Rot.
Then things at home were tense to say the least. Maria spent her days locked away in the library or taking walks in the garden with Henry as her shadow lurking not far behind. She was still mad at me, or maybe you could say disappointed. She wasn't mad at me for going after Adam; that would have been easier to take. No, she was mad at me for having Henry lock her in that room. Closing her off from seeing that vulnerable, angry side that only a select few have ever lived to see. We still saw each other for meals, shared short conversations, and stole kisses every now and then. But the love and passion we once shared felt as if it were locked in a magical bubble, waiting for me to find the key to unlock it.
I know she wanted me to be open with her as I’d promised her all those nights ago. But when it came to this side of me, the side of me where I could black out from my anger, I wasn't prepared for her to see me like this. I wish I were, as none of this would be going on between us now. But two months of us knowing each other couldn't magically overturn decades of keeping all of this within.
When it came to Alina and her new little sidekick, Nina, as if she didn't think I'd find out about that. Had been super quiet. My men had not been able to come up with anything more than just the usual when it came to those two bitches. Most people would feel ecstatic, but the quiet made me nervous as if waiting for the boogey man to jump out at you from the dark.
I did my best to keep my routine as normal as possible as I sat here in my office reminiscing. I kept all my meetings for my legitimate companies and handled my other business with an iron fist.
But there's one thing I had promised Viktor, and that's why I was currently watching a live feed on my laptop.
Did he think that after everything, he wouldn't face my wrath? That after all this, I'd just give up and marry his precious Alina, or better yet, I would lie down and let him murder me so he could get his pound of flesh?
Hell to the fuck no.
I had sent him a little prize. The little prize was sending three of my top men to pay him a little visit at his cabin tucked away in the small mountain-side town of Blue Ridge.
It was currently 5am, dark, and the only sounds audible on the camera were the buzzing of mosquitoes and the annoying chirps of crickets. They had already dismantled the alarm system and taken out the four guards that had been stationed on the perimeter.
They moved quickly, reaching the door through the garage that the guards had stupidly left open. The comm in my ear crackled, “Pakhan, we’re going in now. Any further instructions?”
“No. You know what to do.”
And as fast as that, the comm crackled off, and they breached the house. All the lights were turned off except a lonely overhead light hanging over the stove. Making their way towards the back of the ranch-style cabin, they reached the main bedroom. The man in front gently turned the doorknob, directing the others to follow him in a V-style formation.
Silently, they approached the bed, letting off round after round into the bed.
A smile formed on my face, “Ding dong, the witch is dead. That's what you get fucker!”
The men went over to make sure he was dead, pulling back the covers. Shock consumed us all as the men jumped back. In the bed wasn't Viktor, but a mannequin with a note attached:
Aleksander,
Is this the best you've got?
Sending all my love,
Viktor.
“Fuckkkkkkk,” I screamed as it took everything in me not to throw the laptop across the room.
But then I stopped and stared at the computer. I quickly turned my comm back on, “Get the fuck out of there now! There’s Gas!”
The men had started towards the door and stopped in the middle of the kitchen. As if it were magic, a single pilot light on the stove top lit, and that was the last thing I saw as the entire cabin exploded.
Sitting back in my chair I was stunned, unable to comprehend how this had happened. I planned everything down to the last detail. This should have gone flawlessly.
But it didn't.
For the first time in awhile I was speechless, the only thing I could manage was to pour half a glass of vodka and swallow it in two gulps. It burned all the way down making me let out a low cough, slightly relishing in the pain.
Ping….ping…. The noise of a text message coming over my phone broke the silence of the room. Not even really reading it or comprehending at the time what it said, Henry asking permission for Maria to do something and I just typed out a quick, “Yes.”
I had too much going on then to worry this second about what Maria wanted to possibly do around the compound.
I had sympathy calls and funeral arrangements to make for my men.
The duties of a Pakhan never end.