Russian Boss’s Secret Baby by Bella King

Ch 24

SLATE

Katya.

She’s a huge reason why I left St. Petersburg in the first place. What kind of woman does it take to drive a man out of his home country?

I’ll tell you.

We were together for three years, most of which was filled with emotional torment, physical abuse, and having my personal items burned on a regular basis. At that time, we called it “passion”, and I thought it was the price I needed to pay for love.

After the eleventh month of our final year together, she discovered a receipt from a store on the other side of town in my car. A completely innocuous purchase, a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of wine, sent her into a ballistic rage.

Why was I on that side of town? Why was I purchasing wine?

There must be another woman.

I had bought the wine for our anniversary, but I wanted to obtain it somewhere she wouldn’t likely see me, so I drove to the other side of town to help keep it under wraps, to make it a better surprise. Before I was even able to explain what the receipt was for or show her that I still had the bottle, she had set fire to my car and thrown all of my clothes out into the rain.

That was enough passion for me.

At first, I thought just switching addresses would be enough to get her off my back. She hadn’t taken kindly to the fact that I had chosen just to break up with her instead of enduring her emotional outbursts.

She found my new address and started leaving weird little gifts outside my door. Eventually she waited around my apartment building for an entire day until someone let her in and she broke into my apartment, sleeping there until I returned home. When my uncle had told me about the success he had in the US, I knew I had to leave for good.

No matter what my history is with her, I know that Mia is in danger being anywhere near her. If Katya knows she works for me, then logic would dictate that I am also sleeping with her, making Mia her “replacement” in her eyes. Everything is always about her.

My one good man, Michael, is up to the task of arranging a covert search party for Katya and Mia. I have two helicopters being kept at a helipad only about a mile from my home, and he can send out teams of two in any of the cars I keep parked at safehouses around the state.

I might be a little overprepared.

I already know that the vehicle is hard to find in Miami, so any sighting of it is a good lead on its own. The issue is trying to think like Katya, to maybe try and retrace her steps and figure out where she would be taking Mia. I know it’ll be tricky, because Katya is impulsive and unhinged.

Michael returns to the headquarters just as I’m dialing his number to call him. “Mia’s been taken by someone,” I say, startling him a bit.

He recoils at my comment initially, then his expression changes to pure confusion.

“How the fuck did that happen? Was it the Imposter getting back at your for beating the shit out of Eli?” he asks confrontationally.

“No, no. It’s not quite that severe. Mia ran away today after she saw me beating the shit out of Eli, though, and that scared her into the arms of my psychotic ex-girlfriend who followed me here from Russia. So it’s still pretty serious,” I reply, slightly embarrassed that an ex-girlfriend could still be taking up so much of my mental space.

“Oh my god, Katya? You’ve told me about her,” he replies as he starts putting the details together.

“Yeah, I know. So we need everyone to stop what they’re doing today and go looking for her. Nobody comes back here unless they have her or evidence of where she’s been, understand?” I say, making sure to assert my tone more clearly. I know none of these men will want to spend their entire day, and possibly night, looking for my secretary.

“Alright, I think I can make that happen,” Michael says with a note of hesitation in his voice.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, nervous to know the answer.

“It’s just that Eli was kind of the person who did all that arranging kind of shit, you know? He never let me get involved. I was just a grunt. You might have to go scrape him off the front lawn and get him to make this happen for you,” he says as he withdraws a bit.

He’s right. Eli and I never let Michael handle more delicate operations because he’s not good at them. He doesn’t understand coordinates or negotiations at all. The idea of groveling to Eli again makes me want to die, but I know that I can’t let my pride get in the way of Mia’s safety.

Without another word, I pace over to the front door where Eli is still lying exactly where I left him, lying on his side away from me. As I step closer to him, I reach out to turn him over when I notice that he is surrounded by flies.

Shit.

I have nothing to gain by looking at his face in this state, and yet I choose to flip him on his back by his shoulder.

Immediately, I begin to retch. He’s already teeming with maggots on his eyes and mouth, all the fleshiest parts of him being eaten away in real time.

Well, now I have two problems on my hands.