Romance: Rockstar Romance: Rock My World (A Bad Boy Rock Star and a College Girl Romance) (Contemporary New Adult Second Chance Romance) (15 page)

''What did he look like?'' Milan asked the boy.

''Shaven head. Funny eyes.''

''
Dritan
,'' Jessie said.

''Okay kid thanks. If you see him again come and tell me, I'll give you a thousand bucks.'' The boys eyes lit up at the
prospect
and he began the walk back to his house.

Milan looked at Jessie. ''I think you should go away. He plainly knows you're here. I'll make arrangements for you to go abroad for a few weeks until we've settled the issue.''

''No. I don't want to leave you. I feel much safer here, by your side.''

''He's an Albanian, they are crazy. People call us Russian's crazy, but we fight fair. Those guys don't.'' It was going to be much easier to root him out and deal with him if he didn't have
to continually look
out for Jessie. The best thing for her to do was to disappear to another country for
while
.

''I don't care I'd rather die than leave you,'' she said.

''Why are women so darn stubborn,'' he said as he sped off again. '' You'd be far safer abroad. I could concentrate on sorting him out. But if you insist on hanging around here, then don't leave my side. Okay.''

''I don't want to leave your side.''

Weeks went
past,
and nothing more happened. They waved to the kid that had given them the note from
Dritan
whenever they saw him. They found out he was the son of the local doctor. He was twelve and loved astronomy.

Milan settled into his role as head of the casino business and made sure Jessie traveled with him wherever he went.

''What's with you and this Jessie girl?'' Limonov asked. ''Are you gonna marry her or not?''

''Maybe. I love her, so I suppose I should.''

''Well, get on with it. Your mother wants to know why it's taking so long.''

Milan laughed. ''Women, hey pops.''

'' They love a good wedding. She's a nice girl. Get a ring on her finger. You shouldn't let a good woman like her slip through your fingers.''

Milan gave it a lot of thought and always came to the same conclusion. He wanted to marry her. But was it all a bit too
fast.
They'd only been dating three months. He thought for a moment about how she would react when he asked her to marry him. Would she even say yes? Maybe she'd been too damaged by the Albanian to want to marry anyone.

''Are you finished yet. I want you when we get home,'' Milan asked Jessie.

''I'll only be a minute. Then you can take me home and fuck me senseless,'' she whispered. Milan felt something in his pants move at the prospect. ''Okay. I'll just go to the ladies
room,
and I'll be right with you,'' she said.

''Hurry up then. You just turned me on so much I don't think I can wait very long,'' he said.

The ladies restroom was down the corridor at the end of the building. Jessie made her way there, opened the door and went into a stall. She locked the door, hitched her skirt up and squatted over the toilet. Before she had time to doing
anything,
she felt something cold around her neck. She put her hands to her neck and tried to free herself of what felt like wire. But it got
tighter,
and she began to choke.

Milan sat chatting to some staff for ten minutes. She's a long time, he thought. He gave her another ten minutes and then began to worry.

''Jan can you go to the ladies and see what Jessie is doing? She went ages ago.'' Jan, one of the best croupiers in the casino nodded and went to find Jessie.

When he heard a scream, Milan ran down the corridor and thrust the door to the ladies open. Jan was standing at the open cubicle door looking at a pool of blood on the floor. The window at the rear of the stall had been
smashed,
and there was no sign of Jessie. He looked out of the window down both sides of the street but saw nothing at all.

''Fuck,'' Milan said. He alerted security and ran to the room that housed the video surveillance equipment. He wound the tape back and watched. At around the time  Jessie had gone there, he saw a man standing outside the restroom window. He then saw him smash the window and reach inside. The tape rolled a little more and Milan saw Jessie being dragged out through the window by whatever was around her neck.

''How the hell did he
mange
to do that?'' Limonov asked after Milan had explained what had happened.

''I don't know.

''How did he know she was in the toilet?

''I haven't got a clue.''

''Fucking Albanian's. You know when we came to the US, they were still in that cesspit they call a country. Now they're all over like some kind of venereal rash,'' Limonov said. ''We're gonna have to take him out, aren't we?''

''Be we don't know where she is,'' Milan said desperately.

''Do you think, they'll kill her?''

''I don't know,'' Milan said.

''They are greedy bastards. If as you say, he knows you two are an item, he'll ask for a ransom rather than kill her. If he kills her, he gets nothing.''

''I hope you're right.

The next morning, the doctors son came rushing up the drive to Milan's house. ''I've got another note,'' he said shoving it under Milan's nose.

'One pm, Seven Mile End. Only you need come,' it read. Milan stared into space and forgot the boy who was waiting eagerly for a tip. He gave him a hundred dollar
bill,
and the boy walked away looking as if he'd just won the lottery.

''We can surround the place and take him out,''  Vladimir said when they met in Milan's office.

''But he expressly asked me to come alone,'' Milan replied

''Seven Mile End is an exposed spot. There's nowhere to hide a sniper,'' Limonov said.

Milan was standing with his father's top men, the same guys that had welcomed him after he returned from college. ''I don't see what we can do, other than I go there,'' Milan said.

''I want you to go with him and hide wherever you can,'' Limonov said as he pointed to Dima and Valentin.

At twelve thirty the three set off toward Seven Mile End. It used to be a freeway interchange, but since the city administration had implemented their new traffic plan for South Las Vegas, the interchange had become redundant and was now a large area of disused tarmac with weeds growing through it.

Milan told the others to get out and find a place wherever they could to watch. He drove
onto
the waste ground and parked in the middle of it. At one pm a van appeared and stopped opposite him. He got out and waited.

Jessie stumbled out of the  back of the van and turned to Milan. She had a wire in the form of a lasso around her neck. Nobody else appeared, but someone did speak via a megaphone.

''If you want to see her alive tomorrow, the price is five million dollars in cash.''

Milan clenched his fist and began to walk toward Jessie. He'd made a decision. There was no way she was going to suffer at the hands of this fool anymore. He walked slowly but purposefully toward her.

''Stop. Stop now or she gets it.''

''You won't shoot her. If you do you'll get nothing,'' Milan shouted back as he continued his walk. A bullet hit the ground just in front of him, but he didn't stop walking.

''Stop Milan, they will kill you,'' Jessie shouted.

''They won't. They are too yellow. They know what my father will do to them if they kill me.''

He continued until he reached Jessie. Two men jumped out of the back of the van. They were confused, they didn't seem to have reckoned with the unpredictable behavior Milan was showing, and they certainly didn't want the killing of one of Russia's top mafia sons on their hands. One of them pointed his gun at Milan.

''I'm unarmed. Let her go and take me. Do you know how much more money you'll get for me?''

They were both jittery and
confused,
and Milan didn't want to be shot just because some guy's hand was shaking too much.  ''Calm down guys. I'm gonna swap myself for her. She can go, take me instead.''

He reached up and took the wire from around Jessie's neck.

''Run to the car,' he said.

''What are you doing? They will kill you.''

''They
won't
now go to the car,'' he said. Jessie looked at him and saw the determination in his eyes. Milan jumped in the back of their van and sat down. ''Come on let's go.''

*****

''You fucking idiots. You complete fuck ups,''
Dritan
shouted. ''What the fuck were you thinking? I'm surrounded by imbeciles.''

''But he just kept walking and jumped in the van,'' one of the men said. ''There was no way we were going to shoot him. He's too valuable.''

''Do you know what his father will do to us if he finds us?''
Dritan
asked.

''Then kill the fucker and let's get the hell out of here,'' the other said.

Dritan
looked at them both. They had worked for him for a couple of years. They were his enforcers. The men he used to break peoples' fingers when clients decided not to pay. But Milan had outfoxed them. Now
Dritan
had a hostage who was almost too hot to handle. He would soon have the whole Russian mafia down on him like a ton of bricks unless he did something.

He'd been extremely upset when he'd found out that she was seeing Milan. He'd only taken her hostage to get Milan to pay him a few million for the inconvenience of losing his girlfriend. In his estimation, there had been a good chance Milan  would have paid for her and left it at that.  But he knew, even if he returned Milan, Milan's father would come after him will vengeance. He had to decide what to do and fast.

''Okay here's what we are going to do. Got to the bank in the morning and withdraw the maximum you can. Book three tickets on the next available flight to Tirana.''

''But what are we going to do with him?''

''We're going  to kill him,''
Dritan
said.

''Okay, I'll do it now,'' one of them said.

''No you fool. Don't you know anything? He's still of valuable to us until we're out of here. We'll kill him just before we  leave.''

Milan, who was tied to an iron bed and gagged,
heard all of this conversation.

*****

''Jessie
think
,'' Limonov said. ''Think what happened. How long did you drive from here to the place where they held you?''

''Er.....about twenty minutes.''

''Did you hear anything close by? Trains, a school, airplanes, anything that could point to the locality they kept you in.''

Jessie was desperate. Milan had been such a fool. What was he doing swapping himself for her? She would much rather have sat tied up worrying about her own life, rather worrying about Milan's life.

''I can't think of anything. There was no discernible noise of any kind.''

Limonov slammed his fist on the table. ''I'll kill the asshole. I'll cut off his balls and stuff him with them. ''How's the wound?'' he asked.

Jessie put her hand to her throat. Okay, I suppose. She'd been cut when they'd pulled her from the toilet. It had bled profusely, but it wasn't serious.

''I'm gonna call this asshole's bluff,'' Limonov said. ''Toni call every TV news channel in Vegas and tell them I am giving a press conference.''

Toni did as he was asked. The TV channels were very interested in a story from such a prominent man as Limonov, and all agreed to come. For them, Mafia meant viewers.

They chose a corner of the casino as a makeshift studio  and when the TV people arrived they set up their cameras and microphones. At six in the evening, Limonov sat at a table and spoke to the world.

''I am a dressing a man called
Dritan
Polyakov. He is an Albanian
citizen,
and I know he has been active in the underworld in Las Vegas. Mr. Polyakov, you have my son in captivity. I have the following to say to you. I assume you are probably going to kill him. That's what I would do in your situation. However, you must think
carefully
because I'm going to make you an offer.

You may think you will be safe in your native Albania, but do you know how many of my Russian friends live and work in your country? If you let my son go, you will have
right
of passage to Albania and a quiet life. If, however, my son is harmed, you will be hunted down. Your  photo  will be in every newspaper and on every TV station in Europe.
The bounty on your head will be so high, you will have the worst kind of people looking for you.
Also, my son is very popular in Russia. Every Russian will feel it his duty to hunt you down like a rabid dog and finish you. If you want to kill my son, go ahead. But that will be the consequence. The decision is yours.''