Wife Material

13

My whole security team is gathered in my living room.

I don't trust anyone here, but I need them to try and find my wife, so I instruct them, trying to keep myself as calm as possible.

"Kanan will go through the security footage, and try and figure out what happened and who else is involved. Some of you will need to go back to the service station to check for anything I may have missed. I will need Toni, Martina and Fes to remain at the hospital and exchange with Gale, Luc and Rai, to keep constant protection on Santi and Alena. This is essential. The rest of you will need to stay in case anything happens. That's all."

I leave the living room, quickly making my way to my office. Kenan has managed to get some footage from a building across the road, and as soon as I walk in, he shows me.

I watch as Santi and Liliana get out of the car and move toward the toilets. Santi waits outside while Liliana goes in. Soon after, Daniel exits the car and walks toward Santi. I watch the screen as they get into what looks like a heated argument, and eventually, Daniel points a gun at Santi and shoots him.

I watch as a woman starts running towards the back of the toilets, and realize that she's going after Lilliana, who's trying to escape.

When they're in the car, the woman rolls down the window and throws something out the window. It's the ring.

"I'm trying to get into the GPS of the car they used, but it'll take time. I also have people looking for the vehicle, but it will take at least an hour if we're lucky. Currently, there's nothing that you can do."

I ignore the last sentence. There's no way I'll sit still, knowing my wife is in danger.

I walk into my room and look through the footage. I look for a clue. Something to lead me to her.

I watch as the man I trusted with my wife drives off, for the fifth time. It's only during the sixth rewatch that I pay closer attention to the woman, and things start to connect in my mind.

Her face. . . I've seen it somewhere. As I try to figure it out, my phone starts ringing. It's Alena.

"Elijah, hi." Her voice is tired and strained, "They just finished Santi's operation. It went okay. He's still not awake, but the doctors think he'll be up in a couple of hours."

I nod, "Okay, that's good. I'll try to come to the hospital, in a bit. Keep me updated." She agrees, "Any news on Lilliana?" I can hear the hope in her voice, but it quickly vanishes with my response. "No. Nothing so far. Just. . . Let me know what happens with Santi, okay?"

I end the call, refusing to even ponder about what may be happening to Lilliana, right now. I freeze the video on the woman and print it out.

Grabbing the paper out of the printer, I head to the office to Kenan. "Look at this woman, where have we seen her." He scans the picture, and once again, his photographic memory quickly gives us an answer.

"She was there the day of your meeting with Oron Gatalas. Remember? She was sat next to him. She looked a bit different, her hair was longer and darker but it's her."

It clicks in my head, just as it does in Kenan's.

"Shit, fucking Gatalas is involved? What the fuck."

He barely finishes his outraged sentence, before I start heading towards the door. I check my gun is loaded before I exit the house and vaguely hear Kenan try to talk to me.

"Elijah, what are you doing? You are not going anywhere by yourself, and you currently trust none of your guards, so you're not fucking leaving the house to go shoot up that club, just to get yourself killed."

I look at him, "You're back up. I trust you. Get your gun, and we can go."

"You're lucky I care about you and Lilliana, because what we're about to do," he says, grabbing his gun and ensuring it is loaded, "is a suicide mission, Elijah."

We drive to Oron's club and when we arrive only a few sketchy people are lurking in the building, as well as the staff. Some are counting money, others are moving boxes into a door in the corner and others are just cleaning up the place.

"I'm looking for Oron," I tell a guy with a face tattoo who asked us what we're looking for. "He's not here. Leave." He tries to be intimidating, and I spot the others gathering around him, but I'm irrational right now and don't take that as much more than a challenge.

"Where is he?" I say pulling my gun out and pointing at his face, the others are quick to repeat my actions and point their guns at me.

"Leave."

I don't hesitate to quickly point my gun at someone behind him and shoot him in between his eyes, and repeat the same for another one. The movement is so fast, that it takes them a second to realize what has happened.

"I will kill every single person in this fucking building, and hunt down all your families if someone doesn't fucking tell me where Oron is. Now. Where. The. Fuck. Is Oron?" I can see uncertainty and fear in his eyes. So, I raise my gun again, which startles him. "He's in one of his houses, just outside Athens. It's a forty minutes drive."

He quickly gives me the address, and I turn around to head back to the car. I hear Kenan threaten them again, enough to ensure that they don't contact Oron before we get there.

In the car, I think about what I should do. I don't trust my security team right now - I don't know who could be working with Oron and Daniel, but going into this with no help doesn't seem smart, because it isn't.

My phone rings and it's Alena, "Hey, Elijah, Santi's awake, and he wants to talk to you." I let out a breath of relief knowing that he's okay.

"Sir," Santi's formal voice acknowledges me. "Santi, it's good to hear you're okay."

"Sir, I'd like to apologize for not being able to help your wife, but I think I can help find Daniel. There's a device in his phone that I placed in it when I realized he was acting unusual. I thought it had to do with some personal matters . . . That wasn't the case. It shouldn't matter that his phone is off. If he still has it, then it should lead you to it."

I thank him and end the phone call. Soon after, we receive a text message with a link. As soon as I click on it, it shows me a map with a pinned location.

It's not in the same place as where we were told Oron was staying, but it's close enough.

"Kenan, you have the choice to leave, right now. No resentment. No grudges. Keep yourself safe." I let him know he doesn't have to help me, especially because it's just us.

"Shut up man, I'm not fucking leaving you to walk t your death on your own. Start the car."

This chapter is all over the place. new one should be coming tomorrow or the day after!