The Agent’s Badboy

“Roan, check on the activities on our warehouse for the gun shipment. And get more guys to handle the liquors on the borders, make sure all the authorities are bought off. I don’t want anyone tipping our info to The Sokolov Cartel.”

Ardian, the Albanian mob boss was getting back on his feet trying to get back into the business. After his last setbacks because of the bust tipped by Yegor, he had made precautions and was moving forward with his gun shipments. He was starting small, quietly smuggling handguns and illegal expensive liquor.

He was so mad with the Sokolov cartel that he was moving in towards one of his businesses that he knows was making him money, sixty percent of it. And Ardian wanted Yegor’s cartel to hurt, he knows once he sells low and takes all of his buyers, he will be known and they will talk to other potential buyers.

“It’s all taken care of, we’re moving as scheduled. Esad is communicating with our guys, he’s listening in on chatters and watching the feeds as we speak.”

Ardian nodded and was back typing on his phone, he has been having back pains and was consulting Valentina. She was saying it may have to do with his strenuous weight-lifting activities a couple of days ago when he was trying to relieve his stress because of the bust.

He had assumed she would say that knowing he should have stopped, but he was carried away and did more lifting than he should.

“Hey, why don’t you come back early and rest your back. Let your men handle…”

Valentina decided to call him instead, she knows he can be so stubborn and put his job before his health. But the mob boss cut her words with his busy tone making her sigh on the other line.

“Val, I’m trying to expand my business. I need to be hands-on. Can you give me something for the pain?”

“I’ll text you the pharmacy’s address and you can tell one of your men to pick it up, but Ardian… you need to rest.” She ended her words in a softer tone making the Albanian mob boss tug his lips from the other line.

“I will, you can help me rest later. I’ll see you at dinner time.”

He was calm and authoritative as always, and she knows he would do what he wanted to do and there’s nothing she can do about it. Nothing, but wait until he gets back then she would do anything she can to help her lover rest and wish he could refer her as one too.

“Boss,” Roan interrupted him and Ardian was alert immediately looking at his facial expression. He ended the call and focus on the matter that was about to erupt.

“What now?” he was thinking something bad had happened to his shipment, but he was not ready when his underboss told him that the Sokolov was accusing him of kidnapping agent Federova.

“She has gone missing, almost four days now. Esad picked up some chatter, they thought you took her, but now they know it was the Kuznetsova and…”

“Fuck! she can’t be missing, that old man Nestor had come to me before trying to sneak up some deal outside of his cartel. Stupid Yegor and his arrangement! Tell Esad to take a look at his warehouse listings…”

The Albanian mob boss kept on talking while he was recalling the old man’s story. He was babbling about his daughter who was supposed to marry the mob boss after Ardian got him drunk enough to spill his thoughts.

“Such a fuck up arrangement I told you right? now she’s paying the price. Stupid ass!”

Ardian cursed at Yegor’s stupidity, Roan had told him about the Kuznetsova heiress that he should just marry to settle in quickly into one of the oldest and riches mafia families in the country.

“Gather our men, I want to find her. Tell Esad to drop everything that he’s doing and find her.”

And Esad being one of the best IT guys in the country, he was fast to locate the whereabouts of the Kuznetsova mob boss. It helps that one of his men had just dropped off his shipment and met with the old man himself so Esad just trails his car as he breaks into the town’s traffic cam and follows him.

It was almost midnight when they reach the Kuznetsova’s hideout. Roan was coordinating with the others while Ardian was strapping his guns and joined his men moments later.

“We will do this quietly, I don’t want anyone dying from our side…” Ardian didn’t say much, his words were continued by his underboss who was explaining their point of entry and how many guys were there according to Esad as he was tracking their movement by using their body heat.

The nerd sounded too excited from the other line as he gets to use his new toy for the break-in.

It didn’t take long before the Albanians move into the dingy hideout quietly and killed the men who were guarding the place. Shots were fired, men were down and the Albanians move smoothly and search every room until one of his men called out for him.

“Shit! Give me the blankets from the other room.” Ardian roared when he saw the once fiery agent was laying shackled while her clothes and hair were all wet. He could only imagine the cold while he was still feeling the icy breeze from the mountainous region that they were in.

Roan cursed from behind him, while his other guy was opening the cell with the key that he retrieved from the dead man who was guarding her cell.

“Yegor… what took… you… so long…” her eyes looked heavy, her voice was barely a whisper, her lips were chapped and her body was cold as ice.

Ardian didn’t say anything he was focused on wrapping her body with the blanket. He hates that she was calling another man’s name, but he was pushing the fact aside as he wanted her safe and out of the wretched place soonest.

“Her feet.”

Roan let another curse as he saw her ankles were blistered and dirty, the place stinks urine and rat feces.

“Sssh… I got you, let me help you.”

She tried to look at her savior, but her eyes were too heavy from the meth and her body was deliciously warm after what felt like months of being cold and hungry.

The Albanians were on their way back to the car when the Sokolov cartel arrived fully armed and a little too late.

“Give her to me,” Yegor aimed his gun at the Albanian mob boss.

“You’re too late Yegor,” Ardian was not backing down as he wanted to get her quickly to safety.

It was the first time that the two mob bosses met each other and they look at each other sizing up their opponents, each thinking the best way to deal with the situation without hurting Karla.

“Yegor…” her words silenced the two mob bosses, and Ardian finally let her down when she wiggled trying to get him to put her down.

“Karla you’re too…” he tried to keep her in his arms but she was insisting to be put on her feet.

“Ardian? what are you? did you? I can do this, oh… fuck!” she couldn’t comprehend what was going on, she cursed when she falls not realizing that the air was too cold for her wet clothes, and her feet were lifeless after days of being shackled.

“Karla!” Yegor didn’t care if the Albanians decided to shoot him when he came to her front and grabbed her body and took her in his arms.

He could see guns were being raised from the corner of his eyes by both sides, but it all fades the moments he saw the condition that she was in.

“I owe you.” That was all Yegor said to Ardian as he grabbed her and let his men cover for him as he walked back to his car.

“Let them leave, you heard him. He owes me, I’ll take that. For now.” His words were as cold as the surrounding air.

Ardian was upset that she was wanting Yegor, and the feeling was too much for him knowing he didn’t want to attach himself to any woman. Not when he still has so much territory to conquer.

Roan didn’t ask any questions knowing his boss has his own quirky way of handling the situation. They were back on the road within moments.

****

Ardian groaned when they arrived at his place, he was back to feeling the throbbing pain from his back and quickly ingest the drug prescribed by Valentina and decides to leave his paperwork for tomorrow. It was already dawn.

He was supposed to finish signing the documents for the shell corporations that his lawyers had arranged for his new setup.

Being a mob was all about being meticulously organized and hiding under the authority’s radar. Aside from all the killings, price-cutting, and territorial war, he knows how to build his empire from the ground up.

Ardian was once the errand boy. He had grown up in the bad side of town and joined the mob soon as he saw the potential to make his own money and ran away from his appointed adoptive parents assigned by the government.

The adoptive parents who abused him and years later he killed after seeing them still doing the same thing to more boys. Those boys, Roan and Frenk had followed him and been with him ever since.

“How are you feeling?” Valentina greeted him as she saw him coming out of his home office. She couldn’t sleep, and the young doctor was pleasantly surprised when she bumped into him. Though from his facial expression she immediately realized that there was something wrong.

“Not too good, I don’t think the pills work. My back still hurts.”

She gracefully walked to his back and put her delicate hands to his spine and try to examine how bad was his pain level and feel for any swelling.

“Why don’t you go to your room and relax? you need to rest your back and your mind. You’ve been working too hard.”

Valentina reminded him as she was tracing his spine to his lower back.

“I have, cause I need to.”

“You have men under you. You need to delegate, and in the meantime, you lay down and recuperate.”

“And work like an old man?” he raised his brow challenging her.

“If you push through you might need surgery in the future, which will take longer to heal, and by then you will feel like a very old man.”

He had always liked her, she looked fragile, beautiful, and elegant and at the same time, she’s the only woman who’s not afraid of him.

“Val,”

“Come on, let’s get you to bed.” She looked at him sternly and he finally relents and let her usher her to his bedroom. He was letting her strip him to his boxers and she lets him kiss her softly.

“Ardian, you need to rest.” She giggled when he pulled her into his bed.

“Lay with me.”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

She looked into his eyes and nodded while the man sighed as he takes-in her sweet floral scent hair and closes his eyes. That early morning the couple sleep easily in each other’s arms.