Is this destiny?

~ New York ~

Friday, October 25, 7:13 AM

(For reference, that is 4:13 AM in Los Angeles)

King is in his gym, exhaling loudly every time he does a pull up in a rhythmical, powerful, almost violent manner.

He is wearing only black sweatpants and his muscular back is exposed, showing numerous old scars. You can tell that those were deep wounds which healed long time ago.

"Boss…", Ivan\'s call made King do two more pull ups, each slower than the previous one before he lowered himself to the ground and faced his subordinate.

Ivan can see that his Boss is irritated. He does not like to be interrupted when he is doing his morning routine. But this is important!

"There is a call from Los Angeles. They have Milena\'s daughter, Sarah.", Ivan explained while handing him the phone.

King frowned and checked time. 7:15 AM, that makes it 4:15 AM in Los Angeles. He took the phone.

"Speak!", King ordered.

Older man from the other side of the call stumbled. "Boss… Marko and his team brought in Sarah Hill and Aiden White. Both of them with gunshot wounds…"

"Who are you?", King interrupted the man curtly.

"Dr. Vladimir from Los Angeles. I work under Svetlana Simov.", Dr. Vladimir explained timidly.

King\'s eyes shifted while trying to remember the person. Nope, he has no idea who Dr. Vladimir is, but he knows Svetlana. "Continue."

"I extracted the bullets. The boy had two in the back, and she had one in her left arm. They are both stable. He needed a transfusion and will recuperate well. But…", Dr. Vladimir paused. "For Sarah, bullet hit the bone and shattered it. There might be some nerve damage. I called for a specialist. He will be here within four hours."

King analyzed everything that doctor said. He does not care much about Aiden. He is just a boyfriend, or did they got married? He cringed at that thought. King reminded himself to stay focused: Sarah was shot, and currently in his hands. That is better than he expected.

"Good. Do a full checkup on her.", King instructed.

Since she is in his hands, he can make sure that she has no diseases which might impact his plans: to get her into Lebedev family and put her into a position of power. She can work under him. Ah, he would love to have her as his subordinate… to begin with.

"Yes, boss."

Doctor\'s confirmation that he will do a full checkup pulled King out of his thoughts.

King remembered that Marko brought Sarah in. His task was to watch ONLY! Why did her bring her in? How did he allow Sarah to get shot? If there is any permanent damage to her arm, Marko will pay… with more than just an arm!

"Is Marko there?", King asked the doctor.

"Yes."

"Give him the phone.", King instructed.

In Los Angeles, Marko saw that doctor is handing him the phone and he accepted it with shaky hands. He was not sure if Boss will scold him because Sarah was hurt, or because he did more than observing, or maybe he praises him for a job well done. Who knows?

He took a deep breath to calm down before answering: "Hi, boss. Marko here."

"How did she got shot?"

Marko exhaled in relief when he realized that boss only wants to know the details. He told him what happened: "We followed her, as instructed. They were returning from the White corp. annual meeting. And we saw one homeless woman jump in front of them. We didn\'t hear them, maybe she asked for money and they refused. I\'m not sure. But I know that she pulled a gun on them. After three shots, she ran away and we didn\'t want to leave them there. The street was empty, who knows how long it would take for the ambulance to arrive."

"You did good.", King praised him. There is no need to show any displeasure at this time. King knows that he can always punish the man later, if needed.

"Thank you, boss!", Marko proudly responded.

"Did you remove their phones and other devices that can be tracked?", King asked.

Marko paused at the sudden question. "I have their phones and they are turned off. Should I dispose of them?"

King pinched roof of his nose. "Did you forget that she is good in software and hardware?" He inhaled and started giving instructions: "Remove everything metallic from both of them. Phones, rings, belts, earrings. Use metal detector to make sure you didn\'t miss anything. Take all what you removed and drive around the city for some time before taking it to some place without video surveillance… keep all those items in a metallic box… tin box, wrap it in aluminum foil and then hide the box. Make sure you get lost in the crowd and use some disguise. Did you understand?"

"Yes, boss!" 

"Also, I will send you the address. Doctor said that Sarah is stable, I want you to move her as soon as you remove all metallic things from her. Get someone else to dump the box, don\'t take those metallic items to the new location. Doctor will follow you and he will do additional checkups on Sarah at the new location. Don\'t mess this up."

"Yes, boss.", Marko responded and then remembered. "Boss?"

"Yes?"

Marko cleared his throat when he realized that King sounds irritated (again) and spoke timidly: "You said to move her… what about him?"

King thought for some time before responding: "Move him as well. Make sure both of them stay unconscious until I tell you otherwise."

King decided to move Aiden together with Sarah. At this point he is not sure what to do with him. This came too sudden. He needs to think about his next steps.

Can he use Aiden? King does not see any value in Aiden… other than as a leverage to make Sarah obey him. Yes! That sounds like a good plan. He saw them together, and he is sure that Sarah will do anything to keep Aiden safe. As long as Aiden is King\'s captive, Sarah will obey him. Perfect!

What will he do with Sarah? First, doctor will do a full checkup, and a specialist will ensure that her left arm heals well. Shattered bone? That can take months, but there is no rush… Sarah fell into his hands faster than he expected. He thought it might take years, but this is wonderful.

And it seems that Milena will be kept in the dark. By the time Milena finds out that Sarah is with him, it will be too late. Yes. All the pieces are falling into place.

King returned the phone to Ivan with an evil smirk on his face.

"Keep an eye on the situation there and inform me of any changes. We will look for a good chance to extract them from Los Angeles area once checkups are done.", King instructed and then turned to the pull up bar.

King resumed his exercise with newly found vigor.

He does not remember the last time he was in such a good mood.

Ivan looked at King and left without the word. He does not dare to allow his thoughts to be exposed. It\'s one thing to make Sarah a subordinate and use her skills. But King wants to put her into a position of power. With an end goal to make her an elder! That is not something he will approve. Thought came to Ivan if he should notify Milena of latest developments. Probably not, yet. It\'s still early. Just like King instructed, he will keep an eye on the situation and if nothing else works, he will contact Milena.

---

If you are not reading this at \'W e b n o v e l .. c o m\', then the content you\'re reading is stolen! Please support the author by reading this novel from the original source.