Chapter Text
The violent smack of gun hitting his head should have been the first sign that things were not going to end well.
Maybe not really the first. The short round of gun fire before the door was unexpectedly breached by a bunch of Russian men who swiftly took over their southeast compound was the actual first sign something had gone majorly wrong. That disturbance definitely came before one of the tall henchmen pistol whipped Shane on the back of the head and stunned him.
The gun was about to come down a second time when Shane managed to duck out of the way. He managed a few good jabs and gave back as good as he got but there were too many of them. They were outnumbered two to one. Their assailant’s guns were bigger than anything they had on them at the moment. The surprise attack had worked exactly as the attacker had intended. Quick and efficient. The will to fight back left Shane almost immediately when he saw Hayden being knocked out about fifteen feet away. He yelled for his friend but was quickly shoved in a different direction.
He watched as the unconscious members of his team had their hands tied behind their backs. He stared at Hayden to see if he was breathing and was relieved to see that he was. J.J. was bleeding from his cheek bone and breathing hard but at least he was conscious. There were no fatalities as far as Shane could tell once he managed to drag his eyes away from his best friends. Weapons were collected off his people and they were left waiting for the next phase of the attack.
Shane expected the robbery to commence almost immediately now that him and the few men who were still conscious within their operation had been subdued. The stolen paintings they had secured last week for some rich bastard in France would be a clear favorite if the thieves had any sort of taste and intelligence. The pure gold statues currently being traded on the black market through their courier service would make someone undoubtedly flush with cash if they were melted down. Their rows and rows of rare goods would probably be loaded in a truck and disappear forever. Millions gone in a blink of an eye.
It was going to take a toll on their operation and recovery would probably take the better part of the year to claw them back to baseline. That didn’t include the damage control from lost clients they would have to endure. Bigger risks would have to be taken to recover quicker which Shane already hated with a passion. He had always been a firm believer in slow and steady progress.
What Shane hadn’t expected was the state his mom would be in after she was dragged out of her office to the front where they were being held. It angered Shane when she was then shoved into the arms of two men waiting closer to the exit. There was a faint trickle of blood coming from the top of her head. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were in disarray. The two man grabbed her arms in tight grips and held her upright.
Shane stomach twisted violently in pure anger. There was absolutely no need for any man to strike his mom during the robbery. He could understand him and the other guys receiving blows because they were actual threats. This was a step too far for taking expensive goods being held by facilitators like them. There was no way they thought his mom was an actual threat. He tried to move forward but the big brute that had clocked him before pushed him back into the group and barked at him to stay there.
Then, he emerged. He stepped out of the shadows of the hallway like a lurking demon and into the light which bounced off his curls creating a brief halo of gold around his head. His blue eyes were cold as his gaze swept across the room. He locked eyes on Yuna Hollander and immediately gestured for her to be brought forward toward him. Yuna put her feet down and tried to stop herself from being dragged across the space that separated them. Faster than the blink of an eye a gun was unholstered. The safety clicked off. He pointed the gun at her head and pulled the trigger. Shane screamed as the gun clicked softly. The empty chamber released nothing.
Yuna Hollander looked like she wanted to faint but she stayed standing on her shaking legs.
“Prepare her for travel,” the man growled.
“What? No, don’t touch her!” Shane shouted.
The man ignored him.
“Hey! I said don’t touch her!” Shane surged forward and two of men tried to stop his advance.
The man ignored him again and turned away to exit. Shane swung and it connected with the jaw of the big brute knocking him flat on his ass. He pushed past the other guy who reacted too slowly and made it more than halfway across the room before the two Russians grabbed him and started wrestling him away from his mom. Shane fought and kicked and he could hear his mom struggling against her captors too.
There was nothing to do but shout and shout Shane did, “Take me instead, you rat bastard! Look at me, you fucking coward!”
The man paused before turning around slowly. Shane stopped fighting when the icy glare landed on him and asked, “What did you say to me?”
“Take me instead,” Shane shouted.
The man made a gesture and the bearded goon that liked smacking Shane with a gun walked him forward with a vice grip on his arm until he stood inches away from the man. He was only a handful of feet from his mother now and he needed to do everything in his power to save her. He had to keep the man’s attention on him at all costs.
“Get down on your knees and beg for her life.”
Shane dropped immediately. His knees hit the floor loudly because the silence of the room demanded it. The man racked the gun and Shane looked up to see his mom had been dragged closer too. The muzzle of a gun pressed against her temple.
“I said beg,” he demanded.
“Don’t fucking touch her.”
“That is not begging, Hollander.”
“Don’t kill her. Take me instead. Please I’ll do anything.”
“You’ll do anything? Well that certainly is tempting,” Ilya Rozanov snarled.
He swiveled and pressed the muzzle of his gun against Shane’s forehead. It was a clear a warning. Shane sucked in a breath and waited.
“Какого хуя они все не связаны? Хочешь, чтобы ещё один сорвался?” Rozanov spat at his men. One made a step towards Shane and Rozanov continued, “С этим я разберусь. Иди помоги связать остальных.”
Time passed slowly but Rozanov eventually lowered the gun to a low ready position so it wasn’t pointed at Shane’s forehead. The threat was still clear so Shane didn’t move a muscle.
Rozanov looked around at his captives and announced, “I am here because Grigori Rozanov was murdered in a plot meant to unbalance the Bratva. You may think I'm here unprovoked but I am here to collect on a debt the Hollander family owes for his murder. The coward is not me. Isn’t that right, Yuna Hollander?”
“I know nothing of what you speak,” his mother immediately replied.
“No? You did not attend a meeting six months ago where other Трусы chose to end my father’s life for personal gain? What a shame. It looks so much like you in the video.”
“I did not vote to murder him. I did not participate in the vote at all,” Yuna said. She held her head high but her voice quivered. She glanced at Shane the fear in her eyes evident before looking back at Rozanov.
“But you knew it was coming and did nothing to stop it. You may not have voted for my father’s death like the others but your silence did not slow the blade that cut his throat and spilled his guts. They had the votes so you remained silent because you thought I wouldn’t figure out your play.”
“That’s not true. I’ve gained nothing from your father’s death.”
Rozanov let out a harsh laugh and spit out, “And those deals you struck with the Yakuza were just coincidence? Or maybe the Irish deals were pure luck? I’m sure you never stoked the fires under the others to push their plot further. The windfall and fallout were very convenient, right?”
Yuna Hollander blinked in shock. Her poker face fell and it was clear she whatever she had been doing behind the scenes had been found out. Shane had no idea how they gotten to this point but his mother had miscalculated something drastically. Yuna recovered quickly and began to make an offer, “We can work together-.”
“What would I need your small operation for? You are fixers. You are facilitators. You are no more than grifters and a thorn in my side. You steal, trade, and dabble in favors but you have no power that I could not easily squash. Your men can’t even protect you properly. Look at them. Even they would be of no use to me. This is about the debt you owe. The blood of my father demanded blood from those who spilled it. That has been completed. Now, I am on the last stage. Silence during permanent decisions demands permanent silence.”
His mom’s face went pale. They had heard the stories of the Bratva cutting down two other mafia families and flaming part of their own network in connection to Grigori Rozanov’s death. Entire organizations ripped down overnight and conquered swiftly. They hadn’t expected Rozanov to come for them. Shane had previously held no expectations that they would be burned too.
It was clear Ilya Rozanov was here to kill Shane’s mother in connection to his father’s death. Shane started trying to get up to fight for his mom. He had to defend her somehow. Rozanov shoved his shoulder down and grabbed him by the hair with his free hand. He pulled Shane’s hair back hard and his roots twinged painfully in protest. Rozanov let him see the purposefully twitch of the gun still in his other hand as a threat and warning.
“Stay right fucking there Hollander if you know what’s good for you or I will increase the price your organization pays and it will be steeper than you can afford,” Rozanov sneered at him from where he towered above him. Rozanov looked over the top of where Shane kneeled and used his hold on Shane’s hair to force him to follow the look.
Pistols and rifles were pointed at their men. J.J. was staring at the offending pistol near his face with subdued anger and freshly bound hands. Hayden didn’t even know a rifle was pointed at his head because he was still out cold. Rozanov let go of Shane’s hair.
Shane didn’t try to get up again. He looked back at his mother who shook her head. A silent way of saying don’t react. They had heard what had happened to the others. Those who fought back had been slaughtered. His mother must have thought all of the people under her rule were safe because she had not participated. But Yuna had clearly wielded that non-participation like a weapon and a technicality which would end up costing her just like the others. His mother’s only chance at survival relied on her ability to bargain her way out of this.
The cold glint in Rozanov’s eyes told Shane she would likely fail.
Yuna cleared her throat and asked, “What price do you require? We can work something out even if it takes years. There is no need for violence.”
“Violence is why I am here. I am here for retribution. I am here for justice.”
“There has to be something we can do. We could give you a percentage. Or perhaps we have something that you desire. We can pay-”
“I already told you the only payment I will accept is your silence forever. You were quiet before. I am simply making you continue this behavior by slicing your neck all the way to your vocal chords.”
Shane watched as his mother closed her eyes and thought hard. A tear escaped down her cheek. He wanted to comfort his mom. Wrap her in a hug and put his body between her and the rest of the world.
“There has to be something you want.”
“There is not a single material good that would ever be enough payment. I am no longer entertaining this conversation. If you say another word, I will slit your throat in front of your son and make him watch you bleed out.”
When she nodded in understanding and the tears began to fall rapidly, Shane nearly died on the spot. If there was one thing that everyone knew about the Bratva, it was that they followed through on their threats. His mother realized there was no price that Rozanov was going to accept. The men holding her arms tightened their grips as they prepared to drag her away. Rozanov turned to depart and spoke in Russian to the men. Shane's mom was going to die.
His dad wasn’t even here to see their family fall apart. If Rozanov took her, his dad would never get to say goodbye to his wife he had been devoted to for three decades. They were the loves of each other’s lives. His dad would lose everything with her loss if the shock didn’t kill him first.
It wasn’t fair that their life together was going to be destroyed over a vendetta. Shane had his parents but not in the way they had each other. Shane had always been alone and he knew there was no great love on the horizon waiting for him.
His mom could have a future. His parents had years to spend together and they could rebuild after a tragedy by relying on each other. Shane only ever had a future in the direction his mother pointed him and there would be no direction without her.
He had already offered himself and Rozanov said it was tempting. Shane needed to make the offer again.
“Rozanov!”
The gun was suddenly pointed at Shane’s face again as Rozanov turned back to him. He couldn’t help but stare at the shiny black metal and the large hand curled around the grip.
“Yes, Hollander? Why is your family incapable of shutting the fuck up?” Rozanov asked sounding almost bored but Shane sensed the irritation that his interruption had caused. The men holding his mom stopped moving and turned their attention towards him like they were waiting for the show to start.
Shane didn’t move from where he kneeled at Rozanov’s feet and he forced himself to look up. He didn’t flinch as Rozanov stared him down.
“I meant what I said. Take me instead of her.”
“Your mother owes the debt. She will be the one to pay for her actions.”
“The Hollander family owes a debt. You said that. I am a Hollander. I will pay the debt. Let her go and take me instead.”
“You really mean that don’t you? You would let me kill you to save her,” Rozanov said. He titled his head and considered Shane. He looked him up and down from Shane’s face to his knees pressing into the floor. There was something wicked brewing in his eyes.
His mom spoke up frantically, breaking the order to be quiet, “No! No, I won’t allow it. You can’t have him. Shane has done nothing wrong. I will take the punishment-”
Rozanov snapped his fingers and a gun from one of the men holding Yuna was brought up to her ribs. She stopped talking immediately and visibly trembled but when her eyes met Shane’s he could see she was pleading with him to not offer himself in her place. She loved him. Shane knew that. But he loved her too.
Rozanov put the pistol’s slide on the side of Shane’s face. He pressed the cold metal hard enough to guide Shane’s head back so he was facing straight ahead. It forced Shane to pull his gaze from his mother’s. Then, the top of the slide was pressed underneath his chin to force Shane to look Rozanov in the face. The ice blue eyes of his captor conveyed he was enjoying the cruelty he was inflicting.
“Tell me why I should take you instead, Hollander,” Rozanov ordered. He pronounced every syllable in his last name and purposely drew it out.
"You want silence. Think about the silence that comes from permanently ending a bloodline. Think about the silence that comes after the scream of a mother who has lost her only child. If you want her to suffer the way you have, then let me take her place and let her live with that. Take me instead of her.”
Rozanov appeared to be considering the offer. He angled his head at Shane before speaking, “Shane Hollander, do you want to pay the debt your family owes to me by taking the place of your mother?”
“Yes,” Shane replied without hesitation.
His mother began to sob, “Please no. Please-”
The front sight was pressed into the underside of Shane’s chin and brought upwards even more making the angle of his head impossible to maintain. It dug into his skin as Rozanov pressed until it forced Shane to stand up slowly without breaking contact with the metal and never letting his eye contact drift from Rozanov’s face. He wondered if the silence Rozanov was demanding was going to be paid with a bullet in the throat in front of his family and friends. A simple trigger pull and the debt would be balanced once more. Shane would be standing tall one second and then a dead body the next.
“I will take the entirety of what I’m owed one way or another. Make no mistake about that. But I will start by letting you take the place of your mother since you have offered. You will pay for the crimes of your family. The end result will be silence. Say you accept the terms, Hollander.”
“I accept.”
“I’m going to make you regret this,” Rozanov said calmly as he holstered his gun.
Rozanov punched Shane in the stomach and the unexpected blow sent him down onto his knees again. The blossoming pain stunned him for a few seconds and he folded inwards trying to catch his breath. Shane could hear Rozanov shouting in Russian. That was all his goons needed to act.
A black hood came over Shane’s head and the string was pulled tight across his neck. Immediately the combined primal fear of suffocation and not being able to see nearly overtook him. Shane lashed out. He tried to pull the hood off his face and switched to scratching at the hands holding the cinch too tight around his upper throat. There was a stab to his neck that Shane recognized as a needle only after the plunger depressed and sent whatever cocktail of drugs into his system.
The last thing he heard was his mother screaming his name.