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I clench my fists, hating myself, hating this whole sordid goddamn mess.

I refuse the solace of the vodka bottle Leon silently proffers as we drive. I’m not letting myself off that easily.

I hunch into the door and try to close my eyes, but all I see when I do is Abby’s battered body when I left that cabin, still standing rigidly upright in defiance of the pain.

It takesover three hours on the back roads until we are winding up the driveway of Zinaida’s villa. Dawn is breaking over the valley, turning the bay to infinite glass and layering the rice fields in a soft mist.

The beauty is completely lost on me.

All I feel is a hollow loneliness, the kind of desperate pain I thought I’d left behind on the streets of Miami years ago. Even Leon’s silent presence beside me, good man though he is, doesn’t offer any kind of comfort.

Normally I’d discipline myself into focusing on the problems ahead. I know I have to, if we’re to have any chance of success, just like I know that losing myself in planning is the best way out of the dull despair threatening to overwhelm me completely.

I will,I think grimly, straightening up in my seat as Leon pulls the car into the garage. I might have just committed the worst sin of my life. But failing to execute now will only take that sin and multiply it by a thousand.

Get your shit together, Dimitry.

I suck in my breath and trudge upstairs, willing my mindand body to obey me, trying to push the sickening images from my mind. I’m so lost that at first I don’t see the figures standing out on the patio, silhouetted by the rising sun.

By the time I reach for my gun, I already know it’s a lost cause. There are too many of them.

Big men. Dangerous men.

Even still, I’m not going down without fucking trying. I take aim, squinting into the breaking dawn, my finger tightening on the trigger.

“I wasn’t expecting a hug.” The rasping, familiar voice comes from behind me. “But a bullet’s a bit extreme, brother, don’t you think?”

Shock floods me like an arctic wave, stopping my heart completely so I’m frozen in a half crouch at the top of the stairs.

I will my shaking legs to take the last step, my gun arm slowly lowering, and turn to the source of the voice.

Roman is leaning against the bar, staring at me with a wary smile that fades as soon as he sees my face.

“Christ.” He takes a halting step forward then stops, looking uncharacteristically unsure of himself. “Are you—What the fuck has happened?”

I can’t move.

I can’t speak.

I just stare at him and drop the gun to the floor.

Then he’s across the room, locking me into an embrace so hard I can barely breathe. “I’m sorry.” His voice cracks.

I shake my head silently, incapable of words, holding on to him like he’s a fucking buoy in the middle of the ocean.

“But I’m here now, brother.” One big hand grips the back of my head. “I’m fucking here. And I’m not going anywhere.”

“And you plannedto do what—go in there on your own and assassinate this prick?” Roman stares at me across a small round table, turning his vodka between his hands. We’re sitting on a private balcony at the back of the villa. It faces a jagged stone mountain covered in lush forest, and there’s nothing but the sound of birdsong to interrupt our conversation. Roman, clearly realizing I was in no state to greet visitors, took me out here, and this is where we’ve been ever since. He’s barely spoken since we sat down and I started talking.

I meet his eyes briefly. “That’s the basic plan, yes.”

“With no fucking backup.”

I lift a shoulder.

“Jesus, Dimitry.” He ducks his head, shaking it slowly. “Why didn’t you just call—” He cuts himself off abruptly and takes a mouthful of his drink, staring at the tree-covered mountain. Two scarlet minivets flutter down onto a branch just beyond the balcony and poise there, twittering cheerfully.

He scowls. “Noisy little fuckers, aren’t they?”