Page 74

Dimitry

“ D imitry.”

Through the blinding rage, I become aware of Roman gripping my shoulder. “Come on, brother.”

I stare down at Yakov’s mangled remains, adrenaline churning through me. I can hear explosions in the distance—I know we need to go. Bryce and Paddy won’t blow anything nearby until I give the command, but we have limited time before the compound forces will compromise even their abilities.

“Wait.” There’s no trace of Leon’s customary urbanity. His face is a fierce mask of fury and pain, the killing rage all over him.

I find it hard to look at him, to see my own pain reflected in his face. I still can’t believe he’s actually my father. And there’s no time to make sense of it now.

“Zinaida said there’s a locked room in this building.” He nods at the rear doors. “Down that corridor. Blow it open, if you have to.”

I frown. “You want to tell me why?”

“Yakov stole a fortune in art from his scam victims. According to some of the girls Zinaida has taken in from here, that room is where they’re kept.

” He grips my shoulder, pain crossing his face.

“I can’t give you back the years Yakov stole from you.

But if you can get in to that room, Dimitry, at least I can give you a future. ”

I stare at him. There’s a thousand things I want to say, and no time to say them.

“Mak is sending a chopper for us.” I’m finding it hard to focus. “I need to get Abby out of here—”

“I know the way back to the pickup point,” Leon cuts me off. He hands me a hand-drawn map. “This is where the room is. It’s worth the time, Dimitry.” He meets my eyes. “Pete and I will get the girls to the chopper. I swear to you we’ll keep them safe.”

Pete. Christ. I almost forgot he was here. I meet his eyes, expecting contempt at best and outright horror at worst.

Instead, the sturdy farmer just nods at me. “We’ll get them out,” Pete says solidly. “You do what you have to.”

“Pavel, you’ve got their back.” Roman throws the tech geek a gun. “Don’t fuck this up.”

Pavel catches the gun and nods curtly.

Leon nods at him. “You did extremely well, friend.”

I look between them. “I thought Leon was supposed to be coaching you through the auction?”

“He did.” Pavel gives me the ghost of a grin. “From the lavatory, where he’s been hiding for the last hour.”

Roman snorts, shaking his head.

I pull Abby to me. “Do what they say. I’ll be right behind you.”

She touches my arm. “We’ll be fine, Dimitry.” She glances at Roman. “Look after each other,” she says quietly.

I kiss her hard, then look back at Leon and Pete. “If anything happens to her—”

“It won’t,” Leon says grimly. “You have my word. ”

“Jesus, mate.” Pete glares at me with more than a touch of indignation. “She’s my bloody daughter.”

Roman snorts again.

Pavel touches one of the girls on the arm. “Come with me,” he says, smiling reassuringly. “We’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

“Mak,” I growl into my comms. “Leon, Pete, and Pavel are heading to the chopper with Abby and the girls. If anything happens to them, I’ll fucking come for you even more than I’m going to already. I know you helped Zinaida fucking plan this.”

“You can thank me later” comes Mak’s breezy tone down the line. “You’d better hurry. Paddy and Bryce have the place fully wired, and things are very hot out there. We need to move.”

I kiss Abby again. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She nods, her face white. “You better be, muscle boy.” She touches my face, and then she’s gone, following my father and ushering the other girls out in front of her, Pete and Pavel bringing up the rear, guns in hand.

“I like your father-in-law.” Roman grins as we head for the door.

“Fuck knows how I’m supposed to explain all this.” I shake my head, which is still spinning. “And it’s going to take me a while to get used to the tech geek having a gun.”

Roman half smiles as we run toward the door. “Pavel is actually fucking good. All those years shooting at a screen pay off, it seems.”

The corridor is dim and deserted. Beyond the windows automatic rifles crack the night, lighting up the darkness in brief brutal flares.

At the far end of the corridor is a heavy steel door with multiple locks. “Christ.” I pull out the grenades I’ve got, eyeing them skeptically. “Hope these are enough. ”

Roman gauges the door with an experienced eye. “They’ll do it.” He grins at me. “It’s no Borovsky vault.”

“Thank Christ for that.” I pull the pins, and we retreat.

A moment later, the door is hanging in tatters—and our mouths are hanging open.

“Brother,” Roman says slowly, staring around at the shelves. “I think we’re gonna need a bigger chopper.”

We lift off in Mak’s chopper just before the compound blows.

In the end, Roman and I manage to leave with about half the fortune Yakov had stashed away. We take the smaller pieces and all the paintings we can carry, including a lost master worth more than the rest of the room put together.

I hold Abby hard against me as the compound bursts into flames beneath us, still giving orders through my radio.

I keep up a constant stream of communication with the various teams throughout the entire flight back to the yacht.

Somehow I manage to keep it together enough to coordinate the ground forces throughout the long hours that follow.

The escapees were on the river long before the compound blew. Alexei’s crew and Zinaida’s team go with them to guard their escape. By the time our chopper lands on the yacht, they are already across the border and in Thailand, where Zinaida has resources set up to take care of them.

Luke, Bryce, Paddy, and the Cardenas crew stay on the ground with the rest of Mak’s men after we take off, dealing with the remaining triad members still putting up a fight.

I remain in constant contact during their retreat, until they finally reach the exfiltration point deep in the jungle, where more Black Hawks are flying in to take them back to the Myanmar military air base Mak is operating out of .

I don’t ask how he gained access to a Myanmar military air base. I’ve learned it’s never worth asking Mak those kinds of questions.

Apart from a few bullet wounds, we’ve all made it out relatively unscathed.

Finally, the comms go quiet, and I pull the wire out of my ear. I’m standing on the upper deck of the yacht, where I’ve been since we landed.

I know now that the ship belongs to a shadow company created by Zinaida and Juan Cardenas, who has, apparently, been living on it for the past several years, ever since he faked his own death to avoid Yakov’s assassins.

My phone lights up, and I answer immediately.

“We’re in the air,” says Luke’s calm voice.

“Thank fuck for that.” I light a cigarette and draw on it deeply, then swallow the shot of vodka I didn’t dare drink until I got the news.

“It went well, Dimitry. All things considered.” Luke pauses. “Mak is with me. He told me what went down with Leon in there.”

“Ha.” I laugh without humor. “Would have been helpful if he’d mentioned earlier that he was working with Leon, not to fucking mention Zinaida Melikov.”

And that smooth fucker is lucky he isn’t here, or I’d put a fist through that smirk of his.

“He wants to talk to you.” Luke hands the phone over before I can tell him to stick it where the sun does not shine.

“Dimitry,” Mak says.

“Fuck off,” I snarl.

“Leon is an old friend.” For once, there’s no edge of amusement in Mak’s voice. “And he’s been waiting for revenge for a very long time. I’m sorry I went behind your back, but I won’t apologize for giving Leon the chance to get the answers he needed. ”

“And Zinaida? Juan Cardenas?” I clench my fist with frustration. “Mind telling me how all this fits together?”

“Shared interests,” he says simply. “Juan’s search for his friend’s daughter led him to Zinaida’s foundation.

She’s been after the scam farms for years, has eyes and ears in nearly all of them, which is how she found out about the car bomb meant for Juan.

She tipped him off, and they joined forces.

They’ve been trying to find a way to bring Yakov down ever since. ”

I kick the railing of the yacht hard enough to hurt my foot.

“Did you fucking know?” It’s been playing in the back of my mind throughout the long hours of radio comms and tension. “That Leon was my father? Did you know all this fucking time?”

There’s a long silence.

“I suspected,” says Mak finally. “Not before you visited Leon. But after he called and told me about your visit in London... yes, Dimitry. I suspected then. As did he.”

And the bastard never said a fucking word. Neither of you did.

“Is that why you sounded so fucking smug when I called you from Australia?” I kick the railing again, unsure how I feel about any of it.

“No, Dimitry, it isn’t.” Mak’s voice is quiet. “I was happy for you, because I’ve known for a long time that you deserve to build something for yourself. And so long as you were content being second to Roman Stevanovsky, that was never going to happen.”

I digest that for a minute. I rub a hand over my face, exhaustion and adrenaline chasing each other through my veins.

“Why are you involved in all of this, Mak?” It’s been bothering me ever since I realized he knew Leon. “What’s your skin in the game?”

“Ah.” His voice is light, once more the smooth, urbane prick who’s both maddening and impossible not to like.

“That, my friend, is a slowly unfolding story. Let’s just say for now that your friend Yakov isn’t the only ex-intelligence operative who has caused me.

.. trouble over the years. And let’s also say that I find that particular brand of treason. .. objectionable.”

“Oh, you do, do you?” I shake my head, but I can’t help smiling. Mak is so full of secrets, I doubt even he can keep track of them.

“Luke would like another word,” he says politely. “I look forward to our next drink together, Dimitry.”

I snort. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t poison yours.”