Page 54

YULIAN

Moving around hurts like hell and a half, but I force myself to stand.

The second I move, Mia darts towards me. “Yulian, you can’t?—”

“It’s alright.” I speak softly to her. Then I turn to Maksim. “Explain.”

It may seem harsh to her, but I know my second. Right now, Maksim doesn’t need his friend. He needs his pakhan.

And that’s exactly what I’ll give him.

He’s breathing hard, struggling to speak. I remember his punctured lung. In comparison, my flesh wound is a scratch, even with all of Desya’s kicking. It’s insane that he’s even standing.

“She was…” he gasps. “She was with me. At the hospital. In Brownsville.”

So she had him operated on there. Smart move. Manhattan General is unfamiliar territory. Never know who to trust, who to keep an eye on. Plus, that surgeon Adams did a pretty good job patching up Zhenya. Shit fucking attitude, but hands of gold. No doubt Kazimir remembered, too.

But I don’t have time to dwell on relief. Maksim is hanging on for now, but if we don’t get Kallie back, there’s no telling what he’ll do. “Tell me what you saw.”

“I didn’t see, but I heard.” His fists clench at his sides. “She stepped out for a second, and then there was a struggle. She tried to scream. I dragged myself out of bed, but she was already gone.”

“You didn’t see who took her?”

“Who else do you think?” he spits. “It’s that fucking mudak. Has to be. We need to get her back, we?—”

“That’s impossible.”

“You’re not hearing me.” Maksim drags himself to me, eyes crazed and bulging. “ He has her. She’s—fucking hell, she’s my life. I can’t just leave her!”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“Then what?—”

“Desya’s dead.”

Maksim’s face drains. “You’re shitting me.”

“I’m not.” I jerk my head towards Mia. “Ask her if you don’t believe me.”

He turns to Mia. She’s standing a little way off, pale and shaking. “It’s true,” she whispers. “I… I shot him.”

Maksim looks shocked. “And you saw him die?”

“Yes. He fell into the water afterwards. He… didn’t come back up.”

Blyat’. I can’t begin to imagine what she must be feeling. Earlier tonight, she thought she was going to lose me. She killed someone to avoid that happening. Broke her oath, betrayed every single one of her convictions.

Now, it’s her best friend she might lose.

That’s not gonna happen. Whoever took Kallie—I will find them. And once she’s safe, I’ll make them pay with their blood. For Mia and Maks.

“Then who?” Maksim asks, sitting heavily on the couch. “Prizrak?”

“Could be,” I concede. “If he ordered this before he went. He was always playing chess when everyone else was playing checkers.”

Maksim’s fist slams into the coffee table. “ Fuck! Then what are we gonna do about it?!”

Before I can answer, a telephone rings. It’s not mine. It’s not Maksim’s, either.

We both turn to Mia.

“It’s an unknown number,” she says quietly.

My instincts flare. “Put it on speaker,” I tell her.

“O-Okay.” She accepts the call with trembling hands. “Hello?”

“Hey, sweet thing.”

I recognize that voice instantly. Without thinking, I snatch the phone. “You fucking monster , ” I growl.

“What the hell did you do?!” It’s Maksim, yelling loud enough for the receiver to pick it up. “Where’s Kalinda, you filthy piece of shit?!”

“Oh, good, everyone’s there. That’ll make this easier.” His words are dripping in sarcasm. “But I’m afraid I have no interest in speaking with hothead men. So put my woman back on.”

“She’s not your woman,” I spit. “You’ve lost, Brad. Get the fuck over it, or I’ll make you.”

A short, icy pause. “Either put her back on, or you can forget about seeing the Indian girl again.”

Maksim’s face paints with rage, Mia’s with dread.

“You son of a—” I start, but Mia stops me.

“Let me,” she begs. “Please.”

I don’t want to. In fact, I want to keep Mia as far away as I can from this fucking monster.

But she’s not wrong. Brad has a hostage, I remind myself. And right now, Mia’s our best way of negotiating.

I grit my teeth and hand over the phone.

“Thank you,” she says to me, then places it on the counter so we can all hear. “I’m here, Brad.”

“Good.” I hate the way he says it—so goddamn self-satisfied and cocky. Like it was only a matter of time before he sunk his claws into her again. “You see, I didn’t like how we left things.”

“You mean, when I beat you?” Mia fires at him.

He laughs, cold and cruel. “Sure, if that’s what you think happened. But see, you little blackmail stunt really got me thinking.”

Blackmail? I glance over to Mia, but her face has shuttered. Like she suddenly can’t look me in the eye anymore.

What the ? —

“Brad,” she says, almost pleading. “We really don’t have to go over?—”

“Oh, but we do,” he counters. “That money trail you found on my computer? I checked. As I thought, it was all autopay. An old agreement of my father’s.

Sure, his shadowy friends in high places were still helping, but to be honest?

It was basically payroll. I hardly ever thought about it.

But then you threatened to tell your sugar daddy, so I told myself…

Well, what if I cashed in on all those overdue favors? ”

“What’s he talking about?” I interject. “What blackmail? What friends in high places?”

“Yulian, please?—”

But Brad must overhear, because he hacks out another laugh. “Oh, that’s rich. So you really didn’t know? Your baby mama was threatening to expose me to you.” His tone turns gleeful. “For being in business with Prizrak.”

The world stops turning.

Prizrak. The bastards who killed my family. Who painted my house red with the blood of my parents, my sister, my best friend.

And Brad’s in bed with them?

And Mia?—

She knew?

All this goddamn time, she knew?

“That’s right,” Brad gloats. “I hear they didn’t treat your family so well.

Unfortunately for you, they’ve got a pretty good relationship with mine.

So I told myself I’d use it. And they were oh-so-helpful: got that little threat through at the pizzeria, got your little friend all wrapped in a bow for me… ”

I stop listening to Brad’s monologue. All I can do is stare at Mia.

But her face is a mask of guilt. She doesn’t even have to speak. I look at her, and I know.

It’s true.

“Yulian,” Mia whispers, covering the speaker with a hand so her shitty ex won’t hear, “I was gonna tell you. I?—”

I snatch the phone away again. “Tell us your terms.”

“You give back my girl and I give back your friend’s girl. See? I can be fair.”

“That’s all?”

“No.” His tone takes an icy plunge. “I want my son back, too. You have until dawn.”

Then the call goes dead.

“Yulian…” Mia reaches for me. “I swear, I didn’t mean to keep it from you. I would have told you. I?—”

“When?” I ask, shaking her off. “When we were married? When our daughter was born? When Eli turned eighteen?”

“Please,” she croaks. “You have to trust me.”

“But you didn’t trust me.” That word— trust— tastes like acid now. “Instead, you protected him.”

“Because I thought you’d kill him!” she cries out.

“And there it is.” I clench both fists. “He’s your choice. He’s always your choice.”

“My son is my choice,” she corrects. “And I will not take his father from him. Not again.”

A long silence falls between us. I need to calm down. The realization pounds against the walls of my skull. I have to clear my head. I can’t ? —

“This is bullshit,” Maksim cuts in. “We need to think about Kalinda first. She’s been taken. She?—”

“I’m going to get some air.”

He looks at me like I’ve grown a second head. “Excuse me?”

“I said I need air.” I step out onto the balcony. “I’ll be back in five.”

“Yulian—”

But I ignore Maksim’s calls. I ignore Mia’s tears.

I just storm out and slam the window doors behind me.