He says nothing, complying with silence.
I keep the gun aimed at his back as I go through the drawers. It doesn’t take me long to find what I need. It’s a child’s skipping rope, shoved into the drawer with crayons and pens. His daughters are in college. The skipping rope must be a keepsake. Good. That seems fitting.
I make quick work of tying him up in a chair. He regards me with hatred until I walk to the stove and switch on the gas. Then he starts to beg.
“No, please,” he says, blinking away the blood that colors the whites of his eyes red.
I stop in front of him. “My father said those same words. Except he didn’t beg for his own life, only for my mother’s.” I cock my head, studying his features so I’ll always remember the look of defeat on his face. “You didn’t show mercy then, but now you ask for it?”
“I have money,” he says through slobber and tears. “Lots of it.”
I bend down, putting us on eye level. “Do you think I need your money?”
“I have power. I can make anything happen. What do you want?” His manner turns feverish. “A nice big house full of women? You want men to kneel when you walk into a room? Say it,” he urges, leaning toward me. “Say the word and it’s yours.”
“Spare your breath for the devil,” I say with disgust.
“No,” he yells as I take an ornate candle from a shelf and put it on the table in front of him.
The odor of gas already taints the air.
“Please, Volkov,” he says, stumbling over the words.
I take the box of matches next to the stove. Pulling one out, I bring the flame to the candle. The wick catches. An orange flame springs to life.
“I’m a father,” he cries. “I have two daughters.”
I don’t listen to more. I throw the charcoaled matchstick over my shoulder as I exit the room.
Dimitri waits by the front door.
“Did you evacuate the house?” I ask.
He nods. “Leonid and the rest of your men drove the guards away, sir. Galina called her sister to fetch her.”
I didn’t give her time to take anything valuable from the house. Stefanov left me with nothing. His family will be left with nothing too.
“Where’s Katerina?” I ask as I make my way down the driveway.
“She’s waiting in the car,” he says, lengthening his stride to keep up with me. “Igor is with her. Yuri is waiting by your car for your instructions.”
My chest expands as I drag in a breath.
“Sir. Alex?”
The way he says my name makes me look at him. “What?”
He motions at my side. “You’re bleeding.”
“It can wait.”
He knows when not to argue with me.
We stop outside the gates. Igor leans against the hood of the car, smoking a cigarette. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen him smoke. I breathe even easier when I spot Katerina in the passenger seat of the car. She clutches the dashboard with both hands, her eyes brimming with tears. I need to get her out of here. She’s encountered violence in her profession, but she hasn’t experienced it firsthand. I just need a moment longer.
I turn around. Dimitri stands next to me, our backs straight and our faces solemn as we face the house. It’s quiet, like when I arrived. The eeriness rides on the brilliant sunlight that’s broken through the clouds. The rays make a fan of light, and then the gap closes and everything goes gray. The birds are quiet, as if they know.
Boom!
An explosion rocks the house, blowing the roof tiles into the air. Billows of orange burst through the windows, creating heatwaves over the white landscape. Flames leap into the air, their black-tipped tongues curling with smoke.
“Come on,” I say to Dimitri. “There’s nothing left here.” Physically or emotionally.
“Do you want me to drive?”
“Go with Yuri and Igor. I’ll follow.” I need to be alone with Katerina.
“Straight home or via the hospital?” he asks, glancing at my side again.
“Home.” Katerina can stitch me up there. “Meet us at the house.”
“We’ll start interrogating Stefanov’s men,” he says, already making his way to the car where Yuri waits. “We’ll determine who’ll come over and whom we need to get rid of.”
Straightening, Igor puts out the cigarette and drops the butt in his pocket. He gives me a respectful nod before getting into the car with Dimitri and Yuri.
I stand in the road as they pull off, watching their car until they turn the corner. It feels a lot like the end, like closing a chapter that didn’t end happily. After that last full stop lies hope. A new page. Time to let go of the past and move on.
Galina is on her own, but she has what my mother didn’t have—her life and her children. How she builds her new future is up to her. In a warped sense, that has a ring of freedom to it.
I owe Mikhail a call to tell him what’s gone down. But not now. I’ll call him when we get home.
Impatient to be with Katerina, I close the distance with hurried steps. Even as I grip the door handle, sirens sound in the distance.
She gives me the minutest shake of her head, tears pouring down her face as I get in beside her.
I close the door and lay the gun in the console. “Hey.” Cupping her face, I drag her closer. “It’s over. You’re all right. We’re going to be fine.”
A shadow that moves in the back catches my eye. In a flash, I understand Katerina’s reaction, that slight shake of her head.
Someone is hiding in the back.
A man sits up. “Famous last words.”
Fighting instinct takes over, but before I can dig my fingers into his eyes, he presses a gun against Katerina’s temple.
My insides shake with fury. The sight of that gun against her head makes me want to break every finger of the hand clutching the gun before shooting out the man’s brains.
Engulfed with helpless anger, I meet his gaze in the rearview mirror. He has square features and blond hair. I recognize him before he says, “The name is Ivan Besov. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Alexander Volkov.”
37
Kate
The barrel of the gun is cold against my temple. I stare at the one Alex left in the console. How quickly can I grab it?
“Tsk, tsk,” Besov says, reaching between the seats for Alex’s gun.
“You’re a dead man,” Alex grits out.
Besov laughs. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m the one with the weapons.”
Alex turns in his seat. “What do you want?”
Besov shrugs. “Nothing.”
“Then why are you here?” Alex asks with a glacier stare.
“I never leave a job unfinished.” Besov smiles at me in the rearview mirror. “And I never fail. It’s not good for my professional reputation. Besides, you’ve been such a challenging prey. It’ll be an honor to finally kill you.”
Blinking back my tears, I glare at him. He must’ve slipped into the car while the action was going down in the house. Igor and I—everyone—had been too distracted to think about searching the cars. It wasn’t until I was already inside the vehicle that I realized I wasn’t alone.