Chapter 27 Xander
XANDER
I've been driving for twelve hours.
Every street.
Every alley.
Every safehouse and contact point I know.
I've torn through Moscow looking for her, and I've found nothing.
The warehouse on Prospekt Mira was empty when I arrived.
Not abandoned—empty.
Fresh tire tracks in the snow.
Cigarette butts still warm on the ground.
They'd been there.
They'd waited for me.
And then they'd moved her.
Three men stayed behind to finish me.
They came at me from the shadows, guns drawn, confident I'd walk into their trap unarmed and desperate.
They were half right.
I was desperate.
But I wasn't unarmed, and I wasn't stupid.
I put two bullets in the first one before he cleared his weapon.
The second one got a shot off, but it went wide.
I closed the distance and buried my knife in his throat.
The third one ran. I chased him down in the snow and beat him until he told me where they'd taken her.
He lied.
The address he gave me was another empty building. Another dead end.
I left his body in the alley and kept searching.
Now the sun's rising over the city and my eyes burn.
My hands ache from gripping the steering wheel.
My phone sits on the passenger seat, completely useless.
There have been no more messages, no calls.
No demands from Arkady Sokolov.
He has her, and he's making me wait.
My only choice is to get help, so I drive to Leonid's house, already steeling myself against his anger.
The gate opens when I pull up.
The guards recognize my car.
They don't stop me.
I park in the drive and walk to the front door.
A man in a black suit opens it before I can knock.
He nods and steps aside.
"He's in his study," he says, which is as much greeting as I'll ever get in this place.
Leonid is a hard man, but I hope he will hear me out instead of telling me to write Nadya off as a lost cause.
Certainly he can understand how a man needs a good woman in his life.
That she's more than just an asset.
I walk through the house on my way to his study.
The wealth here's obscene.
All the pretension oozes out at me as I realize how absurd it is to have all of this and no one to share it with.
And maybe that's why women like Nadya are more dangerous to him than the whores on his payroll.
Women like Nadya remind men like Sokolov—men like me—that love can exist, and that intimacy is a rare gift offered by the gods to men who don't deserve it.
I've taken it for granted because it's what I've been trained to do, and now the woman I love is caged.
How perfectly and painfully fitting that my little bird is locked away outside my reach.
A true punishment for my failure, which I intend to rectify as quickly as possible.
I find him in the study, sitting behind a desk working on some sort of documents.
He looks up when I enter but his expression doesn't change.
"Xander," he says.
"I didn't expect to see you so soon. Is it finished now?"
His gaze flicks to meet mine briefly then falls to his work again and I realize he thinks Sokolov is dead.
He has no clue what's going on.
I close the door behind me.
"I need your help."
Leonid sets down the pen he was holding and leans back in his chair, his fingers steepled beneath his chin.
"With what?"
His brow furrows as his eyes narrow on me.
I have his full attention now and I don’t like the feeling.
"The Sokolov Brotherhood's taken my cleaner."
"Your cleaner." His tone is flat.
"You mean the girl?"
"Yes."
Leonid's quiet for a moment.
His dark eyes study me, reading every line of tension in my body.
He sees too much.
He always has.
Since the time I was just a teenager who pushed his narcotics on the streets he has been able to read me like a fucking book and I hate it.
"Why do I care about a cleaner?" he asks.
"Let her die like the vermin we're exterminating."
I can tell I've interrupted him.
I can see his fingers twitch like they want to get back to work.
Any second he's going to tell me to get the fuck out and I'm going to have to obey, and my plan to get his help has one shot at working so I hit him with my best punch right out the gate.
"Because she knows things," I say.
"She's been to our safehouses. She's seen our operations. She knows names. Locations. If they break her, she'll talk."
"Will she?"
One eyebrow lifts, his gaze goes black as night.
I've hit the target.
I can see the wheels turning and my plan falling into place.
"Everyone talks eventually, sir, even hardened men who've been tortured before. And she's not trained."
My shoulders square, chest puffed out, and I pray he doesn't say to bomb the building and her with it.
Leonid stands and walks to the window, where outside, snow falls in thick flakes, covering the manicured lawn.
He watches it for a long moment, his hands clasped behind his back.
"You're lying," he says matter-of-factly. And he doesn't look at me.
"I'm not," I snap, and I know it's my first mistake.
Being emotional over this is a dead giveaway that he's right and I'm not being honest with him.
But It's hard to control my temper when the woman I need in my life is quite possibly being tortured to give up very real information about us.
Maybe… Maybe she's dead already. I don't know.
"You are."
Leonid turns to face me.
"This isn't about operational security. This is about you. You have feelings for this girl."
I say nothing.
My jaw tightens.
"I warned you," Leonid continues.
"I told you not to let distractions interfere with your work. Yet here you are, asking me to divert resources to save a whore you can't keep your dick out of."
Violent fury rises in my chest like hot lava.
My hands curl into fists at my sides.
"She's not a distraction," I growl, "and she's not a whore."
"No?"
Leonid walks closer.
His voice is calm and controlled, but I hear the steel beneath it.
"Then what is she? Because it appears to me she's just the hole you put your dick in and someone you pay to clean your blood off walls. Distraction—whore… See how I get that conclusion?"
His eyebrows both rise, but it's shock on his face when I growl out my response.
"She's more than that."
"More than what? You've known her for weeks, Xander. Weeks. And now you stand in my house demanding I help you rescue her as if she's worth the lives of my men."
"She knows too much," I say.
My voice is low and dangerous.
I would never challenge the Pakhan's authority in any way, but this isn’t something I'm going to back down on.
If he won’t help me, I'll declare war on every last person in this fucking family.
"If they break her, she'll expose everything. Locations. Names. Operations. They'll use her to destroy us."
A light bulb goes off in my head as his face flashes in my mind, the expression written there when Nadya walked across the room in this very fucking house.
"She knows where you live, Leonid. Do you really want to have to move?"
"Then kill her," he says coolly, not even missing a beat.
He folds his hands casually in front of himself and purses his lips.
It's so easy for him.
No attachments means no heart, and no pain when he has to cut ties with someone.
The words hit me in the chest.
I stare at him, my breath coming faster.
"What?"
"You heard me."
Leonid returns to his desk and sits.
"If she's a liability, eliminate her. That's what you do. That's what you've always done."
"I'm not killing her."
"Why not?"
He leans forward, his eyes boring into mine.
"Because you've fucked her? Because she has a pretty face and a sharp mind? That doesn't make her valuable, Xander. That makes her a weakness. And weakness gets men killed."
I take a step forward.
My hand moves toward the gun at my back, but I stop myself.
Leonid sees the movement.
His expression doesn't change.
"Are you going to shoot me?"
He chuckles darkly.
This man thinks he's made of steel, and I could kill him where he sits, but then I'd have bigger problems to deal with.
I need his help, not his hatred.
"No."
"Good. Because if you did, you'd be dead before you left this room."
He gestures to the corners of the study.
I see the cameras now, the small red lights blinking.
"I have men outside. I have men in the hallway. You're a valuable asset, Xander, but you're not irreplaceable."
I force my hand to drop.
I force myself to breathe.
"I'm not asking you to give me men," I say.
"I'm asking for information. Contacts. Anything you know about where Sokolov might be holding her."
"Why would I waste resources on that?"
"Because if they break her, she'll tell them about you. About where you live, where you meet, who you trust. She's cleaned your scenes, Leonid. She's been in your house."
Leonid goes still.
His eyes narrow on me, and I see the moment recognition dawns on him that I'm not lying.
It's like I can see the movie screen of his mind playing that moment he met her here in his very living room.
"I didn't approve of your bringing a girl into our operations who could compromise me."
"She won't talk," I say.
"Now you change your tune. How easily the tables turn, Xander."
He leans over his desk and glares at me down his nose while I stand rigid in my stance, refusing to give up.
"You don't know that she's already given up information. They could be on their way here right now. You don't know that."
"I do."
"How?"
Leonid stands again and this time he walks straight to his liquor cabinet.
"How do you know she won't break? How do you know she won't trade your life for hers? Women aren't loyal, Xander. They're survivalists. They do what they must to live."
The whiskey gurgles into his glass, making my mouth water.
What I wouldn’t do to have a glass and get wasted, forget everything that's happening.
But I have to keep my head if I'm going to get her back.
"She's different."
"They're all different until they're not."
He stops in front of me.
We're the same height, but his presence is intimidating as fuck.
"You have six days left to finish the Sokolov Brotherhood and prove your loyalty to me. Yet here you are, wasting time on a girl who'll be dead by tomorrow. Maybe she already is."
"She won't be dead."
"You don't know that."
"I'll find her."
"How?"
Leonid's voice rises, the first crack in his control.
"You've been looking all night. You've found nothing. Arkady Sokolov isn't a fool. He knows you'll come for her. He's using her as bait, and you're walking into his trap."
"I don't care."
"You should." Leonid steps closer.
His breath's warm on my face and the scent of his whiskey wafts up to my nose.
"If you go after her, you'll die. And if you die, I lose my best enforcer. I lose the man who's spent weeks dismantling my enemies. I lose everything I've invested in you. For what? A cleaner?"
"She's not a cleaner."
"Then what is she?"
I meet his eyes.
"She's mine."
Leonid stares at me for a long moment.
Then he laughs an angry, bitter sound.
"You're a fool."
"Maybe."
"There's no maybe about it."
He walks back to his desk and sits.
"You're dismissed, Xander. Go finish your job. Forget the girl. If she dies, she dies. If she talks, we'll deal with it. But you won't waste another moment of my time on this."
"I need your help."
"And I'm telling you no."
His eyes are steel as they lock on me.
"Get out."
"She knows things," I say again.
My voice is louder now, harder.
"If they break her, they'll come for you. They'll come for all of us. This isn't about me. This is about protecting the organization."
"The organization doesn't need protection from a girl, and if you do your job, Sokolov won't live long enough to be a threat, anyway."
His hand waves at me as he downs his drink and I have to stop myself before I launch at him to strangle him.
"It does if she tells them where you sleep at night."
Leonid goes very still.
His eyes are a deadly cold.
For a moment, I think he'll have me killed right where I stand.
Then he speaks and my body feels weak.
"Get out of my house."
I turn and walk to the door.
My hand's on the handle when he speaks again.
"If you go after her, you go alone. I won't send men. I won't provide resources. And if you fail, if you die trying to save her, I'll find another enforcer. Do you understand? You'll be replaced before your body is in the ground."
I look back at him.
"Yes."
"Good. Now get out."
I leave the study and walk through the house.
The guards watch me pass.
Their faces are blank.
I get into my car and drive away from the estate, and my chest is tight with rage.
Leonid's wrong.
He doesn't understand.
He's never cared about anyone but himself, never allowed himself to feel anything but hunger for power.
He doesn't know what it's like to lose someone.
But I do.
And I won't let Nadya die.
I pull over on the side of the road and take out my phone.
I scroll through my contacts until I find Igor.
I call him.
"Boss," he answers on the first ring.
"Meet me at the weapons storage site," I say.
"Bring Ivan. Bring everyone."
"What's happening?"
"The Brotherhood has Nadya."
There's a pause.
Then Igor speaks, his voice cautious.
"The Pakhan—"
"The Pakhan's not involved," I interrupt.
"This is my operation, Igor. I'm in it alone, and I know the risk. I'm looking for men who are loyal. Are you with me or not?"
There is another pause, longer this time.
Then he speaks.
"We're with you," Igor says finally.
"Good. Be there in thirty minutes."
I hang up and start driving.
The weapons storage site's an abandoned factory on the edge of the city.
We use it to stockpile guns, ammunition, and explosives.
Everything we need to wage war.
And war's exactly what I'm planning.
Markov thinks I'm being reckless.
He thinks I'm throwing away everything for a woman.
Maybe he's right.
But he doesn't understand that Nadya isn't an asset.
She's not a tool.
She's not disposable.
And she isn't just any woman.
She's the only person in fifteen years who's made me feel human.
And I'll burn Moscow to the ground before I let Arkady Sokolov take her from me.