Chapter 36 Maxim
MAXIM
Two fucking weeks I’ve been sitting in a cell in Langley, being interviewed by agents one after another.
I need to get back to Grace. She has no idea what’s happening, she probably thinks I’m dead.
I need to tell her I’m not. She needs to know that I’m alive.
I can’t lose her. I hope and pray that she doesn’t turn to drugs again. I hope she is staying strong.
I need her to be strong for me.
“Let me the fuck out.” I slam my foot against the steel door. “I told you what you wanted to know.”
“Mr. Vasiliev, please stop kicking the door,” the voice booms over the speaker into my cell.
“Where’s Elena. Where is my sister?”
“She is safe, and you will be reunited soon,” the voice tells me.
It’s not fucking good enough. I slink back against the door and
hang my head. I need to get back to Grace. My poor Grace, she has been through too much for it to end like this. I’m destroying her. They are killing her slowly by keeping me here.
I must save her.
I have to get home.
I don’t even know if she’s hurt. No one will tell me anything.
I was supposed to make the fall. I don’t know what happened.
We all survived, but the next thing I know, Sergei and Grace floated off in one direction, and Elena and I went in the other.
I hit my head on the way down, I think against Grace as I was trying to protect her.
I remember Elena helping me, calling out for me as the current pulled us along.
Then hands were pulling us out of the water. Elena seemed to know who they were.
I must have passed out because the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the back of a Hercules, surrounded by boxes of bottled water.
From what I’ve been told, we took a private plane out of Moscow to the closest American military base in Germany, then were transported to Langley on a humanitarian flight.
I rub my eyes. There’s light shining into my cell.
“Mr. Vasiliev.” A female voice filters into the room.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“My name is Laura, and I have been assigned to your case.” She
enters the room. She has brown hair, black-rimmed glasses, and is wearing a lab coat. She’s tiny; I could totally overthrow her and escape. “You have been cleared after your debrief, Mr. Vasiliev. But the higher-ups would like to talk to you before they release you.”
“I’m going home?”
She gives me a tight smile. “Yes, once your new papers have been produced, you will be able to go home.”
Home. I’m going home. I’m coming for you, Grace, please hang on. I’m coming for you.
I follow Laura to a meeting room, where she tells me some people
are waiting to meet me before I leave. She says she’ll return with my papers.
I step into the glass room and am greeted by men in black suits with stony expressions on their faces.
“Mr. Vasiliev, please take a seat.”
I sit. I have a feeling I’m not going to like what they have to say to me.
Moments later, the door opens, and Elena enters. She looks pale but healthy.
“Are you okay?” I ask her in Russian.
She grabs my hands. “Yes, are you?”
“I need to get back to Grace.”
“I know. I promise you will.”
One of the men clears his throat, getting our attention. “Thank you
for coming today,” he starts. It’s not like we had a choice. “I just wanted to say firstly that, on behalf of America, I thank you for your cooperation in regard to the Bratva and the information you have shared with us.” The other men in the office nod.
I wasn’t expecting that to come out of his mouth. Maybe I’m wrong about this meeting?
“Your sister has been an invaluable contributor to our Russian Department.”
I look at Elena, and she seems a little uncomfortable with the attention.
“Agent Vasiliev was compromised on her last mission, and because of that, she had to initiate exit strategy A.”
Okay, I’m confused, but then again, I don’t speak special agent.
“And she brought you along as she believed you would need our help. Elena.” The man offers the floor to her.
I look at my sister with confusion.
“I hope you don’t hate me, Maxim,” Elena whispers.
“I could never hate you.”
“You might after this,” she says, giving me a tight smile. “Because we’re dead.”
“What!” I roar at her, making everyone jump.
“It was the only way to save us,” Elena states.
“Oh my god— Grace. Why? Why would you do this to her—to us?”
“Your funeral was yesterday. Dmitri had eyes on the event. So, I knew I made the right decision. If you were alive, you would never have been safe. Dmitri would keep coming after you. You and Grace would never have been safe. It was the only way.”
I think I’m going to be sick. I sit down and hang my head between my legs as a panic attack begins.
“It was the only way to keep her safe. Now that your funeral is over Dmitri and his men have gone.”
“You think my death is going to stop that man. Never. He hates Grace and her family.” How does she not get this?
“What Elena is saying is true. We’ve been monitoring Dmitri since your deaths,” one of the agents explains.
“Our deaths. She’s dead, too?”
“Yes, I’m dead too. We drowned in the river. Dmitri’s so wrapped
up in his new role as the boss of the Eastern European region. He’s given up on the jewels and ordered all tracking to be stopped. He’s set up a new branch of the jewels—he’s starting over again.”
I stare at her. I won’t allow him to torture and torment these new girls.
“This is why we had to do this, Maxim,” Elena states.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on Grace in your absence. She’s safe,” another agent adds.
“How is she?” I ask the table.
No one answers.
“She’s devastated.” Elena lets her tears fall. “I’m so sorry, brother. You deserve a chance at happiness and Grace deserves a life without looking over her shoulder.”
My heart feels like it’s being ripped out of my chest. “You really believe Dmitri is over Grace?”
“Yes,” Elena says confidently.
“Thanks to your hacking, we have been able to monitor Dmitri’s phone, emails, and computer,” one of the older men states.
“And there’s no mention of Grace?”
“The only mention was to leave the jewels alone. Let them stay dead. His words.”
“Grace is truly free?” I don’t want to get excited yet.
“We will continue to monitor him, and if there is any mention of Grace or her family, you will be the first to know.”
Fuck, maybe there is a silver lining to this mess.
As long as she’s safe that is all I can hope for.
I hate that it had to come at the cost of a broken heart for her.
I can watch her from afar. It will kill me to see her fall in love with someone else.
Get married, have children, but the fact that she can do that, that’s all I need.
This is my karma for all the lives I’ve taken.
Having to watch my soulmate from a distance and never being able to touch her again.
“Mr. Vasiliev, we do have a favor to ask. More like a proposition.”
I stare at the table of suits.
“We would like you to work with us.”
“Excuse me?” They must be joking.
“Your skills would be an asset to this department.”
“What, that I kill people?”
“Among other things,” the man says, clearing his throat. “Your sister has indicated that you might not necessarily want to do that line of work anymore?”
“She’s right. I gave that up for Grace.”
“Then we would like to offer you a job as a hacker. None of our men have been able to get into Dmitri’s systems.”
“Sergei helped me,” I say because it was not all me.
“That’s something we’d like to talk to him about, too, maybe in the future.”
“You’re being serious? You want me to be a hacker for the CIA?”
“Yes. We understand that you also work closely with Damon Denim, he works with us, too.”
My head explodes—Damon is CIA?
“Freelance mostly. We have assigned him to look after the Russian Department, specifically the Bratva. We would like you to join him. He’s already been informed of the situation with regard to your death.”
“He knows I’m alive?”
“Damon is actually the one who found us and brought us to safety,” Elena tells me.
I shake my head. How the hell are we all connected so closely without even knowing it?
“Agent Vasiliev will accompany you home, and Damon has been advised that she will join the team when you get back to Ibiza.”
“Wait a minute. I’m going back to Ibiza? You said I was dead. That I had a funeral.”
“All true. But we have given you a new identity.”
“That’s great, but you can’t change my face. Won’t Dmitri be suspicious?” I question them.
“We will have to make some changes, nothing drastic. No social media. You will have to lead a quiet life. Keep your head down just until Dmitri is captured,” the agent explains.
“Are you saying I can go back to Grace?”
“Yes. That’s what we are saying, but only if you agree to our terms,” the agent advises.
“Sold. I’m in. I will do anything and everything you need me to do if that means I get to go home to my Grace.”
“We are happy you want to join the team, Mr. Vasiliev.”
“Won’t everyone freak out that I’ve come back from the dead?”
“At first maybe. But we have cleared it that they all have low-level clearance. This will help with their charity work in rescuing these girls and bringing them home. Brooks Campbell has been given a higher clearance. He’s a decorated Navy Seal.
He’s an honorable man, and a man who is duty-bound to his country.
He will run point with the family letting them know things when they need to know. ”
“What about Grace?”
“She has a higher clearance as your fiancé. You’re able to tell her who you work for, but there will be information that is on a need-to-know basis,” the agent explains.
That’s if Grace doesn’t kill me for faking my death.
“You still in?” the agent asks.
“Guess I’m one of the good guys now.”