Chapter 7 – Egor
Six Days Later
Russia
The ergonomic chair creaked under my weight when I leaned in and pulled myself closer to the desk. Setting the steaming mug beside the laptop, I stared at the glowing screen, lifted the mug to my lips, scanned through some messages, and still...nothing.
Anatoly sat across me with an open newspaper in his lap, his silent eyes trained on me. He picked on his nails and made funny movements with his mouth; his expression was smug, like he was fighting an internal war to not laugh. “He hasn’t joined in yet?”
“No. Not yet.”
The laughter came out anyway, jolly and loud, as if it had been evoked from the depths of his belly, and he scratched his scruffy jaw with tattooed fingers, skulls and bones and daggers intricately inked like dark rings around his digits. “That’s Niko. Probably forgot to set the alarm again.”
My groan filled the icy silence in the dimly lit room, and I rubbed between my eyes. My fingers drummed a staccato beat on the armrest as I waited for what felt like an eternity, staring at the empty video screen.
I was about to send a text to prod him when the screen flickered to life, and his naked shoulders appeared on the shaking camera before his face did. His infectious laughter followed after he steadied the cam, and a crazy brightness settled in his brown eyes when he cursed under his breath.
“ Klyanus, ya zabyl.” I swear, I forgot. “I know I set the alarm, but somehow, it didn’t ring.”
I caught movement over his shoulders. A naked blonde doll was parading the room, picking clothing off the bed frame and the floor. I rolled my eyes and raised a brow. “Or it didn’t ring loud enough.” I sighed. “Niko, you’ve only been there for a day, and you’re already fucking around. The matter at hand is important.”
“Come on, brother . You think I don’t know that? That asshole got you thrown behind bars. I know how fucking important this is. The second I see his face, I’m going to disfigure it. Trust me, Korol, I have eyes everywhere, planted even in the slums of LA. Everything’s going well. If it weren’t, you’d be the first to know. Ronan’s definitely laying low, but a fox doesn’t stay hidden in its hole forever.”
I agreed. Sooner or later, the Irish heir was going to pop up on our radar. But Niko had to focus on the mission.
“I need your head deep in the game and not buried between pussies.”
Niko cleared his throat and waited until the doll was out of the room to continue the conversation. He must have seen the doubt on my face because he piped up with a cheesy grin, “When have I ever let you down?”
“Never?” Anatoly offered, flipping through the newspaper like he wasn’t listening to the conversation. “And maybe that’s the problem?”
That wasn’t a lie.
Nikolai Yezhov was as loyal and faithful as the words itself. It was the reason he was also one of the best men to recruit for any task.
My brother glared, even if my second-in-command couldn’t see him. His fingers went through his hair. “I’ve got this, okay? I will not jeopardize it.”
I laughed. “Your fucking ego might be the end of you. Just don’t mess this up. Arlo secured bail for a few weeks, so I’m not returning to the United States anytime soon. I need you to take full charge and keep me updated with the minutest of details. Nothing should be overlooked.”
“Understood.”
Besides trying to evade the law, I had some unfinished business to take care of here in Moscow. We talked more about pending matters—a few unresolved conflicts with some new factions and unpaid debts from some local businesses. Nikolai proposed considering expansion plans after the court issues watered down and suggested names for possible future alliances. But that idea was going to have to be on a long pause. Arlo had yet to give me the names of those resources that didn’t want to associate.
Abruptly, Anatoly dropped the newspaper and interrupted the conversation. “And the girl, Korol ? What part does she play in any of this?”
“You kidnapped a girl?”
I narrowed my eyes at Anatoly and turned back to the screen. The playfulness in Niko’s eyes was gone now, and a confused frown was in its place.
“She’s twenty-two,” I said for clarity.
“Still looks like a kid to me,” Anatoly muttered. “Niko, imagine my shock when I found out she’s a detective.”
“A detective— Jesus, Egor.... What the actual fuck?” Niko looked like he couldn’t breathe. Using his hands to accentuate his surprise, he added, “I thought we were trying to s tay away from the cops. Not have them targeting missiles at your location. Why do you have a detective in your basement?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Anatoly snatched the words right out. “She’s not in the basement. We’re in one of the penthouses, and she’s in one of the rooms.”
Nikolai drew closer to the screen, close enough for me to see the dark flecks in his eyes when he looked into the camera. His tone dropped a notch. “And you’re sure this is a kidnapping situation?”
“I swear, it is.” Anatoly was laughing now. “Arlo knocked her out. He had a bruised jaw. Said she punches like a man, and now she’s got a black eye, too.”
“ Fuck. ”
Clearly, Niko wasn’t sure whether or not to find it funny. Rather unfortunately for them, I wasn’t finding it funny.
Niko arched a brow. “What’s going on, Korol? ”
“If the two of you would allow me to speak, maybe you’d know what’s going on.” My hands went through my hair, and I released an exasperated sigh. “She knows, Niko.”
Dark brows furrowed on his forehead, and his whisper was harsh. When he scooted closer, the table rattled his camera. “She knows what?”
Anatoly’s ears perked up, his laughter fading into the background.
“About Uncle Boris. She knows I killed him and claims to have evidence.”
“ What ?”
“What the hell?”
They both exclaimed at the same time. Then, Niko backed up, questioning me with his eyes. “Wait, hold up, I hope you don’t think....”
“We did it,” Anatoly finished for him. “We would never even think of—”
“I know.”
Only three people knew about what happened three years ago. My brother, Anatoly, and Arlo. Some nights in the jail cell, I thought about the possibility of the information leaking from either of them. But as quickly as the thoughts came, they vanished. They’d proven to be loyal to a fault, and....
“You guys have much more to lose if you choose to leak that info. But I don’t doubt either of you, including Arlo. I just need to figure out how the hell she found out and how much she knows. That’s why I brought her here.”
They were quiet for a while, slowly processing the new information I’d released.
Niko collapsed on his seat, and Anatoly walked up to me, his heavy boots thumping on the gleaming tiles. “Okay, so what now? What do you plan to do with your little captive?”
I looked up at him, but before I could answer, a loud thud resounded from upstairs.
I smiled.
“Would you look at that? Moy malen’kiy plennik prosnutsya .”
My little prisoner is awake.