Chapter 26
Cecilia watches out the window in silence as I drive us to the town I grew up in. It’s almost pitiful, how the gorgeous mansions give way to townhouses and those townhouses morph into dilapidated apartment buildings the closer we get.
I take the last turn, and there it is.
The old signboard with the town’s name and population has disappeared, but I can still see it in my mind’s eye. Yet, beyond that, I can’t recognize much else. As we drive down the main street, I realize just how far the place has deteriorated.
It’s almost hard to believe. I didn’t think it could get any worse than when I was a kid, but I was wrong. The street lamps don’t even flicker, leaving the town bleak and depressing. The road itself is little more than mud, and a sickly haze seems to hang in the air just above the dirty earth.
I steal a glance at Cecilia after turning down my old street. She’s sitting up straight and solemnly staring out the window.
Has she guessed where I’m taking her?
As I ease the car to a stop in front of the charred remains of my childhood home and switch off the engine, I announce quietly. “Here we are.”
She turns in her seat to face me. “And where exactly is here?”
“This is where I grew up.” I point at the skeletal remains of the house that used to be my mother’s pride and joy.
She nods slowly and looks at the house, then down the rest of the street. “It’s a ghost town…”
“Trust me, it’s not a ghost town. There are people living here.” People who are poor and desperate enough to stay in this crime-filled town because it means a roof over their heads.
“Has it always been like this?”
“Pretty much, but back in the day we at least had electricity. Well, some of us did. Now, though, I don’t see any warmth…”
“What happened?”
“Just the inevitable. This place was always lawless. A filthy haven for the country’s lowly underbelly. We were forgotten by the world, and most people came here exactly for that reason. To be forgotten. To live as ghosts. But then the wrong people came knocking, Bratva goons, and that lawlessness became suffocating. Unbearable.”
“That sounds horrible.”
“It was. But at least it was stable. After the Bratva moved in, there was no room for dissent or freedom. This place almost became a real town, in its own corrupt way. We were all getting used to it, then something else swept in, something I still don’t understand. It broke apart the Bratva from the inside out, leaving a huge vacuum behind. And all of a sudden, no one wanted to be ghosts anymore. They wanted to be kings. Queens. They wanted to be Bratva. I had to leave after that. There was too much fighting. Too many wannabe criminals vying for small pieces of power. It was chaos.”
A heavy silence fills the car, then Cecilia finally breaks it. “Do you ever think about coming back here? To stabilize it all?”
“Sometimes,” I admit. “But my home is in America now. So is my family. We may not be related by blood, but they’re the only loyal family I’ve ever known. This town isn’t worth leaving them behind.”
Her eyes drift past me to the remnants of my old house, a subtle frown drawing down her pretty face.
Forcing a smile, I offer my hand to her. “Want to get a closer look?”
She hesitates, then nods.
There’s my brave little mouse.
We get out of the car and walk together toward the charred remains of the one-story house. Cecilia is quiet as we step under the bent frame of the front door and into what used to be the living room.
My heart aches as I’m immediately confronted by a barrage of painful memories. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and try to push those memories away. When I open my eyes again, Cecilia is standing there, watching me with concern.
“Are you alright?” she asks softly.
“I’m fine, dushen’ka. It’s just hard being back, especially after what happened here.”
Cecilia’s lips purse, and I can tell she’s holding back a question. I sigh. “It’s okay. Ask me what happened. I hold no secrets from you.”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“I do. But only with you.”
She takes my hand and squeezes my fingers. “What happened here?”
Sad nostalgia mixes with frustrated rage as I remember everything. “My siblings happened,” I confess. “After the Bratva disbanded, they became hungry for money and power, just like everyone else. That was their downfall, and it destroyed our family.”
“What?” She frowns in confusion.
“From what I’ve been able to piece together, they joined the old Bratva, thinking it was a get-rich scheme. When it started to collapse, they double-crossed their Pakhan, offering sensitive information to a growing rival group in exchange for a big payout.”
She gasps, “What? Why would they—”
“Be so stupid, right? If only that were the end of it. No, the payout wasn’t enough for them, so they schemed to steal from their old Pakhan, too. He found out, of course, and...” I shake my head, remembering that horrible night. “What the hell were they thinking? Couldn’t they see what was going to happen…”
“Maksim,” Cecilia’s gentle voice pulls me back to the present.
“The Pakhan came to our home. He brought his men; there were too many to fight off. We were tied up. Restrained. I had to watch as my brother and sister were tortured. My parents had to watch. Then, we were lined up like cattle and shot. I… I don’t know how I survived. All I remember is waking up in a burning house. I tried to save my family, but it was too late. I barely managed to make it out alive.”
I can still remember my mother’s screams and my father’s quiet sobs. Watching them get gunned down. Staring at the floor as I felt the hard, cold steel of the devil’s gun dig into my back. Then, waking up, choking from the smoke, lightheaded from the loss of blood, surrounded by my dead parents. I tried to pull them out, but the fire was too big, too hot. I couldn’t even make it to my brother and sister.
“Maksim.”
I blink and look down. To my surprise, Cecilia is hugging me.
“I’m sorry about that,” I mumble. “I must’ve gotten lost in the memories…”
“It’s alright. I-I just wish I could help. I wish I could make you feel better.”
I hold her tight, the warmth of her body more comforting than she could ever know. “You already have.”
Over the next few days, I’m caught up in a whirlwind of meetings with Mikhail Ivanov and other powerful oligarchs to find out who our anonymous supplier is. It quickly becomes clear that whoever it is, they’re good—unexpectedly good, and they’ve managed to cover their tracks so well that it’s like chasing a ghost.
My frustration mounts with each passing day, especially when it means spending less time with Cecilia. My anger becomes so palpable that even the clingy oligarchs start to back off. Still, they provide me with all the resources I demand, anything to get me on the soonest flight back to America.
“What are you trying to tell me?” I grit, pounding on the desk in front of me. “That the men I’m after don’t exist?”
The governor behind that desk, Sergei Fedorov, flinches at my outburst. “Of course not, sir. My men are trying their best to follow every lead… the problem is, so far, there’s simply been nothing to find. Whoever you’re after, they’ve been meticulous in covering their tracks.”
I blow out a breath, exasperated by yet another dead end. “Great, just great.”
“If I may,” Mikhail offers from the corner of the office. I wave a hand for him to continue. “People are scared, and not just of you. Whoever we’re looking for has the underworld in a chokehold. No one’s speaking. No one’s letting up. I’m inclined to believe that this could go deeper than previously thought.”
I nod in response, having reached the same conclusion myself. There’s some ominous force behind it all, and in order to uncover it, I might have to turn this city upside down.
But if I do that, I risk drawing the wrong kind of attention. A direct confrontation is fine, but the fact that word of my Tsarina has spread through the community makes me worried that such a thing would put her in danger.
I’m not willing to risk that. Clearly, this ghost has arms in America, so Cecilia wouldn’t even be safe if I sent her back home. She needs to stay near me.
“Fuck this,” I growl, pushing back on the governor’s desk. “It’s time to switch things up.”
Leaving Sergei and Mikhail behind, I step out of the governor’s office and call Dante.
“Boss?” he answers.
“Get the men ready,” I tell him. “Let’s show these fuckers who we really are.”