Chapter Five
Maksim sat alone in the safehouse living room, a glass of vodka resting loose in his hand.
The room was dim, the single lamp casting a low amber glow across worn walls and uneven shadows. The place had never been meant for comfort. It was a stopgap, a place to disappear into when necessary.
It was functional yet temporary, and yet now it felt occupied. He dropped his gaze to his side, to the clean bandage wrapped around his ribs. The fabric was stark against his skin, too neat, too careful for the kind of life he lived.
Lena’s work. He ran his fingers lightly over the edge of it, testing the tension. It held firm, and there was no infection or sloppiness. She had known what she was doing. That, in itself, was surprising.
She hadn’t needed to help him. He exhaled slowly, bringing the glass to his lips. The vodka burned on the way down, sharp and familiar, grounding.
She should have taken the opportunity to run. He had been weakened, and he moved much slower. Hell, he was off-balance in a way he rarely allowed. A single well-placed strike, a moment of hesitation, and she could have tried to run.
She had seen the door mechanism, and she had seen him bleed. Instead, she had told him to sit.
Maksim tightened his jaw. It didn’t make sense. Most people, in her position, reacted predictably. Fear led to desperation, and desperation led to reckless choices.
Lena had chosen something else, something inconvenient. He leaned back in the chair, glass resting against his knee now, gaze drifting toward the closed bedroom door down the hall.
She was in there, sleeping—he had checked once already. He didn’t know why. Maksim let out a quiet breath, irritation flickering through him at the thought.
She was certainly a complication, one he had to deal with sooner or later.
His phone buzzed against the table. The sound cut through the silence cleanly. Maksim reached for it, his expression already shifting back into something colder, sharper.
It was a message from Dimitri, asking him to come in. His brother didn’t provide any additional explanation. Maksim tightened his jaw. Something was wrong.
Dimitri didn’t summon him without reason. And he certainly didn’t do it without context unless the reason itself was already understood.
Maksim stared at the screen for a moment longer than necessary. Then he set the glass down.
Alexei. The thought came immediately. Did his younger brother Alexei have anything to do with this?
Maksim pushed himself to his feet, the movement slower than usual but controlled. The wound pulled slightly, a dull reminder beneath the surface.
Before he left, he moved down the hallway. The bedroom door stood slightly ajar. He paused there for a moment, then pushed it open just enough to look inside.
Lena lay curled on the bed, one arm tucked beneath her head, her hair spread across the pillow in dark, tangled curls.
The dim light softened her features, stripped away the sharp edges of fear and tension she carried when she was awake. She looked younger, certainly more vulnerable.
His gaze lingered. Lena also looked desirable. The thought slipped in quietly, unwelcome but persistent.
There was something disarming about her like this. She was not fighting him, not watching him like he was something she needed to survive. Lena was merely sleeping.
He stepped back before the thought could settle any deeper. Then he closed the door quietly. After writing her a quick note about meeting his brothers, Maksim finally left.
****
The drive was short and silent. The city stretched around him in muted tones, streetlights casting long shadows across empty roads. Maksim didn’t rush. It wasn’t necessary.
He already knew what waited for him. The house stood at the end of a private drive, set back just enough to discourage curiosity. From the outside, it looked like old money.
It was restrained, understated, built to last. Inside, it was something else entirely. Power lived here, so did control. Violence, dressed in quiet discipline.
Maksim stepped through the front entrance without being stopped. He never was.
Security was present, but invisible to those who didn’t know where to look. Cameras were tucked into corners, and guards positioned outside the perimeter.
Just certainty.
The interior was exactly as it always was. There was dark wood paneling and heavy furniture, muted lighting that kept everything just slightly out of full view.
Soundproof rooms also lined the hallways, doors closed, secrets sealed behind them. Nothing in this house was accidental.
Maksim moved through it without hesitation, heading straight for Dimitri’s office. The door was already open. Dimitri stood near the desk, his posture straight, his presence filling the room without effort. He didn’t need to raise his voice or move sharply to command attention.
He simply existed, and things aligned around him. Dimitri, as the eldest, was the big boss. He always had the final word, and his eldest brother had no patience for deviation.
Alexei sat in one of the chairs, one leg crossed over the other, looking entirely too relaxed for the tension coiled beneath the surface.
He looked far too amused for Maksim’s liking, but underneath that amusement, was hostility. Maksim stepped inside.
“What’s this about?” he asked, his tone even. “I’m busy.”
Alexei’s mouth curved slightly.
“Busy?” he echoed, the word laced with something sharp. “That’s interesting.”
Dimitri didn’t speak, he just watched.
Maksim felt the weight of his gaze, though, measuring, calculating. He said nothing. Alexei leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms on his knees.
“No new orders and no ongoing operations that require your full attention,” Alexei said, then paused. “So tell me, Maksim, what exactly is keeping you so occupied?”
Silence stretched, and Maksim held it. Then Alexei exhaled softly, almost like a laugh.
“I had you followed,” Alexei finally said.
To be honest, Maksim wasn’t surprised. It was something Alexei would do.
Alexei had always been the kind to watch from the edges, to notice the things others missed and pull at threads until they unraveled. But there was more to it than that.
Resentment had lived under Alexei’s skin for years, quiet but persistent.
Maksim had been named Dimitri’s second-in-command not because he was the second-born, but because he was the most reliable. The most decisive, and the one who never hesitated when it mattered.
Alexei had never accepted that, not fully. He hid it well, but it was there in the way he pushed, in the way he tested boundaries that didn’t need testing, in the way he seemed almost eager for Maksim to slip.
He wanted Maksim to fail, to prove that Dimitri had chosen wrong.
“I know about the girl,” Alexei added.
The room went still. Maksim shrugged, the motion deliberate, controlled. “She’s my new toy.”
The words were careless by design. Still, Dimitri’s expression didn’t change.
“We don’t keep loose strings,” Dimitri said, voice calm. “You know what needs to be done.”
Maksim felt the anger rise, hot, sharp and immediate. He buried it deep, because anger here was weakness, and right now, he was already outnumbered.
Three brothers, three voices, but tonight, it was two against one.
“She’s useful to me,” Maksim said instead, his tone steady. “She saw too much, so I decided to keep her.”
Alexei’s gaze sharpened.
“And then what?” he asked. “You need to end this.”
“This isn’t like you,” Dimitri added.
That landed harder than anything else. Dimitri didn’t use an accusatory tone, but Maksim could hear his disappointment, carefully contained.
Maksim didn’t react, and he didn’t let it show that Lena had grown on him.
“She’s a liability,” Alexei said. “Don’t make this bigger than it needs to be.”
Maksim wanted to punch Alexei in his smug face, but Dimitri finally stepped in.
“If you won’t do it, we will,” Dimitri said.
Maksim held Dimitri’s gaze unflinchingly, but he said nothing. There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t tip the balance further against him.
Dimitri watched him for a moment longer. Then, with a small shift of his posture, the conversation ended. Just like that, he was dismissed. Maksim turned and left without saying anything else.
****
The drive back felt longer, the city quieter. Or maybe it was just the noise in his own head that made everything else seem distant.
His brothers were right. Lena was a liability. A problem that had a simple, permanent solution. He had solved problems like her a hundred times before without hesitation or thought.
So why did he feel the need to keep her around?
Maksim tightened his grip slightly on the steering wheel. This wasn’t like him. Dimitri had said it plainly, and he was right. Still, he couldn’t deny that something about her was different. Special.
He exhaled sharply, cutting the thought off before it could take shape. It didn’t matter. Hell, it shouldn’t matter, but it did, and that was the problem.
He pulled up to the safehouse, the engine cutting off with a quiet hum. For a moment, he stayed there, thinking of his next move. Nothing came to mind, no clean solution. Only the same truth circling back, over and over again.
Ending Lena was the easiest option. The correct one, and yet, it was the last thing on his mind.
Maksim stepped out of the car and headed inside, the weight of the decision following him in like a shadow he couldn’t shake.