Stepan
If Timur's intel is correct, we're in the right place.
Kazimir and I sit in my blacked-out SUV waiting for this thing to go down.
I could never trust this to a group of fighters or guards.
Yegor, Radimir, and Angus are my top picks, mostly because they're the best I know, or they’ve been around the longest. No better men to have by my side on a night like this.
The airport hangar is dark for now, and we managed to get the SUV parked far in the back corner where even when the lights come on, it'll go relatively unseen. Orlov will never know we're here lying in wait, and hopefully, this'll go off without a hitch.
"How you doing?" Kazimir asks, not bothering to look at me. He sits casually in the seat with his elbow on the door and his chin propped on his hand. He's watching for movement like me, but I'm on edge and tense.
"I'll feel better when this is over." Ever since he told me I shouldn't be here, I've been riding the fence on whether to do this myself or let him handle it, but every time I think maybe I shouldn't, I end up getting really pissed off.
That man has what I want and I am not the sort of man to take that lying down.
"You look like hell, Cousin." He's being serious, but I hear a dark chuckle from behind me and flick my gaze to the rearview mirror.
Angus has a dumb smirk on his face, while the other two look more serious, but Radimir has his eyes shut.
To them it's just another job, another man to take out.
Tonight we purchase the near future for ourselves, assuming we are successful, and stop the alliance from forming which would otherwise crush us.
But that's not why I’m here.
I check my watch to see time is creeping forward and soon, we'll start seeing movement.
I'm feeling antsy, though, ready to get out of this car and bust someone.
It'll be hard watching the whole deal go down and not moving, but the only chance we get to nail Orlov will be afterward, when the buyer leaves and his men are fanning out.
Otherwise, it'll be obvious this wasn't his customer.
I have to really sell that part, or this could blow back on me.
When my phone rings, I scowl and reach for it. Everyone knows this operation is going down, and the only person who is stupid enough to interrupt it is Timur with new intel. It means something may be going sideways already.
But when I look down at it, I see it's not Timur at all. I swipe to answer, feeling my chest knot up. “Marina? What’s going on?” She hasn't called or texted me in ten days.
My plan was to wait for her to hear about Maksim's death and then see if she called me.
If not, I was going to plan a random moment to pop into her world unexpectedly and let nature take its course.
But it looks like fate's making a move early.
Her voice comes through broken and thick with sobs, crying so hard it's tough to make out the words at first. “Oh my God, Stepan. You have to come get me. He tried to kill me. He's going to kill me if you don't get me out of here."
I sit up straighter, and every muscle gets tight, ready to pounce.
The guys notice the shift in me immediately, and their eyes turn toward me.
Her voice is loud enough to hear in the car, but they give me the respect to finish my conversation.
“Slow down, baby,” I tell her, trying to calm her.
But inside me, everything is at a boiling point.
“Tell me exactly what happened. Are you hurt right now? What did he do?"
She sniffles hard and tries to pull herself together, but another sob breaks through. “He choked me and I thought I was going to die. I passed out, but then... Oh, my God, Stepan, he said he would kill me. I can't stay here. What if he comes back?"
"That fucker," I growl, letting her hear how angry I am. She's never seen me be anything but calm, and I don’t want to scare her after what she went through. "It was Orlov?" I ask, and she mumbles an affirmative as I meet Kazimir's gaze. "And are you safe now? Is he gone?"
“Papa did nothing, Stepan. He's gonna let Maksim kill me, I just know it. You have to come here. You have to get me out of here."
Kazimir's eyes widen and his lips press together hard. He's as ready to kill Orlov as I am, but for different reasons. At least one of us is thinking clearly, because right now if Orlov walked in, I'd fire up this SUV and run him down without batting an eye. He's gonna die for this.
"I can't come to you right now, baby. I'm in the middle of this thing I can't get out of...
" I look down at my hand fisted on my lap and think of what I can do to get her out of there.
It's obvious he's figured out about the affair and he's pissed.
He thinks the cleanest way to absolve himself of the shame of his woman cheating on him is to kill her. What a sick coward.
“He found out about us, didn’t he?” I ask quietly.
“That is why he came at you like that." My head dips so I don’t have to see the guys' reactions.
Being vulnerable in front of anyone is hard, but four men who are set to walk shoulder to shoulder into battle with me in just a few minutes makes this even more challenging.
"Why can't you come? I need you, please...
" Marina is calmer now, but I understand her fear.
For now I know she's safe because I know Orlov is on his way here and I'm not giving him a chance to leave.
But if I tell her that, she'll never understand.
The facts about my life have to be delivered carefully in a way so as not to scare her.
For now, she has to believe I'm simply just "Stepan", the man she met.
Not the machine hell-bent on destroying Maksim Orlov's entire world.
“Listen to me,” I say more firmly. I'm gonna give her an out so she feels safe, and then I'm going to kill this fucker once for all. “I need you to breathe for me, okay? In and out, slow. You're not alone in this anymore."
"What if he comes back?” she whimpers, sniffling.
“He won't get the chance,” I promise her, and I mean that with every fiber of my being.
“He's not touching you ever again." I hear her let out a shaky breath and before she can question what I mean, I say, "I'm going to send you an address. Go there as soon as you can get out. Pack whatever you need, but go there and stay there. My people will keep you safe until I get back.”
“People,” she asks, still sounding scared but a little steadier. “Stepan, where are you? What are you doing?"
"I love you, Rina. Okay? That's all you need to think about right now. Just go there and trust me. I love you."
"I, uh... I know," she says, sighing. Then the line goes quiet.
My phone drops to my lap and I pound the steering wheel hard, letting out a growl in rage. Kazimir's eyebrows peak in the center and he runs a hand down over his face. He heard the whole fucking conversation—no way he didn't, so he must know exactly what I'm thinking.
I type out the address to my compound and send it to her and then pocket the phone and look at the guys.
“When the time comes, I am handling Orlov personally. There's no fucking way he gets away with this shit."
Kazimir runs his tongue over his upper teeth in front and then sighs. “You sure? We can still keep you clean on this.”
“I'm positive,” I reply. “He put his fucking hands on her, Kaz.
He was gonna kill her. What do you think Ro would do if someone did that to Mila?
" My question goes unanswered because the answer is obvious.
Our fearless leader would destroy the motherfucker who even gave his wife a sour look without any remorse. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Angus still has that stupid smirk on his face, while Yegor and Radimir exchange a glance but don't push back. They know me well enough to know not to fuck with me when I’m in this mood, and I'm glad I don't have to wait longer or I'd go insane.
Headlights sweep across the hangar entrance as two vehicles pull in slowly—an armored truck and a plain black van. They stop in the middle of the open space and leave their engines running. A third vehicle sweeps in after them, a black sedan, and I lift the binoculars to watch it all play out.
Orlov steps out of the van, adjusting his jacket as he stalks into the light shed by the vehicles' headlights.
He's flanked by four of his guys who exit the sedan and get into formation around him as the armored truck’s rear doors swing open.
Two more men start unloading heavy crates, probably the product for the exchange, and a second armored truck pulls up as the crates start stacking up.
Men climb out of the second truck and stalk over toward Orlov, who gestures at one of the crates.
I watch as one of his men pops it open, and the buyers check it over.
The whole deal goes down in less than ten minutes, money changing hands and crates being loaded into the transfer vehicle.
It's about as seamless as a sale can go down.
Orlov has his buyers and guards trained well.
Ro could probably take a lesson from this, but I'm not here for a school day.
“Let’s go," I grumble as the buyers climb back into their car. One by one, Orlov's men climb into their sedan as he moves back toward his van. I wait until the first armored truck is pulling out, following the buyers' car and the sedan, and then we move.
We slip out of the SUV as quietly as possible, spreading out through the shadows along the hangar walls.
Angus and Radimir take the left flank, Yegor and Kazimir the right.
I move straight down the middle with my gun drawn but not raised yet.
I have imagined this moment so many times I have it memorized, right down to what I expect him to say when he sees me.