Chapter 27 Vadim
VADIM
Ikick the front door open and sweep inside the hotel suite with my weapon raised.
We've been waiting all day for this, and we're moving on it before our competition can get to it.
I will have Lebedev and question him. I won't let Ruslan get to him first, though making this choice was a sacrifice.
When we learned that Popovi? would be a few miles away at a restaurant eating dinner and not in this room, Ruslan ordered me to stand down and delay taking Lebedev. It was his first mistake.
Nenad moves left. Vuk goes right, and we clear the entryway in seconds. Ruslan is an idiot for thinking I'm gonna sit back and wait for him to move first when I finally have Andrei in reach. I can hear his fucking voice in the other room.
"Clear," Vuk whispers from the living room.
"Clear," Nenad echoes from a bedroom. They want this guy as bad as I do at this point. We've been at this for months and we lost men over it.
I move toward the second bedroom where the voices are getting louder. Someone laughs and a radio or television plays quietly. They have no idea we're here. I signal to Nenad and Vuk to hold position, then step into the doorway with my weapon trained on the three men sitting at the table.
"Don't move," I say. "Hands where I can see them."
Andrei freezes with cards still raised in his hand while the muscle reaches for their weapons. I shift my aim to the one on the left and my trigger finger is itching. I'd love to take them all out right now.
"Try it and you die," I tell him.
He hesitates, looking to Andrei for guidance.
Andrei gives a slight shake of his head and the muscle backs down, raising their hands.
Vuk moves in and disarms them both while Nenad and I keep our weapons trained on them.
We finally have him. My heart is pounding so hard it shakes my whole torso.
Fuck, it feels good to step into this room knowing my job is almost finished.
But my phone buzzes in my pocket so I pull it out with my free hand. It's a message from an unknown number. I'm assuming it's Ruslan.
Unknown 7:17 PM: Popovi? is dead and there are police on site. Rendezvous at the hotel in fifteen minutes.
I curse under my breath and shove the phone back in my pocket.
We needed that politician alive to question him so we can connect the dots.
Now Ruslan's covering his tracks and we're running out of time.
But I'm ten steps ahead of him now, having taken the intel he offered before he wanted me to have it.
"Andrei Lebedev," I say, refocusing on the man in front of me. "You're a hard man to find."
"I don't know who you are," Andrei says, and he smirks at me. "But you're making a mistake."
"The only mistake here is yours. You've been evading the Gravitch family for eight months.
That stops today." I move forward, having to restrain myself.
The intel we have that suggests he was involved in Dominic's murder is strong enough to warrant this now more than eight-month search.
It takes some self-control not to just pop one off and finish him right here.
Recognition flashes in his eyes. "Gravitch…? So they finally sent someone competent."
The comment is meant to be insulting, but it just confirms what I've suspected.
Andrei's been staying ahead of me because someone's been feeding him information.
Ruslan, Jovan, Popovi?, they're all connected to this weasel and I'm going to uncover just how connected they are before he meets his maker.
"Who's been helping you?" I ask.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
I cross the room and grab him by the collar, hauling him out of his chair. The muscle starts to move, but Nenad shifts his aim and they freeze. Without their weapons, they know they'll end up dead before they can blink.
"Let me rephrase that," I say, my face inches from Andrei's. "Who in the Gravitch organization has been feeding you intel? Who told you where I'd be and when I'd be there?"
"No one. I've just been lucky." This fucker speaks so calmly, it's pissing me off. I could tear his head off and spit down his throat right now.
"Nobody's that lucky. Not for eight months. You've had help and I want to know who." I shake him hard and he only chuckles. Like this is some sort of a fucking joke.
Andrei's eyebrows rise and he asks, "What's it worth to you? What do I get if I talk?"
"You get to die quickly so your death isn't painful." I'm not giving this bastard a single thing.
"You think I'm just gonna give up my family that easy?" He shrugs and narrows his eyes at me. "That's not how this works, Gravitch. Let me go and we'll talk."
"Vadim," Vuk says, tapping on his watch.
His reminder is frustrating because I am finally here to get my information and I don't want to pause this for anything.
But we have to move. Ruslan is only minutes away and he's expecting us to meet him outside soon to charge the building.
But I've already got what I came for. And I won't let Ruslan come in and ruin this.
I tighten my grip on Andrei's collar. "You're not in a position to negotiate… You killed one of ours, and I'm here to get to the bottom of it."
"I didn't kill Dominic," Andrei says coldly, and I don’t fucking believe him. I know maybe he isn't the one who pulled the trigger, but I need to know who was involved. All of them.
"Then who did?"
"Fuck you," he spits, and I shove him to the ground, then give him a kick to his ribs.
Lebedev curls into a ball and coughs hard, and I watch his goons tense up, but they can't do anything with guns pointed at them.
"Boss," Nenad says, and I get the point. We have to move now. I won't let Ruslan walk in on us here and cause a scene. He'll stage it to look bad and we'll either be arrested or killed. We have to get out of here.
I tell Vuk, "We're taking Andrei and leaving."
"What about them?" Nenad asks, gesturing to the two bodyguards.
"Leave them… Just tie them up…" Scowling, I yank the bastard off the floor to his feet and jam my gun in his ribs.
Vuk secures the muscle while Nenad and I drag Lebedev through the hotel hallway and out the side door.
He's not resisting but he's not helping, either.
It's like herding a stubborn sheep and I have to shove him a few times to get him moving faster before hotel security or staff sees us.
We're almost to the car when I see vehicles pulling up.
"Fuck," I say, changing direction.
But it's too late. Ruslan's already spotted us. His SUV screeches to a stop and he jumps out of the vehicle before it's even fully parked. Ilya and Konstantin flank him. All three of them have weapons drawn and pointed in our direction.
"Vadim," Ruslan snarls. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
I keep my gun pressed against Andrei's ribs and face Ruslan head-on. "My job. The one Yuri actually sent me here to do."
"I ordered you to wait. We were supposed to move together." He looks pissed, and it makes me giddy to think of just how much more pissed he'll be when I get Lebedev to talk and he implicates all three of them.
"Your orders don't mean shit to me. You're not in command here."
Ruslan's face flushes and he takes a step forward. Ilya and Konstantin move with him, forming a triangle that's clearly meant to intimidate. But I've been in worse situations than this and I'm not backing down.
"I'm in charge of this operation," Ruslan says. "Yuri gave me explicit authority."
"Yuri gave you nothing. I checked with Fyodor this morning." I lift my weapon from Lebedev's side to point it at Ruslan. "You're here to assist, not to run the show. So either holster your weapon or explain to Yuri why you're pointing it at family."
Ruslan's jaw clenches and I can see him stewing internally. Nenad and Vuk have positioned themselves around me and trained their guns on Ruslan's men. The parking lot is a powder keg waiting for someone to light the fucking match and I'm ready to watch it burn.
"You killed Popovi? without orders," I continue. "You compromised this entire thing by killing someone with intel. And now you're trying to take Lebedev from me so you can silence him too. I'm not letting that happen."
"Popovi? was a liability. He would've talked to the police."
Ruslan is wrong. The only police Milo? Popovi? would've been talking to were the ones on his payroll, to cover up his crimes. All of this reeks of dissidence.
"He would've talked to us first if you'd given us the chance.
" I'm so tempted to have it out right here and make them all pay, but in such a public place, it's not smart.
I'm impulsive at times and I have a hot temper, but I'm not stupid.
With police only a few miles away, they'd be on us like flies on shit in less than five minutes if shooting breaks out.
"I want to be present when you question him," Ruslan growls, and he waves his men off. They lower their weapons, and I hear Nenad and Vuk shift. "I have a right to be there."
Having Ruslan present when Lebedev talks is actually exactly what I need. Then I have evidence Ruslan can't deny or spin if there are multiple people who hear it.
"Fine," I say. "You can be there. But this happens on my terms, in a location I control—my house.
We question him there." I can't think of another place that's safe or private, and who knows what sort of mess Ruslan has set up for me if I walk out of this.
It's easier if it's on my turf and I can make sure Danica is safe at the same time.
"Your house?" Ruslan looks suspicious. "Why not somewhere neutral?"
"Because I don't trust you not to try something. Take it or leave it." God, I want to put a bullet in his head, but I lower my gun and he lowers his.
Ruslan's jaw works as he grinds his teeth. He doesn't like being backed into a corner, but he also doesn't have much choice. If he refuses, it makes him look guilty. If he agrees, he has to hope he can control the situation when we get there.
"Fine," he says. "Your house. But Ilya and Konstantin come with me."
"No. You come alone or you don't come at all. We have one man, and we don't need company." I glare at them, and they puff their chests out defiantly, but I'm not beneath capping them right now so they can't come. I just don’t want to end up in a car chase.
"You're a fool…" he snarls. "You're leaving witnesses." Every fucking thing he says is self-incriminating and he has no clue how bad he sounds.
But he's got a point. As much as I'd prefer to have him isolated, having his men nearby actually works in my favor. If Lebedev talks and implicates Ruslan, having Ilya and Konstantin as witnesses to his reaction will only strengthen my case. And if they're guilty too, I can end them all at once.
"Fine. They can come… But the guns stay in the car." The situation is getting slightly out of my control, but I can't back down now. This will end today, one way or another.
Ruslan nods slowly. "Agreed."
I gesture to the car where Nenad's already opening the back door. "We leave now. You follow us. If you try to run or if you make any stops along the way, our deal is off, and I'll end this my way."
"Understood."
I shove Lebedev into the back seat and climb in after him while Nenad gets behind the wheel and Vuk takes the passenger seat.
Through the window, I watch Ruslan return to his SUV and exchange words with Ilya and Konstantin.
They're probably discussing strategy, trying to figure out how to spin this in their favor.
But they're too late. I'm already ten steps ahead.
"Drive," I tell Nenad.
He pulls out of the parking lot and I turn my attention to Lebedev, who's sitting quietly beside me with his hands folded in front of him. He's watching me with careful eyes, probably trying to figure out what his play is here. He has no play, and he has no escape. He dies today.
"You're going to tell me everything," I say, reaching into my pocket to zip tie his wrists. "Every detail about who helped you, who ordered the hit on Dominic, and what Ruslan's role was in all of it. And you're going to do it in front of witnesses so there's no question about what was said."
"You're a fool if you think I'll talk…" Andrei is a wise man and he's been playing his cards well for a while. But he underestimates how evil I can be when I want.
"Then I let Ruslan have you. I'm sure he'll be very creative about how he silences you."
Lebedev's face pales slightly. He knows what that means. Ruslan will kill him to protect himself and whoever's pulling his strings, just the same way he killed the politician. It's the end of the line for him and he knows it.
And he doesn't respond. He stares out the window as we drive through the city.
A million scenarios are playing through my head right now. Some of them are good—thoughts of ending this and whisking Danica off to a new life away from this madness in Russia where I belong.
But some of the things going through my head are scary and end with me in a heap lying in a puddle of my own blood.
I have to keep my head in this game and my eyes wide open or it could end that way. I am the final line of defense before Ruslan and the men he's collected to align against Yuri finally take over and move to crush my family.
And I intend to hold this line with everything in me. No matter the cost.