35. Maksim
MAKSIM
Standing off to the side in the great room that overlooked the area where Carina met with Arturo, I watched it all.
Alexei stood with me, just having happened to be coming over seconds after the Cartel boss arrived.
He hadn’t hesitated to get the intel from the guards at the gate and rushed in to offer me backup.
“They held the men he’d brought with him,” Alexei said next to me.
“Bringing anyone was sentencing them to death,” I muttered, letting my hatred of this asshole seep deep into my bones.
“I’m not sure about that. They surrendered immediately. They thanked us for taking Arturo inside.”
I furrowed my brow, unable to stop watching Carina stand there like a warrior, like a goddess, staring down her brother with that icy coolness she could perfect in a heartbeat. “Are they attempting a coup? Ousting Arturo?”
“No. I think they are hoping that we’ll handle their dirty work for them. That he’ll be dead.”
“It is suicide for him to come here with any expectation that he would leave.” I glanced at him for a second. “Is he that stupid? Or what?”
He shrugged. “Maybe he’s that deluded into thinking he’ll always get his way.”
Not this time.
Not ever again.
The second Carina decided she was done with him in this convoluted farewell, I would execute him without hesitation. No threat against my wife would be allowed. No obstacle to her happiness and peace would be permitted.
I imagined that some of the soldiers would question why I’d entertain her. Why I’d let her have this last chance to see and speak with him.
I had to. If I wanted her to perceive me as someone who would always respect her, I had to give her this last attempt at closure.
To say whatever she wanted to let him know.
To confront him and air her grievances for the final time.
To hear him out and convince herself that all her suspicions and doubts about him were warranted.
“What did they do with the ones who came with him?” I asked.
“Holding them before they can transport them to Lev’s. To question them.”
“Not with Markus,” I said. “Banking on what Carina has said and explained, there might be a valid reason to believe that some members of the Cartel who were loyal to Miguel might take over. If anyone loyal to the memory of Miguel Garcia can pick up the pieces, then that’s a better outcome to hope for. ”
“Rather than Yusef Antonov achieving any more territory to control in the absence of a leader,” he remarked. “You’re not considering letting her take it over, are you?”
I shook my head. “This isn’t the same as when Adrik killed Morovov.
” When he did, the Morovov Financials firm was dead, too.
Elena took it over—unofficially—and used all the accounting work as a means to spy on others’ accounts.
Carina would not be taking over the Cartel.
It wasn’t part of our territory, and it wouldn’t be sustainable or true to the legacy and empire we had running up here in this region.
I had no desire to tax my wife with the headache of doing too much. She’d been doing that for too long as it was, ever since her parents were killed.
Carina turned and left without another word. I heard it all, every single thing they’d said. The speakers near the patio recorded their final conversation, and I couldn’t admire her any more than I did at that moment.
She walked away on her own terms.
She told him where she belonged.
And as she kept her chin up, her head held high, her eyes stony with a determination that she’d done her best, I couldn’t have been prouder of her.
Alexei and I didn’t move as we watched her enter through another door. Jeremiah was already on standby to watch her, in case she’d want to leave to see Elena as she’d planned or if she would go to the gym and vent her emotions there.
“Well, she told me.”
I watched the guards surround Arturo, ignoring his protests and threats to release him.
“Huh?” Alexei furrowed his brow.
“Carina. She told me that she wanted this done.”
He raised his brows. “She ordered her own brother’s death?”
“She didn’t say she wanted him done. But she realizes it was inevitable. She wants the stress of his trying to mess with us done.”
He nodded slowly. “Better listen to her, then. What’s that saying? Happy wife, happy life?”
I deadpanned at him. “Precious.”
Shrugging as he walked with me toward the door, he didn’t show any indication that he was in a worse mood.
Together, we exited the house.
Under the instructions that I’d given the guards watching the interaction between Carina and Arturo, they captured him and dragged him further out into the desert.
Strategically created walls of dirt and long mounds of dirt were placed out here for the purpose of screening in case we didn’t want to see the entire desert in this direction.
Mountains lined the distant horizon, but out here, in what I personally considered my private no-man’s land, I disregarded the remoteness.
I ignored the carcass of a vulture, too, the skeleton remaining from when the guards had to kill the scavenging bird when they hadn’t removed a corpse fast enough.
Arturo Garcia was on his knees as my men bound his hands behind his back.
As I came into view, Alexei shook his head. “What are you bothering with that for? He’s not going anywhere.”
“Of course, I am,” Arturo shouted. “This is a mistake.”
I rolled my eyes as I retrieved my gun from its holster. “Like I haven’t heard that before.”
“Of course, this is a mistake,” he insisted, jerking his head from side to side as my men gave up tying his hands. They formed a circle around him, removing any possible chance of his escaping, of even getting up onto his feet again.
“This is a mistake, Volkov,” he shouted, like increasing the decibel of his voice would make more of an impact with his lie.
“Like that shipment to the Hernandezes was a mistake?” I quipped wryly.
“Sure. Sure. Shit happens. You know that, right?” He volleyed his gaze between me and my cousin. “This is a mistake. For fuck’s sake, we’re supposed to be friends. Allies.”
“You plan on listening to this bullshit all day?” Alexei asked gruffly, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“No.” I approached him calmly, measuring my steps and letting him see that this was a controlled execution. A deliberate move. One that he’d earned all by himself.
“You have to listen to me,” Arturo argued. “This is a misunderstanding. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not right. Of course, this is a mistake!”
I pressed the end of my gun’s barrel to his forehead, right between his eyes. Sweat dripped down his brow as he squinted up at me. Slight tremors overtook him, and I supposed he’d be a weak asshole even as he faced death.
“This is a mistake,” he insisted, begging for mercy that I wouldn’t give him.
“This is a message. One all of us in the Volkov Bratva will stand by. I am severing ties with the Cartel you ruined with your leadership. And I am letting the world know, again, that no one uses my wife as leverage.”
Before he could open his mouth, I pulled the trigger. The kickback of the gun barely registered in my arm. I was too used to it, too familiar with the reaction.
I was more than familiar with the relief that hit me like a drug in my veins. Pure triumph at taking out the trash. The overwhelming peace of knowing I’d done my small part in removing one more vermin from the face of this earth.
His eyes stayed open. No blinking, stuttering, whiny begs would ever sully my ears again.
As I stepped back from delivering the clean shot to his brain, ending his life immediately, he slumped over. Pitching forward, he nearly dropped onto my legs and feet. One shove of my gun at the side of his head redirected his fall to the side.
Returning to stand next to my cousin, I sheathed my gun and then faced him calmly.
“Done.”
“With him,” he said.
Together, we walked away, letting the men handle the disposal and cleanup.
No funeral would be planned on our part, but I supposed we’d need to arrange some way to let the rest of the Cartel be informed.
It seemed like they anticipated this happening, perhaps with the trap from last night that alerted them to how I was onto his games and lies.
“Not done with the Cartel,” he said.
“That’s true.” I squinted at the desert that filled the land, unbothered about the fact that I’d just taken a life.
In the name of protecting my wife and child, and her sanity, it was necessary.
“We’ll meet about it and discuss it. I imagine Carina could assist in finding a decent replacement.
Just so Yusef and Gregori can’t acquire any more power through them. ”
“And you’re not done with her.” He cleared his throat. “You’re going to tell her that he’s gone right now?”
“Yes.” I owed it to her to inform her that we could have closure now.
“You’re not worried about the possibility that she might regret how this ended?”
I shook my head as we continued walking. “No. I have no reason to be concerned. I am confident in what I share with her. What Carina and I have is more than an arrangement. We’ve grown together since our relationship began.”
“It was an arrangement, though. Killing her brother doesn’t change that.”
“It doesn’t need to change anything about how we encountered each other. I can only look back and be grateful that we did. What we share isn’t an arrangement any longer. It’s a lifelong commitment, one I will honor and respect with love.”
He patted my back as we neared my house. “Good.” With one more curt nod, he bade me farewell and left me to it.
Talking to Carina could be a conversation fraught with nerves and too many emotions to corral and harness right now.
I wasn’t intimidated, though. Not waiting a second longer, I entered my home and sought her out to let her know that now, the rest of our lives could begin in as much peace as we could dictate.