Chapter 58
After spending the morning visiting a few of the clubs and bars and hanging out with the staff, it feels great speeding home on my Ducati Streetfighter V4 SP2.
The trip ends too soon, and while I consider staying away for longer, paperwork calls. The second I’m inside, Anastasia is right there, wringing her hands together. “Finally, you’re home. You have another present and?—”
“Toss it.”
Veles sprints from the kitchen to greet me, and I reach down to the only gift I’ll ever keep. There’s nothing else he could send my way that I’d want.
I head for my office with Veles trailing me—and Anastasia, who’s rapidly shaking her head. “No, no, it’s nothing I can toss out. Nothing you’d want me to. It’s?—”
“Sell it then.” Given Zeno’s pattern, it’s probably a car or something extravagant.
“Not that either. It’s, um…it’s Agapov.”
Simply hearing his name rocks me to my core. My heart beats a bit quicker and sweat beads across my neck. I’m thrown back to the day he had me pinned to a bed. To the moment he stole what was never his.
“What do you mean?”
She can’t possibly be saying Zeno’s newest gift is him ? That two and a half years of searching has resulted in nothing and Zeno found him after, what, a month ? I’ve unpeeled every corner of Russia, all while the zmeya —snake—slithered away undetected and right into Zeno’s snare?
It doesn’t make sense in the most comical, fucked-up way. Life’s cruelty slapping me again.
Anastasia holds up her phone, a camera feed on it. “Cosa Nostra soldiers showed up at the edge of Moscow with him earlier today. Lev and a few men brought him to one of the warehouses.”
There he is. Boris Agapov is passed out in a chair with his arms behind him and his ankles tied to the legs. The camera’s position is too far away to make out his exact features, but I don’t need it to. I’d know him from anywhere. From my memories, my nightmares.
He’s here because of Zeno. Because Zeno once asked me why I hate Papa so much and I told him the truth.
All Zeno’s gifts tell a story. The flowers were his way of attempting romance. The gun is something he thinks I’d enjoy. Veles was proof he paid attention and noticed I enjoyed Venus’s company.
The retrieval of Boris Agapov says he heard me. Cared enough to launch his own search.
He has an ability to make me feel naked, and once again, he managed to strip me bare, forcing me to face my past. A past that I’ve been both hunting and running from. Hunting Boris while running from the fact I now have to deal with him.
Anastasia reaches for me, but I stumble away, not meaning to flinch. My back hits the wall, my vision blurring as I stare at the camera feed. He’s so close. Revenge is so close. Reachable. A quick drive downtown, and it’s all over.
“Vanessa?” she calls, but the blood roaring through my ears make hearing impossible. My heartbeat echoes around me, dulling out even the sound of Veles whining by my feet as he senses my panic.
Panic. A combination of panic and ease.
All because of Zeno.
“I, uh—thank you. I’ll…um, I have to make a call.”
“Ciao, moglie.”
I’ve never even admitted it to myself, but Zeno speaking in his mother tongue makes my insides clench with desire. But that’s not the purpose behind my call.
“Why?” It’s all I manage.
Why did you do this?
Why Boris of all things?
Why are you determined to make me like you?
“This doesn’t change anything, Zeno.”
“Got you to call, hasn’t it?” Traces of amusement dance in his tone. “No gift has gotten you to reach out, so I had to pull out the big guns.”
Veles pushes against my hand, reminding me of his presence, and compelling me to, for some reason, admit, “I love the dog.”
“Good. What did you name him?”
“Veles. It’s the name of the Slavic god of the underworld.”
“Of course you did.” I could almost picture him smiling. “Agapov isn’t a gift. He’s righting a wrong.”
My chest clenches so tight, my lungs feel like they no longer function. “Why? Why him, Zeno? Why now? And how?”
Zeno’s silent for a moment, and it’s sixty seconds too long; they make me feel like I’ll lose my mind if he doesn’t respond. When I’m about to demand he does, he speaks, his voice soft and melodic, placating but calming.
“He hurt you, so you deserve revenge. As for how, well, don’t worry about that.”
Don’t worry about it? After two years of searching, it makes no sense Zeno found him. “I need to know. How did you find him in only a month?”
Another pause, a sigh, and then my long-awaited reply. “He’s been hiding in Italy. Made a deal with another Family’s capo when you became Pakhan because he knew you’d be searching for him. He’s been underground for the two years, far from Russia. That’s how you haven’t found him. Actually,” he huffs gently, “you technically did find him. The capo holding him is Alessandro Vitale, the same one your father made the deal with for Serafina’s hand.” Also the one I once believed to be the head of the entire Cosa Nostra before understanding their structure. “The only reason I have Agapov is because he bargained with me.”
I did it for Serafina. Never realized one kind act would have such a domino effect.
“What did you have to bargain away?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Except I am worrying. Worrying a lot. “We’re even then?”
“Even?”
“For Serafina.” Surely, that was his entire motivation.
Pause. “This was never about her. As I said, you deserve this.”
He’s lying. People from enemy organizations don’t do kind things. I’m desperate to believe this is all an act. “What do you want in return?”
Zeno huffs, this one packed with frustration. “ Nothing . There’s no secret agenda. Do what you need to and end his sorry soul. That’s my only desire.”
Oh. It’s still unfathomable to consider he’s not doing this to have power over me. There’s no other reason that makes sense, but for now, I concede with, “Then if you mean that…thanks, Zeno.”
“Same question, Vanessa,” he says suddenly. “Why did you let us know about what you found in your father’s journal?”
“Told you, it’s for Serafina. Not fair for her to be blindsided one day.”
“Liar. Why else?”
With my heart feeling seconds away from ripping out of my chest and my secrets unpeeled, I hang up.