Chapter 6 - Kliment
“Are you seriously going to pretend all of this is normal?” Nico’s voice thundered behind me, but I ignored him.
I didn’t stop packing. The zipper of the duffel bag slid shut with a quiet, final sound as I adjusted the contents inside, making sure everything was exactly where I wanted it.
It had nothing but my pistol, a few documents, and clean clothes.
Nothing unnecessary or traceable. Behind me, the air in the room had already shifted.
Jarek was pacing from left to right. I could hear it in the uneven rhythm of his steps that were sharp against the marble floor. Nico, on the other hand, was still. He always was when he was thinking too much.
“This is normal. Why wouldn’t it be?” I finally replied, my tone as casual as I could possibly keep it.
“That’s not an answer, Kliment,” Nico said, his voice controlled but edged with something colder beneath it.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” I replied.
I picked up my watch from the dresser, fastening it around my wrist with deliberate precision before finally turning to face them.
Jarek looked like he was two seconds away from breaking something, and he would have preferred it if that something were my face.
Nico looked like he already had the pieces and was trying to figure out where they fit.
“Then start talking,” Jarek snapped. “Because you’ve been moving men without clearance. You have been redirecting port inquiries, and you have been pulling Viktor off standard rotation, like the rest of us don’t exist and have no authority over anything in this house.
“I don’t need clearance,” I said calmly. “And the two of you have authority over everything.”
“That’s not the point.”
“It is exactly the point. Things run because of my orders, and it is going to stay that way.”
Jarek let out a sharp laugh, dragging a hand through his hair. “You disappear for days, and you come back like nothing happened, and suddenly half our operations are shifting direction. You expect us to just accept that? What the hell are you up to, Kliment?”
“Yes. I do expect you two to accept that, like you have accepted all other orders in the past.”
“Like hell we will. Those orders made sense, but none of it is making sense anymore.”
Nico didn’t raise his voice, but when he spoke, the room stilled anyway. “What are you working on, Kliment?”
His gaze was steady and direct, and I could see he wasn’t looking to fight. He simply wanted to know the truth. I held his eyes for a second longer than necessary.
“It’s an external problem,” I said.
Jarek scoffed. “That’s vague enough to be useless.”
“I am keeping it vague intentionally. You two don’t need to know anything about this.”
“What kind of problem requires you to move like this without informing your own brothers?” Nico asked.
“The kind that doesn’t concern them yet.”
“Everything concerns us,” Jarek shot back. “Especially when it starts bleeding into our territory. We are a family, Kliment, in case you are forgetting.”
“The matter is contained.”
“For now,” Nico added quietly. “But for how long will it stay contained. Especially if it is what I think it is, it is bound to blow over anytime.”
Silence stretched for a beat, and then Jarek spoke again, sharper this time.
“What do you think it is?” I asked, meeting his gaze steadily.
“The Chernykh brothers are tearing the city apart, looking for Misha Chernykh.”
My gaze didn’t shift, and I didn’t react, but I felt the words land.
“Why? Where is she?” I asked.
Jarek stared at me like he was waiting for something to crack. “She’s gone. She has disappeared off the map, and suddenly you’re running around like you’ve got something to hide.”
Nico’s attention sharpened slightly. “It is clear that you know something.”
It wasn’t a question, and I met his gaze evenly.
“No,” I replied.
The lie slid out clean and controlled. Jarek stepped closer, closing the distance between us in two quick strides.
“Don’t do that,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “Don’t stand there and pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. The timing is too convenient.”
“Convenient for what?” I asked.
“For you,” he snapped. “You’ve been looking for a way to hit them where it hurts, and you have been waiting for an opening.”
“So you think I took her?” I asked, my tone almost bored.
“I think you’re capable of it.”
“As are you.”
“That’s not the point.”
“It is,” I said. “Because capability doesn’t equal action.”
Nico watched the exchange without interrupting, his expression unreadable.
“Be honest, Kliment. Tell us if she is with you?” he asked.
There was no accusation in his tone but simply a quiet, precise pressure. I held his gaze.
“No.” Another lie, but this one felt heavier. As if I were betraying my brothers. Jarek exhaled sharply, clearly unconvinced.
“Then explain the port inquiries,” he said. “Explain why you’ve been pulling information on dock movements that don’t align with any of our operations.”
“I told you,” I said. “External problem.”
“What kind of external problem overlaps with Chernykh territory?” Nico pressed.
“The kind that requires discretion.”
“Discretion doesn’t mean isolation,” Nico replied.
“It does when trust is limited.”
The words landed harder than I intended. Jarek’s expression darkened instantly.
“Careful,” he said. “You’re starting to sound like you don’t trust your own blood.”
“I trust what I can verify,” I said evenly.
“And we’re not part of that?” he shot back.
“Not right now.”
Fyodor’s absence lingered in the room like something unfinished, as if it were a fracture no one wanted to name.
Jarek let out a humorless laugh. “So this is what we’re doing now? Compartmentalizing? Keeping secrets from each other like we are enemies instead of family?”
I didn’t respond because there was nothing to gain from this argument. Jarek stepped back, shaking his head.
“You’re shutting us out,” he said. “Just like you did with Fyodor.”
The name hit harder than it should have, and it was a fairly precise strike. It might have been unintended, but it was effective anyway. I didn’t let it show.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
I picked up the duffel bag, slinging it over my shoulder, and turned around to leave. I paused at the door, turning to look back at them. I loved my entire family way more than I cared to admit or ever showed. But right now, I needed to keep Nico and Jarek away from it.
“I promise I will deal with this problem. I want the two of you to man the effort and handle other operations.”
“That’s not how our network works,” Nico said.
“It does now.”
Jarek’s jaw tightened. “You don’t get to rewrite how this family operates just because you think you’re the only one who can handle pressure.”
“I’m not rewriting anything,” I said. “I’m adjusting.”
“At whose expense?” he asked.
I didn’t answer. Because the answer was obvious. Everyone’s.
“Where are you going?” Nico asked.
“Out,” I said.
“For how long?”
“As long as it takes.”
“To do what?”
I held his gaze.
“To finish what I started.”
Silence settled again as he studied me for a long moment.
“Be careful,” Nico said quietly.
Jarek scoffed. “Careful? That’s all you’re going to say?”
“That’s all that will matter if he doesn’t listen to anything else.”
Jarek shook his head, frustrated but out of arguments that would land. I turned and walked out before the conversation could circle back into something worse. The drive back was quiet, and my hands stayed steady on the wheel, but my mind was anything but.
Misha Chernykh was already labeled missing by her family.
And almost everyone was thinking that I was the one hunting her.
I was her predator. The irony would have been amusing if it weren’t so precise.
Her brothers were tearing the city apart looking for her, and she was sitting inside one of my safe houses, mapping exits and planning her next move like she hadn’t almost bled out on a warehouse floor in front of me.
She didn’t act like prey. That was the problem.
She acted like something that had simply changed terrain.
She had adapted and survived and was now recalculating.
The safe house came into view just as the sun dipped lower, casting long shadows across the property.
I parked without hesitation, stepping out and scanning the perimeter automatically.
Everything was clear, except the confusion in my mind.
She was still inside. Waiting and assessing. And I was still unsure of what I needed to do with her. Although one thing was now certain. I could not kill Misha Chernykh, but most importantly, I had no desire to even let her go.