Chapter 8 - Kliment
“If I am being honest, boss, this does not look like a breach. This is clearly a message.”
The line crackled through the phone, distorted by distance but sharp enough to cut through everything else. I was already on my feet before the call ended, my mind working quicker than it had in days. I needed to be there.
“Who’s there?” I asked, my voice steady as I reached for my jacket, putting it on with the other hand.
Domonique paused, and his voice came back quieter, a lot more controlled, “Nico and Jarek are already here. They are holding the fort along with our armies. Things are contained, but they might escalate anytime.”
“And who’s on the other side?”
There was another pause, much longer this time.
“The Chernykh brothers. Iosif and Avgust are here with their soldiers.”
Of course they were. I ended the call without another word, my blood boiling at the news I had just received.
The safe house door shut behind me with a quiet click that felt far too soft for what was about to happen.
Within seconds, I was in the car, engine turning over smoothly beneath my hands as I pulled onto the road without hesitation.
The drive to the port blurred into instinct with turns that were taken too fast, lights that were ignored, and distance that collapsed under urgency that I refused to name as anything emotional.
This wasn’t anger or panic, but it was simply control under pressure.
Although something beneath it pulsed harder than it should have.
It was because the Chernykhs were moving now, and their timing was all wrong.
It was because Misha was still in my house, and that changed everything.
The only thing they didn’t know was that she was there of her own will and that it was up to her; she didn’t even intend for them to find out.
By the time I arrived, the air was already thick with gunpowder.
It was not chaos or minor disorder but a full-blown war being waged at my doorstep.
I stepped out of the car into the sharp echo of gunfire cutting across concrete and steel.
The Romanov storage yard stretched ahead, its dark structures lit by scattered floodlights.
I could see shadows breaking under movement and men positioned with deliberate coordination rather than blind aggression.
Nico stood near the central loading bay, issuing orders with calm efficiency.
His movements were measured even as bullets tore through the space around him.
I had always admired that about him. He never broke.
No matter how hard things got. Jarek was further forward, closer to the open yard, as he fired with controlled brutality.
His stance was aggressive but not reckless, and I was not worried about him.
He had always been good with weapons, fighting from the front lines as if he belonged there.
They were holding everything efficiently, but we still were not winning.
The Chernykhs weren’t either. Iosif and Avgust stood across the yard, refusing to hide behind cover.
They didn’t need to. Iosif stood slightly behind the line, posture relaxed in a way that meant nothing about him was relaxed at all.
His presence alone shifted the atmosphere, quiet authority cutting through the violence like a blade.
Avgust moved differently. He was faster and sharper, his focus locked onto targets with lethal intent as he directed their side forward.
This wasn’t a raid. It was a statement. And they had chosen the wrong place to make it.
I stepped forward into the open, right in their line of sight.
I was not being cautious, and I was certainly not trying to hide.
But I was deliberately visible. I knew they were here for me.
Gunfire didn’t stop around us, but it shifted as attention moved.
Because now I was a part of it. Nico saw me first, but his expression didn’t change, even though something in his posture tightened.
Jarek swore under his breath, reloading with a sharp movement before glancing in my direction.
“What the hell took you so long?”
His question cut off as a shot rang closer than the others, forcing him to duck behind cover.
I didn’t respond because Iosif was already looking at me, and the moment his gaze locked onto mine, the entire fight seemed to narrow into something far more focused.
He stepped forward carefully, neither rushing nor reacting.
Avgust followed half a step behind, his weapon still raised, but his attention shifting as well.
The distance between us wasn’t small, but it didn’t matter anymore.
We weren’t speaking to be heard. We were speaking to be understood.
“Where is she?”
Iosif clearly didn’t waste time. There was no greeting or buildup, but just the heaviness of the question hanging between us.
I let out a quiet breath that might have passed for a laugh.
I already knew they were here for Misha, and according to them, Misha was with me.
Even my own brothers believed this to be true, so I could not really blame anyone else.
“You came all the way here,” I said, my voice carrying just enough, “to ask me that?”
Avgust stepped forward before Iosif could respond, his expression sharper and less restrained.
“Don’t play games, Kliment,” he snapped. “You think we don’t know?”
“What do you even know, Avgust?” I asked, tilting my head slightly. “You think I don’t know that you have lost control of your own house?”
That hit. I saw it in the way his jaw tightened, and the grip on his gun shifted just slightly. But it was Iosif who answered.
“You’ve been moving quietly ever since Misha disappeared from the house,” he said. “You have been seen reassigning men and redirecting routes. We also have intel that you were watching our estate until the day of Misha’s disappearance, and then you just stopped.”
His gaze didn’t waver.
“And then my sister just disappears out of the blue and is unable to be found anywhere.”
A beat of silence stretched between us.
“You expect me to believe that is a coincidence?” Iosif asked, his words heavy.
I smiled slowly, allowing the coldness of it to settle between us.
“If I had taken her,” I said, my voice quieter now but far more dangerous, “you wouldn’t be asking me where she is.”
That landed harder than anything else because it was true, and they knew it.
If I had touched Misha without the intention of returning her, there would be no confusion; instead, there would already be war.
Avgust didn’t care about truth. He stepped forward another pace, anger bleeding into something more volatile.
“You think this is funny?” he demanded. “You think we won’t tear this entire city apart until we find her?”
“That would be inefficient,” I replied evenly. “But if you do wish to do that, go ahead and do it. You are welcome to.”
“Say that again,” he said, raising his weapon slightly.
“Enough.” Iosif’s voice cut through everything. He wasn’t loud or aggressive, but a tone of finality rang through his words.
Avgust stilled, but the tension didn’t leave him. It never did. Iosif’s attention returned to me, sharper now, more precise.
“If you didn’t take her,” he said, “then you know who did. I want my sister back, Kliment, and I know that have information.”
It wasn’t a question but a test. And for a moment, I considered telling them the truth.
I could easily tell them that Misha was in my house, under my protection, and that she was choosing to stay.
The entire situation balanced on a knife’s edge that none of them could see.
It was one thing for a Romanov to have kidnapped a Chernykh, but it was completely different for a Chernykh to willingly stay with a Romanov.
That tipped the balance in my favor. Our favor.
“No,” I said.
It was a lie delivered without hesitation. Something in his expression shifted, which was neither belief nor disbelief. I could sense that he was recalculating, and so was I. And then the moment broke. Gunfire surged again, louder this time, closer, forcing movement on both sides.
I backed away, gun in hand, as I fired to protect my own.
Avgust and Iosif moved back as well, while Nico and Jarek continued the assault from our end.
Half the land around us was already set on fire; the other half would be too if this continued.
Despite it being a sudden attack, the Romanov army was ready, which made it all the more difficult for the Chernykhs.
They must not have expected us to come with so much force.
I hid behind some containers and continued to fire, shooting men until some of them were on the ground.
I didn’t want this. Any of this. All of us knew this was an unnecessary battle, but I had no choice. Dominique appeared at my side, his gun held firmly in his grip.
“You came,” he said, his eyes on the scene ahead. He was one of the oldest Chernykh soldiers and had been with us since he was just a boy.
“I had to.”
“Give them Misha back, Kliment. Or they will keep coming back. You know this.”
“I don’t have her,” I lied with a straight face, no longer caring. He scoffed as if he didn’t believe me and ran to take cover on a nearby container.
Just then, a Chernykh soldier fired at Dominique, and I lunged forward to shield him, the bullet grazing my arm instead.
One of my men went down near the far end of the yard, and Nico shouted something sharp in response, shifting positions immediately.
Within seconds, everything halted. The conversation was over, and so was this war.
But the message wasn’t through yet. Iosif stepped back, not retreating but choosing distance.
“This doesn’t end here,” he said, his gaze on the blood seeping through my white t-shirt.
“It never does between us,” I replied.
His gaze held mine for one last second as I put my gun down. “You’ll answer for this.”
“I don’t have your sister, Iosif. You are barking up the wrong tree. Maybe it's time you look inside the fractures inside your own tower and find out why she might have left. That would be better than attacking the Romanovs for no reason.”
“You are no one to tell me that, Kliment,” Iosif spat back, anger brimming in his gaze.
Then they pulled back, not in panic or defeat, but in control. It was clear that this fight was useless. Not unless I was willing to give them Misha’s location. Avgust was the last to move, his eyes still locked on me with something that bordered on fury before he finally turned and followed.
They were gone within minutes, and the yard fell into a heavy, ringing silence broken only by the aftermath of violence.
“You want to explain what the hell that was?” Jarek didn’t wait before meeting my gaze with barely concealed anger. I hardly had time to step back into the shadow of the loading bay before he was in front of me, anger sharp and immediate.
“You’ve got Chernykhs hitting our property asking for their missing sister,” he continued, voice rising, “and you’re standing there acting like it’s a negotiation? You are talking to them like they are here to fucking play dodgeball?”
Nico didn’t interrupt but simply watched, which somehow felt worse.
“They think you took her,” Nico said quietly. “Just like everyone else.”
I shrugged off my jacket, ignoring the pull of pain along my shoulder where the bullet had grazed through earlier. Blood had already started to seep through the fabric beneath, but it wasn’t deep. I would bandage it after I got back to the safehouse. It didn’t matter anyway.
“They’re wrong,” I said.
Jarek let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Yeah? Then why do they sound so sure?”
“Because they’re desperate,” I replied.
“That’s not desperation,” he snapped. “That’s certainty if I have ever seen it.”
I turned my gaze to him slowly. “And you trust Chernykh judgment over your own brother’s word now?”
That shut him up for half a second.
“I trust patterns,” he said. “And right now, the pattern looks like you’re hiding something.”
Nico’s gaze sharpened slightly at that, and there it was. The fracture. The same one that had been there since Fyodor left. Trust wasn’t gone, but it was no longer whole either.
“I’m handling it,” I said.
“Handling what?” Jarek shot back. “You have disappeared ever since this entire drama started, and you have the audacity to claim that you are handling it?”
“Is it true what they said? Were you keeping eyes on the Chernykh estate before Misha disappeared?” Nico asked. The question was deliberate, and he studied me for a long moment.
“It’s not true.” I lied. Again. It didn’t feel like a lie anymore.
“Are you sure? You wouldn’t do something like that unless you have an agenda.”
“You are right. I wouldn’t, and I didn’t,” I said.
Jarek swore again, dragging a hand through his hair.
“This is exactly what you did before,” he said. “You shut us out. You make decisions alone. And then you expect everything to just what? Fall into place?”
“That’s how leadership works,” I replied evenly.
“No,” he said sharply. “That’s how things fall apart.”
That one landed. Not because it was loud, but because it was true. For a second, the space between us tightened into something dangerous, but then I stepped back.
“This isn’t a discussion,” I said.
Nico’s gaze didn’t soften. “You’re making it one.”
“I’ll be gone for a few days,” I said. “You two should return to the house. Make sure you secure all other property as well so the Chernykhs don’t attack elsewhere. I don’t think they will come back, though.”
“You have already been gone too long, Kliment,” Jarek replied. “We have been managing operations just fine without you, so you don’t need to go around passing orders for no reason.”
“Let him go,” Nico said quietly. “If that is what he wants.”
Jarek didn’t look convinced, but he stopped.
For now. I didn’t wait for anything else and quickly walked out before things got worse.
My brothers were already mad at me, Misha was refusing to give me answers, the Chernykhs were hunting me, believing I had kidnapped their sister, and what was I doing?
I was running away from all of it. And I was running straight towards Misha Chernykh.
The very woman who, until a month ago, had been the one person I had wanted to kill.