Chapter 27 Katya
KATYA
The abandoned rail spur is nothing but cracked asphalt, with rusted metal bones of old infrastructure jutting out of the ground at odd angles.
Dead and dormant trees surround the perimeter, with naked branches reaching toward the gray afternoon sky.
I ride in the passenger seat of Dimitri's SUV, and I can feel the thickness of the bulletproof vest under my clothes.
"You don’t have to do this," Dimitri says, but I know he's only trying to reassure me.
I do have to do this.
"We can find another way."
"No, we can't."
I keep my eyes on the road ahead.
"He needs to believe he has me. That's the only way he'll show himself."
Slavely Koval, one of the highest ranking members of the Radich crew has to be stopped.
Not only is he responsible for putting the hit on Dimitri, but he keeps pressing and pushing.
He wants the Morozov family and the Vetrov's divided, and he thinks I'm the only thing tying them together.
The Morozov convoy arrived thirty minutes ago.
I watched from a distance as Artemy positioned his men along the tree line to the north.
Fifty soldiers at least, all of them armed and ready.
And we were given one rule from Artemy: the Morozovs command their own.
Then the Vetrovs arrived from the opposite tree line and Dimitri's family took positions in the forest.
Now, the two sides maintain tight lines, their weapons ready but not yet raised.
We've laid the perfect trap for our enemies and it's up to me to bait them out.
Every one of them knows if I die, the war erupts between all families.
Vetrovs will blame the Radiches and Morozovs for allowing it, and my cousin will rain fire down on Dimitri and anyone loyal to him.
But none of that squelches the nerves twisting in my chest.
Dimitri pulls the SUV to a stop two hundred meters from the center of the spur.
He kills the engine, and we sit in silence for a moment.
The afternoon is quiet, almost supernaturally so.
No birds sing.
There’s no wind moving through the trees.
It's as though the world itself is holding its breath.
"Remember what we discussed," he says.
"You call him by name and let him see you. Make him believe you're alone. When he commits to the kill, I give the signal."
"I know," I grumble, totally unsure about this entire thing.
I'm risking my life for all of these men in their game of chess, and I still don’t know if my mother is safe.
I unbuckle my seatbelt, and my hand moves to check the vest one more time.
The ceramic plates are solid beneath my fingertips.
"He'll come for me."
"Yes, and when he does, you drop. The moment you hit the ground, you stay down. No matter what happens, you don’t stand up and try to run. You drop and you stay put with your hands over your head. Do you understand me?"
I look at him, and I see the conflict in his eyes.
He doesn't want to send me out there.
Every instinct he has is screaming at him to keep me close, to protect me, to do this some other way.
But we both know there is no other way.
Savely Koval won't for a second believe the Vetrovs have me and want to trade me, and no one on earth would believe Artemy Morozov would trade his own blood.
I have to do this on my own.
"I understand," I tell him.
"I'll be fine."
He reaches over and grabs my jaw, forcing me to look at him.
"You come back to me. Say it."
"I will come back to you," I tell him, but my bottom lip trembles a little when I speak the words.
His hand cups my face and squeezes and I have the sudden urge to tell him I love him.
To blurt it all out in case I never get the chance, but if I do that and I die, it will crush him that we never got the chance to be together.
He releases me and leans back in his seat.
"Go."
I open the door and walk out into the cold afternoon.
The wind hits me immediately, carrying the smell of snow.
I close the door behind me and start walking toward the center of the spur.
My nerves are shot.
This feels paralyzing but here I am pressing on and trying to hang on to a thread of hope that this is the end.
That after this I can find some safe place where violence can't touch me.
My footsteps slap on the asphalt, and I can feel eyes on me from both tree lines.
There is an entire army of men waiting on either side of me, ready to spring to action at a moment's notice.
All of them have zero obligation to me except Dimitri.
Artemy could deny my existence and move on with his life as if I never showed up, and Dimitri's family wouldn't have to cough up twenty percent of their profits anymore.
But they're here ready to fight for me.
It's a bold move, and I can't let them all down.
Three armored vans appear in the distance, moving slowly down the access road.
They're dark gray, heavily modified, their windows tinted black.
The vans slow to a stop at the far edge of the spur, approximately two hundred meters from where I stand.
The doors open, and men begin to emerge. Radich soldiers.
I count twelve of them, maybe more.
They spread out in a loose formation, their weapons visible, their posture tense.
Then Savely Koval steps out.
I recognize him from the file Dimitri showed me.
He's tall, broad-shouldered, with a scarred face and cold eyes.
He's not one of the men who took me at that warehouse, but I see one of those three as well, along with several others I don't recognize.
His eyes find me, and I see the moment recognition hits him.
He smiles, and it's the smile of a predator who's found its prey.
I take a breath and call out his name.
"Savely Koval."
He says something to the men beside him, and they laugh.
He starts walking toward me, his hand resting on the gun at his hip.
With each step, I feel my heart rate accelerate.
The vest suddenly feels very thin.
The protection it offers seems theoretical, and not as grounding or reassuring as it felt moments ago in the car.
"Ekaterina Morozova," he calls out, his voice rough and amused.
"I've been looking for you."
"I know."
I keep moving toward the midpoint, closing the distance between us.
The soldiers on both tree lines remain still, watching.
Waiting.
"That's why I'm here."
"Vetrov finally let you off your leash?"
He laughs again.
"Or did you run to us for protection?"
"Neither," I tell him.
"I came here to end this."
My words anger him.
I watch his expression screw into dark hatred and he reaches for his weapon.
I suddenly don't remember what I'm supposed to do, if there's a code word or a hand gesture.
The world seems to crawl in slow motion and I watch as he draws his weapon and begins to raise it, and all I can think is that I'm supposed to fall.
I let my knees give out, and my hands rise to cover my head.
Then the world explodes.
His shot booms in the air, and takes me in the back, and the impact drives the air from my lungs.
The vest absorbs the bullet, but the force of it still slams me forward as I continue to fall to the ground like Dimitri taught me, hitting the asphalt hard.
Pain radiates through my chest and ribs, but I don’t move.
I writhe, unable to cover my head to protect myself as I struggle against the suffocating feeling of being hit.
But I'm not feeling pain as much as dysphoria.
The tree lines erupt.
The Morozov and Vetrov fire overlaps in a disciplined weave that is almost beautiful in its coordination.
Bullets tear through the air over me, creating a crossfire that leaves the Radich soldiers nowhere to run.
They try to return fire, but they are pinned, caught in a killing box with no escape.
Men fall.
Blood spreads across the cracked asphalt.
The sound is deafening, an assault of gunfire and shouting and the sharp metallic sound bullets hitting their vans.
Koval is standing over me now, reaching down, trying to grab my arm to pull me up.
He means to use me as a shield, to hide behind my body while he returns fire.
I see his hand coming, and I twist away from him, forcing my body to stay low even as my instincts scream at me to run.
Dimitri emerges from the tree line, moving at a sprint.
He closes the distance between himself and Koval with terrifying speed, and I see him raise his weapon.
Two shots, fired in rapid succession.
Both of them hit Koval in the chest, and he drops like a marionette with cut strings.
He hits the ground beside me, his eyes already going glassy.
The contract on Dimitri's head ends right there, with Koval's blood spreading across the asphalt beside my body.
I scream. scrambling backward in a move that could get me killed, but I've seen enough bloodshed for a lifetime.
I don't want his blood on me.
The Radich family breaks and tries to run.
The soldiers who are still alive turn toward their vans, desperate to escape, but Artemy anticipated this.
A flanking unit cuts off their escape route, forming an impenetrable wall.
The Radich soldiers are caught between two fires now, with no way out.
Most of them choose surrender over death, dropping their weapons and falling to their knees.
The gunfire begins to slow, then stops entirely.
The ringing in my ears is so loud that I can't hear anything for a long moment.
My back is on fire where Koval's bullet hit the vest, and I'm not sure if I'm breathing or if the impact knocked the wind from my lungs permanently.
Then hands are on me, pulling me up.
I see Dimitri's face so close to mine that everything else blurs.
He's checking me for injuries, his hands running over my body, looking for wounds beyond the impact point.
"Are you hurt?" he demands, shaking me.
But I can't respond right away.
"Dammit, Katya, are you hurt!"
"No."
My voice comes out ragged.
"I can't breathe properly, but nothing's broken."
He pulls me against himself, his arms wrapping around me so tightly I wonder if he might break me himself.
But I lean into him, letting him hold me, letting the reality of what just happened wash over me.
I'm alive.
We both survived.
The battle is over.
Artemy strides into the center of the spur and looks at me, then at Dimitri.
"The contract is broken," he says.
"Savely Koval is dead. The Radiches will retaliate, but the immediate threat to your life is ended."
I nod, still breathing heavily, still trying to process the violence of what just occurred.
But I don’t pull away from Dimitri.
He's my anchor right now, the only thing keeping me from going into shock.
Dimitri's arm remains around my waist, keeping me close.
"Thank you," he tells Artemy.
"You didn’t have to commit your soldiers to this fight."
"No, I didn’t."
Artemy lights a cigarette with steady hands despite the chaos surrounding us.
"But Savely Koval represented a threat to both our families. And my cousin performed admirably. She stood in the fire and didn’t flinch."
I look at Artemy, and he meets my gaze.
There is something different in his expression now.
He's showing me he respects me now.
I proved myself today, not just as Lyovik's daughter, but as someone who could stand with them.
Someone who could fight alongside them.
I lean against Dimitri, feeling exhaustion settling over me.
The adrenaline is wearing off, leaving behind only pain and a bone-deep weariness.
This part is over for now, and I have no way of knowing if the war will continue, but I'm praying that's the last time I have to step into this much danger ever again.
"We need to move," Dimitri says quietly.
"The Radich family will hear about this within the hour. They'll want to retaliate."
I'm too numb to argue, and even if I had energy to do so, I wouldn't.
The only thing I want right now is to take off this vest and soak in a hot bath.
Dimitri says goodbye to Artemy, thanks him again, and then loads me into his SUV while his men begin cleaning the scene.
"Where are we going now?"
I ask him as he buckles me in and fawns over me.
His hands caress my cheeks, and he seems to be unable to pull away from me for even a second.
"To the Morozov cabin. The men want to regroup and plan the next move, and I want you to have a safe place to wash up and rest. You did so well today, Katya. I'm proud of you."
When his lips touch my forehead it's magic.
The sensation seems to worm its way all the way through my body to every spot that hurts and it feels like home.
Dimitri feels like home.
And as soon as we get a spare second I'm going to tell him that.