7. Rowan #2
Nikolai tilts his head. “Is it?”
“I doubt someone would be stupid enough to recreate such a tragedy.”
I shift my weight slightly, not enough to be noticeable, but Nikolai’s gaze flicks to me for half a heartbeat before focusing again.
“Of course,” Nikolai continues, voice shifting into something with an almost amused lilt to it. “It’s also interesting that all of this began the moment you started pushing your way into government affairs. Hard not to see a pattern.”
Ivan’s voice lowers. “If you came here to lecture me on ambition, you’ve wasted a drive.”
“I rarely waste drives on something as simple as that, Ivan.”
“No sane person would attack a Pact member on a public road outside your compound unless they have something they want to prove. This has the markings of an outside syndicate trying to make a name for themselves.”
Nikolai studies him. “You have a charming amount of faith for your lack of evidence.”
“It isn’t faith. It is simply logic, Malyshko.”
He turns slightly, pacing a few steps toward the window.
He looks out across the rainy grounds with his hands tucked loosely inside the pockets of his coat.
The movement appears casual, but from that position, he can see the grounds in their entirety, the reflection of the room behind him in the glass, Ivan in his chair, and me near the wall.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Volkov a few weeks ago.
Do. Not. Underestimate. The government. They are nervous, more than I like.
Borchin’s death bruised them, and your attack has already made its way through the channels.
Frightened institutions such as those do not behave well. They will always overcorrect.”
Ivan’s mouth twists. “Then perhaps they should be reminded who keeps the monsters contained.”
Nikolai turns to look over his shoulder at him. “The belief that every unstable organization can still be brought to heel if you apply enough pressure rarely works on entire institutions, Ivan, once they begin eating their own tails.”
A faint throb starts behind my eyes from the unpleasant realization that Nikolai is saying aloud what I have begun to think in private for the past few weeks and tried very hard to bury.
The attack, the documents with Sofia’s name on them, the sudden intensification of Ivan’s plans around government infiltration before that…
there are too many pieces moving on the board to remain in control of all of them.
At some point, something will inevitably fracture. It worries me that it may be our own and not something outside of this circle.
Nikolai steps away from the window. “I came because the Pact cannot afford uncertainty. Not while the government is turning inward and cannibalizing itself. Your enemies, whoever they are, are bold enough to strike at you out in the open. That is what needs to be focused on first.” He turns toward the door, signaling the end of whatever facades this meeting was intended to peel back.
“Heal quickly, Ivan. The Pact needs you upright.”
I fall into step behind him out of protocol, escorting him the way I do with any guest who walks through these halls.
The blade at the back. The man who makes sure no one leaves this house with more than they arrived with.
We walk in silence down the long corridor.
Halfway to the sitting room, Nikolai stops and I nearly collide with him.
He turns slowly, and his gaze settles on me with an intensity that makes the hairs on my neck rise. “You don’t actually believe it was another syndicate, do you?”
The question is so direct, I’m momentarily stunned into silence. My mind races, searching for the safest path through this minefield I’ve inadvertently stepped into. Speaking freely to Nikolai Malyshko isn’t something men like me do, not if they want to keep breathing.
“I serve my Pakhan. His assessment guides my own,” I say carefully.
“You are loyal,” he murmurs quietly. “Dangerously so.”
I don’t know how to answer that.
Nikolai’s expression remains unchanged. “Be careful where you plant your loyalties, Rowan. Your Pakhan has already stepped into waters that aren’t meant to be tread in. It would be a shame for you to also get caught up in the undercurrent.”
The warning hangs between us for a long moment, then he turns and continues walking as though the conversation never happened at all. I follow robotically, my pulse too loud in my ears.
When we reach the sitting room, Nikolai pushes the doors open and steps inside first. I pause in the doorway and find the woman from before rising from one of the armchairs, her figure graceful as she crosses the room.
My gaze slides past them to where Sofia is in one of the other chairs, her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. Her eyes are wide with curiosity as she observes Nikolai and the woman. The moment our gazes lock onto each other, something inside my chest shifts uncomfortably.
The woman says something to Nikolai that he nods to, and then they are moving toward the door again. Nikolai pauses beside me on his way out, long enough to murmur quietly, “Choose your battles carefully, Vasiliev.”
Then they are gone.