Nik jolts, an expression of surprise flashing across his face. Suddenly, he lowers his pistol again. “I… couldn’t.”
“Why?” Maya demands, hurt creeping into her confident voice. “Because Daddy dearest told you not to?”
Nik hesitates, then nods. This doesn’t seem to be the answer Maya was expecting. She presses her lips together and lowers her own gun. “Surprise, surprise. Anton and Artur choosing to be deadly over being dads. I guess I should have expected that.”
“So… you’re not working for Lebedev?” Nik frowns.
“Maya,” moans the man on the other side of the car. “Please…”
She runs a hand over her face. “Fuck,” she mutters. “Fuck.”
“What?” Nik looks at me, then back at his cousin. “Maya, talk to me.”
Even though I haven’t seen her in years, I can still read her pretty easily. And knowing what I do about Nik’s family, my father, Lebedev, and the betrayal festering between all of them, I can guess what’s going on here.
“Your dad sent you,” I say to Maya. “Didn’t he? To infiltrate Lebedev’s ranks?”
Her blue eyes flash at me. A guilty, embittered confirmation.
“You turned my dad over to Anton,” I say, feeling weirdly divorced from the reality of the situation even as I speak the words. “Didn’t you?”
Nik’s eyes narrow.
Maya leans back against the barrier and rubs blood from her face with her sleeve. “No. That wasn’t me. But I didn’t blow my cover to stop it either.”
Rage shoots like an electric shock down my spine. I know it’s irrational. Maya would have been killed if she’d tried to protect my dad.
But still. “All to prove you’re the best man to take over the operation?” My voice sounds cold and hollow even to my own ears. “A little fucking sadistic, even for a family like yours, don’t you think?” My comfort at finding her unhurt dissolves, turning into pure pain. Another betrayal.
“Fuck off,” Maya says to me acidly. The vehemence in her voice startles me. “You weren’t here. You don’t know what this shit is like. Not anymore.”
“Maya,” pleads the bleeding man.
Her eyes go to the SUV, narrowed in thought.
“Now you have to choose,” I say, realizing, heartbeat thundering in my ears. “Right? Keep up the ruse and fight us, or come back to our side and get hunted by Lebedev yourself.”
To my surprise, Maya flashes me a sharp, dangerous smile. “Our dads might think this shit is black and white, but they’re from a different generation. Me? I like to do things a little differently.”
She crosses in front of the SUV. Nik and I exchange a look before following her.
“Get me out of here,” says the man desperately. He’s leaning back against the truck, gripping his thigh. He’s pale with pain and blood loss, sweat slicking his hair. “Kill these fuckers, Maya, we gotta go—”
“Nope.Yougotta go.” Maya raises and fires her pistol so fast I barely register the shot. The man’s head snaps back, his body going limp. Blood pumps from the hole in his forehead. “So. You’re really in it now, aren’t you. You guys wanna help me overthrow Lebedev, or what?”
I look between them. My heart should be racing, but it’s not. I should be panicking.
But Maya’s words change my chemistry. And instead, I feel a sense of astounding, encompassing calm. Because this increases the danger of our mission—but it also increases our chances of success.
I might have a chance at saving my father after all.
I speak before I even look at Nik. “Yeah,” I say to Maya. “We’re in.”
7
Nik
His body sinks slowly, a pale ghost beneath the flashlight-lit lake surface.
