All I hear is the echo of my own voice. Mocking me.
Fuck.
My wife. My child.
When I pick up my phone, frantically thinking of who I should call first, there are ten missed calls. All of them are from Vanya, and there are several voice messages too.
I pray that she’s gone for an early morning trip somewhere with Ava and Nina, and I slept through the calls.
I don’t bother calling back, I just show up at her door.
“Babushka, are Nina and Ava here? Is that what you were calling about?”
But Vanya looks perfectly calm.
“Tyoma, I’m glad you made it.” I can hear the voices of my cousins in the background, and Vanya shushes them. “Even if you are late.”
“Late for what?”
The door swings open and I hear the voices of my cousins moreclearly. The meeting room is packed with most of our extended family, curses in a mixture of Russian and English flying across the mahogany table.
“Didn’t you listen to my messages? Today is the vote on whether to accept the Zakharov boy as the new Pakhan. Come in and we can start.”
I’d forgotten about the damn vote. It takes me a second to recall why anyone would be worried about a meeting and why it has the slightest sliver of importance right now.
She throws a comment to one of the household staff over her shoulder about needing more coffee in the meeting room.
“You look like you need it, darling,” she says, looking me up and down. I dressed in a rush, my business shirt rumpled and pushed up my arms, buttoned unevenly. I didn’t shave. That hardly matters, because I’m not participating in a meeting, no matter how important.
The furthest thing from my mind right now is Bratva politics. It feels like such a distant concern that I can’t fathom why Vanya would think about it.
The only thing in my head right now is the drumbeat of panic as I realize that Ava and Nina could have been missing for hours.
Maybe Vanya’s going deaf. I take a deep breath. She must be misunderstanding me. “Babushka. I said, do you know where they are?”
“Where who are? We need you in this meeting about the change of leade?—”
“Nina and Ava are missing. I woke up, and they were both gone.With no note, nothing. After all I’ve done to fix things.”
Vanya’s face darkens. Her watery blue eyes pierce mine with an evaluating gaze. “So she’s left you, again.”
No.
She hasn’t.I’m sure of it.
I ball my hands into fists and take a deep breath. I don’t answer Vanya, but I know that after last night, Nina’s not going anywhere. For the first time in a long time, I trust that.
“Family comes first, didn’t I teach you that, Tyoma? Our reputation is dust if you don’t show up to this meeting.”
There’s an edge to Vanya’s tone that gives me pause, but I don’t care if it costs me the seat on the Bratva Council.
Nina is my family now.
Not Vanya and whatever game she’s playing, whatever scheme she’s cooked up.
I step away from the doorway. “I have to find my wife.”
Accept Viktor, don’t accept Viktor, start an internal war, I don’t give a damn what happens at the meeting. The Bratva can crumble into dust, just as Vanya fears, if it means I find Nina and Ava.
