Braum ignored him. The man was dead already and didn’t know it. No one would allow such a story to be told if he planned on letting those hearing it live. Goryahad spent far too much time fabricating his reputation as charming and easygoing.
“Then you had to get rid of the women and manufacture enough evidence to make it believable that anotherpakhanhad raided.”
Gorya shrugged calmly. “Freighter in the harbor was leaving. I’d perfected Patva’s signature by that time and wrote out orders. I’d already stolen money and was able to give them that for a new start. It was a matter of creating enough of a trail and then inflicting wounds on myself so I looked like I’d taken a beating.”
“Nobody would have taken the kinds of things done to him without fighting back,” Krylov snapped. “I don’t care what he says. He just lay down and took it. Why would anyone do that? If he could get those women out, why didn’t he go with them?”
Braum wondered if the man could be any less intelligent. He kept pouring triumph into his voice as if that could make him right. No one else moved. No one else spoke. Braum knew it was because they were beginning to sense—or already had—that they were in the presence of a much larger predator. No one wanted to draw his attention.
“Braum knows why, don’t you, Braum?” Gorya said in that same soft voice.
Another chill went down Braum’s spine. “If you hate enough and you want to learn to be a monster, to learn everything from them you can, and then exact your revenge, plan it out step by step, you will do anything, take anything to get there.”
There was silence again and then Krylov burst out, “He would have just killed Patva.” This time he didn’t sound so certain.
Braum shook his head. “No, he would want him to live. To suffer. To take everything from him. Killing him would be too easy. I would guess things were alreadybeginning to go wrong. Shipments interrupted or missing. Money stolen. Patva becoming paranoid against his own trusted men. Total chaos.”
He didn’t take his gaze from Gorya. No change in expression registered. None. Those frosted ghost eyes stared right back at him.
“That’s true,” Krylov conceded. “Patva nearly went insane with the continual losses.”
“I consider myself a fairpakhan. You might not be used to my ways, but I state the truth and I’m always clear about the rules and consequences. I gave an order,” Gorya stated. “No more trafficking. I don’t think anyone sitting at this table could possibly have misunderstood that order. Every single person in this room swore allegiance to me. You were given the opportunity to leave. You didn’t have to swear on your life and the lives of your families, but you did. I stated very plainly the consequences of trafficking.”
Braum could hear accelerated heartbeats throughout the room. His heart raced as well, not for himself but for his son. Someone in the room, four chairs down and across the table, was stupid enough to try to pull a gun. Something stirred in the shadows and moved with blurring speed right past the security team. At the same time blood erupted from the man’s jugular, the sound of a gun firing echoed through the room, and his left eye was gone. He slumped forward, his weapon slipping from nerveless fingers. The hilt of a knife protruded from the base of his skull. That blur retreated into the shadows as if it had never been.
No one made a sound. Bile rose in Braum’s throat. He forced himself to stay seated and not reach for his phone. Derk. This was bad. A huge mistake. He’d underestimated his opponent based on information given to him by others rather than sizing up the newpakhanfor himself.
“Tonight Leo Bugrov’s daughter, Alicia, was taken by force from the home of George and Vera Morozov.”
For the first time, Gorya broke eye contact and looked directly at George Morozov. “Both Vera and Morozov aided Raul Escabar Alba and Derk Malcom in taking this child. Escabar Alba and Malcom were caught outright beating and raping the girl. There is no question that George and Vera provided help in taking her. Shifter and leopard memories were examined. Leo’s wife was also taken forcefully by several men in this room. She was beaten severely and raped by Escabar Alba and Malcom.”
The security team had moved up behind the men in complete silence, put guns to the backs of their heads and nearly simultaneously pulled the triggers. George and the others named slumped forward. Just like that, thepakhanhad slaughtered eight men in the room.
“Vera has been executed as well,” Gorya said. “The sentence is absolute.”
Once more the pitiless, frosted eyes of Gorya Amurov met Braum’s. Braum had held out a small splinter of hope that his son might still be alive until Gorya had used the wordchildwhen he referred to Alicia. He knew immediately that Derk was dead. There had been instant retaliation.
He moistened his lips and drew in a deep breath. “Raul is the son of a very important man in Panama, Gorya. His death may bring retribution down on your family. Perhaps I could try to act as an intermediary.” He made the offer woodenly, but he wanted confirmation that Derk and Raul were dead.
“That won’t be necessary. I know who Jaoa Escabar Velentez is and exactly what he does. I may be a newpakhanhere, but for years I’ve kept up with business through my family. He’ll be informed of his son’s death and the reasons why.”
The piercing through his heart was worse than any knife could have been. Braum looked around the room at the remaining men. They had no idea what was in store for them. He did. They were all condemned to death. Every man at that table.
“I challenge you for leadership.” He issued the confrontation listlessly. His leopard wasn’t in the least responsive. It didn’t seem to want to fight for him.
“I challenge for leadership,” Krylov echoed. He seemed suddenly aware of the death sentence hanging over them. “As long as you fight me and don’t have your brother fight your battles for you.”
“Do you mean you would like me to fight fair?” For the first time there seemed to be a trace of amusement in Gorya’s tone, although if so, there was none in his eyes. “You don’t think I should have Timur fight my battles for me or an assassination team waiting in the swamp to shoot you if I fail to get the job done?”
Braum instantly had a bad taste in his mouth. He felt that lash of contempt from thepakhan. They all did. There was no honor in the challenges sent to Gorya. They’d wanted him dead and had set him up to be killed after the first three official challenges.
“Yes,” Krylov demanded, choosing not to see the irony.
Three others quickly followed suit. The three were unmated men, strong, with fierce leopards. Braum knew they stood little chance against Gorya, but he could tell they thought they did. Vinn and Edik were brothers. It didn’t surprise him that they would challenge for leadership. They had been entrenched in trafficking, guarding and training the girls who were delivered into holding and passing them through to the various destinations.
Karol was a little more surprising. He worked at the harbor and oversaw the loading and offloading of the arms, girls and drugs. He was methodical at his job, which made him excellent at supervising his crews. He wasn’t adrinker and rarely did things to excess. Braum had kept an eye on him for grooming as a futurepakhan. He had the makings.
It was possible to turn this thing around. It would only take one challenger to win the battle. Gorya’s security team couldn’t interfere. His cousin couldn’t either. Once a newpakhanwas leader of the lair, Gorya’s people could be ordered to leave—or imprisoned. There was no doubt in his mind that if they were killed or imprisoned, his lair would be at war with every Amurov territory surrounding him. He didn’t have the manpower to fight them.
