Marat grabs Sasha by the arm and holds him at a distance while he chuckles.
"Brave little thing, isn't he? Gets that from his father, I suppose. The stupidity, if not the skill."
"Let him go!" I stand, though I'm swaying, and I watch as Marat carries Sasha across the room and deposits him roughly in the chair by the window. The other man moves to stand behind it and pins Sasha to the chair by a hand on his shoulder. Sasha whimpers and tries to wriggle away, but it's clear the man is very strong.
"Stay there," Marat tells the boy. "The adults are talking."
I want to go to Sasha and wrap my arms around him and tell him everything's going to be okay, but Marat is between us now. I know if I try to move, he'll just hit me again. So I stay where I am with my back against the dresser and my heart pounding so hard I fear I'm having a heart attack.
"Fyodor will come for us," I say, and I hate how weak I sound. "He'll find you and he'll kill you."
"I'm counting on him to try." Marat pulls out his phone and checks something on the screen, then puts it away. "He should be here within the hour, I'd guess. Maybe sooner if he gets as desperate as I think he might."
My knees go weak and I slide down the front of the dresser until I'm sitting curled up, hugging my knees and resting my chin on them. This isn't right. Fyodor should be here protecting us. He promised that he would keep us safe, and this time, he can't because he isn't even here.
"Oh, God," I whimper, burying my face against my knees as I listen to Sasha crying.
I've never been more terrified in my life.
29
FYODOR
"We should hit the second house now," Lazar grumbles. I know he's stressed like me, but he needs to get his head on straight. "We've got momentum and the element of surprise. If we wait around for backup, we give them time to move Marat to another location and we're back to square one. They won't see us coming after that explosion. They'll think we're running scared."
"No. We go back to the motel first." His logic might line up but something in my gut isn’t sitting right. I have to make sure Noemi and Sasha are safe first.
"Are you serious right now? We're already halfway to the east side. Marat could be sitting in that house as we speak, and you want to turn around and drive in the opposite direction?"
"Something's not right." I can't explain it any better than that, but there's a crawling sensation at the back of my neck that's telling me I need to get back to my family right now. Call it instinct, call it paranoia, but I've learned to trust that feeling over the years and it's never steered me wrong. "We lost Vasilitonight. The first house was a trap. Can't you see that?" It's like they've baited us away from the motel, but that doesn't feel right either. How could Koslov's men know where we're staying? We paid cash, parked far away from there. We were careful to make sure no one followed us.
"That's paranoid thinking and you know it. Koslov's people don't even know where we're staying. We've been careful about that."
"You sure about that? Because they knew exactly where we'd be hitting tonight, down to the minute. They had the whole place wired with explosives before we even got close. Someone's been feeding them information this whole time." I'm not bending on this. I know what I have to do, and what Yuri expects of me, but I won't sacrifice my family for it.
Lazar wants to argue with me, but he's not stupid. He knows I have a point even if he doesn't want to admit it. And even if he completely disagrees with me, he won't keep fighting me. I'm his boss, and I know he'll fall in line.
"We'll call Rurik," I continue, trying to keep my voice calm even though my heart is racing. "Get him to send backup. We'll hit the second house with a full team instead of just the two of us running on no sleep. But first, we go back to the motel and make sure my family's safe. I need to see them with my own eyes."
"So we'll waste an hour driving back and forth across the city for nothing while Marat slips away?"
"Then we waste a fucking hour," I snarl, and I glare at him for a second as he scowls out at the road. When I'm calmer, I continue. "But if something's wrong and I wasn't there because I was too busy chasing a target, I'll never forgive myself for it. And neither will you, because you'll be the one who has to look mein the eye and explain why we didn't go back when we had the chance."
Lazar lets out a long, frustrated sigh and takes the next turn, heading back toward the motel instead of continuing east. He's not happy about it, I can tell by the set of his jaw, but he's doing it anyway because deep down, he knows I might be right. We've worked together long enough that he trusts my instincts even when they don't make logical sense.
The rest of the ride is quiet enough for me to get stuck in my head with worry. I'm not a man who worries about things. I calculate and plan. I don't get afraid. But I've never had anyone to risk losing. This is a whole different experience for me.
The car swings into the parking lot and Lazar slams it into park, still clearly upset with me. We both climb out and move toward the motel doors, but I'm faster, taking the lead. The unsettled feeling in my gut has turned to near panic I'll feel foolish for if I'm wrong, but I don't feel like I'm wrong.
"Something's wrong," Lazar says as we walk down the hallway toward the rooms, and his voice has changed completely. His cold anger has shifted to sharp alertness and my blood turns to ice the minute I see why.
The door to the room where Sasha was sleeping when we left is hanging open. The frame is splintered and broken like someone kicked it in. There's no light coming from in the room and when we approach, I don't hear anything either.
My gut was right. I knew something was wrong and now I'm terrified of what we're going to find inside.
I run down the hallway with my gun in my hand and one thing on my mind. I'm going to slaughter Marat Koslov and every fucking one of his men if he's laid a hand on my son.
I sweep into the room, checking corners on instinct even though my brain already knows what I'm going to find, but the room's empty. Two chairs are knocked over and there's a lamp shattered on the floor, obvious signs of a struggle, but no bodies—no Sasha and no hotel staff who were supposed to be sitting with him.
