“Apparently one or more of them are.”
The idiot is digging himself a hole. A giant one. Niko might be the eldest, but he’s also the most volatile when provoked. Even more than Maksim sometimes. Maksim’s rage is like standing in front of a freight train with its whistle screaming. You see it coming.
Niko’s rage sneaks up on you from behind. Unpredictable. And I hate cleaning up the aftermath.
“How’d you get in?” Leon, mercifully, steers us back to the real problem. “Those doors are coded.”
Mark smirks and holds up a small device in his hand. It’s barely the size of a credit card and looks like he cobbled it together from spare parts without bothering to refine it.
“It’s a decryption device. Works twice as fast as the old 16-byte model and is wireless. Don’t have to hook it up to the door. The range is sweet too.”
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, draining what’s left of my whiskey. I already know I’ll need a refill. Or three. “Told Matthias we should’ve gone with thumbprint or retinal scan entry.”
“So you broke in here. Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Mark tilts his head curiously.
“If it was, would I be asking?” I snap back, pouring another generous helping of whiskey.
“I have a way to get Matthias out of jail.”
“And you didn’t think to come to us before?” I grill. He shrugs, his go-to move when he doesn’t know how to word something.
The kid’s brilliant. Top marks, IQ off the charts. A technical and mechanical prodigy. But like so many others, he’s another kid the system failed. They didn’t care that he could buildsomething that could topple governments. They only cared if he could sit quietly and color inside the lines.
“I didn’t really have a solution until a few hours ago,” he admits sheepishly. “Also, I need a few assurances first.”
My brows rise. The only people who ask for assurances are the ones who’ve done something wrong.
“And what would those assurances be?”
Mark swallows hard, trembling. “One, you can’t kill me when you find out exactly what happened, and two…I need you to help safeguard my mother and sister.”
The implication is clear. Mark betrayed us. But the way he’s standing, the way he’s pleading—it wasn’t willingly. Not by a long shot.
Still, Matthias doesn’t tolerate betrayal.
I, however, am not Matthias. And right now, I’mPakhan.
“Sit down and tell us what happened,” I snap. He needs to understand that, while I’m not going to put a bullet in his head, he’ll still pay consequences. I can’t be his mentor in this. Not now.
The boy nods furiously, fear written all over him, but behind it, I catch respect. A weaker man would’ve killed him already. But I’m not weak. Not anymore.
I drop back into my chair, tumbler freshly filled and face him head-on. I already know I’m going to need more alcohol before this is over. He’s twitching like a live wire.
“Okay,” Mark breathes, bouncing slightly, psyching himself up. “What do you want to know?”
“Start from the beginning,” I order, rough and sharp.
“That would be about a week before you tracked me down.”
Maksim whistles, eyebrows climbing. A fucking week before?Khristos.
“A man showed up at my door and identified himself as Jonathon Archer. FBI.”
Niko growls, Leon stiffens. Shit. He’s been working with the same agent who arrested Matthias. This isn’t going to end well.
“Wait,” Mark blurts, sensing the sudden shift in the room. The tension is thick enough to cut with a blunt knife. “I had nothing to do with Matthias’s arrest. Neither did Ava. When he came to my door, he only wanted two things. He wanted to know where she was and…”
