“Then you remove that from your mind. Stay focused. These men betrayed us and the brotherhood. Because of them, we have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars—if not millions. Igor Popov is questioning our reliability. Our brothers have been placed in danger, and one was nearly killed. This is our priority. Understood?”
Betrayal and anger sat bitter in my throat. I nodded. He was right.
The second man lasted longer before he cried out, with snot and blood running into his battered mouth. “Wait! Please!” he sniveled as he coughed up more blood.
“You think I’m going to show you mercy?” I asked him with deadly calm.
“Involving you wasn’t our idea. But someone from your Bratva found out about what we’d been doing. They contacted us.”
Viktor and I exchanged a glance. I’d been on the mark with my emotional accusation and hadn’t even known it. Only because I knew my uncle well did I recognize the shock in his eyes.
“And?” Viktor asked.
“And they wanted us to tell the Armenians about you. About your woman.” He was panting as he bravely stared into my eyes. Yet, I saw the resignation in his gaze. He knew he wasn’t walking out of this compound.
Rage consumed me, but I maintained a cold mask of disinterest.
They knew about Sofia. All the way in Russia, they knew about her.
And they had told the Armenians.
Because of someone in my very circle.
“Who. Was. It?” Viktor calmly demanded.
“I don’t know. I swear,” he vowed. “They used a burner phone and always spoke in a whisper.”
Because he knew this was the end and he had no hope in hell, I believed him. Still, I was sickened. These men had been with Viktor since they were both teenagers and their family had been killed. They had been trusted. The fact that they let greed destroy that bond disgusted me. Yet, in appreciation of his final, complete honesty, I ended it quickly. Cleanly.
When it was done, I stepped outside and let the falling snow take the heat from my skin. The compound lights glowed behind me like watchful eyes. Viktor joined me, lighting a cigarette.
“You’re finished here,” he observed. “You have your answers, you have your men. The old guard that is going with you is loyal. The traitors here are gone.”
“I’m not finished,” I replied as I stared off into the swirling snow. “You heard them. Someone else was involved. Someone in America. One of my own. So, I’m leaving, but I’m far from finished.”
He studied me as the seconds ticked by slowly. “I pray you find your answers, but I hate that you’re having to look so close to home. Perhaps when you have this settled, you should come back to Russia. Forget about that foolishness in America. My Svetlana is still unmarried. I think she has always hoped you would return.”
My eyes slid to him in warning. “That is over and has been for a lifetime. She made her choice back then.”
“She didn’t want to leave Russia,” he defended with a shrug. Svetlana wasn’t his daughter by blood. She had been a very young girl when Viktor married her mother.
“Well, she knew I wasn’t staying,” I shot back. “We were young, naive, and I’ve long since moved on. I’m going home.”
He sighed. “For the girl.”
“For my family,” I corrected.
Viktor nodded once, understanding in his gaze. “Then go. I wish you well.”
On the flight back, my mind wandered, and the past found me.
Archer’s voice echoed in my head—not the calm, no-nonsense voice from his recent phone call, but years ago, on a cracked tarmac under a foreign sky.
I’d been young. Reckless enough to think I wanted to take on the world. I’d joined under a false name, with bought-and-paid-for documentation, testing myself against rules and ranks I’d never truly respected. I thought that because of my training with my uncle, I was a badass, and what better way to prove it than to join the military and go to war. Right? Of course, it didn’t last. But I’d been in long enough to meet Archer.
He’d been a Navy SEAL then. A bit older than me. A lot sharper. The kind of man who noticed everything and seemed to speak only when it really mattered.
His group had finished a mission and had linked up with us to refit. I’d seen them roll in.
