“But what?” I snap at him.
“If you sever ties now, you’ll be leaving thePakhanvulnerable to attack,” Viktor remarks. I consider his opinion for all of five seconds. My brother brought whatever comes next on himself, just like Archer. I can’t afford to be my brother’s keeper any longer.
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” I reply. Speaking of Gavriil, I tell him, “Put eyes on my brother’s estate and hands on his car. If he moves tonight without telling me, I want the street to report it.”
“Yes, sir,” Viktor says, no question in it.
“Petrov,” I say. “Dig up the bag in the false floor in the Jersey City garage. You know the one. Put it in the car with a long gun in the trunk and tape a second under the passenger seat. Switch plates twice before you come back.”
“Yes,” he says. He doesn’t smile, but something in him gets meaner in a way that I approve.
“Renat,” I add, knowing he’s been lurking nearby in the study, trying not to get in the way since we got back.
“Sir?” he asks. “Take six men to watch Jinx, Reed, or Manny, whoever is guarding the cold storage warehouse. Take long-rifles with scopes. If they run, you don’t let them make it ten feet. Let me know when you’re in position.”
“On it,” Renat says.
I step closer to Archer until the chain tugs his wrists, and his eyes won’t let themselves drop. “I’m going to let you see her,” I say. “Not yet since she’s finally sleeping. But soon you’ll see her,and you’ll listen to what she says, and if she chooses you, I will let you walk out of my house alive with a head start I pay for. If she chooses me, you’ll still walk out, but you won’t get any help from me. You will be a man who used up the last person who believed in him.”
Archer finally looks nervous. I straighten, and the wound in my side calls me a name I’ve earned. I ignore it.
I walk out and carry a chair from the dining table down the hall, my side screaming the entire way. She’ll sleep better without me in the room, and tonight I need time to think through every scenario. Near her is where I do my best thinking.
So, I sit and I think carefully. I don’t like the taste of my brother’s orders in my mouth. I don’t like the way my head knows how easy it would be to walk back into that room and turn a gigantic problem into a memory.
Alinasaid she could handle the truth. But if I kill Archer, I take even that choice from her.
I close my eyes and say her name once under my breath. It steadies the part of me that would like to be a better man. When I open them again, I start plotting.
Time moves slowly, like it’s waiting for someone to die tonight.
My phone buzzes at 12:00 exactly, a text from Renat:Jinx and Reed seen by rifle scope at Manny’s walking the perimeter. Another two to three inside, one could be Manny.
I send back:12:52 River. If they have guards on rotation every fifteen, thirty minutes, or hour, then we need to go in at a random time. Six of our men with Renat can sneak up on five easily enough, especially if they hit the two outside before the ones inside realize they’re done.
Then I type another message and don’t send it for three heartbeats because I second-guess her and hate myself for it.
To Petrov I finally text:Pack all her things from the guest room and load up the car when you get back.
While my men and I can buy whatever we need as we go, I think Alina will feel better if she has her own things with her. That is, if she makes the decision I think she will.
Petrov replies,Will do. Rug under the trunk is hiding a surprise you forgot we left ourselves.A bag we swore we’d never use unless we needed to vanish.
I breathe and remember a night about five years ago when Petrov, Viktor, and I thought we might need a different future and decided to hide a new start in a place where our worst selves wouldn’t find it. It was right after Gavriil sent the three of us to take on an army of armed cartel soldiers on our own, and a miracle that we made it through that shit alive.
I put the phone down and look at my door. I want to see her, to join her in my bed. But I stay in the chair and let my body ache and my mind sharpen as I make plans for tomorrow. For the future. One I hope comes true.
There are two options.
The first is that we leave, if she wants to leave, and make a life some place far from the city. I don’t yet know what country I’ll take her to. Only that I’ll carry her there in my arms if I have to.
The second is my less favorable. I refuse to obey my brother and go to war with him.
I take a short nap in the bad chair without deciding, and wake with a knife in my side that’s nobody’s fault but my own.
My phone says it’s 1:12 already. The raid should be in progress, but there’s no update from Renat yet. That’s not a cause for concern, though. I’ll give him ten more minutes to get a handle on things.
I stand up and put my palm flat on the door, but I don’t go inside. I don’t need her eyes on me to know what I’m going to do. I walk down the hall, passing Petrov on his way to pack Alina’s things from the guestroom.
