Nikolai pauses. Greed wars with bloodlust on his face. He is a predator, but he is also a businessman. Fifty million is not a sum he can ignore, even for revenge.
"Bring her out," Nikolai commands.
"The passage," Silas insists. "I want a jet waiting at Teterboro."
"Bring her out!" Nikolai roars, his patience snapping. "Or my men will drag you behind the car until there is nothing left of you to negotiate!"
He signals to his guards. Three of them step forward, hands reaching into their coats, drawing submachine guns.
Silas holds up his hands in surrender.
"Fine," he says. "Fine. You win."
He turns toward the darkness where I’m supposedly waiting.
He checks his watch.
It is 11:59 PM.
"Nikolai," Silas says, turning back. His voice changes. The defeat vanishes. The hunch in his shoulders straightens. The predator returns. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Nikolai asks, frowning.
"The silence."
Nikolai looks confused. "What are you talking about?"
"It’s the sound of your phone not ringing," Silas says. "Which is strange. Because usually, when a man’s empire is burning to the ground, his phone rings off the hook."
Nikolai stares at him. "You are delirious."
Riiiing.
The sound cuts through the air.
It comes from Nikolai’s pocket.
He freezes.
Riiiing.
He pulls the phone out. He looks at the screen. His expression shifts from arrogance to confusion.
He answers. "What?"
I watch his face. Even from twenty feet up, I see the color drain from his skin.
"What do you mean 'fire'?" he barks. "Where? The warehouse? Queens? What about the club?"
He listens for another second.
"All of them?" he whispers.
He lowers the phone slowly. He looks at Silas with dawning horror.
"What did you do?" Nikolai whispers.
"I bought a new army," Silas says, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "With your money."
