"There's more, though,” Anton continues. “He brought in Chechen mercenaries."
My hands freeze for half a second, but I don’t look up or show a reaction.
Chechens. Outside men from the Caucasus mountain with no ties to Volchya or loyalty except to whoever’s paying the highest.
I straighten, deciding to end this. "I don't give a fuck what mercenaries crawled out from where. I care about these crates being filled."
Anton shuts up and reaches for another rifle, suddenly focused on his work.
“Finish by tonight.”
I leave and get in my car but don’t start the engine. Not yet. If Anton’s right, I need to set things in motion sooner than I’d planned. Once the mercenaries are embedded, it’s only a matter of time before they know Volchya’s operations and faces. Any move I plan to make against my father will be twice as hard.
The one advantage I have is, I’m no longer going in blindsince Nala confirmed my allies. I pull out of the lot and call Lev.
He answers on the second ring. "What’s up?”
"I need you to reach Dimitri and Alexei. We meet at Alexei's place on Prospekt Rubin in one hour."
Lev knows what a meeting like this means. "What about Yuri?"
"No."
He doesn't ask why and doesn’t need to. "I’ll make it happen.”
The line goes dead. Next, I drive directly to Alexei’s auto shop, and he comes out to greet me. He’s got more than ten years on me, but he’s never had a problem with me, even when otherbratkicouldn’t stop reminding me how young I was.
A few minutes later, Lev joins us with Dimitri following behind. Alexei locks the door behind us and leads us into a room without windows. No one speaks. They give me the floor to lay out my plan. I don’t lie to them or make promises I can’t keep, like everyone walking away alive. It’s a risk we all have to take.
I watch their faces as I talk. Dimitri's eyes burn with rage, humiliation and the need for vengeance. Exactly as Nala described. Alexei listens with his arms crossed, nodding slowly. Lev stands against the wall, quiet, just letting me talk. He doesn’t care about power the way I do. What he does care about is Volchya and the chance to reverse the mess my father created.
When I’m done, every pair of eyes is on me. They're all in.
I head out and it’s not until I'm sitting at a red light when I remember Nala asked for chocolate. I already passed the turn for the store. I can keep going, tell the truth that I forgot, or make up some bullshit excuse that the store didn’t have any. She wouldn’t know the difference. She doesn’teven know what the inside of a Russian grocery store looks like.
When the light turns green, I make up my mind and do a U-turn into the parking lot. Something about seeing disappointment in her eyes over this stupid request, just doesn’t sit well with me. The fact that it doesn’t sit well with me, is a whole other issue I don’t want touch.
Inside the store, I stop in front of the chocolate display, clueless as to what kind of chocolate she’d like. I scoop up four boxes, dark, milk chocolate, hazelnut and another box with caramel, figuring she has to like at least one of them. On second thought, I grab a handful of other candy. Might as well let her have her fill.
On the way home, I double back through a couple of streets, checking my mirrors. Once I get close to the apartment, I circle the block again and park on a different street.
I call out to her as soon as I’m inside.
“You’re back,” she says, her voice is soft and smooth, no longer damaged.
She follows me into the kitchen as I set the bags on the table and start unpacking. “I got your chocolate and some other candy. I found an American one too.”
When I pull the boxes out, her eyes and mouth go wide. "All of these are for me?"
I bite back a smile. “It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
She nods and walks over to me, choosing the dark chocolate. She looks up at me again, her eyes bright, carefully opening the box like it’s a Christmas present.
She takes out a square, holds it for a second then slips it into her mouth. Her eyes close and her entire body seems to melt as she chews. When she swallows, she lets out a small breath and flicks her tongue to catch a bit of chocolate at the corner of her lips.
"You like it?"
She smiles, nodding eagerly. "I like this one. It's bitter but sweet at the same time."
