I played the second message.
This one didn’t start with a greeting.
“My name is Katya. We haven’t met yet, but you’ll want to remember my name. I’m calling on behalf of the Revenant Group.”There was a rhythm to the way she spoke, like a metronome set to menace.“We have Dmitri and the girl, Kara Lennox.”
Her tone chilled me, but the message didn’t end there. Midway through, my phone buzzed with an incoming text message. I thumbed it open with my other hand after putting the voice message on speaker.
It was a photo, and seeing it hit like a fist straight to my stomach.
Dmitri and Kara, both alive, both bound to chairs. Their faces were visible enough, Dmitri’s jaw set with controlled rage, Kara’s glare furious. Behind them was a window in a concrete wall. Through the dirty glass, the faint outline of a skyline was visible: a tall, cylindrical half-finished tower with a rust-colored crane beside it.
Then Katya’s voice finished the voicemail:
“If you want them back, we’ll be in touch with a location tomorrow. You’ll have your window of opportunity at that time. Don’t try to invent one for yourself before then. It would be pointless and harmful to their health.”
The call ended with unsatisfying silence.
I stared at the phone. Every muscle in my jaw tightened until it ached. The glass screen glowed cold in my hand. The image justsat there, impossible and small, as if the pixels themselves were mocking me.
First Lev. Now Dmitri and Kara.
And who the fuck was the Revenant Group?
It felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.
For years I’d lived with a certain sense of recklessness. I was good at pretending not to care too much. I left Dmitri to play the commander and Lev to function as the weapon, while I acted the part of the handsome, charming playboy. But right now, there wasn’t anyone left to hide behind.
ARCHEON had one brother. Revenant had the other.
And both roads led straight to me.
I dropped the towel and pulled on black trousers, my body slick with steam and adrenaline. The mirror caught my reflection; I looked older than I wanted to admit. I touched the scar near my temple from a night I couldn’t quite remember. I looked like Dmitri when I frowned. I hated that.
Reaching the living room, I poured a glass of vodka and let myself feel the icy burn make its way down my throat. The taste reminded me I was still breathing.
For once, there wasn’t anyone to give orders but me.
Lev might have been the brute, Dmitri the mind, but I’d always been the one who understood chaos—the dance between charm and destruction.
Now I had to be all three.
I pocketed the phone, returned to my room, and put on a blindingly white shirt, leaving the top buttons undone. I slipped the old revolver Dmitri had once mocked me for carrying into the holster on my belt, and a single thought ran through my head:nobody takes my family and lives.
ARCHEON had Lev.
Revenant had Dmitri.
And Kara—my talented, infuriating, mesmerizing distraction—was caught in the middle of it all.
Two voicemails, two deadlines, one impossible choice.
The British voice had been almost polite, the kind of civility that carried the weight of real power.We’ve temporarily taken custody of your brother.The words still burned like acid. I knew enough about ARCHEON to know that they didn’t do ‘temporary.’ When they took someone, they owned them completely, just like they had done with Kara.
Then there was Katya—her voice still winding through my thoughts like smoke.“We have Dmitri and the girl. Kara Lennox.”
I glanced at the clock on the wall as it ticked softly.
11:07 p.m.
