"That's exactly what we're telling you."
"Do you believe me now?" Vivika's fingers tremble in my grip but she continues. "The only way to draw him out and force him toshow his hand was to use my face to prove what he really is. It was wrong to deceive you, which is why when I came to you, I didn’t pretend to be anyone other than myself."
"Why? What do you have to gain from any of this?" Kolar sits back, studying Vivika now with curiosity. I notice how quickly he's relaxed again. It means he already has in his head a new plan forming, one that will remove any "annoyance" from his life and set him up on a different path.
Vivika's chin lifts slightly and she says, "The women Yaros is selling on the black market could've been me in a different life. I want to save them, and I want his operation shut down. For good."
A thin smile spreads across his face, then a chuckle erupts from his gut. The man is confident and arrogant, but he pulls as many strings in this family as my uncle.
"You have balls," he says. "Walking into a meeting with a man like me with no backup? Ana had that same quality. It's what I valued about her most." Then he turns back to Yuri and his expression is more serious now. "I want nothing more to do with the Veche family. Yaros has made his choice, and now he'll face the consequences. But I still have interests in this region that need protecting, partnerships that need maintaining. If the Gravitch family is willing to take over where the Veches failed, I'm prepared to discuss terms."
Yuri leans forward, and I can see the calculations running behind his eyes—the future that's suddenly opening up in front of us. "We're prepared to discuss whatever arrangements benefit both parties."
"Good." Kolar stands and buttons his jacket. His bodyguard drifts to his side and he stands with his chin erect, waiting for orders. "But I have one condition before we proceed," Kolar continues.
"Name it."
Kolar gestures toward Vivika. "She's the one I want to deal with. She's the kind of asset you don't waste on supporting roles." He meets Vivika's eyes. "If we're going to do business together, I want her at the table—every meeting. She's earned that seat."
I look at Vivika, expecting to see her being fearful or uncertain, but she nods at him with confidence and says, "I'd be honored."
Kolar grins like a madman. "Then we have an understanding. I'll be in touch to discuss the details." He moves toward the door, pausing briefly to look back at Yuri. "And Yaros is yours to deal with. I have no further interest in protecting him from whatever's coming."
The door closes behind him and his men, and Yuri stands and walks to the sideboard to pour each of us a drink. While he's distracted, I take the moment to pull Vivika onto my lap. Rurik turns away, affording me a moment of privacy.
"You came back," I say, because I still can't quite believe it.
"I told you I would." She cups my face in her hands, and her thumbs trace gentle paths across my cheekbones. "Did you really think I'd leave you to fight alone?"
Words are inadequate in this moment. She was free and she could've vanished forever, but she came back. I can't even form a coherent thought right now, let alone respond to her.
So instead I kiss her.
It hurts—everything hurts right now—but she's worth every bit of the pain. And now that she's back, I'm never letting her go again.
28
VIVIKA
Everything is ready for the plan to take place. Lev waits for us in the old filling station with all the lights out, heavily armed, and he's stocked every shelf with first aid supplies, water, snacks, and care packages for each woman we'll pull off one of those buses headed south toward Ukraine. Rurik, who insisted on coming to see this through, sits beside me in the dark SUV parked behind the building with the lights off.
Smoke curls upward from his cigarette, wafting through the window as the breeze sucks past the car, chilling us. The engine still ticks as it cools though we've been here almost an hour. It's been three weeks since we finally convinced Luka Kolar to see the truth for what it is, and today his men stand along the tree line beside Gravitch soldiers as we wait.
"Lev should be home in bed resting," Rurik grunts. He's been a huge help to Yuri since he brought me back from Moscow, though Lev would argue.
"You're not wrong…" I raise the binoculars and focus on the road miles away. Lev was instructed to stay in bed for another fewdays, but at three weeks out he's going stir crazy. Yuri allowed him to sit in the station and wait, but nothing more. If he doesn’t heal up right, he'll never be back to full capacity, and he almost died from that gut shot. I'm right on board with the advisement that he should rest and heal, so I'm taking his place in this car.
"You still have time to go into the station and wait with him." Rurik takes a long drag on his cigarette, making the cherry glow brighter for a few seconds, but I lower the binoculars and glower at him.
Every man in this family has been trying to push me into some dark corner ever since my usefulness as Ana Veche ran its course. It doesn’t matter that I've proven that I have the guts to stand up to someone like Luka Kolar. The instant they started seeing me as a distraction or a weakness, they stopped seeing my value. I, for one, am grateful Kolar refused to do business with anyone but me. It puts me right where I want to be—in the middle of the action.
"I think you know the answer to that," I grumble, and Rurik's scowl darkens. I'm not a fragile princess who needs protection. I'm a strong woman, and learning to become Ana Veche only pulled out qualities from within me I never tapped into. No way I'm going back to being pushed around.
My focus on the road feels agonizing. The report that Yaros was sending two buses full of women through this route to the south tonight came only hours ago, intel scraped from a website Yuri's tech crew has been watching. Once everything was in place, they took down the site, and now we are ready for all-out war. We've already captured one station on this route, though I was at Lev's bedside when that happened and no women were rescued. But this time, I'm preparing to bring at least thirty women per bus home safely.
"You think they know we're on to them?" I think about the other three stations along this route and how once Lev's team gets their weapons going through, it'll be much easier to take down the remaining routes. And I think about how Kolar's forces have agreed to join up with us to make this sickening trade end.
I'm not naive enough to believe he's not getting something out of it too, but at least the men in charge of these two factions agree with me that the sale of women is detestable. If they trade running women for running guns or drugs, it's a move in the right direction.
