"Yeah, Boss," Nenad says, clearing his throat.
"Don't fuck this up. After Jovan, I'm counting on you." I hang up and climb in my car fuming mad. There's only one way out of this country for those three and I'm gonna have to hunt up some body bags to make it happen.
26
DANICA
The front door slams hard enough to rattle the windows and I jump, nearly dropping the dish I'm washing. Vadim storms into the kitchen with his jaw clenched so tightly, I can see the muscle twitching. He's pacing before he even fully crosses the threshold, his hands opening and closing into fists at his sides.
"Hey," I start, but he doesn't seem to hear me.
He moves from the kitchen to the living room and back again, stomping along angrily. His shirt is wrinkled and his hair looks like he's been running his hands through it repeatedly. The energy coming off him is wild and unfocused, nothing like the controlled violence I've seen from him before.
"Vadim, what happened?"
"Ublyudok," he mutters in Russian—which I don't understand—then switches to Serbian. "He thinks he can just walk in here and take over. Like I'm stupid enough to believe his lies."
I dry my hands on a towel and move toward him, but he's still pacing, not really looking at me. His eyes are fixed on something I can't see, some problem he's working through in his head.
"Who? What are you talking about?"
"Ruslan—this man my cousin sent. He says Yuri sent him to help but he's lying about his orders. It's all wrong. The whole thing is wrong."
The words are coming out too fast, his accent thicker than usual. He's not speaking rationally and the anger's making him sloppy. I've never seen him like this before. Even when he killed Petr, covered in blood, he was controlled and focused. This is different.
"Okay, I need you to slow down," I say, keeping my voice calm. "Come sit down." I reach for him, but he's aggressive and agitated, still pacing.
"I don't have time to sit. I need to figure out what he's planning and get ahead of him before he ruins everything."
"Vadim." I say his name firmly and step into his path so he has to stop or run into me. "Sit down. Please." The tone I take is harsh, but how else am I to get through to him?
He looks at me like he's seeing me for the first time since he walked in. Some of the wildness in his eyes fades and he moves to the couch. He sits but immediately leans forward, elbows on his knees, hands gripping handfuls of his hair. He's just too upset to calm down simply by sitting.
I go to the cabinet where we keep the vodka and pour him a generous glass, and when I bring it to him, his hand shakes as hetakes the glass. Something is really wrong if this man is so angry, he's shaking.
"Drink," I tell him.
He does, downing half of it in one swallow. I sit beside him and put my hand on his back, rubbing small circles between his shoulder blades. His muscles are knotted tight, rigid under my palm, just more evidence of how angry he is. I almost feel personally responsible, which is silly, but it feels like my job to calm him before he does something he'll regret.
"Talk to me," I say quietly. "What's going on?"
"Someone's trying to sabotage the operation. Ruslan showed up tonight claiming he has orders from Yuri to take charge, but I know it's not true. Fyodor said Ruslan was here to assist, not take over. But Ruslan's insisting he has authority and he wants to kill Andrei tomorrow night."
"Why is that a problem? Isn't Andrei the person you've been hunting?" I don't understand. This sounds like a good thing.
"We need him alive to question him and find out who else is involved in the conspiracy. If we just kill him, we lose the only link we have to whoever ordered the hit on Dominic." He drains the rest of the vodka and sets the glass down hard on the coffee table. "Ruslan knows this. Which means he's trying to silence Andrei before we can get answers."
It slowly dawns on me why Vadim is so upset. Everything he worked so hard to do is slipping from his grasp so quickly. "So Ruslan's part of the conspiracy?"
"I think so… I have enough proof to place him at the scene of Dominic's murder."
"And now he's here pretending to help you?" Now my gut is going tight. A man sent to murder one of Vadim's family is here in town, and what's to say he doesn’t try to murder Vadim too?
"Yes. Which means someone sent him. Someone high up in whatever organization is pulling the strings here."
My hand stills on his back. "That sounds dangerous."
"It is dangerous. And I have to catch him in the act or I lose all leverage." Vadim's hand runs through his hair again, and I take it and hold it.
