Father and son seemed to have a staring contest. Conversing with only their eyes. “I will not waste another minute listening to this man’s blasphemy.” Maxim started down the aisle. “I’m out,” he muttered to himself.
“You’re not leaving either, father.” Leo’s tone was icy, devoid of any emotion held for a father from his son.
“Come back here, Maxim.” Diego’s voice was calm, but Zoe heard the order in it. Zoe watched everyone in the room start to tense up. Things were about to escalate. She wished Greg were here. She couldn’t trust anyone here to have her back. Zoe stood up but didn’t follow Maxim.
She looked for a place to hide because she knew with certainty a gunfight was going to erupt. She stood up preparing for that when Viktor grabbed her by the forearm. “You aren’t going anywhere either, my dear.”
Maxim didn’t stop.
A gun fired. Maxim stopped and whirled around as Boris maneuvered around him and aimed his gun at Viktor.
“Ah-ah,” Viktor tsked him. “Put it down, Boris.” Boris’s eyes moved around the room. Zoe could tell he was calculating his odds. He was severely outnumbered. Several of Viktor and Diego’s men came into the room, surrounding them. Boris set the gun down but kept standing in front of Maxim.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You dare shoot at me,” Maxim demanded as he thumped his chest.
“I said stay, Max.” Viktor aimed his gun squarely at Maxim’s chest.
“Do you want to go to war with me? The both of you? I will crush you like a bug,” Maxim said, unfazed to be outgunned and outmanned. He seemed to be under the impression his name would get him out of this unscathed.
Neither man seemed scared by Maxim’s threat. Diego actually smirked, “You’d have to have an army to go to war.”
It was then Zoe heard the faint shouting and gunfire on the other side of the door. It sounded like a war was happening, and it was. Three drug clans fighting against one another. Only theirs hadn’t been prepared for such.
Diego shook his head. “Your men can’t help you now. No one can. They are all dead. It’s the end of the Maxim Sokolov era.”
A deep bellow of grief and denial emerged from Boris. Zoe felt the sentiment. Aleksei was out there. Slain for nothing more than to have no opposition to a takeover of the Sokolov Empire. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“You bastards.” Boris leaned down to pick up his gun. Before he could pick it up, a shot rang out and Boris fell on his back.
Zoe moved to hide, but Viktor grabbed her arm in a bruising grip. “Not so fast, my dear. I still have plans for you,” he whispered in a low breath next to her ear. Over her dead body.
Maxim’s gaze moved around the room before focusing his hard glacial stare on his son, who stood impassively next to Diego. The look of betrayal was heavy in his eyes. “You would do this to your own father?”
Leo glared defiantly back at him. “You left me no choice. You refused to see me as a man. Always keeping me in your shadow. Now I will be the head of the house and rule as I see fit. Viktor has been helping me. We’ve been bringing in new drugs. Our profits have tripled since I started working with Diego through Viktor. I did that,” he said, pounding his chest.
Zoe gasped; so Leo was the reason the drugs had changed and people were dying. It was Diego’s drugs. She hadn’t even thought to look into a possible connection before now.
“Boy after my own heart.” Diego applauded. “Life gives you nothing. If you want something, you must take it yourself.”
“So you used Viktor and Diego to set me up so it looked like a rival gang.” Understanding dawned in Maxim’s eyes. “There was never any deal, was there? You lured me out with this supposed offer.”
“You are heavily guarded at home. Getting close to you is impossible. Getting out after the deed would have been harder.”
“No one would look at me thinking I would betray my own father,” Leo added.
“And my men? Men you joked with. Break bread with. They mean nothing to you?”
“I couldn’t trust anyone still loyal to you.”
“I am ashamed to call you son.” Maxim shook his head in disgust at his offspring.
“I’m sorry, old friend. It’s nothing personal you understand,” Viktor said even though he looked unapologetic.
“Really? A gun pointed at me by someone I called my friend, who turned my son against me. Murdered my men. Feels personal to me,” Maxim hissed between gritted teeth.
“It’s business, Max.” Viktor shrugged. “Don’t worry, I’ll look after Leo as if he were my own child.”
“I’ll see you in hell.”
