Konstantin chuckled as he lit his cigarette.
I’d know more once I looked the man in the eyes. He was twenty-eight years old and I remembered being hot-headed at that age. Isolated imprisonment would bring his true character out. Defeat or bloodlust.
If he was his father’s son he would die. Sergei had clung on for over a year. With everything said and done that was impressive. The will to survive was in us all.
And our son never got that chance.
The car slowed as Tikhon parked at the warehouse. I rolled my neck and reached for the door handle but Bogdan was already pulling it open. I stepped out and straightened my jacket. Footsteps fell in line behind me as I walked to the main entrance of the derelict building.
The door had once been red but was now peeling and blackened around the edges of rotting wood. Tikhon reached past me and opened it. The stale scent inside was unpleasant—nor was it supposed to be for any resident guests.
One flight of stairs and we reached the guard beside the door.
He nodded before practically bowing. I nodded back and waited for him to open it.
The door creaked open and the smell of human excrement hit immediately. I covered my nose as someone switched the light on.
Shit and blood smeared across every wall. Two weeks’worth of decorating by the looks of things.
Metal clinked. I looked at the man sitting on the edge of the mattress. Hands and feet chained. I waited to see his eyes.
“You took everything from me,” he said, his voice a low rumble.“You Dragunovs lived in luxury while I—”
“Didn’t Sergei pay child maintenance or something?” Konstantin asked, cutting him off.
“You stole my inheritance,” he screamed, lurching to his feet.
His eyes were two hazel pools of madness.
I pulled my gun, flicked the safety off and shot him between the eyes.
“Let’s go.”
Fuck giving him a chance in exile.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Konstantin said, following me out.
“There was no fixing whatever that shit was,” I said, making my way down the stairs to escape the stench.“Get the cleaners in.”
I remembered what Iskra had mentioned about forensic evidence and paused to glance back at Bogdan.
“Grab my bullet from the room,” I told him.
He looked confused for a moment.
“It might still be in his skull.”
“Use a hatchet or something,” I said, turning away.
Next time I would use someone else’s gun.
Chapter 85
Iskra
Memories flooded back of the many trips I’d made to this graveyard with Radovan and Tau as Bogdan parked the car. Vadim unclipped Runa from her baby seat and her cheerful babbling brought me back to the present. Bogdan opened my door before rushing around to do the same for Vadim.
I waited for him to join me before we walked the path together.
