“Hren.With. You.” A pause. “What are you doing?”
“Having a chat. Make some calls, find out if I still have someone watching the Mira Street apartment or if he pulled them, when he pulled them, and who it was.”
“I don’t fucking work for you.”
“If there is someone there you trust, have them go inside the apartment. Sergei will try to frame it as retaliation from the Chechens for Aliev.”
More swearing.
“How far away are you?” I asked.
“Five, maybe. You gonna wreck the offices?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I’d rather not.”
Another white flash. I didn’t lose any time, but it did blind me for a moment.
“There are good guys there, Vitali,” Misha said, and I could hear that soft-something in his voice that would make him a good leader if he got his shit in order and cut down on the pirogi. Whatever he thought of me, I always protected my men, and he would too.
“I know,” I said, and my wheels skidded going over the curb into the parking lot. “I’m not the asshole you think I am, Mish.”
“Aha.”
“Make the calls.”
I never traveled cold, but it was a Friday—a paperwork day—so there was only a Makarov on me and another in the car. That wasn’t being prepared for what I’d have to do.
Another flash. Static. Can’t think about Katya, because I’ll lose it. Strictly professional.
The phone rang.
“You trust Roman?” Misha asked.
“Yeah, I put him on Katya duty because he wasn’t sleeping when the twins were born. He owes me.”
“Right.” He hung up.
The Lada pulled in too carefully—blyad—and Misha spilled out of the car. He wasn’t as pissed as I thought, and I suspected it had to do with the opportunity to play with his toys right out of the package.
And there were a lot of toys.
I inspected the tightly-packed space under the false lining in the trunk.
“Sykinson, you have Stechkins,” I muttered, taking out the pistols.
“I hate that you think you need a bigger magazine,” Misha said with a frown. “Where do you want me?”
“Who’d he pull from the apartments?”
“Boris and Pavel this morning.”
“It’s not Pavel. Go in and find out where Boris went—and if he came back. See how many are in there.”
Misha rubbed his brow. “Vitali, why the fuck should I?”
I straightened and looked him in the eyes. “You know as well as I do he’ll kill her. I might not be a good person, but I know you are, and that’s why you’ll do this. Because you’re loyal. Maybe not to me, but to Katya.”
I didn’t say it because there were already skips in the record player, but Sergei wouldn’t just kill Katya. He would make sure I knew he’d stoop to whatever level he needed to make his point. Elena wasn’t personal. Katya would be.
