30
VIKTOR
It’s the sound of Tati’s screaming that brings me back to the surface. When I open my eyes, my head is pounding. The yellow flickering single lightbulb in the basement fills my vision as the sound of the fight calls me back to the waking world. I roll over just as Tati and her father are fighting a few inches from me, knife in her hand with his hand around her wrist, trying to pry it free from her.
I try to get my feet, but the swimming in my head only gets me as far as kneeling. Movement attracts Nikolai’s attention, and I see his head move slightly toward my direction. He reacts, getting the knife from Tati and swinging her around so that he’s holding her around her waist, knife to her neck.
“Let her go,” I say.
“Viktor.” He’s out of breath, the struggle with Tati clearly taking something out of him. He’s a head taller than her, but I can see him slouching slightly as if to try and hide behind her. “You’re just in time.”
The hand holding Tati is covered in blood, as is his left cheek. Looks like she gave him a run for his money. “I’m just in time to see you commit your final sin against the brotherhood?”
He laughs. “You’re one to speak about sins,” he says. “Just how long did you think you two could carry on without my knowledge? You had to realize what would happen the moment I found out you were fucking my daughter, Viktor.”
“Sleeping with the boss’s daughter doesn’t exactly compare to what you’ve done, does it?” My right hand is on my boot where my knife is. I can feel the hilt against the leather. When Nikolai knocked me out, he might’ve taken my gun, but he hasn’t disarmed me completely. I just need to get it out without Nikolai noticing.
“And what exactly would you have done in my shoes?” he asks me, a mad smile tickling the sides of his mouth. “Your son, who you raised to be the one to take over your legacy, decides that he no longer wants to honor the oath that he took, that wealltake. What do you do? You know what the rules are better than most, Viktor. If it were your son, what would you have done?”
“I wouldn’t have killed him,” I say.
Tati lurches and he takes his eyes off me to hold her steady. I use that second to grab the hilt of my knife and pull it out, hiding it with the blade pressed against my arm as I stand up.
“You would have done the same as I did,” he says, pressing the knife in Tati’s neck. She winces as she looks at me, big brown eyes watery with fear.Hold on, baby.
“If you think I would have murdered my own child,” I say to him, “you are not only sorely mistaken, but more corrupt than I ever imagined.”
“You’d be surprised the lengths you will have to go through to keep a Bratva running as it should,” he says. “You think you’ve seen all there is to see in terms of bloodshed and betrayal just because you worked as my enforcer? You have no idea how deep the levels of hell truly go.”
“I would never become the monster that you have as Pakhan. I’m nowhere near weak enough to kill my children in the name of my own ego.”
He tilts his head slightly as if sizing me up. “You think that once you’ve killed me, you’ll take over this Bratva? Is that it?” He chuckles. “Oh, and here I thought you were here on some noble cause.” He directs the next part to Tati, but his eyes are still on me. “You see how easily he slips back into the fold, daughter? He’s probably killed many of my men and laid siege to my home, just to take the chance to be at the head of the table. Even I didn’t think you’d sink so low as to mask your affection for my daughter with greed.”
I chuckle and say, “I’m not you, Nikolai. My commitment to the Bratva is solid and so is my commitment to Tati and our child. Anyone who threatens either will have to die.”
He nods with an silent “Ah”. Then he tightens his grip around Tati’s waist. “But it’s a thin line, isn’t it? Nikita’s decision was a threat to this Bratva. And Marla? She was an even bigger threat by trying to involve the Feds.”
“Marla would never have thought to gather evidence against you if you hadn’t killed Nicki,” I tell him. “And Nicki… all he wanted was to leave. He didn’t want to try and take your power. He didn’t even want to stand against the brotherhood. He only wanted to have his own life.”
“And you don’t see that as a threat?” he says, raising his voice. “You are in the brotherhood for life.For life!To turn your back on it is an affront to every one of us. You know this! Nikita could not be allowed to live.” He clenches his jaw as he presses the knife into Tati’s neck a little more. A tiny drop of blood slides down the knife. “And neither can his sister. Sleeping with one of my men is one thing. Now her crime is elevated to sleeping with my enemy.”
This is it. The moment of truth. He’ll kill her and he’ll do it just to show me that no one defies the Pakhan.
He leans down and kisses Tati on the side of her head. Tears run down her cheeks as she stifles sobs. “Do svidanya, Tatiana, my dear.”
I throw the knife. It flies from my hand and turns end over end through the air toward them. The quick movement stops him for a millisecond, and he looks up just as the blade lands in his forehead with a crunch and a thud. His head jerks back, eyes wide and mouth open. He’s still holding Tati, but there’s a look of complete surprise on his face. As though he can’t believe what’s happening and that it’s happening to him.
And in the next second, his eyes go dull and his arms twitch upward… and he falls backward onto the floor.
The moment he hits the floor, Tati rushes toward me, wrapping her arms around my neck as she dissolves into tears. It’s over. She’s free.
We’re both free.
Before she can get herself together, we hear the sound of gunshots somewhere outside. The calvary, one way or the other,I suspect. Tati lifts her head from my chest and looks toward the stairs as she stiffens in my arms.
“Don’t worry,” I reassure her. “It’s all right.”
She doesn’t say anything. She just watches the door fearfully. The gunshots stop and a few seconds later, we hear footsteps.
