“Old enough, I could have saved my brother.”
“You know what?” I turned to him. “Tell me, and I’ll be the judge.”
I tipped my chin up. Kirill was hiding behind his brother’s death as a shield from emotional loss. The name of his brother ripped from his vocal cords was haunting me. Kirill once feltdeeply, but he’d become this hard, unemotional man. But I seemed to be cracking his armor, and I was done treating him with kid gloves.
We locked gazes. His were his usual blandness and added frostiness. I wasn’t backing down.
His jaw clenched. “All right, but you asked for the whole sordid story.”
Kirill,9 years old
“Come, Kiroshka, don’t be a scaredy-cat,”Roman called while he skipped ahead. We were in the mansion of the new brigadier Papa had promoted. My eldest brother wanted to explore the woods around the property. It was rumored that a creature that looked half bear and half man lived there.
“Mamushka said not to loiter around. It’s not safe.”
Roman turned to me while walking backward. “Mama treats you like a baby.” He brought both hands to the corners of his eyes and made the crying gesture to mock me.
My face grew hot. I hated it when Mama mothered me too much. I told her to stop kissing me on both cheeks. And I stopped giving her a kiss when she asked for it because Roman made fun of me all the time.
I followed him reluctantly past the manicured lawn and into the fields where the grass was taller. “We should tell Maksim where we are going?”
“And what? Have him tattle on us? You know that bastard is so insecure he’d do anything to look good in Papa’s eyes.”
Maksim was twelve. Three years older than me and two years younger than Roman. I liked him all right. He was comingaround more often. I heard his mother had died, and Ivan was hoping he could be brought into the bratva. Maks and Roman didn’t get along. I also didn’t like how Roman looked down on him. “You shouldn’t call him a bastard.”
We trudged closer to the edge of the woods. It was dark, but the lights in the mansion were bright enough. We carried flashlights too. My heart pounded. I didn’t like this one bit. I carried only a pocketknife. How would I stop a bear if it was as big as they say?
Roman turned to me again. “Why? It’s true. His mother is a whore who Papa wouldn’t look at twice if my mother hadn’t died. Even after she gave birth to Maks, Papa wouldn’t marry her because she’s low class. At least with Irina, she’s got good bloodline.” His teeth flash. “You have that going for you at least, Kirill; you have blue blood, but the bratva needs warriors, not politicians. You need to be?—”
The whites of his eyes grew bigger. He was looking over my shoulder, but a tall shadow appeared behind Roman…actually several. I was about to yell before pain exploded at the back of my head.
I woke up to mayhem. People shouting. There was also a barrage of gunfire.
But I really woke up because Roman was kicking my feet. “Wake up, Kirill!”
I was groggy, and my mouth was dry. “What happened?”
“Papa found us, but they’re giving a fight.”
“Who’s giving a fight?”
“Why are you whispering?” my brother asked harshly. “Do you have your pocketknife?”
I nodded to my feet; he was able to reach for it. His hands were tied in the front while mine were secured in the back. He tried several times to free himself, but he couldn’t, so he cutthrough my wrist ropes first. He actually made me bleed, and I hoped he didn’t sever any arteries.
The shouting came closer.
“Sorry,” he said. “I think they shot us up with something.”
Yeah, I was feeling dizzy, but I still tried my best not to cut Roman. We attempted to stand up, but the room spun. My legs were as wobbly as the Jell-O I ate that afternoon.
That was when the door slammed open. And a rough woman who was over six feet tall stood there. She was dressed like a soldier and had a rolled-up handkerchief around her head. Her hair was almost white, and she was sneering at us.
“Ivan’s spawns will never live,” she said. “Not when he did not show my sons any mercy.”
Men appeared behind her. “Do we take them or kill them here? They are almost through the gates.”
“Take them,” she ordered. “I want to scatter their carcasses for him to find.”
