Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 80942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
The guard follows me inside, then closes the door and stands in front of it in case I try to escape.
Not that I would.
Sergei sits in the lounge area with Igor and Vladimir across from him, their expressions as hard as granite. Four of their guards are in erect positions by the balcony.
I stop before Sergei and don’t bother greeting him. “You asked for me?”
“Yes, I asked for you.” Sergei grips the armrest of his chair tight. “Don’t you think you have some explaining to do, Volkov?”
“What type of explaining?”
“Richard’s death.” Vladimir stands and stares at me. While we’re about the same height, he’s bulkier and has a more piercing stare. “I know you killed him.”
“Proof?”
“Recordings. You probably didn’t know that he secretly recorded everything that happened in his office.”
He couldn’t have. If he did, my hackers would’ve found out when they cleaned up his digital files afterward.
Unless…
“How did you find them?” I ask.
“That doesn’t matter, the content does.”
“How did you find them, Vladimir? If you had before now, you would’ve come forward with it, but I assume you got outside help. Someone sent you those files recently.”
“Why the fuck does that matter?”
“Who sent them to you?”
“You’re in no position to question me, Volkov. It’s the other way around. Why don’t you tell us why you killed our candidate for mayor?”
“I will if you tell me who sent you the recordings and how.”
“Or I can just kill you without hearing your explanation.”
“Tell him, Vladimir,” Sergei says after watching the exchange silently.
The man in front of me scrunches his nose at being ordered to do the very thing he has no desire to do. “They were emailed to me.”
“By whom?”
“It was an encrypted address. I couldn’t track it down.”
Whoever got those recordings hacked into Richard’s files right after I left and before I ordered my hackers there for a thorough cleanup. But if he had those recordings on me all along, why wait until now to use them? They could’ve threatened me with them or sent them to Vladimir earlier.
Unless their only aim is to get rid of me. But why now, of all times?
“The fact remains, you killed Richard, who could’ve become an asset to us.” Igor glares at me. “Why?”
“I assume you listened to the recordings and already know why I did it.”
“Say it, Adrian.” Sergei’s voice rises with every word. “Enlighten us with the fucking reason why you endangered the brotherhood’s future in this city.”
“He touched my wife and had to die.”
“You know what also died with him?” Vladimir snarls in my face. “Our chances for having a mayor under our control. So tell me, Adrian, is he only dead because he touched your wife or because you’re playing house with the Italians? Because, now, their candidate is mayor and guess fucking what? Lazlo is telling him to refuse our shipments.”
“Watch your fucking mouth, Vladimir. Do not speak of my wife or my honor again.” I stare at Sergei. “I told you my reason, Pakhan. If you think I’m able to betray the brotherhood after everything I’ve done for it, then do what you must.”
“You hid it from me when you could’ve told me.”
“No, I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you would have demanded I eliminate the reason why I made such a decision and derailed me from my logical thinking.”
“I’m demanding it now. Divorce the woman who’s muddying your thinking and I will overlook this incident.”
“Pakhan,” Vladimir and Igor say at the same time.
Having lived my entire life in the brotherhood and witnessed Nikolai’s and Sergei’s brutality, I know this isn’t a chance the Pakhan would offer anyone.
I should accept it while bowing my head and being grateful.
However, I stand tall. “No.”
Sergei rises and Vladimir steps out of the way, allowing the older man to meet my gaze with his harsher one. “Are you refusing a direct fucking order, Volkov?”
“Yes.”
“Either you do as you’re told or you’ll face dire consequences.”
“I’ll face the consequences.”
“You’d rather die than fucking divorce that woman?
“I know you won’t stop if I divorce her. As soon as I do, you’ll have the full liberty to kill her.”
“What do you care? You only married her for Jeremy.”
“I will not divorce her, Pakhan. If you want punishment, take it from me.”
“You know what the punishment of betrayal is, Volkov.”
“Fully. I watched my mother being executed by my father, per your brother’s orders.”
“And you’re telling me that you’re ready to meet that fate for a nameless nobody?!” he yells, his face reddening.
“Yes.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Volkov. You’re supposed to be better than this.” He dismisses me with a hand. “Take him out of my fucking sight until I decide how to kill him.”
Igor stares at me with his usual neutrality. “If you had married my Kristina, none of this would’ve happened to you, and if it had, I would’ve pleaded your case. However, you chose a nobody and you’ll end as a nobody. Georgy must be rolling in his grave.”